White Papers

HOW WRITING A WHITE PAPER CAN PREPARE YOU FOR WINNING RESEARCH FUNDING

The term “white paper” can have various meanings, one of which is a written description of a concept that sketches out a new research direction or a possible research project. The ideas put forth in this short document can help you gather valuable feedback from collaborators, program officers, other stakeholders, etc., and may later form the core of a winning grant proposal. Writing one serves the intellectually useful purpose of carefully thinking through and laying down a complete concept in writing, a smart thing to do if you want to move something forward that requires other people to buy in, help out, or pony up. White papers can be any length, but 2-5 pages are typical.

To structure and write your white paper, here are some recommendations:

  • Start with the “Why.” There are multiple contexts for everything—Big Picture all the way down to the weeds—so where to start? Try picking something in the middle to set the background for why the idea is important to pursue. Since this is probably going to be about research, you’ll want to lay out an appropriate rationale that is relevant to the segment of the scientific community most related to your idea—why is this important scientifically? Don’t just say something is “under-studied” or “we now have an opportunity to explore this.” Show that you understand the landscape, and pick a meaningful problem.
  • Provide a key insight. Yes, others may have been plowing this ground (and here are some references…), but considering the latest research or other observations you have made, perhaps you’ve come to a key insight that informs your thinking on possible routes. The insight can be a fact, observation, question, analogy, conceptual model or proposition. The important thing is that it’s original (or at least original in your particular zone of inquiry) and meaningful to your audience. 
  • Show your (intellectual) work. Here, use the insight and draw upon whatever framework you may have alluded to in your background to sketch out the case for the overall concept you are going to pitch. This should come complete with a “Figure 1,” essentially a conceptual model or sketch of the concept that implies a missing piece: a “what if?” component, a gap to be closed, a hypothesis to be tested, etc. In addition to your conception of the situation and research solution, if you are working on a white paper that is aimed at a known program or a published RFP/solicitation, your model here will need to fit nicely within whatever constraints or points that are called for in the sponsor’s topic definition, proposal guidance, competition rules, etc.
  • Lay out your approach. Next, concisely formulate what you propose to do. Start by articulating a goal for the particular research effort you have in mind, and within that goal imply or state a bounded scope. If you are planning to approach NIH for funding, you could call this your specific aim (or aims), although for other sponsors you would typically call it a goal (or goals). Given a goal, mentally work from the end, through logical objectives, back to the beginning, in terms of what a truly solid research effort would need to do to close that gap, test that hypothesis, generate that proof of concept, or reach that desired level of scientific understanding. Determine the major work efforts into which the project can logically be subdivided, and call those “tasks.” Your white paper should propose multiple tasks with enough concise information to enable an intelligent peer to not only understand how you approach the problem but also gauge how realistically you’ve thought through the work to be done, and by extension, how capable you are at planning a perhaps lengthy project. It is important to show a logical approach that gets you where you want to go and does so in a way that others are not doing or haven’t yet tried. You are also trying here to pick an approach that comes with great net benefits, showing that the payoff is comparatively great by going the route you are proposing, over other possible routes.
  • Be honest about risks. Bring up any risks that a reasonable person might expect to be present given the approach you have laid out, briefly explain how each could impact the project, and offer ideas for planning around each risk.
  • Do the math. Come up with a rough schedule, a list of resources needed, and a simple budget estimate. Since it’s a white paper this doesn’t need to be precise, but you will help yourself and your audience by thinking through the basics of what it will take to pull this off. Your list of resources should include people as well as equipment and facilities.
  • Midterms and final exams. If your white paper is going to DARPA (see DARPA’s Heilmeier Catechism for guidance in general), program managers like to see that you have thought through your milestones and can communicate those even at the concept stage. Even if not required, formulating milestones is a great idea for any white paper, period.

Other helpful resources: