National Lab Expands Workload and Strengthens Proposal Performance
Business Impact
With Shipley’s support, the national lab and its university partners increased their ability to pursue government funding opportunities (AOs, RFPs, FOAs) while freeing senior researchers to focus on core research and development.
- Nearly doubled its capacity to respond to government requests and opportunities
- Facilitated the client's ability to build internal proposal capabilities
- Received multiple awards for supporting winning proposals, concept studies, and other principal investigator-led pursuits
- Reduced the time senior research scientists spent preparing proposals, allowing greater focus on core R&D
- Increased workload to support workforce retention and growth over the next three years
Client Challenge
A large national lab and its university partners faced declining workloads and potential layoffs as competition for government-funded research intensified. At the same time, new procurement and acquisition procedures had made the lab’s traditional approach to competing for grant and research funding increasingly ineffective.
The lab needed to:
- Strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to win funding
- Translate complex scientific and technical information into persuasive content
- Improve training, writing, and document management
- Capture complex scientific concepts in meaningful and compelling graphics
Shipley Solution
Shipley provided a flexible mix of onsite and virtual proposal professionals, giving the lab access to specialized expertise as needs changed across its proposal workload.
The Shipley team included:
- Consultants to guide research and scientific subject matter experts through government submissions
- Scientific and technical writers to translate highly technical information into clear, persuasive content
- Proposal coordinators to manage activities and keep submissions on schedule
- Highly technical graphics specialists to strengthen key messages through effective visual communication
- A project manager to oversee delivery, staffing, and resource coordination
Client Perspective
“Over the past 18 months with Shipley’s help we have responded to almost twice as many government requests as in previous years. Our investment to help us become more responsive and competitive in achieving workload continues to pay big dividends.”