Grant Proposal: From Research Ideas to Fundable Application

Draft a grant proposal based on: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

This skill turns validated research ideas into a structured, reviewer-ready grant proposal. It chains sub-skills into a grant-specific pipeline:

/research-lit → /novelty-check → [structure design] → [draft] → /research-review → [revise] → GRANT_PROPOSAL.md
  (survey)      (verify gap)     (aims + matrix)     (prose)    (panel review)     (fix)      (done!)

This is a parallel branch, not part of the linear Workflow 1→1.5→2→3 pipeline. After /idea-discovery produces validated ideas, the user can either:

• Go to /experiment-bridge → /auto-review-loop → /paper-writing (implement & publish)
• Go to /grant-proposal (write funding application first, then implement after funding)

                    ┌→ /experiment-bridge → /auto-review-loop → /paper-writing  (publish track)
/idea-discovery ────┤
                    └→ /grant-proposal → [get funded] → /experiment-bridge → ...  (funding track)

Grant proposals argue for future work (feasibility + potential), not completed work (results + claims). This skill handles the unique requirements of grant writing: narrative arc design, reviewer-facing structure, budget justification, timeline planning, and agency-specific formatting.

Constants

• GRANT_TYPE = KAKENHI — Default grant type. Supported: KAKENHI, NSF, NSFC, ERC, DFG, SNSF, ARC, NWO, GENERIC. Override via argument (e.g., /grant-proposal "topic — NSF").
• GRANT_SUBTYPE = auto — Sub-type within the grant agency. Examples: KAKENHI Start-up/Wakate/Kiban-B; NSFC Youth/Excellent-Youth/Distinguished/Overseas/Key; NSF CAREER/CRII/Standard. Auto-detected from argument or defaults to the most common sub-type.
• REVIEWER_MODEL = gpt-5.5 — Model used via Codex MCP for proposal review. Must be an OpenAI model (e.g., gpt-5.5, o3, gpt-4o).
• OUTPUT_FORMAT = markdown — Output format. Supported: markdown, latex. LaTeX uses grant-specific templates when available.
• MAX_REVIEW_ROUNDS = 2 — Maximum external review-revise cycles before finalizing.
• OUTPUT_DIR = grant-proposal/ — Directory for generated proposal files.
• LANGUAGE = auto — Output language. Auto-detected from grant type: KAKENHI→Japanese, NSF→English, NSFC→Chinese, ERC→English, DFG→English (or German), SNSF→English, ARC→English, NWO→English. Override explicitly if needed.
• AUTO_PROCEED = false — At each checkpoint, always wait for explicit user confirmation before proceeding. Grant proposals require PI-specific judgment at every stage. Set true only if user explicitly requests fully autonomous mode.

💡 These are defaults. Override by telling the skill, e.g., /grant-proposal "topic — NSF CAREER, latex output" or /grant-proposal "topic — NSFC Youth, language: English".

Optional: Style reference (— style-ref: <source>, opt-in)

Lets the PI steer the proposal's structural layout (section order tendency, paragraph length, figure density, citation style) toward a successful past proposal or paper they'd like to mirror. Default OFF — when the user does not pass — style-ref, do nothing differently from before.

Only when — style-ref: <source> appears in $ARGUMENTS, run the helper FIRST, before drafting:

# Resolve $STYLE_HELPER via the canonical strict-safe chain (see
# shared-references/integration-contract.md §2). Policy A — gate:
# unresolved helper means --style-ref cannot be satisfied, so abort.
cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)" || exit 1
if [ -z "${ARIS_REPO:-}" ] && [ -f .aris/installed-skills.txt ]; then
    ARIS_REPO=$(awk -F'\t' '$1=="repo_root"{print $2; exit}' .aris/installed-skills.txt 2>/dev/null) || true
fi
STYLE_HELPER=".aris/tools/extract_paper_style.py"
[ -f "$STYLE_HELPER" ] || STYLE_HELPER="tools/extract_paper_style.py"
[ -f "$STYLE_HELPER" ] || { [ -n "${ARIS_REPO:-}" ] && STYLE_HELPER="$ARIS_REPO/tools/extract_paper_style.py"; }
[ -f "$STYLE_HELPER" ] || {
  echo "ERROR: extract_paper_style.py not resolved at .aris/tools/, tools/, or \$ARIS_REPO/tools/." >&2
  echo "       Fix: rerun bash tools/install_aris.sh, export ARIS_REPO, or copy the helper to tools/." >&2
  echo "       --style-ref cannot be satisfied; aborting." >&2
  exit 1
}
STYLE_STATUS=0
CACHE=$(python3 "$STYLE_HELPER" --source "<source>") || STYLE_STATUS=$?
case "$STYLE_STATUS" in
  0) ;;                                       # use $CACHE/style_profile.md as structural guidance
  2) echo "warning: style-ref skipped (missing optional dep)" >&2 ;;
  3) echo "error: --style-ref source failed; aborting proposal" >&2 ; exit 1 ;;
  *) echo "error: helper failed unexpectedly; aborting proposal" >&2 ; exit 1 ;;
esac

Sources accepted: local TeX dir / file, local PDF, arXiv id, http(s) URL. Overleaf URLs/IDs are rejected — clone the project locally first and pass the local path.

Strict rules (full contract in tools/extract_paper_style.py docstring):

• Use style_profile.md to align paragraph length tendency, figure budget, and citation density. Grant-type-mandated section order (KAKENHI 研究目的 → 研究計画・方法 → 準備状況, NSF Intellectual Merit → Broader Impacts, etc.) always takes precedence — the agency template wins, the style ref only refines secondary structure.
• Never copy proposal prose, claims, vision statements, or budget items from anything reachable through the cache. The reference might be someone else's funded proposal; reproducing language risks plagiarism.
• Never pass — style-ref (or the cache contents) to the GPT-5.4 reviewer sub-agent when it scores the draft — the proposal must be judged on its own merits.

Grant Type Specifications

KAKENHI (Japan — JSPS)

NSF (US)

NSFC (China — 国家自然科学基金)