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Make a Grant Proposal Timeline

A grant proposal timeline shows what a funded project will do and when, from the day the money arrives to the final report. Many funders ask for one, sometimes called a project timeline, a work plan or a timeline of activities, and reviewers read it to judge whether the plan is realistic: whether the work fits the grant period, whether the steps come in a sensible order and whether the deliverables arrive when the proposal promises them.

What to include

Most grant timelines cover the same ground, whatever the field:

  • The grant period: the expected start and end dates of the funded work.
  • Start-up: hiring staff, setting up partnerships, ethics or regulatory approvals and buying equipment.
  • The main activities: the work itself, grouped by objective or aim, such as recruiting participants, running a program, collecting data or building something.
  • Analysis and dissemination: making sense of the results and sharing them, through publications, events or a public report.
  • Deliverables and reporting: the outputs the proposal promises and the progress and final reports the funder expects.

Keep each activity at the level a reviewer needs. A proposal timeline that lists every meeting is hard to read, and that detail belongs in the project's working schedule once the grant is awarded. Timeline vs Schedule explains the difference.

Building one in Preceden

Create a timeline and pick the Gantt Chart layout under Choose an initial layout. It lists each activity's name down the left, which is the format most reviewers expect. Creating Gantt Charts with Preceden has more on that layout.

Rename the starting layers by clicking their names in the list below the timeline, then use the Add Layer button above the timeline to add more. A layer for each objective or aim, such as "Aim 1: Recruitment", "Aim 2: Intervention" and "Reporting", lets a reviewer match the timeline to the sections of the proposal. It also turns the timeline into a swimlane timeline, so each part of the project can be followed on its own.

Add each activity as an event and choose its objective from the Layer menu. Grant plans are usually counted in months, and you don't have to work out each end date: type a duration such as 6 months as the end date and Preceden adds it to the start date. Supported Date Formats lists everything Preceden reads.

Some activities can't start until another one is done: data collection waits on the ethics approval, and analysis waits on the data. Open the later activity, check Dependent, and choose the activity it starts after from the menu. Its start date then follows that activity's end date. Dependent Events explains how it works.

This helps most when the start date is uncertain, as it usually is while a proposal is under review. Build the timeline from the expected award date, and if the award comes later than planned, change the first activity's start date: the dependent activities after it move with it, as long as they end with a duration rather than a fixed end date.

Mark the deliverables and reports

Under More Options in the event dialog, check Make this event a milestone on the dates a funder will hold you to, such as a deliverable, an interim report and the final report. A milestone has a start date only, and Preceden draws it as a full-height vertical line, so every activity can be read against it. Make a Milestone Timeline has more on choosing them.

Putting it in the proposal

Most applications are written in Word or Google Docs, so the easiest way in is as an image. Click Share above the timeline, then Image, and download it as a PNG to insert into the document. If the funder accepts appendices, the PDF option under Share can include the event list below the timeline as well. Print Your Timeline covers both.

The free plan allows up to 10 events on each timeline, which fits a short proposal, and its exports include a small Preceden logo. A multi-year project usually needs more events, and our paid plans lift the limit and remove the logo.

Once the grant is awarded, keep using the same timeline: pick a Percent Complete value (also under More Options) on each activity as the work gets done, and it shows how the project is tracking when it is time to write the progress report.

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