The initial proposal, including mentor and development grant requests, can be submitted on the 15th of each month from October through March.

The IDEAS staff will review all proposals and meet with the teams within two weeks of submission. At the proposal review session, teams will receive written and verbal feedback on their proposals, decisions about their development grant requests, and advice on accessing resources.

Teams can resubmit updated initial proposals as their projects develop. Teams that submit their first initial proposals early in the year have substantially more project development time and opportunities for IDEAS support than those that submit by the final March 15 initial proposal deadline. Check out the guidelines for submitting development grant requests here.

Initial proposals should be submitted through our application website http://ideas.mit.edu/start.html

The following information is required for an initial proposal:

• Team name
• List of team members with the following:
  • designated primary contact
  • e-mail contact info for each member
  • brief biography of each member that notes experience relevant to the project
• Project Summary (200-250 words)
• Description of your project (~1000 words):
  • problem or challenge
  • community to be served
  • explanation of the innovative aspects of your project
  • brief implementation plan
  IDEAS entries are judged on their innovation, feasibility, and community impact, so you should be clear about how your project matches these criteria.
• Development Grant Request (optional)
• Mentor Request (optional, and may be submitted separately at any time)

We've also included a document (PDF format) that lists some of the comments a sample IDEAS proposal might receive. This document should help you get a feel for what we are looking for in a proposal.

Sample Proposal Comments

Teams are encouraged to contact the IDEAS staff (ideas-admin@mit.edu) at any time to get advice about their project and the application process.