Kyle Nickodem, Ph.D., School of Education’s Research Statistician, provides guidance and resources for writing the Research Plan section of Institute of Education Sciences grant proposals. Dr. Nickodem reviews typical IES requirements for the Research Plan along with considerations for describing the study sample, selecting outcome measures, handling missing data, aligning a power analysis to the proposed research design and data analysis plan, and conducting a cost analysis. Although each of these topics deserves its own talk, the goal of this presentation is to provide an overview of the methodological decisions that contribute to a more polished grant proposal.