# Deck Beamer Proposal Report > Build a compile-ready LaTeX Beamer deck for a research proposal or a research report — grant/PhD/project proposal defenses, thesis-proposal talks, progress/milestone reviews, mid-term/final project reports, and committee or funder updates. Use when the user wants Beamer slides organized around objectives, work packages, timeline/Gantt, milestones, deliverables, budget, risks, and progress-vs-plan rather than a single paper's contribution: "Beamer slides for my proposal defense", "progress report deck in LaTeX", "milestone review slides", "PhD proposal presentation", "project final report in Beamer". Two phases: slide-spec, then .tex. For a single paper's results talk use deck-beamer-academic; for PowerPoint/Canva executive reports use deck-business-report; for narrative/pacing of a talk use research-talk-planner. - Skill: `jurgendn/deck-beamer-proposal-report` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jurgendn/deck-beamer-proposal-report` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jurgendn/deck-beamer-proposal-report/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: jurgendn (https://skillmd.com/u/jurgendn) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jurgendn/deck-beamer-proposal-report --- # Beamer Proposal / Report Deck Produces compile-ready Beamer source for **proposals** (what you intend to do and why it's fundable/approvable) and **reports** (what you did versus what you promised). These genres are structured around a plan-of-work, not a single contribution — they need objectives, work packages, timelines, milestones, deliverables, budget, and risk, and reports add progress-vs-plan. This is the render step. Its slide-spec schema and format-independent design rules live in `references/slide-spec-and-design.md` — read that first. It is *not* `deck-beamer-academic` (single-paper results talk) and *not* `deck-business-report` (PPTX/Canva, executive audience). --- ## Two genres, different spines ### Proposal deck Audience: committee / funder / advisor deciding whether to approve or fund. They evaluate significance, feasibility, and the credibility of the plan. Spine: 1. **Problem & significance** — why this matters, why now. 2. **Gap / state of the art** — what's missing; what you'll do that others haven't. 3. **Objectives / research questions** — 2–4 crisp, testable aims. 4. **Approach / methodology** — per objective, how you'll attack it. 5. **Preliminary results** — evidence you can pull this off (de-risks the ask). 6. **Work plan & timeline** — work packages mapped to a Gantt. 7. **Milestones & deliverables** — concrete, dated, verifiable. 8. **Risks & mitigations** — name the real ones; show you've thought ahead. 9. **Budget / resources** (if applicable) — what you need and why. 10. **Expected impact & summary** — what success unlocks. ### Report deck (progress / milestone / final) Audience: same stakeholders, now checking delivery against the promise. Spine: 1. **Recap of objectives** — what was promised (one slide). 2. **Progress vs. plan** — status per objective/work package (on track / at risk / done). 3. **Key results so far** — the evidence, claim-titled. 4. **Milestones hit / missed** — honest status table. 5. **Deviations & why** — changes from the plan and their justification. 6. **Risks (updated)** — what materialized, what's new. 7. **Remaining work & revised timeline** — what's left, by when. 8. **Budget/resource status** (if applicable) — burn vs. plan. 9. **Summary & ask** — decision or support you need next. --- ## Workflow ### 1. Gather inputs - Genre (proposal / progress / mid-term / final). - The plan-of-record: objectives, work packages, original timeline, milestones, deliverables, budget. - For reports: current status per item, what slipped and why. - Audience and slot length; institutional/funder Beamer template if mandated. ### 2. Build the slide-spec Use the relevant spine above as the skeleton, then produce per-slide spec blocks (`references/slide-spec-and-design.md`). For the *persuasion* craft behind a proposal deck — framing it as a sell not an info dump, the hourglass, the three proposal figure archetypes (butterfly / family-portrait / before-after), and density discipline — see `references/proposal-persuasion-craft.md` (grounded in Knapen et al., 2025, arXiv:2504.01645). Genre-specific guidance: - **Objectives** get claim-titles framed as outcomes, not topics. - **Timeline** → one Gantt slide (TikZ `pgfgantt`), not a wall of dates. - **Milestones/deliverables** → a compact status table (`booktabs`), ≤ 6 rows visible; overflow to backup. - **Risks** → a 2-column "risk → mitigation" (or likelihood/impact) table, top risks only. - **Progress (reports)** → a status table with a clear legend (✓ done / ◐ on track / ✗ at risk), color-coded but never color-only. - **Budget** → summarize categories; full breakdown goes to backup. Confirm the spec before emitting LaTeX. ### 3. Emit compile-ready .tex Render the approved spec using `assets/preamble.tex` (adds `pgfgantt`, status macros, and a risk/milestone table style on top of the academic preamble). Requirements: - Self-contained, compiles with `pdflatex`/`lualatex`; placeholders clearly `% TODO`-marked. - Gantt chart built with `pgfgantt`; milestone/deliverable/risk tables with `booktabs`. - Status macros (`\done`, `\ontrack`, `\atrisk`) that pair a symbol with a color (colorblind-safe). - Speaker notes via `\note{}`; section recap via `\tableofcontents[currentsection]` for longer reviews. - A backup-slides appendix for detailed budget, full milestone list, and method depth. ### 4. Hand off Give the compile command, the files to drop in, where to edit dates/numbers, and which detail slides live in the appendix. Ship `scripts/compile.sh` with the `.tex` so it builds in one step (latexmk if present, else two `pdflatex` passes; `pgfgantt` must be installed): ```bash ./scripts/compile.sh proposal.tex # build ./scripts/compile.sh -c proposal.tex # build, then clean aux files ``` --- ## What separates good proposal/report decks from paper talks - **The plan is the product.** A vague timeline or hand-wavy milestones sink a proposal faster than a weak result. Make every milestone dated and verifiable. - **Feasibility beats novelty here.** Preliminary results exist to show you can execute, not to be a full contribution. - **Reports must be honest about slippage.** A status table that hides "at risk" items destroys trust; show them with the mitigation. - **Numbers are checkable.** Budget, timelines, and milestone dates will be scrutinized — keep them consistent across slides. --- ## Anti-patterns to refuse - Objectives written as topics ("Study X") instead of testable aims with success criteria. - A timeline slide that's a paragraph of dates instead of a Gantt. - A report that buries missed milestones or omits the progress-vs-plan view. - Cramming the full budget/work-package detail onto main slides instead of backup. --- ## Output 1. The confirmed slide-spec (markdown), built on the proposal or report spine. 2. A single compile-ready `.tex` (plus preamble) with Gantt, status tables, and marked placeholders. 3. Compile + edit + appendix instructions.