The steps that I'd take in your position: 1) Determine how much back-end I really need (or whether I need one at all). I'm going to assume your grant proposa

The steps that I'd take in your position: 1) Determine how much back-end I really need (or whether I need one at all). I'm going to assume your grant proposal contains use-cases (or user stories) that describe the interaction with the back-end. 2) Decide what framework(s) your front-end will be using and make a list of the back-ends that you believe would work with the front-end. 3) Define the interface between the front-end and back-end ... an ICD or API document will help you with both sides of the connection. 4) Find a mentor who can get you started with your chosen back-end technology as well as help you out when you get stuck. I'd use this as a means to learn at least a little about back-end architecture. On the other hand, you could ignore the typical back-end development and go with something you know - e.g. CouchDB uses a RESTful API to store JSON documents, provides facilities for making views, lists (an HTML transformation of a view) and shows (an HTML transformation of a JSON document. 4) Find a mentor who can get you started on the chosen back-end, and help when you get stuck.