Volume 14, Number 8: February 6, 2008
FUNDING TIPS
Facts about NSF Merit Review
Through its merit review process, the National Science Foundation (NSF) ensures that proposals submitted are reviewed in a fair, competitive, transparent, and in-depth manner. The process is described in detail in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, which provides guidance for the preparation and submission of proposals to NSF.
On the NSF Merit Review website you will find information to help you better understand the NSF merit review process, including these six important facts:
- NSF Program Officers make recommendations to fund or decline a proposal.
- Most proposals that are awarded do not receive all "Excellents".
- NSF Program Officers are encouraged to recommend "risky" science and engineering for funding.
- Principal Investigators submit on average about 2.1 proposals for every award they receive.
- NSF promotes broadening participation in science and engineering.
- NSF annually has active awards at over 2,000 awardee organizations.
New Features in Foundation Directory Online
The GrantSource Library subscribes to The Foundation Directory Online (FDO), available for use in the library only. FDO is an especially useful tool for researchers who are seeking to learn more about private and non-federal sources of funding. Updated weekly, this directory provides comprehensive data on U.S. foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities, and an extensive database of grants awarded.
FDO has recently added several new features. Now you can search for grantmakers by county, metropolitan area, and zip code, as well as state and city. Geographic search fields are organized for easy access within a new grantmaker location section of the "Search Grantmakers" screen. With other new features you can do the following:
- see all indexed search terms by following links in "View Index"
- exclude grantmakers who don't accept unsolicited applications
- tag and save grantmaker and company records
- e-mail, print, and save grantmaker, grant, and company records
- export lists of up to 100 search results at a time into Excel files
Click here to learn more. Contact the GrantSource Library (962-3463) to schedule a consultation on how to use the Foundation Directory Online.
Googling for Dollars through Google.org
Founded in 2004, Google.org is the philanthropic arm through which the web-search giant Google plans to contribute one percent of the company's equity and profits toward addressing some of the world's most urgent problems. Google.org is a hybrid philanthropy that uses a range of approaches to help advance solutions within its five initiatives:
- RE<C, which focuses on developing utility-scale renewable energy that is cheaper than coal
- RechargeIT, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology
- Predict and Prevent, which will use information and technology to empower communities to predict and prevent emerging threats before the threats become local, regional, or global crises
- Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services, which encourages the vision of a mutually reinforcing system of empowered citizens and communities, responsive providers, and informed decision-makers in pursuit of delivering public services
- Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, which hopes to increase the flow of capital to small- and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries
For more information about each initiative, read the brief at the bottom of the initiative's webpage. Please note that while several Google.org initiatives are accepting proposals at this time; others are not. However, if you are working in relevant issue areas, you may contact Google.org about the possibility of a partnership.
Google.org operates in a traditional manner by supporting selected partners' work with targeted grants and by tapping its technology and workforce. But it can also invest in for-profit endeavors, such as developing breakthrough renewable energy technologies.
Google also established the Google Foundation in 2005, which is a separate 501(c)(3) private foundation. The Google Foundation is managed by Google.org and supports its mission and core initiatives as one source of funds for grantmaking. As of January 2008, Google.org and the Google Foundation have committed more than $75 million in grants and investments. Click here for a list of these "Grants and Investments".
Updating Your COS Faculty Expertise Profile
The COS Faculty Expertise database serves as a central repository of the university's faculty expertise and research interests, and your profile could be your ticket to greater exposure whiting your professional community and beyond. University administrators, North Carolina government officials, and some federal funding agencies (including the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation) all use the database to locate faculty members with specific expertise and research interests and to identify peer reviewers or potential collaborators.
Carolina 's COS Expertise profiles are also contributed to the new COS Scholar Universe, a database of more than 1.3 million academics, researchers and other scholars, which is widely used as follows:
- International corporate giants use it to find consultants and technology transfer candidates
- Governmental scientific agencies use it to find peer reviewers
- International media organizations use it to find experts on a wide variety of topics
- Research institutions use it to find local, national, and even international collaborators
Having your profile in the COS Scholar Universe database will help make you available for such opportunities. The easiest way to be sure of having a profile in Scholar Universe is to create and/or update a profile in COS Expertise. If you have questions about how to create or update your profile, please contact the GrantSource Library (962-3463).
Proposal Writing Workshop for Grants in the Arts
Date: Thursday, April 10
Time: 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Place: 100 Library Drive, Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill
The Orange County Arts Commission will hold a public information session and proposal-writing workshop in preparation for the commission's spring-cycle grant competitions. The commission supports visual, performing, and literary arts projects serving the citizens of Orange County through a variety of grant mechanisms, including:
- Arts Program Grant
- General Arts Support Grant
- Arts in Education Grant
- Arts in Education Coalition Grant
- Artist Project Grant
Spring applications must be received by 5:00 pm on Monday, May 26.
To register for the workshop or for more information about specific grants, email the Arts Commission or phone 245-2335.