Volume 14, Number 10: April 2, 2008
FUNDING TIPS
Golden LEAF Foundation/UNC-Chapel Hill Collaborative Fund for Outreach Projects
The Golden LEAF Foundation is interested in UNC-Chapel Hill investigators' outreach project ideas that focus on rural business assistance, rural health care, community asset-based economic development, tourism, community leadership development, program evaluation, professional economic development education, or K-12 education. Projects should lead to the systemic or long-term capacity building necessary to create competitive North Carolina communities. Whenever possible the projects should involve collaboration with regional universities and community colleges, and advance one or more of the UNC Tomorrow report recommendations.
If you have an outreach idea that falls within one of the Golden LEAF project areas above, please provide a project description (maximum of two pages), including the following information: (1) community(ies) to be served, (2) who benefits, (3) how they benefit, (4) impact of the project in the community(ies) it serves, (5) how the impact/benefit will be measured, (6) UNC-Chapel Hill units/departments/schools and any external partners that would be involved in delivering the project, (7) how it would advance one or more of the recommendations in the UNC Tomorrow report, and (8) principal investigator. For a proposal template, click here (pdf).
Faculty and/or staff may submit project ideas at any time to GLFCollaborative@unc.edu.
Click here for more information.
Changes in COS Funding Opportunities Search
A new version of COS Funding Opportunities database has been released. We would like to invite you to try it out. The changes include new features in the following steps of a COS funding search:
- Advanced Search
- Search Results
- Record View
These changes affect only the search, results and records interfaces. Be assured that all your settings, saved searches and tracked records remain intact.
If after trying the new COS Funding Opportunities interface you still prefer the previous interface, you can easily switch to the Classic View with the link at the upper left of the new search page.
The GrantSource Library staff would be happy to meet with you to introduce you to the new features of COS Funding Opportunities and show you how to use this database to search for funding more easily and efficiently. Contact the library (962-3463) to schedule a consultation or a group workshop.
DO's and DON'T's for NEH Fellowship Applicants
If you are a humanities faculty member preparing a proposal for a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship (due May 1, 2008), Guinevere L. Griest, former director of the NEH Division of Fellowships and Seminars offers the following suggestions to increase your chances for success:
- Read the application guidelines completely.
- Carefully describe how your research is linked to the stated objectives of the program.
- Don't give short shrift to the narrative description of the proposal.
- Write the proposal in a succinct and interesting style.
- Don't be vague about what you have already accomplished or what you propose to do.
- Demonstrate to the NEH reviewers how interesting and significant your project is.
- Select your referees carefully, including experts in the field of your proposal. If your project spans disciplines, select scholars in both fields.
- Put your greatest effort into the project description.
- Give your proposal to a respected colleague to read and critique.
- Proofread your application thoroughly.
- Don't be afraid to try. Even if your proposal is not funded you will learn from the experience and your project will be improved through the process.
- Apply to as many other programs as are appropriate.
- If you are not fortunate to receive an award, ask for a summary of the panel evaluation.
Source: College of William and Mary, Office of Grants and Research Administration.
Business Financing for Your Research
On the Science Careers website, Alan Kotok (March 14, 2008) provides useful tips for identifying business financing for your research, including this excerpt:
Scientists at academic institutions usually turn to government and foundations for money to do their research, and for good reason: These sources provide the bulk of the funding for academic research. But the fluctuating federal research budgets of recent years, in Europe and Japan as well as the United States, have given researchers reasons to go looking for alternative funding sources.
Business spends more money on research and development than the public and academic sectors combined. But only a small proportion of that investment reaches academic researchers. In 2006, according to figures compiled by the U.S. National Science Foundation, industry spent $2.4 billion at U.S. academic institutions. That's just 5% of total funding for academic research, but it's still a nice chunk of change.
Honda Initiation Grant Competition Now Open
Sponsored by the Honda Research Institute USA , the Honda Initiation Grant program makes awards of $50,000 to $100,000 to university researchers in chemistry, physics, materials science, computer science, and other areas related to the Institute's interests. The program provides award recipients with considerable freedom in their areas of study, as well as opportunities to interact with Honda researchers and the potential for further collaboration. In many cases, research is followed up with additional contract funding.
The 2008 program is now accepting pre-proposals, which are due April 28. For Honda's research interests and award guidelines, click here.
In addition, Honda sponsors an annual grant symposium at which researchers can meet with Honda scientists in a broad variety of research areas. The 2008 symposium will be held in November in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina.