Volume 12, number 4: October 4, 2005
FUNDING TIPS
NSF Funding Opportunities for K-12 Outreach to NC Teachers
At his recent State of the University address, Chancellor James Moeser emphasized the university's continued commitment to improving K-12 education in North Carolina.
For those researchers in the sciences who are interested in incorporating a K-12 outreach component into their projects, the National Science Foundation (NSF) offers the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) supplement program. Through RET, you can provide opportunities for elementary and secondary teachers to gain hands-on experience working with university researchers. The NSF directorates for biology, engineering, and geosciences offer RET funding.
Other directorates respond to RET requests on a case-by-case basis or permit the inclusion of an RET component as part of a Research Experiences for Undergraduates proposal.
For information about NSF programs that provide funding for K-12 students or that focus on related educational initiatives such as curricula development, training, or retention, click here.
Researchers can find similar opportunities by searching the Community of Science funding database. For assistance in identifying K-12 outreach funding opportunities, please contact the GrantSource Library.
Grants Supporting Quick Research Response to Disasters
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, federal grant-making agencies have announced several funding opportunities dealing with efforts to assess and address the effects of these and other disasters. For example, at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program will be accepting proposals to support time-sensitive research related to the Gulf Coast disaster area and to capture data from the human aspects of Hurricane Katrina. SGER proposals are brief and require a fraction of the normal time for NSF internal review.
At the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Rapid Assessment Post-Impact of Disaster (RAPID) program provides a rapid funding mechanism for research on the post-impact of disasters. Although the program expired in July, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that RAPID will remain active until a revision is issued later this fall. Another NIMH program, Mental Health Consequences of Violence and Trauma, supports investigator-initiated research on etiology of psychopathology related to violence and trauma, including natural disasters.
The Illinois Research Information Service has published a webpage which lists funding opportunities related to Hurricane Katrina. For other opportunities, click here or contact the GrantSource Library at 962-3463 for assistance in identifying potential sponsors for your research.
Specialized Information on Foundation Funding
Researchers interested in foundation funding can register for a free electronic Funding Watch from the Foundation Center. Specialized Funding Watch newsletters are available for education, health, and the arts. Each newsletter has valuable information and news about funding in each discipline as well as notices of important upcoming deadlines for foundation funding opportunities. Instructions for registration are available on the Foundation Center website.
Finding Faculty Expertise at Carolina with RAD
The Research Abstracts Database (RAD) is a useful resource for individuals searching for Carolina faculty with specific expertise or research interests or who are trying to identify potential collaborators for a project. RAD contains brief synopses of grant proposals submitted by Carolina researchers to external funding agencies. RAD includes most of the proposals submitted to the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) at Carolina . Records may be searched as free text, by the name of the principal investigator, or by OSR number, and users can export the search results from RAD into Excel.
Researching Foundations Using 990-PF Tax Forms
Finding information about foundations can be difficult, especially if the foundation does not have a web site. One of the best ways to research the giving interests of a foundation is by checking its IRS 990-PF form. These are the tax returns that foundations are required to file each year. They provide financial details, a list of grants awarded, names of the foundation's board members and officers, and other hard-to-find information. Click here to use the Foundation Center 's Finding Funders 990-PF Search or READ MORE