Research Support Newsletter

One Stop Searching for Internal Funding at Carolina Now Available
Looking for internal sources of funding at Carolina? A new web-based database of internal funding opportunities will make your search easier. Developed by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, this searchable central database provides access to information about university-administered sources of funding for Carolina faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and students. You can find funding opportunities for research, travel, awards, prizes, fellowships and other scholarly or professional activities.

The Carolina Internal Funding Opportunities Database also provides an excellent way to publicize to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus community any funding opportunities administered by your department, office, center, or institute. We encourage all campus units to participate in the database by entering all funding opportunities that you provide. With your help, the internal funding database will become a one-stop searching place for internal funding at the University.

How can you participate? Please designate a contact person to be responsible for inputting your funding information and have them contact us right away. To request access to begin adding your internal funding opportunities to the database, send an email, including contact’s name, department, email, and phone number, to gs@unc.edu.

If you have any questions, please contact the GrantSource Library at 962-3463. We look forward to helping you publicize your funding opportunities throughout the University.

Grants.gov Update: Finding and Applying for Federal Funding
Grants.gov is a federal initiative to simplify and unify the electronic grants process. Rolled out in early November, the Grants.gov portal will be used by all federal funding agencies to post synopses of grant opportunity announcements. University grant seekers can use this portal to FIND and to APPLY for funding opportunities.

The Grants.gov FIND search function now has announcements of grant opportunities from all 26 federal funding agencies. Listings can be searched by several methods, including a text search and by agency. You may want to try out FIND, along with the Community of Science funding database, to find both federal and nonprofit programs.

The next step for Grants.gov is implementation of the APPLY function. APPLY became operational with approximately 24 grant programs, all of which use the Standard Form 424 and have relatively simple applications. FIND will become important for programs using APPLY, since it will be the method used to access the application materials.

The Department of Education has begun by using Grants.gov for three programs. The USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service plans to begin using APPLY in February 2004. Other federal agencies with electronic grant initiatives already underway will not be abandoning them for Grants.gov immediately. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are active partners in developing Grants.gov but will continue using and developing their own online systems. NSF does not plan to migrate until Grants.gov can match the functionality and robustness of FastLane. NIH intends to eventually use Grants.gov as a "storefront" for the NIH Commons.

Proposal Writing Help
The GrantSource Library web site maintains several great resources to assist you in planning and developing your proposal.

You can find a list of university offices offering proposal development assistance to faculty and staff. These include the Office of Research Development, which advises multidisciplinary teams as they create competitive proposals.

You can also find links to online proposal writing resources from many agencies, including EPA, NSF, SSRC, and NIH. For example, NIH-specific resources include general grantwriting tip sheets, guides to the preparation of grant applications from various NIH institutes, and assistance for new applicants.

The GrantSource Library’s print collection contains useful grantwriting and proposal development guides such as the Grant Application Writer's Handbook (especially good for NIH R01s). The library also offers the Harvard Guide to Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2004-2005, which includes proposal writing suggestions specifically geared to the needs of postdoctoral scholars.

Other resources like Next Wave's GrantDoctor provide grantseeking advice for postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. You can also send funding questions to grantdoctor@aaas.org, with “GDR” in the subject header of your email.

Promote Your Department's Internal Funding
Another way to promote your department’s internal funding opportunities is through the Community of Science (COS) funding opportunities database. This web-accessed database is aimed toward researchers, educators and students, professionals, nonprofit organizations, and businesses such as faculty or medical staff spin-offs. Awards that may be promoted in the COS database include research grants; postdoctoral awards; fellowships; funding to attend or organize conferences, seminars, and workshops; prizes and awards; equipment grants; facility access opportunities; and publishing support. Since most university faculty and many postdoctoral researchers and graduate students use COS to search for funding, this provides an excellent means of publicizing your awards, both within the university community and outside.

If your department, center, or institute administers an award, please submit the pertinent information to COS online. If yours is not the administering organization, please provide the contact information for the appropriate office.

Please submit each of your programs separately, or if you prefer, mail, fax, or e-mail your information to:

Mailing Address:
Community of Science
1629 Thames Street, Suite 200
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Fax: 410-563-5389
E-mail: funding@cos.com

Apply to be a Reviewer for the William T. Grant Foundation
The William T. Grant Foundation is looking for reviewers with excellent qualifications and high standards that span the worlds of scholarship, policymaking, communications, and practice.

The William T. Grant Foundation is helping to create a society that values young people (ages 8-25) and enables them to reach their full potential. Peer reviewers are a cornerstone in the foundation's process for making decisions about the projects it will support. Through their work, reviewers have a strong impact on the present and future direction of the foundation. Reviewers are typically asked to review one to three proposals per year and receive an honorarium of $200 per review.

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, send an e-mail to reviewer@wtgrantfdn.org. Make sure to attach a copy of your resume (abridged or full) to that e-mail.

For more information about the GrantSource Library's services and resources, please visit our web page or contact

GrantSource Library
919-962-3463
gs@unc.edu