Volume 16, Number 8: February 3, 2010
FUNDING TIPS
Researching Awards Made
Learning about a funding agency's history of awards made is a good way to gain insight into the agency's funding priorities and interests. An agency's awards-made database provides information about supported research, projects, and investigators. This can help you to determine whether the agency is an appropriate sponsor for your work. Most federal funders, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, and others maintain awards-made databases that are free for public use and can be accessed through the GrantSource Library website.
Some private funders also maintain online databases or lists of their awards made, but one of the best ways to identify foundation funding is by searching the Foundation Center 990 Finder, which provides links to foundations' IRS 990 tax returns, including awards-made information. Using NC OpenBook, you can search for grants and financial assistance given to North Carolina nonprofits by the North Carolina State Government. The Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj) provides information about health services research and public health projects funded by public and private funders. For access to these and other private and state awards-made databases, click here.
For assistance in identifying awards made in your discipline, contact the GrantSource Library (962-3463).
Funding for Risky Science
Most scientists would agree that it can be hard to find funding for risky science. But many manage to do just that. In her "Audacity in Science" series in Science Careers, Anne Sasso provides guidance for investigators doing cutting-edge research, including a list of potential sponsors that specifically support such work.
Audacity, Part 1. What do paradigm-shifting scientists have in common?
Audacity, Part 2: A Blueprint for Audacious Science. To do breakthrough science, you need passion, a supportive institution and mentor, and a suitable problem.
Audacity, Part 3: Funding Audacious Science. What are the best strategies for funding high-risk, high-reward research?
Coming up in Part 4: How funding agencies are supporting, or not supporting, audacious science.
Funding through NC TraCS
The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS) Pilot Program has $4.3 million in funding available each year to support basic, clinical and social scientists for bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-practice translational research. The goal is to promote the development of novel solutions to improve patient and community health outcomes across North Carolina. To become an NC TraCS member and apply for NC TraCS pilot funding, click here.
NC TraCS aims to transform clinical and translational research by creating programs and pathways that make it easier for research to be performed at Carolina and across North Carolina.
Toolkit for DOD Funding
This issue of Research Support includes many funding opportunities sponsored by various units of the Department of Defense (DoD). In preparing proposals for these broad agency announcements, career development awards, and other opportunities, it is important for potential applicants to understand some of the ins and outs of DOD funding and how the department's award process differs from those of other funding agencies. The Texas A&M University Office of Proposal Development's Toolkit for Department of Defense Funding provides some excellent tips for researchers who are responding to DOD RFPs. For example:
- DOD's research and development funding is governed largely by its mission of supporting the national defense.
- The turn-around time is often very short.
- DOD program officers often have a lot of discretion in funding decisions.
- DOD classifies research according to how basic or applied it is.
- Get to know the internal DOD scientists working in your research areas.
The toolkit also includes links to award programs aimed at university researchers.
Information about Support for International Collaborations
If you are involved in international collaborations, check the GrantSource Library's online funding guides about funding and philanthropy for international organizations. These resources may be useful to you and your partners as you search for grants for organizations and programs located outside the United States.
For example, the Michigan State University Libraries Grants and Related Resources web page includes annotated lists of international and foreign grantmakers with links to their websites, as well as books about international grantmaking.
The Grantsmanship Center has several International Funding resource lists available via the "International" tab. Regions covered include Africa; Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands; Canada; Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America; Europe; and the Middle East.
Funders Online is the European Foundation Centre (EFC) online public information service on independent funding. It offers access to the websites of more than 500 foundations and corporate funders based or active in Europe. EFC also provides a helpful publication, Advice to Grantseekers (pdf), with a step-by-step guide to researching and developing proposals to international funders.
To view other information resources in the library's International Organizations Funding Guide web page, click here.
The GrantSource Library also has other funding databases that can be used to search for funding for international projects, especially COS and InfoEd SPIN. For assistance, please contact the GrantSource Library (962-3463).