Finding Funding....One of my Favorite Topics

Investing some extra time in exploring funding opportunities and developing a personal system to track opportunities and match them with my research interests has really paid off for me. I regularly teach a seminar for our post-doc program on this topic. At the upcoming SPER conference I will be participating in a roundtable session focused partly on this theme as well. Here I am posting some of my favorite tips and links.

First, as a junior faculty member you need to have a crystal clear understanding of what it will take to achieve promotion and tenure, and then align your time and efforts accordingly. What kinds of grants will get you there? Align your funding strategy to this.

My personal approach:

-Look broadly and constantly for funding opportunities

-Examine each for the fit with my research

-Consider whether it’s worth my time given how receptive I think the funder will be to my ideas and how much $

-Even if it’s not a perfect fit now, retain the application info for the future

-Put due dates on a calendar and note what idea I thought would be the topic of the application

-Track more opportunities than you can apply for and choose along the way

Federal funding --------

NIH funding opportunities

-Invest time in learning the various types of NIH grants and programs and the focus areas of NIH institutes.

-Subscribe to the NIH extramural news

-Consider attending the NIH regional funding seminar http://grants.nih.gov/grants/seminars.htm

-Get familiar with NIH RePORTER -- -what research is being funded on my topic -who is funding it -what study section is reviewing applications in my area -what program officers work in my area -who is funded and for what -set up alerts to hear about new awarded grants on any topic -Matchmaker

Grants.gov -- NIH and other federal opportunities. Sign up for email alerts tailored to what agencies you want to apply to.

Internal opportunities -----------

-Institutions usually have some opportunities limited to internal investigators only – how they are advertised varies (email, website)

-Less competitive, quick response

-Limited $, good for obtaining pilot data

Foundations ---------------

-Widely varying in focus, resources available, application process, sophistication (scientific and philanthropic)

-Collectively, an extremely large source of funds for research

-Generally have to find them, they won’t find you

-Developing a relationship with a foundation can lead to ongoing funding or other professional opportunities with them (e.g., serving on board of advisors)

-in the realms of children or health, most want to fund community programs, not research, so beware!

Online resources -----------

Grants.gov

https://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm

InfoEd SPIN - https://spin.infoedglobal.com -- institutional subscription can get you access. Can sign up for both federal and non-federal opportunity alerts.

Websites that curate and post opportunities:

http://research.osu.edu/researchers/funding/

http://med.stanford.edu/rmg/funding