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GRADUATE STUDIES & RESEARCH
federal and foundation, any single funding opportunity from any type: profit and nonprofit.”
Foundation Center. Another tool available for faculty is a subscriber service University Advancement pays for called, “Foundation Center”. Craig states, “It is a little more people friendly, but this only deals with foundations.” Faculty interested in Foundation Center access should contact University Advancement for more details. Any questions, Craig will be happy to meet with you to see what is out there on a foundation level.
It’s key to know the difference between a grant and gift for foundations. Craig explains, “Some foundations have certain characteristics that don’t qualify them as grants as opposed to a gift. A grant for example will have deliverables, it will have a call for a final end report, and will call for a lot of different things that don’t make it a gift. Foundations that go through Graduate Studies and Research do have those qualifiers namely they allow 5-10% direct costs [for example], you have a final report due, annual reports, financial reports that may come annually or at the end of the grant.”
“Grants.gov is not as user friendly as SPIN and the Foundation Center." Craig explains. "Once you have found what you are looking for in Grants.gov, you will be given everything you need to navigate through submitting a proposal to describing what you need institutionally and individually. Keep in mind though you don’t submit grants individually. They always need to go through institutional approval. There are some aspects to it that a PI should know ahead of time before they embark in the process.”
How to deal with rejection.
There’s research which shows that if you are submitting a grant for the first time to either the National Science Foundation (NSF) or National Institutes of Health (NIH), then the probability it won't be funded is almost equal to one. Grant submissions are very competitive and most are rejected the first time. Not to give up! Take the opportunity to review and strengthen your proposal and continue to develop your research. Make sure your research is fundable with agencies, build relationships with program directors, and make sure they know what kind of research you are doing and that your work is something they are interested in funding!
How to find funding opportunities.
Interested in locating external grant funding opportunities? The Graduate Studies and Research (GSR) office is here to help guide the faculty, the principal investigator (PI), in their grant pursuits. Each year, Craig Geber meets with junior and non-tenured faculty about enrolling in SPIN (Sponsored Programs Information Network), a funding opportunities database developed to provide up-to-date information on current and national and international government and private funding sources. GSR pays for SPIN faculty access. First, Craig develops a profile for the PI in SPIN. Once established, each PI can create tailored searches for a specific research area using keywords and other search filters to have these opportunities brought right to their desktop! SPIN has numerous tutorials and videos that are brief and to the point to get you started quickly! Craig states, “It allows faculty to have an invested interest in garnering their own opportunities and research them on their own.” He explains, “It can be daunting to put in one keyword, for example gerontology, and get thousands of hits. These are inclusive of all