Guides and General Resources

Resources for Government Funding

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Extramural Information Center Toolbox is valuable for both beginning and experienced grant writers. It was shocking to see their page Common Mistakes in Grant Applications: A Review Perspective, a table of errors collected from actual grants submitted to the agency. Considering the hours that go into assembling a proposal, it is well worth ten minutes to look over this list and make sure none of these errors show up in your own submission. The same site's How to Write a Research Grant Application can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format. This document is targeted to applicants for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RO1 research grants and contains advice from experienced NIH staff. The details covered make this document useful for applicants with any level of experience. Also of use is NIAID's alphabetized Glossary of Confusing NIH Terms. NIAID's newsletter, NIAID Council News, provides information on the administrative workings of NIAID and on programs, changes in review policies, and other grants-related topics. (Adobe Acrobat is required.)

While NIAID stands out as the institute with the most useful grant-writing information, most of the other NIH divisions maintain grant-related sites. One such resource for scientists applying for NIH grants is the NIH Center for Scientific Review. This site includes the Study Section Roster Index, which lists scientific review administrators and study section members. In this competitive era of grant writing, it can be useful to know who might be reviewing your grant. Both the full site and the Roster Index have search functions. The NIH-Guide to Grants and Contracts Database provides Web access to archived editions of the weekly NIH-Guide to Grants and Contracts, although the archive is about five months behind the most current issue.

The National Science Foundation maintains several grant-writing resources, including the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, which describes the preparation, submission, processing, and review of proposals. Their Grant Policy Manual explains the nitty-gritty of NSF grants administration.

The Australian Research Council's mission "is to provide advice on research funding and research policy, and to promote the conduct of research and research training of the highest quality for the benefit of the Australian community." The site contains summaries of various types of funding and programs. Application forms and more specific information are available at the new ARC/ DEETYA Research Branch home page, Higher Education Research In Australia.

The Medical Research Council of Canada maintains a bilingual site with a comprehensive listing of programs and policies, as well as a list of successful applicants. The site includes a search function and links to related agencies. The National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP) is the Canadian health network's program for supporting extramural Canadian health research and researchers. This site contains applications, application guides, a list of NHRDP-funded research abstracts, requests for proposals, and a search function to navigate the site. The searchable, bilingual site of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) contains forms and instructions for applying to NSERC's various funding programs. The Council's reports and their newsletter, Contact, are also online.

The United Kingdom's Medical Research Council (MRC) home page provides information about programs, a list of recent awards, and application forms and guidelines.

Grant Databases

The amount of information that can be catalogued, and thus easily searched, on the Web has led to the development of several grants-related databases. These databases allow researchers to search for funding programs related to their research interests. In addition, researchers can search for projects that have already been funded - often a good technique for determining for which programs you should apply, as well as an easy way to check for the redundancy your proposal.

COS Funding Opportunities is a database maintained by the Community of Science. Its powerful search function allows visitors to search for grants based on keywords, discipline, requirements, and other fields. There is also a search for funding opportunities for Canadians. A second type of grant database allows the user to search for grants that have already been funded. The NIH Grants Database, assembled by COS, provides Web access to NIH funding information, an alternative to the gopher-based Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP). (The NIH is in the process of creating a Web interface for CRISP, to be completed in the first half of 1998). Other funding agencies included in COS's searchable databases are the NSF, the USDA, and the MRC (UK).

Research Funding Opportunities and Administration is a service developed by the Texas Research Administrators Group (TRAM). The site contains a search engine for research funding opportunities from many foundations, associations, and public agencies. Funding information is updated daily. The TRAM site also contains grant application forms, sample policies and agreements and links to other research funding information.

FEDIX Opportunity Alert! is designed to supplement periodic searching of the FEDIX (Federal Information Exchange) database. This service allows the user to select keywords for searching the database daily. Information concerning available grants from FEDIX's eleven governmental agencies that fit the chosen keywords are automatically emailed to the user. A newsletter focuses on federal agency, foundation, and legislative funding issues affecting the academic and research community.

Grantmaker Information at the Foundation Center is a directory of nongovernmental funding opportunities. The site includes links to more than 280 national and international Web sites and includes information produced by the individual foundations. The site is divided into lists of private, corporate, and community foundations and public charities. Because this site is not limited to foundations that fund scientific research, the Grantmaker Search 2.0 option in each section is very helpful.

Wisdom is a collection of searchable databases provided by the Wellcome Trust. The site includes descriptions and contact information for 400 funding schemes for biomedical research offered by 100 U.K. organizations. Wisdom also provides access to Science Policy Information News, a database that is updated weekly, and to listings of open academic positions in biomedical research in the U.K.

A recent addition to grant resources on the Web is GrantsNet. The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have teamed up to create a new searchable database of biomedical funding options. Geared especially toward scientists in training - grad students, postdocs, and junior faculty members - GrantsNet is expected to have information on 350 programs by year's end. Visitors can sign up by email for funding updates.

Grant Forms Online

The Web also provides a means for jump-starting the grant application process -- many agencies now provide their forms online. Electronic Agency Forms, part of TRAM, contains grant forms from many public agencies. The site includes a disclaimer that some agencies are more particular than others about forms and the individual user must ensure that their forms are appropriate. However, this would be an easy way to start working on a grant while an original application is in the mail or to see what work would be involved to apply. Most forms can be downloaded in either Macintosh or PC formats. A handy FAQ section covers many of the problems one might encounter while trying to download forms.

While the TRAM site is quite complete, there are other sites where grant applications can be downloaded, sometimes in different formats. At the University of Michigan Proposal Preparation site, forms from NSF, NIH, and other government agencies are available as FileMaker Pro documents. Both the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society supply forms that can be downloaded as Word or Adobe Acrobat files. The NSF and NIH also maintain sites where forms can be found, NSF Grant Proposal Forms and NIH Forms and Applications, respectively. Forms available online for non-U.S. sources of funding include: MRC of Canada's Application Forms, NHRDP Application Forms, Canada's NSERC Electronic Forms, Higher Education In Australia: Guidelines and Application Forms, and the MRC's electronic grant application page (U.K.).

GrantsNet is discussed in depth in the HMS Beagle Site Review.

The At-A-Glance Guide to Grants - provides direct links to grant-related tutorials, databases, email lists, forms, and more. Maintained by the National Adjunct Faculty Guild.

GrantsWeb - good source for information about federal funding, and links to policy-related sites as well as private funding sources. The site also provides links to general science sites and research administration resources on the Web. Maintained by the Society of Research Administrators.

Financial Aid Information Home Page: Grant Information - annotated links to grant databases, publications, and indices.

How to Wow a Study Section: A Grantsmanship Lesson - from the March 1998 issue of The Scientist, by Karen Hopkin.