FELLOWSHIPS & FUNDING GUIDE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
There are numerous resources available regarding funding for research
purposes. Below are some of the web resources that might be useful
for a UC graduate student seeking research grants. We recommend
that first-time grant seekers familiarize themselves with the process
by surveying available material first. There are a number of introductory
passages available at various web sites (below), and the Foundation
Center www.fdncenter.org
has a quick orientation to grant seeking that should be helpful.
Signing up for email alerts and viewing grant maker web sites should
further illuminate the system.
After an introduction to the range of possibilities, you should
compile a beginning list of possible funders with which you share
interests and which fund pre-dissertation/dissertation research.
To help you save time, it is very important to assess whether you
meet the eligibility criteria for any given funder before considering
them.
More detailed research on these compatible sources will make clear
which organizations are most likely to fund your research. Initially,
identify organizations that fund pre-doctoral individuals and that
have similar research interests and geographical focus. Investigate
the funding patterns of these organizations to come up with a short
list of possible funders.
This document follows with a brief description of Types of Funding,
resources for Finding Funding, and leads to search for more Funders.
II. TYPES OF FUNDING
Private foundations, public charities, and corporate foundations:
A private foundation is a non-profit institution that grants aid
based on an endowment, like the Ford Foundation. A public charity
is funded through memberships, like the Ms. Foundation for Women.
A corporate foundation is endowed through the corporation and generally
only gives to its employees and their descendents, or gives to programs
that will enhance its own ends. These foundations have areas of
interest in which they invest, in program support for other organizations
and/or for related research. Aid to individuals is usually given
in the form of either direct support or fellowships for travel and
research in a host country/institution/library. The Foundation Center
www.fdncenter.org offers
extensive resources for understanding and researching foundations,
their giving, and how to apply for funding. The Foundations Center’s
publication, Foundation Grants to Individuals, is published
yearly and includes most foundations that offer programs available
to individual applicants.
Government agencies:
The federal government is responsible for a large portion of grantmaking,
which is executed through agencies like the National Science Foundation,
the Dept. of Defense. Most federal agencies have a grantmaking capacity.
Program guidelines are typically very specific.
Research institutions:
The UC system supports a system of intra-mural research institutions
that offer funding for graduate student and faculty research. Other
research institutions, including think tanks and libraries, offer
internships and fellowships for research conducted at their institution.
III. KEYWEBSITES
UC SYSTEM
UC Office of Research: http://www.ucop.edu/research/welcome.html
This is the central hub for funding opportunities within the UC
system. Some are listed below.
UC Toxic Substances Research and Training Program:
www.tsrtp.ucdavis.edu A
multi campus research unit devoted to studying toxics and the environment.
California Policy Research Center:http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/
a multi campus research unit devoted to state policy making.
UC Humanities Research Institute:http://www.uchri.org/
UC Institute for Labor and Employment: http://www.ucop.edu/ile/
UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation:
http://www-igcc.ucsd.edu/
UC Pacific Rim Research Program:
http://www.ucop.edu/research/pacrim/
UC Transnational and Transcolonial Studies: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/transnation/
UC Committee on Latino Research: http://www.ucop.edu/research/ucclr.html
UC Energy Institute:
http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/ucei/
UC Institute for Mexico and the United States:
http://ucmexus.ucr.edu/index.htm
All-UC Group in Economic History:
http://aghistory.ucdavis.edu/page.htm
Center for Studies in Higher Education:
http://ishi.lib.berkeley.edu/
Latina/Latino Policy Research Program: http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/lpirfp.pdf
Multicampus Research Incentive Fund: http://www.ucop.edu/research/mrif/
University of California Energy Institute:
http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE AND FULBRIGHT PROGRAMS
International Research & Exchanges Board:
http://www.irex.org/ administers the Fulbright and other international
exchange programs.
SCIENCES
National Research Council -
http://www4.nationalacademies.org administrates national fellowships
and scholarship programs.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Social Science Research Council: http://www.ssrc.org
The Social Science Research Council is an independent, nongovernmental,
not-for-profit international organization that seeks to advance
social science throughout the world and supports research, education
and scholarly exchange on every continent. Grants and fellowships
are given for pre-dissertation, dissertation, and post-doctoral
research. Interests include global security and cooperation, the
social and economic challenges of globalization, the impacts of
information technology and current transformations in international
higher education
WOMEN
American Association of University Women –
http://www.aauw.org/
GOVERNMENT AGENCY SITES
The National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/start.htm
home page links to all NSF programs, which link to specific program
interests. Programs of interest include Social and Behavioral Science,
International, Crosscutting, and Environmental Research & Education.
EPA Grants Information Site:
http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): http://www.neh.fed.us/
U.S. Institute of Peace;http://www.usip.org/
created by congress to serve American security interests, the USIP
supports research in areas related to conflict and peace.
FREE EMAIL ALERT SERVICES
COS Expertise Database and Funding Alert Service:
http://www.cos.com/ COS Funding
Alert subscribers receive a weekly email with a customized list
of funding opportunities based on previously specified criteria.
The funding information provided by COS is drawn from a regularly
updated database of more than 18,600 grants. Each funding opportunity
contains information such as title, sponsor, deadline, and amount
as well as a link for more detailed information.
Foundation Center's RFP Bulletin: http://fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/index.jhtml
The Foundation Center will send you a weekly list of new RFP's and
other program announcements from non-government funding sources.
You can also subscribe to various newsletters: http://fdncenter.org/newsletters/.
National Science Foundation:
http://www.nsf.gov/start.htm NSF offers its Custom News
Service, http://www.nsf.gov/home/cns/start.htm.
After subscribing, you can choose to receive email alerts when documents
matching your profile are added to the NSF Online Document System.
Emails include links to each document and/or the full text of short
documents. A weekly email alert listing all documents added the
previous week is available under "Notification Options"
when you set up or modify your profile.
INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES FOR FUNDING
The following is a list of online search engines for finding Requests
for Proposals (RFPs, Program Announcements, Calls for Proposals,
Research Program) from both public and private grant making institutions.
TIP: the majority of solicitations will be for organizations;
one of your first search criteria should be graduate-student eligibility.
Community of Science (COS):
http://fundingopps.cos.com/. Updated daily, COS Funding Opportunities
includes more than 19,900 grants from around the world, both government
and private.
Foundation Center: http://www.foundationcenter.org/.
The Search Zone takes you to internal and external funding sources
at http://fdncenter.org/searchzone/.
Sciencewise / FEDIX: http://www.sciencewise.com/
This site provides information on education and research programs
for potential grants from federal agencies – Dept of Defense,
Dept of Agriculture, Dept. of Transportation, Air Force Office of
Scientific Research, NASA, US AID, and National Institutes of Health.
TRAM Research Funding Opportunities and Administration:
http://tram.east.asu.edu/
. TRAM offers a search engine, http://tram.east.asu.edu/search/sol_search.html,
for locating funding opportunities from federal agencies.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA):
http://www.cfda.gov/public/faprs.htm.
This site provides a government-wide compendium of federal programs,
projects, grants, services, and activities.
Funders Online:
http://www.fundersonline.org/index.asp. This organization seeks
to promote and strengthen philanthropy in Europe by facilitating
access to online independent funding and information resources.
The site's fully searchable Funders Online Directory contains approximately
150 profiles of funder websites and areas of interests.
IV. SEARCH FOR MORE FUNDERS
BELOW ARE LINKS to GRANTMAKER DATABASES TIP: Another strategy
for finding potential funders is to find an article or project being
conducted in your field of interest, and discover its sponsors.
Links to Private Foundations:
http://lnp.fdncenter.org/finder.html ; http://www.research.ucla.edu/sr2/Private.htm
.
Links to Corporate Grantmakers: http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_corp/corp1.html
Links to Grantmaking Public Charities: http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_pubch/pubch1.html
Links to Community Foundations: http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_comm/comm.html
Links to U.S. Federal Government Departments, Agencies,
and Institutes: http://www.research.ucla.edu/sr2/Federal.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opg/agency.html#awebs-go
http://tram.east.asu.edu/fund/agency.html
Links to U.S. Federal Government Agency Solicitations and
Program Announcements: http://tram.east.asu.edu/fund/solicitation.html
Links to University Sponsored Research Offices:
http://www.crpc.rice.edu/TRAM/sponsored.html
http://www.ncura.edu/resources/sponsored.htm
Links to Non-Profit Organizations: The Idealist
site offers information on over 15,000 non-profits around the world,
http://www.idealist.org/
The Baker Library also indexes links of non-profit
organizations,
http://www.library.hbs.edu/
Links to Funding Databases for Sale or Subscription:
http://www.fconline.fdncenter.org/.
The Foundation Center offers several huge databases for sale (CD-ROM)
or subscription (internet) that provide the ability to search through
the characteristics, interests, locations, officers, and past grant
activity of nearly all foundations and corporate grantmakers.
OTHER REOURCES
GUIDE TO GRANT/PROPOSAL WRITING:
A very useful guide to proposal-writing is The Art of Writing
Proposals: Some Candid Suggestions for Applicants to Social Science
Research Council Competitions , by Adam Przeworski and Frank
Salomon, at:
http://www.ssrc.org/publications/for-fellows/art_of_writing_proposals.page
SPECIAL NOTE OF THANKS AND GRATITUDE:
THE CAREER CENTER ACKNOWLEDGES WITH MANY THANKS THE
GENEROSITY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RONNIE LIPSCHUTZ AND ANGELA MCCRACKEN
(angela@cats) WHO WROTE AND COMPILED THIS EXCELLENT
GUIDE.
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