The Process of Finding Funding is very much a matter of first finding the time to do a systematic job of it. Most find that relying on the help of others goes a long way.
One of the first things you should know is that the Federal government has begun to make it easier to find things. They have created a taxonomy of research and program terminology and reduced it to a set of key words.
The single most important fact about getting external funding is that the people with the money have perspectives and agendas of their agencies, and these agendas are based on many things which are not necessarily academic. In a sense, finding funding is a matter of communication between differing schools of thought.
The most important part of the statement above is that there are real people at the other end of the money pipeline. It would seem obvious, therefore, that you really have to know what these people with the money, agendas, and perspectives are doing and what they have in mind.
If you are serious about getting funded (and staying funded) the first part of your "system" will be to take an inventory of who you know in "high places." Of course, that leads to the question of who you do not know, and probably the exact and current names of the "high places" as well. Don't worry about this too much at first. Just begin your inventory as an open document. Do it. Organize it after you have ten or twenty names in it.
The Office of University Research can show you several easy ways to find out who the key players are and how to contact them. In fact, we can make appointments for you to meet these people ... AND ... even help fly you there for the appointments. There are some conditions , of course.
If you do this by the numbers, ... actually write down the names and locations of everyone you think might be (in any possible way) of some good to you in your quest ..., you will soon discover that you have already assembled quite a group of potential allies. You do not have to be an "A" type to do this, but, you really have to do this or something very much like it to be successful. The reason is that the players change with remarkable speed. Bright as you are, you will eventually lose track and make a gaff that sets you back "ten years."
Once you have the list, we recommend you put it on your computer. Go into your e-mail system and set up lists:
The same name can be in all or several of the lists. Now you are ready to communicate, appropriately, with the people who mean the most to you professionally. You are no longer trapped in a medieval cell in some forgotten monastery, holding out your strong candle for your subdiscipline. You are connected, and with time will be understood.
The CSULB Research Office is set up to provide you (CSULB faculty) with information about funding sources to use in preparing yourself to communicate with the people in the programs to which you wish to apply.
The human resources committed virtually full-time to this task are the Director and the Assistant Director for Sponsored Projects. We draw on our experience in looking for information for everyone when looking for information for you. What we do, you can do with practice and, eventually it is our goal that you do.
We provide you ready access to begin this process. The world wide web site that you are presently visiting is the mainstay of our information system. We have paper resources as well, but our strong belief is that the web and its successors are the way to get authoritative and authentic information to people rapidly and flexibly.
Where to begin depends entirely on where you have been. The remainder of this section of the Office of University Research Web site is devoted to an annotated review of information service sources. For direct experience with the agencies themselves, you should spend an hour, at least, looking at the huge and dynamic web presence of the federal government as well as the lists of Fellowships and Foundations we have put together for you there.
By design the Office of University Research is positioned at the confluence of many streams of campus and external information. Short of being marriage brokers, we are nevertheless ready and willing to help make connections among people and to information on and off the campus.
The Office of University Research has subscribed to the GENIUS and SMARTS package after good luck with the extensive SPIN program (when used on a stand-alone basis). We urge ALL faculty members who have an interest (or will have an interest) in finding external funding for a scholarly or other academic projects to open a GENIUS account immediately .
The Grants Resource Center is a unit of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). AASCU is the sibling organization to the generally MORE research oriented campuses of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), which is more or less "down the hall" at One Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. Our campus has subscribed to the OFP services for many years. They include:
These documents are posted on the GRC web site which is accessible directly from University computer accounts, that is, with (account)@csulb.edu. The documents are also e-mailed to all College offices and other interested persons. If you wish to be on the e-mail or old-fashioned paper distribution lists call the Office at 985-5314 or send us e-mail .
GRC also provides the Office of University Research with an off-line database of external funding information compiled from their years of experience in producing the Bulletins and Deadlines.
In addition, the GRC staff work directly with faculty or indirectly through the Office of University Research to:
Please call the Director of University Research when you want help. This is much better than later when you need help.
