Grant Writing Essentials Workshops

A variety of educational opportunities await Ball State faculty, staff, and students intent on developing a skill set for grant writing.

The "Grant Writing Essentials" (formerly "Grants Dollars Trilogy") is a four-part series led my SPO Program Manager, Stanley Geidel and offered by Ball State's Office of Learning and Development. The sessions include:

• Developing a Fundable Idea: Focuses on how to transform ideas for grant proposals into fundable propositions. Specifically, how to develop, refine, and test their proposal ideas to increase their chances for funding success.
  
• Writing the Proposed Narrative: Provides detailed guidance for developing proposal content as well as how to present the grant narrative for maximum effectiveness. Several tips for success are included that will help distinguish and professionalize your proposal.
  
• Budget Development: Outlines a straight-forward approach on how to construct a grant budget. Information on direct costs, indirect costs, and cost sharing is presented, along with advice for developing a winning budget strategy.
  
• Putting It All Together--Writing a Sample Proposal: Attendees at this workshop will have the opportunity to create a grant proposal and present it to a professional review panel. The panel will critique each proposal and offer suggestions and advice. 

Register for these session at the Learning and Development website or simply click the links above to register for individual sessions.

Questions about these workshops may be directed to Stanley Geidel.

Electronic Research Tools workshops: September 20 & 28

Sponsored Programs Office and Bracken Library are combining forces to lead workshops for faculty and graduate students to learn about electronic tools for research and grantsmanship. Workshop sessions will apply to both faculty members and graduate students and will be held during the following dates/ttimes:

Monday, September 20 – 10:00a.m.-12:00 p.m. (identical sessions, choose one)

Tuesday, September 28 – 3:00-5:00 p.m. (identical sessions, choose one)

Both sessions will be held in Bracken Library Room 225.

Workshops will focus on the following information sources:

• Web of Science (searching literature/citation indices)
• Community of Science & GrantSelect(identifying funding opportunities)
• IRBNet (electronically submitting IRB protocols)

Web of Science, is a powerful database that indexes journals in the sciences, social sciences and humanities and enables users to search core journals for major researchers in your field, or search citations to articles.

COS and GrantSelect provide Ball State University with access to services that help you locate funding sources in all the academic disciplines, publicize your research online, and locate potential research collaborators.

IRBNet training will instruct users on how to successfully submit their research protocols electronically to the Institutional Review Board, the Animal Care and Use Committee, or the Institutional Biosafety Committee.

Presenters include Instructional Services Librarians Lisa Jarrell and Brenda Yates Habich, and Research Information Coordinator Augusta Wray.

If you are interested in attending either of these sessions, please register via the Instructional Services workshop page.

New Personnel for IP and Tech Transfer

The Sponsored Programs Office is pleased to announce the appointment of individuals responsible for intellectual property development and technology transfer activities. Beginning fall semester 2010, Stephanie Sisco, Proposal Manager in SPO, will advise faculty, staff, and students on matters of copyright or patent disclosure. Wil Davis, newly named Interim President of the Ball State Innovation Corporation and Innovation Management Services (BSIC/IMS), will support commercialization efforts, including interactions with the private sector, licensing, and company formation.

Interim President of BSIC
As Interim President of BSIC, Wil Davis assumes responsibilities as the principal officer for the management of works of intellectual property created by Ball State University employees and students. Davis will provide assistance to Ball State inventors, authors, and entrepreneurs, facilitating marketing, licensing, or the development of new businesses springing from University-owned technology.

Davis is chairman and co-founder of Ontario Systems, a software development company headquartered in Muncie that focuses on the receivables management industry. Founded in 1980, Ontario Systems became one of the largest software companies in the state of Indiana. The company’s success led to many honors including Techpoint’s CyberStar Award in 2001 as Indiana’s outstanding technology product company. Also in 2001, Davis received Ernst and Young’s Indiana Heartland Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In demand as a keynote speaker and seminar leader, Davis has published his first book, entitled Creating a Culture of Excellence: Changing the World of Work One Person at a Time.

Davis earned his undergraduate and MBA degrees from Ball State University and received an honorary doctorate from Indiana Wesleyan University. The Ball State University Alumni Association named Davis a 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, and he has also received the Miller College of Business Award of Distinction. He succeeds Michael Halbrook at the Ball State Innovation Corporation and will maintain an office at the Innovation Connector and in the Sponsored Programs Office.

Manager of IP Disclosures
Stephanie Sisco (formerly Klinger), in addition to serving as Proposal Manager for the Miller College of Business, Teachers College, and Building Better Communities, will provide Ball State personnel with information and guidance regarding the Ball State Intellectual Property Policy and IP disclosures. Sisco’s service in SPO dates to 2003, when, as Grants Specialist, she managed the University’s intellectual property accounts, tracking expenditures and income. Following a tour of duty as grant writer in the Center for Media Design, Sisco returned to SPO as Proposal Manager in 2008. Earlier in her career she served as grant writer for the Cincinnati Museum of Art. She holds the B.A. degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Annual Report 2009-2010

The Annual Report from the Sponsored Programs Office for the 2009-10 FY is now online. You will find a navigation bar on the left of the PDF document, and links to the individual colleges and other summary areas on the Table of Contents page.

The statistics illustrate a year of work well done. FY 09-10 brought a record level of funding—$26,406,714—in external dollars to Ball State University, as compared to the total $26,082,888 the previous year. 656 proposals were submitted that resulted in 422 funded awards—the latter also a new record—up from 401 awards in FY 2008-09.

Congratulations to the faculty, staff, and students who submitted grant proposals during the past fiscal year!
Questions about the document may be addressed to Augusta Wray.

NEH Enduring Questions: September 15

The NEH Enduring Questions grant program supports the development of a new course that will foster intellectual community through the study of an enduring question. This course will encourage undergraduates and teachers to grapple with a fundamental question addressed by the humanities, and to join together in a deep and sustained program of reading in order to encounter influential thinkers over the centuries and into the present day.

What is an enduring question? The following list is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but serves to illustrate.

• What is the good life?
• What is good government?
• Is there such a thing as a just war?
• What is friendship?
• What is beauty?
• What is the relationship between humans and the natural world?
• What is evil?
• Are there universals in human nature?
• What are the origins of the universe?

Enduring questions are questions to which no discipline, field, or professions can lay an exclusive claim. They are questions that have more than one plausible or compelling answer. They have long held interest for young people, and they allow for a special, intense dialogue across generations. The Enduring Questions grant program will help promote such dialogue in today’s undergraduate environment. New this year: An Enduring Questions course may be developed by up to four faculty members.

The application deadline is September 15, 2010.

NEH Enduring Questions grants can provide up to $25,000 in outright funds for projects serving a single institution. The grant period may run between eighteen and thirty-six months. Recipients may begin their grants as early as May 1, 2011, but must begin no later than January 1, 2012.

Please contact your department's Proposal Manager for more information.

About the Research Newsletter

"Research" is a monthly newsletter published by the Sponsored Programs Office. Regular highlights include information about upcoming grant deadlines, new funding opportunities, funded and submitted proposals around the University, and news from the SPO staff.