ARPA-E University: Winning Technical Proposals

Funding applications often require something shorter than a research paper, but more substantive than a business pitch—you need a technical pitch. Join ARPA-E Program Directors Dr. Dane Boysen and Dr. Ilan Gur on Wednesday, October 3rd for the next installment of the ARPA-E University webinar series. Dane and Ilan will share their 5 best practices and 5 deadly sins for writing technical proposals.

Participants will also learn about ARPA-E’s mission and unique role in funding energy innovation. While the webinar will use concepts from the ARPA-E funding selection process, the proposal strategies are applicable to anyone who communicates complex technical information in a short format. Registration is free.

**Date updated on 9/25

Workshop Reminder: Focus on the Search - September 25th

This is a reminder for the previously posted workshop: Focus on the Search.  Focus on the Search is one-hour long intensive workshop session that highlights the resources SPO has to offer for grantsmanship as well as how to effectively search for funding opportunities. The session is held in the SPO conference room and is intended to be a personalized, one-on-one experience. Participants are asked to bring their own Internet-ready device, like a notebook or tablet computer. 

To register: Please follow the following link to the mini-course registration system through Learning and Development. Search for keyword “Focus on the Search”.

URL: https://www.bsu.edu/webapps/minicourse2/default.asp?SponsorID=2

Fall Workshops: Searching For Funding

Focus on the Search
Our Focus on the Search is one-hour long intensive workshop session  that highlights the resources SPO has to offer for grantsmanship as well as how to effectively search for funding opportunities. The session is held in the SPO conference room and is intended to be a personalized, one-on-one experience. Participants are asked to bring their own Internet-ready device, like a notebook or tablet computer. 

To register: Please follow the following link to the mini-course registration system through Learning and Development. Search for keyword “Focus on the Search”.
URL: https://www.bsu.edu/webapps/minicourse2/default.asp?SponsorID=2

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Workshops with University Libraries
University Libraries and the Sponsored Programs Office (SPO) are combining forces to assist faculty in finding funding sources for their research and creative activity agendas. SPO’s Augusta Wray will give a tutorial on COS Pivot, the largest funding opportunity and researcher expertise database, as well as other resources SPO has to offer. You will also learn about Web of Science, a powerful database helpful in crafting necessary literature reviews for grant proposals.

Grants for Graduate Students: Identifying Sources
Monday, September 10        10:00am - 11:30am      BL 225

Finding Funding for Faculty: Identifying Sources
Wednesday, September 12        3:00pm - 4:30pm      BL 225

Visit the University Libraries workshop page to register! Check back often for updates! 

COS Funding Opportunities conversion to COS Pivot to be completed as of June 30, 2012

COS Funding Opportunities, Expertise, and Scholar Universe became COS Pivot in August 2011.  Ref-Works will be completing the conversion and phasing out the legacy system. COS Funding Opportunities currently available at www.cos.com (or fundingopps.cos.com) will no longer be available after June 30, 2012. The same great funding information is available in Pivot, which you currently have access to. Anyone who logs in to cos.com after the 30th will automatically be redirected to Pivot.

To avoid any problems accessing the system, please update any bookmarks and log into Pivot at the new website: pivot.cos.com. Ref-Works will be posting warning notices to users throughout the legacy COS.com platform within the next few days.

COS Pivot is the most comprehensive database of funding opportunities, containing up-to-date grants, awards, fellowships, and other funding opportunities covering all disciplines, as well as identifing researcher expertise within or outside Ball State.

If you have any questions or concerns about using Pivot at Ball State, please feel free to contact Augusta Wray in the Sponsored Programs Office.

From NYFA Quarterly: The Etiquette of Getting Grants

A little grant writing advice can go a long way. In the following article, Shakurra Amatulla outlines some of the basic information necessary for researching and writing grants.

Shakurra Amatulla (The Grant Lady)

So you want a grant—that chunk of money that’s "out there" just waiting for your request? But you’re impatient, sometimes believing that the road to success must open before you faster than Moses parted the Red Sea. In your search for grants, you buy and read everything about this free cash, continually look for people to guide you to said loot, and still you haven’t gotten any closer to it. At some point, you’re probably going to run into me, hear about me, or be directed to seek me out. Be afraid. Be very afraid. I’m a whine-buster. I became a grant consultant in 1982 after applying for and receiving a grant from a writer’s organization. It was then that I discovered an over-abundance of often overlooked funding sources. As a result, I launched a monthly grants newsletter which preps subscribers to realistically assess if their funding needs can be sensibly obtained from immediate means—such as a local community service agency—or if their needs are best addressed through a grant. The following is a collection of familiar whines consistently thrown at me during my grant lectures, or via letters, email, or telephone. Each whine is followed by my usual response.

The real deal
Whiner: "I want some of that free grant money to support me so I can stay home and create my art." 

I know of no grant that will wholly support you. You may have heard of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship that awarded $500,000 to each of this year’s recipients. However, you must be nominated by a special committee to receive this grant. You cannot apply nor nominate yourself. It’s worth your while to view the biographies of this year’s winning Fellows (www.macfdn.org). I guarantee it will be a humbling experience.

Let’s burst a myth right here and now. There’s no such thing as free money. Even if the only thing you do is mail a simple request letter, you’ve already spent something. You’ve spent time writing the letter, and you’ve also spent money for the stamp. It may not sound like much at first, but it will add up over time. If you’re really serious about applying for grants, you shouldn’t stop at just one. You should make applying for grants a part of your life. For example, as a playwright, I consistently enter playwrighting contests and/or send my plays to theaters on a monthly basis, and have been doing so for more than a decade. I’m concerned—and this should also be of concern to you as an artist—that my work is continually circulating before the public. This is how you get noticed. In addition, applying regularly for grants forces me to create new playwriting material. I don’t want to send last year’s play (again) to the same funding organization I’m applying to this year.