Finding the Right Funding Fit Good Morning! We are so glad you have joined me for this session. Why don’t we take a minute to find out who is in the room. Share with us your name, title, department, whether you actively submit grants , and if so to what funder. In this session, I’m going to share a few tips and suggestions for narrowing the funding field and targeting grant opportunities more strategically. I will start out with a high level view and then delve into how to vet individual funding announcements. Finally, I will leave you with a quick checklist that you can use to evaluate funding opportunities in the future.. September 26, 2018 Kristin Beck, Grant Coordinator krbeck@nmu.edu

Where do YOU Fit? IES MFA Ford NSF SAMHSA ACA NIH NEH APA USDA AOA DOJ State of Michigan IES MFA Ford SAMHSA NSF ACA NEH NIH USDA APA AOA DOJ Private Foundations It’s a big funding world out there and if you are new to the grants world or just returning to it, it can be a little overwhelming. Where do YOU Fit?

Know Your Self What do you want to do? Does it address important questions? Do you have the necessary background and resources? Will it advance your career? Does it align with the goals of your department and institution? Know Your Self

Know your Field What is the current state-of-the-art? Who are the top ten researchers? What are they doing right now? Where do they get their funding? What do they consider to be the key research issues?

Where do You Start? SPIN Search Read the RFP Call the Program Officer All of the above So where do you start? These are all good strategies for finding funding. But the optimal starting line actually proceeds all of these steps.

InfoEd SPIN Database

Your Research Agenda Research Plan Components: 5-10 year plan Preliminary data/publications Research grant mentors Funded collaborators Finding your funding fit starts with having a defined research agenda that outlines where your research is headed and what it will lead to. The plan should lay out how you are going to obtain preliminary data, build your publication record, target top tier journals, conferences in your field, find collaborators, and work with students. It should also outline a trajectory for how you will fund your research including obtaining internal funding, serving as co-pi on other grants and seeking out research grant mentoring from colleagues in your department or in your field. Funders look for investigators with a track record; they want to know that you can get the job done and that the research you are proposing is laying a foundation for something much bigger to come. That you are a good investment….. So take the time to develop a research plan . Its very similar to the process of buying a house: research the area, get pre-approved ….

Finding Your Research Home Who is likely to fund your research? Where do you fit with the big agencies? Get to know the funder Agency Institute or directorate Mission Strategic Priorities Program Officers This effort requires some careful thought work but it helps you narrow the funder universe. Once you define your research agenda, your funding universe will become very small – perhaps a single agency and program area You want to spend some time getting to know the funder you plan to approach for funding. Spend some time on there websites. Look at the strategic plans, and funding forecasts. Look at what program area s are funded. The best strategy for getting to know a funder better is to talk to the program officer. If you remember one thing from this presentation that should be it!

Avoid the Chase! What you want to avoid is chasing the money. This can result in disjointed research and unsuccessful funding attempts. It will leave you frustrated. Avoid the Chase!

Funding Data Review Recent Awards: Average award size Geographic trends/restrictions Themes Types of projects Once you have narrowed the search down to a few funders, take some time to see what they have funded in the last couple of years. If it’s a foundation you want to make sure there aren’t any geographic restrictions. But beyond that you want to look for trends in where and how they invest their money. For example the The Knight Foundation likes to invest in communities where the Knight Brothers owned newspapers. Be sure to look at average award size, it’s a very consistent indicator of how much money they will award. For foundations in particular, first time funding awards tend to be small because foundations want to know you and see that you deliver before investing large dollars in your work. Most importantly – look at the themes and the types of projects and get a feel for the strategic priorities and personality of the funder. This will give you insights into how to frame your work in the context of what is important to the funder.

Talk to the Program Officer! Prepare a short concept paper Set up the call Prepare Grant and Contracts Office support For most federal agencies, it is considered a best practice to reach out to the program officer. Your aim is to pitch your idea, find out if it fits their priorities or where else in the agency it might fit. Program officers can provide suggestions for how you might position your work to fit with their priorities and let you know where you may have gaps in expertise. I suggest starting with a concept paper, sending a short email, asking for a short phone conversation, and then preparing for that call. I can help. Talk to the Program Officer!

Vetting Specific Funding opportunities Decoding the RFP Up to this point, I’ve been sharing the big picture approach to finding your funding home. Next, I’m going to provide a few tips for vetting individual funding opportunities. Vetting Specific Funding opportunities

Read the RFP! The RFP is: A detailed expression of the funder’s priorities Non-negotiable Requires close analysis and parsing Not a mirror of individual research interests Its really important to read the RFP a couple of times or more. Not reading the RFP is a common reason that proposals are declined. Its very obvious to a funder if you haven’t read the RFP as your proposal won’t be responsive.

Read it again! However… RFPs are not always clear Uncertainties need to be resolved early RFPs change

Are you eligible? Carefully review eligibility requirements: Look beyond the eligibility section Understand special requirements Check for the correct division/mechanism Most RFPs clearly label the strict eligibility rules in the proposal. But here is the thing. They also embed eligibility standards throughout the RFP. Funders use the RFP to include requirements that narrow the applicant pool or ensure the qualifications or expertise they are looking for. For example: A funder might require that the applicant have evidence-based practices in place or that an intervention be listed in a registry of evidence-based models. Dept. of Ed does this with some of their funding streams. A funder may allow extra points for applicants who can meet additional requirements A funder might require a certain jurisdiction or population size. The point is you won’t know these things if you don’t read the RFP carefully!

Evaluate the competition What are the Odds? Part of your vetting process should include a little bit of math. If a funder is only going to make 1-2 awards, that competition for the most part is geared for certain organizations. If its 10 awards nationally, it is still very slim odds. These types of competitions are going to top scientists in the field so you must have an exceptional track record to compete at this level. Or a high tolerance for risk. So as you are looking at the number of awards, also think about who else will be competing. What are you up against? Look at the size of the likely applicant pool. Is it a national competition, international? State, local, institutional? One reason we often suggest that junior faculty go for internal awards to get their funding started is that the size of the applicant pool is much smaller. While you don’t need to conduct a formal return on investment analysis here, you want to mentally calculate what sort of risk you are willing to take and what the costs of applying to things you aren’t well positioned for might be. Lost time, reputation etc. And do the reverse analysis, if you do feel you can enter a strong, competitive proposal how will it advance your research. This often comes down to the size of the potential award and the level of effort to submit a quality proposal. Number of awards Evaluate the competition Size of applicant pool ROI

Assess Your Capacity to Compete Do You have what the funder is looking for? Expertise/experience Partnerships Evidence-based practices Sophisticated evaluation Match requirements As part of the decision making process, you want to carefully assess your capacity to compete. Do you have the partnerships in place? Often by the time an RFP comes out it is too late to form partnerships. This is why the upfront planning process is important. Do you have or can you partner to address the funder’s requirements for any specialized knowledge that you don’t have whether that be statisticians, evaluators or specialized equipment needs. Finally, and this is very important if there is a required financial match, do you have the institutional support?

Available Resources Do you have what you need to prepare a competitive proposal? People Time Peer reviewers Institutional support Along these lines you want to honestly assess whether you have the bandwidth to prepare a competitive proposal and to carry the work out if funded? This is often a challenge for junior faculty who are learning to balance teaching, research, and service with the need to obtain funding. Its important to make sure you have people in either your department, institution, or discipline who can serve as peer reviewers. This is how you will improve in your grant writing. Similarly, if you propose leading a very large project or its your first time running a funded project, make sure you have support from your department to set you up for success in running the project. Policies of course vary by department but generally you would obtain either a course buyout and/or reduction in service load.

How Do You know if it is the Right Fit? Research aligns with funder’s priorities No gaps in expertise Capacity to compete Advances your research In general, a good fit has strong alignment between your research interests and the funder’s priorities or you feel confident that you can frame your work to align with their priorities. Just make sure you don’t depart so much from your research agenda that you are chasing the money. A good fit means you have or can assemble all of the required components and expertise needed and that you have resources to prepare a competitive proposal but also to carry out the work if funded. Finally, it is a fit if it is reasonably clear that getting the funding would advance your research agenda. For example, it would give you experience running a funded re search project, help you obtain preliminary data, and get publications. Having a process or checklist for vetting funding opportunities up front will help you make the decision early enough to still have time to write the proposal. There is nothing worse than having to withdraw a proposal mid course because you discover too late that you don’t have all of the components to successfully compete. Conclusion: So we have talked about the importance of going through a thoughtful planning process to define your research agenda, using that process to narrow the funding field, and how to vet individual funding opportunities. This approach to funding can help you target your efforts more strategically. Grant writing is very intensive and time consuming. Having a good funding fit helps you start out on the right foot.

Internal Funding Opportunities Internal funding for Northern Michigan University faculty, staff and students exists to enhance the academic experience and professional growth by providing financial support for new initial research projects, scholarly activities, papers for publication and creative works. This internal funding is intended to prepare faculty, staff and students to apply for external funding in the future. Internal funding decisions are made by a committee, not the Grants & Contracts office. We will help with any proposals you may

Grant Writing Basics “There is no grantsmanship that will turn a bad idea into a good one, but there are many ways to disguise a good idea.” – Norm Braverman, NIH What are some things that keep people from writing grants?

What keeps us from writing grants? Fear of rejection Reality: only one proposal in five is turned down because the idea was not good enough Reality: a rejected proposal is worth about $10,000 of free advice Reality: the success rate is higher for proposal turned in a second time Reality: the success rate on a third submission is almost 1:1 Writing is like an Olympic event, you need to practice!

Keys to Success Innovation and Creativity is important Looking for new solutions to old problems How do you create creativity Calling the program officer is the most important element 85% of all successful grant seekers have had contact with the program officer Sometimes reviewer comments are hard to get!

Who Gives Money and Why? Federal Government State Government Gives and takes based on political agenda They tell you what to do Fewer $$ means fewer submissions = success rate increases Slow review process State Government Little $$ for basic research Often good for projects with students Outsource work when budgets decrease Governments and private giving!

Private Giving Private Foundations Corporations Give out of the goodness of their heart Advance a particular cause Often fund geographically For every $10 billion annually given only $1 billion goes to universities Corporations Give for enlightenment of self-interest Quality of life Employment pool Improve image

What to do while waiting? Search some more Apply for another grant Breathe! Work on your research plan Find some collaborators

How to find collaborators Contact the Grants and Contracts Office Access Scholar Universe:  With 2 million profiles, it helps researchers and academics connect with colleagues with shared interests while expanding their networks to include previously unknown people working in related fields or in other areas of the world. Researchers in your field New Faculty Buzz Session September and January each year

How to get research published What do you need? Time Ideas Brainstorming Where to go? Grants and Contracts Office Colleagues

Funding for New Faculty UC San Diego has a great list: https://cfr.ucsd.edu/young-investigators/funding-opportunities.html

Next Sessions Four Part Series on External Funding: Session 2 Proposal Writing I: The Nuts and Bolts October 10, 8:00am Bring a possible request for proposals/solicitation to the session!

Questions ? Thank You! Kristin Beck, Asst. Director – Grant Development/Training Coordinator krbeck@nmu.edu