Category Archives: Funding Opportunity

Funding Opportunities – Finding the Perfect Fit

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I do my best to bombard you with relevant funding opportunities via email, website, and now even via Facebook.  But, given the diversity of our College of Agricultural Sciences group, it isn’t easy to target those with a unique niche. As such, I thought I would provide some useful pointers on how to find the best funding to fit your research needs.

Grants.gov

For federal funding opportunities, your best resource is going to be Grants.gov.  They have a searchable database but also note, at the bottom of that screen, that you can set up a “Subscription” tailored to your interest.  They offer several options including:

  1. Subscribing to a RSS Feeds based on (a) agency or (b) category,
  2. Receiving a daily notification of all new grant opportunities, or
  3. Received notifications based on specific criteria.

I currently use option #3 but plan to also try out the RSS Feeds as a backup.

If you find an opportunity that you think might fit your research, I highly encourage you to contact the program manager to discuss.  They encourage, even welcome, the conversations.  And, if they feel your idea isn’t quite right for this particular program, they often can advise which other opportunities might be a better fit.

GrantForward.com

Grant Forward (formally IRIS – Illinois Researcher Information Service) is another excellent resource for finding funding opportunities and includes federal, state, foundation, and “other.”  Thanks to the Research Office, anyone at OSU can subscribe to the site using their oregonstate.edu email address.  Once your account has been authorized, you can create advanced searches that can be saved. You even have the option to set up an email alert.

This is a useful service as it extends beyond just federal opportunities.  Given that my search for the college is VERY broad / generic, I encourage researchers to fine tune their own searches. There is even an option to “create profile” which the site will then use to identify matching funding opportunities.

Foundations

If you are looking for foundational funds, there really are countless options out there…I would encourage you to search for a pertinent source but also contact them to discuss your ideas.  It would also be wise to check with the OSU Foundation to ensure they are a reputable source.

Crowdfunding (Wikipedia definition)

I’ll admit that I just recently became aware of the crowdfunding option thanks to some of our brightest graduate students.  This may be an up-and-coming option.  A recent article added a little fuel to the fire when they specifically addressed using crowdfunding to fund academic research. You can read more here; I find it very interesting, some universities are even taking the extra step to partner with specific crowdfunding platforms.

I have checked with the research office on how this type of funding would be processed and they said it would simply be viewed as gift funds.  Next on my list is to start a dialog with the OSU Foundation to find out their views, policies, etc. on crowdfunding (to be continued).

Those are my top 4 resources, but please comment here to share your favorite sources for funding opportunities. All of that aside, I am also happy to meet with any of you to discuss your specific ideas.  It is ALWAYS a pleasure to meet with the faculty and get to know someone a little better.

Unique Online Submission System – Risk Management Education Partnership Program

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This morning I participated in an online training webinar/conference call for the Risk Management Agency’s online application submission and reporting system. The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), operating through the Risk Management Agency (RMA), recently announced a funding opportunity titled, “Risk Management Education Partnerships Program.” After reading the announcement, I felt that this targeted a rather large College of Ag base – basically, anyone with an outreach component in Crop and Soils, Horticulture, Rangeland and Animal Sciences (and beyond) could benefit from this opportunity. But, more on the specifics below.

If you feel this may be an opportunity for you, let’s talk. The submission system and the way they want applications put together lays far outside the typical process. You must use their online submission system and there is a heavy emphasis on “Proposed Results” (which are what the participants will do), “Audience Emphasis” and the “Teams and Partners.” To give this some perspective, the narrative section is limited to 400 words.

This is definitely a time where you want to get your proposal put together well before the deadline and submit several days ahead of time. Yes, I know that all agencies recommend this, but in this case you really should submit early given the way their online system operates.

Summary: The purpose of this competitive cooperative partnership agreement program is to deliver crop insurance education and risk management training to U.S. agricultural producers to assist them in identifying and managing production, marketing, legal, financial, and human risk.

Here are the priority commodities they are targeting with this program –

  1. Agricultural commodities limited to commercial crops that are not covered by catastrophic risk protection crop insurance, are used for food or fiber (except livestock), and specifically include, but are not limited to, floricultural, ornamental nursery, Christmas trees, turf grass sod, aquaculture (including ornamental fish), and industrial crops.
  2. Specialty crops that may or may not be covered under a Federal crop insurance plan and include, but are not limited to, fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, syrups, honey, roots, herbs, and highly specialized varieties of traditional crops.
  3. Underserved commodities which includes: (a) Commodities, including livestock and forage, that are covered by a Federal crop insurance plan but for which participation in an area is below the national average; and (b) commodities, including livestock and forage, with inadequate crop insurance coverage.

“For the 2013 fiscal year, the FCIC Board of Directors and the FCIC Manager are seeking projects that (1) address one or more of the Priority Commodities (as defined above), (2) provides Crop Insurance Education on FCIC approved policies, or (3) address one or more of the five (5) areas of risk described as Production, Legal, Financial, Marketing or Human Risk.”

Award range is $20,000 – $99,000 for up to one year; submission deadline is July 22, 2013. You can find more detail here.

As I mentioned above; if this is something that interests you, contact me. Or if you’ve used the system before, I’d like to have some firsthand knowledge of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

P.S. Yes, this would still need to go through our internal Cayuse system but only CayuseSP (i.e. the electronic proposal transmittal form); the Sponsored Programs folks are also aware of the unique submission requirements for this particular opportunity.