Grant Writing Laboratory

Your needs include support for the challenge of winning grant dollars in increasingly competitive funding environment. An organizational commitment to increase sponsored funding has resulted in a central location for professional grant planning and proposal development support. The NSU Grant Writing Laboratory in room 2048 of the Alvin Sherman Library offers the right combination of training, technology, and professional grant consulting for NSU faculty and professional staff members.

All aspects of grant seeking and proposal development are addressed in the Grant Writing Laboratory, from brainstorming, grant/project planning, and funding research, to proposal writing and editing. The services offered in the Grant Writing Laboratory are closely coordinated with existing services offered by the Office of Sponsored Programs, and intended to provide faculty members with additional support in their grantseeking efforts.

To visit the Grant Lab, or make an appointment for a consultation, please contact the NSU Grant Writing Manager, Melanie Bauer, at mbauer1@nova.edu or (954) 262-4658.

Workshops

Grant education is available via live workshops offered throughout the calendar year, and through the Canvas course "NSU Grant Education." Custom workshops created upon request.

New Faculty Sponsored Funding Orientation

The Grant Writing Laboratory and Office of Sponsored Programs provide a New Faculty Sponsored Funding Orientation annually.   For inquiries, please email grantlab@nova.edu.

Lunch and Learn Grant Workshops

The 2020 Lunch and Learn Sessions begin January 2020.  For more information and registration, please visit 2020 Lunch & Learn Grant Workshops.  Information on how to access workshops online are found below.

Canvas Courses

Grant training will be available to NSU faculty members on Canvas in a course called “NSU Grant Education 2020.”  Topics include finding funding, understanding grant applications, proposal writing, grant budgets, success with NIH proposals, post-award management, and others. 

How to Access "NSU Grant Education" on Canvas:

1. Go to mako.nova.edu which will take you to Canvas
2. Select "NSU Grant Education" from your list of courses
3. From left-side menu, click on "Workshop Recordings"
4. Select "2020 Lunch and Learn Workshops"
5. Select the workshop of your choice
6. Once inside the workshop folder, click on the recording to play. It will take about 30 seconds to load.

 The sessions from 2020 will be accessible via Canvas as stated below, after each workshop concludes.

Sessions

Customized Workshops

If you are an NSU faculty and would like to schedule a workshop for your college or unit, please fill out and submit the following form: Submit Grant Training Request

Finding Funding

• Pivot - Multidisciplinary grant funding search engine accessible with a valid NSU email address
• Foundation Directory Online - Grant search engine accessible within the Alvin Sherman Library building. Provides information about foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities in the U.S.; corporate funders; recently awarded grants; and a keyword-searchable database of recently filed IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF.
• GetEdFunding- hosts a collection of more than 2,000 grants and opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and its available to public and private, preK-12 schools, districts and educators, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations that work with them. 
• Federal RePORTER is a collaborative effort led by STAR METRICS^® to create a searchable database of scientific awards from federal agencies.

• The RePORTER database is available to all public users.

• NIH Matchmaker is a tool for finding similar NIH Projects.

• Duke University site provides an extensive searchable database for funding.

• Northwestern University provides access to a list of where to search for funding.

• Grants.gov provides access to a search engine for federally funded grants and access to applications.

• The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provides access to a list of funding resources; some may require a subscription.
• Videos on How to Get Research Funding

Grant Writing Guides

• Basic Elements of Grant Writing - An easy guide to the basic elements of grant writing offering guidelines which are transferable to a variety of grant applications. Published by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• Writing a Successful Grant Proposal - by the Minnesota Council on Foundations
• Foundation Center Proposal Writing Short Course - for foundation proposals
• Foundation Center Webinar - Proposal Writing Basics - for foundation proposals
• Proposal Writer's Guide - From University of Michigan, this is an excellent guide for all types of grant writing
• The Art of Writing Proposals - The Social Science Research Council; useful writing strategies for other disciplines as well.
• General Tips on Writing a Competitive Grant Proposal & Preparing a Budget - Environmental Protection Agency
• How to Write a Research Plan

NIH Grant Writing Guides

• NIH Guidance on Proposal Writing -National Institutes of Health
• All About Grants Tutorials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID)
• Quick Guide for Grant Applications - National Cancer Institute
• Common Mistakes in NIH Grant Applications - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• Grants, the Basics: Application, Review and Award - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

NSF Grant Writing Guides

• NSF Grant Proposal Guide  - Guidance for the preparation and submission of proposals to NSF

Samples and Examples

• Foundation Center Sample Proposals and other Grant Documents
• Sample R01 Applications and Summary Statements - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Sample Data Sharing Plan - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Sample NIH Biographical Sketch

Evaluation Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Very comprehensive source of a variety of evaluation resources, including step-by-step manuals and documentation on specific types of evaluations, logic models, data collections methods, and other evaluation assistance
• National Science Foundation - 2010 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation - This handbook provides project directors and principal investigators working with NSF with a basic guide for evaluating NSF's educational projects.
• Online Evaluation Resource Library - This NSF-sponsored site provides step-by-step instructions for developing an evaluation plan.

Data Sharing / Dissemination

• NIH Data Sharing Policy
• NSF Data Sharing Policy and Data Management Plan Requirements
• Guidelines for Effective Data Management Plans - both NIH/NSF, from Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
• MIT Libraries Data Management and Publishing
• Overview of the NIH Public Access Policy - ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.

Other Grant Topics

• Foundation Center Guide to Funding Research
• NIH Peer Review YouTube video
• NIH Study Section Grant Proposal Review YouTube video
• NIH Grants Process: The Big Picture YouTube video
• Insider's Guide to NIH Peer Review for Applicants YouTube video

Research Administration Glossaries

• Research Administration Glossary - Arizona State University
• NIH Glossary & Acronym List - National Institutes of Health

Want to get a selection of Funding Alerts sent directly to your email inbox (email sent once every couple weeks)? Email grantlab@nova.edu to be added to our Funding Alerts listserv.

Want to access a more comprehensive list of current funding opportunities selected for NSU? Click below.

Click here for a list of funding opportunities for NSU

Below are internal grant competitions for smaller research grants to collect pilot data or to conduct applied research work in the community.

• President's Faculty Research & Development Grant (PFRDG): The PFRDG has an annual competition with awards up to $15,000 (deadline typically in January). The "Research Development Track" provides seed money for a new research area for which external funding will be sought, or support to move an existing project to a new level of competitiveness for external funding. The "Research Scholar Track" supports scholarlly research projects that contribute to general knowledge of the discipline, but for which external funding is not a likely or expected outcome (e.g., journal publications, book chapters, exhibitions, etc.).
• Quality of Life (QOL) Grant: The QOL Faculty Community Based Applied Research Grant has an annual competition for funding up to $15,000 (deadline typically in January) to support research projects that aim to improve the quality of life in the Tri-County area (Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach Counties). Projects must fall under one of seven categories: 1) Autism, 2) Criminal Justice, 3) Children and Families, 4) Adult General, 5) Elderly Services, 6) Foster Care, or 7) Other. Click here to see a list of 'Top and Priority Issues' of funding interest.
• Health Professions Division (HPD) Research Grant: The HPD Research Grant program has a monthly competition and awards grants up to $7,500 (for up to 2 years) to help investigators initiate projects that will lead to extramural funding. The Principal Investigator must have a primary appointment within the Health Professions Division at NSU. To be considered in the month of application, proposals are due by the third Wednesday of each month by 5:00 p.m. More information about the program can be found here and here.