MANAGING GRANT OPPORTUNITIESMichelle Schoenecker

University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeMarch 15, 2013

• Purpose of Presentation– Identify/discuss best practices of grant searching

and dissemination– Focus on developing structure/processes for

managing the opportunities we find and that faculty want

– Share experiences and learn from each other

• Out of Scope– Identification of free/paid search engines– How to use search engines– Comparison of subscription services• Features, benefits, tools, cost

– Recommendations for subscription services• Every institution is unique

WHO ARE YOU HELPING AND HOW DO YOU HELP THEM?

• What is the scope of your situation?• Who are you helping?– Small or large department?– School/college or entire campus?– Junior, middle, or senior faculty?– Attitudes/expectations?

• Institution or department philosophy• Faculty

– Sponsored Programs Office: PreAward Focus• Is this part of a broader faculty mentoring effort?

• The Big Question: How much help do they need with a grant search?– Detail• Personalized based on their own research?• A basic list with URLs? Summaries?

– Format• Posted on Web site? Email? Newsletter?

– Frequency• Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly?

– What do I need to know to meet these needs?• General or specific understanding of their research?• Where do I obtain information?

– How do I organize/maintain the information?• Format: Excel? Access? Word doc? HTML?• Online tools? • Who should have access to information?• Archiving: How long do I keep information?

• The Big Challenges for RAs– T I M E• Pre-award staff juggle multiple responsibilities• Searching can be very time-consuming• Searching is easily usurped by more immediate tasks• Searching may be given to student workers

– Quality issues with content, format, accuracy

• Preparing and sending information• Recordkeeping/maintenance

– Knowledge Base• Unfamiliarity with topic(s)• Too much information to know

– Budget• Paid subscriptions are costly (Pivot, IRIS)• Tools are costly (MyWebGrants)• Staff is costly

– Return on Investment• Quantitative: App/win ratio? Financial threshold? • Qualitative: Service delivery? Client satisfaction?

• GOAL: Manage Opportunities Effectively – Search efficiently

• Know the right sponsors• Know your sources for information• Know your faculty’s research, if necessary

– Record and archive wisely• Make it easy to use• Make it accessible

– Don’t recreate the wheel• Create/modify templates• Research what other institutions are doing/share tools

• Getting Started: Know Your Faculty– Stage of research career• Early-stage• Experienced

– Research interests• Sponsors • Keywords

• Early-Stage Faculty– Inexperienced• May be unfamiliar with funding sources/programs that

benefit early-stage investigators• Little to no proposal development experience

– Highly Motivated• Must get tenure • Shoot at everything and hope to hit something• Need strategic planning/mentoring

• Experienced Faculty– Established funding track record– Established contacts (colleagues, program officers)– Familiar with federal/private funding sources and

programs, but don’t keep up with changes– Seek sustainability• Sustain current projects• Seed funding for new projects• Leverage expertise in large-scale grant projects

• Know Your Faculty Members’ Research– Keywords• Faculty profile (e.g., internal Web site/PubMed)• Publications• Biosketch• One-on-one interview• Lab tour

• Know Faculty Members’ Primary Sponsors and Programs– NIH, NSF, NASA, DOE• Early investigator/career; mentored; pilot/seed funding;

clinical trials; centers/institutes– Investigate unlikely sponsors• DoD funds medical research• NIH funds polymer research for drug applications• NSF and DoD fund large-scale instrumentation for

non-clinical applications

GRANT IDENTIFICATION STRATEGIES

• Go to the Well: Manual searching – Sponsor Web sites• Less-robust search functions; fewer options

– Free databases (e.g., Grants.gov, FedBizOpps, internal)• More robust functionality due to scope

– Paid subscription databases (e.g., Pivot, SciVal)• Highly robust functionality; extensive customization

• Benefits of the Well– Allows for very refined/granular search– May find links/references to new sources– Increased knowledge/familiarity with sponsor– Better organization

• Drawbacks of the Well– Can be very time-consuming– Difficult for busy offices/departments

• Turn on the Faucet: Auto-aggregation/ Notification Services– Free or a feature of paid subscription service– Typically just a list with no additional functionality

(sorting, bookmarking) unless generated by a paid subscription service

– Pre-determined frequency– Reliable, easy to use, accurate– “Hands-free” approach

• Types of Free Faucets– Government-wide

• Federal Register• Grants.Gov• FedBizOpps

– Agency-specific• Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs

(CDMRP/US Dept. of Defense)• NSF, NIH, EPA, DOE, DoED, NASA, CDC

– Public Service• ScanGrants

• Paid aggregation subscriptions offer to do all the work for you– Finding– Alerting– Organizing– Reporting/predicting– Archiving– Awards

• Examples of Paid Subscription Services – SciVal– Community of Science/Pivot– InfoEd/SPIN– ResearchResearch– Foundation Center– Grant Spy– Grant Forward (formerly IRIS)

• In-house databases (Arizona State, NU)

• Domain-Specific– National Association of Children's Hospitals and

Related Institutions– State Science and Technology Institute Weekly

Digest (SSTI)– HNet (Humanities & Social Sciences Online)– FundSource (behavioral/social science)– Grants Alert System (for grants that serve non-

profits and citizens in Illinois)

• Value of Paid Subscription Services– Save time– Broad access and distribution– Save money? • Reduce staff?• Improve efficiency?

– Improve win rate?– Increase faculty satisfaction?

• Benefits of the Faucet – Receive notices from the agencies/orgs of your choice– Set parameters once and change as needed

• Keyword list– Faster and easier to sift through a collection of

opportunities– Repetition can help make sure you didn’t miss important

opportunities• Drawbacks of the Faucet– Easy to put aside; easy to scan through too fast– Can be easy to miss a good match– Deadlines can be too close– Repetition bores the mind; easy to disregard

• Drawbacks of the Faucet– Overlapping/repetitive information– Price– Free services lack useful features/online tools– Accuracy in paid subscriptions – better to go

directly to the source?

ORGANIZING AND MANAGING INFORMATION

• What Data do I Need to Keep?– Keywords– Program titles– Sponsors– Deadlines– Faculty distribution• Individual• Department/college/school• Date sent

• What Data do I Need to Keep?– Recurring opportunities– Limited submissions– Applications based on distribution– Awards and/or rejections– Web sites– List of free subscription services that you receive

(e.g., Grants.gov; NSF Update, NIH Update)

• Where do I Keep the Data?– Excel® and Access® databases• Easy to categorize, sort, query, generate reports• Low-cost• Advanced knowledge helpful

– Homegrown/internal systems– Full-service subscription service• Generate reports when needed

– Email folders• Sponsor, faculty, dept., deadlines, etc.

• How to Make the Data Accessible?– Shared drives– Web-based storage– Hard copies, if necessary– Multiple users on subscriptions

• How Long Should I Archive the Data?– Why should you keep it?• Topic trending• Faculty documentation for tenure• Recycle recurring opportunity announcements

– Create templates and boilerplate content

• Metrics to determine ROI– Volume– Application/win rates– Faculty satisfaction (surveys)– Assess effectiveness of paid subscription services

DISSEMINATION STRATEGIES

• Determine how faculty prefer to receive opportunities – Visit a Web site?

• Your institution’s? The sponsor’s?

– Receive an email or e-newsletter that you created?– Forward sponsor’s/vendor’s email w/aggregated list?– All of the above?– Make sure the method is manageable for you and effective for faculty

• Do not waste faculty members’ time– Send only relevant opportunities– Do not send too many, too often– Briefly summarize the most important information– Create a format that is easy to skim– Include links to full solicitation, program Web

page, and other relevant sources– Solicit feedback often – are you providing the right

kinds of opportunities?

• Entice faculty members to read your information– Use language and formatting strategies (keywords,

headers, boldface, underline, bulleted lists, numbering)

– Use lots of white space to increase readability– Maintain standard format for consistency,

familiarity– Use templates and boilerplate content when

possible

• Provide ample lead time before the deadline– Keep track of deadlines– Keep a record of distributions– Send reminders

• Determine preferred frequency• Remind yourself!

• Stay on top of searching and distributing– Make it a priority– Easy to let it get away from you– Hard to catch up

• Summary– Determine the scope of grant searching for your

institution – Understand your faculty and their needs for the

information– Determine if the well or faucet is best for your

institution and faculty– Determine if you want to pay for comprehensive

services

• Summary, continued– Create a database of information based on the

metrics that you want to track and report– Create informative, but easy to read templates – Make grant opps a priority to avoid falling behind

and missing great opportunities for faculty

Questions?

Michelle SchoeneckerUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

schoene7@uwm.edu