External Research Funding in Academia

Ron RardinProfessor of Industrial

Engineering

Do You Need Grants?

• Virtually all engineering programs expect faculty to seek research support, less in management

• Grants can provide critical marginal resources• Summer pay to focus on your research• Ph.D. students to help you do it• Travel to disseminate it and learn from others• Blesses research rather than fully funding it

• At least NSF grants also carry prestige• Can divert and bog you down if too low level (to

publish), with rigid deliverables, tight due dates

Lots of Govt Sources + Industry

• National Science Foundation (NSF)

• Office of Naval Research (ONR)

• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

• Army Research Office (ARO)

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• Natl Inst of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• Natl Security Agency (NSA)

• Dept of Transportn (DOT)• Dept of Energy (DOE)• State research funds• Industrial Awards

OR, MES, SEE Programs at NSF

• Base budgets $3M each• Dispensed in grants of $50-150K per year

over 1-5 years• 150 proposals per year with 10-20%

funded• Most have due dates Oct 1 and Feb 1• At steady state, with average grants

of $300K, this is about 10 new grants per year per program

NSF Career Grants

• A special NSF program for young faculty • Untenured assistant prof (3 time limit)

• Provide $80K per year for 5 years• Proposals due in July• Advantages: prestige, compete with

peers• Still very competitive

• 10-20% funded• Come out of same budget as regular grants

Who Controls What’s Funded?

• At many agencies, the program director decides what proposals are funded• Typically require some informal pre-proposal first

• At NSF all proposals are peer reviewed• Most OR done by ad hoc panels of 8-10

researchers to evaluate 20-25 proposals spanning the whole program

• Reviews will be returned to you• Program directors influence only at the margins

(top 20-30% in panel rankings)

Proposal Writing

• Get to the point early• Summary/abstract is most important, then Intro

• State what problem you wish to study, how you propose to approach it, what is novel, and why results would be significant (science or social)

• Industrial partners/endorsements offer valuable evidence that the work is worth doing (few $’s)

• For NSF, remember that you are writing to a panel, not just experts on your topic

• Get colleagues/mentors to read your draft

Grantsmanship

• Get to know the agencies, processes and program officers• For NSF a good way is to volunteer to be a panelist

(mail PD an electronic resume)• Or attend the annual Grantee’s Conference (all active

grants will be displayed, and PD’s provide updates)

• Talk/work with colleagues (cross-discipln valued)• Don’t waste time on hopeless long shots • Keep trying on the grants you really want• Sometimes good idea to start with small budget