#13 How to find funding opportunities

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If you do research, there are great chances that you will need funding.

You need money to:

• conduct research

• pay for specific equipment

• travel to conferences

• publish papers in open-access journals

• do experiments, etc.

There are several ways to find funding opportunities.

Of course, you could browse the whole internet and try to find recent funding programs to apply for.

But that’s not an efficient to do so.

In this newsletter, I list a few techniques that you can apply to identify relevant funding opportunities.

Work with your research office/Library

To get started, one way is to liaise with your research office or library to find examples of successful grant applications in your field.

Identify the funders, their type, the details of the funding, and their requirements.

You could also collaborate with colleagues active in your field who already managed to get funding. They can also help demonstrate why your research project is important and addresses knowledge gaps.

Publications

Another approach is to look at scientific publications in a specific field or topic.

Many scientific papers have authors’ acknowledgments.

These acknowledgments may contain details about the funding source, such as the funder's name and grant details.

Of course, these details are related to funding which is not available anymore.

But having access to the source of funding can guide you to the right funders which might still have funding programs.

Funding databases

Additionally, several databases, like Pivot-RP, provide insights into successful grant applications and available funding opportunities.

In Pivot-RP, you can search for available funding related to your research topic.

And filter by eligibility (citizenship, career stage), funding type, funding amount, date etc.

And recently, the Web of Science has launched a Grants index database that can be explored too.

The Grants Index presents directly sourced, and standardized data from funders around the globe to help researchers like you quickly explore the details of previously awarded grants as they research their topic.

You can use this information to better differentiate your research proposals and increase your chances of success.

Awarded grant records include key information about a funded project, like Principal Investigator (PI), co-PIs, grant program and type, description, start and end dates.

That’s it. This is my strategy to identify funding opportunities.

This is the best way to find various funding sources based on your interests.

As usual, if anything is unclear, please contact me and I will reply.

See you in the next newsletter!

Jamal 

Question of the Week

What else would you do to identify relevant funding in your field?

Share with us your advice and experiences in the comments section!

My favorite things this week

1. In my recent webinar, I explained how the grants index is built and what it covers. I also provided a quick overview of how one can use it to understand the funding landscape in a specific field/topic and be more strategic in raising funds.
   

2. Great sessions with a research institution in Uganda and as usual rich discussions with PhD candidates.

Quote of the Week

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin