Funding Opportunities

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Sponsored Research assists faculty and students in locating funding sources through a variety of means.

The key to any funding search is finding a funding source that best fits your project. Besides general internet searching, our office primarily uses the following two search databases for funding: The Foundation Center and COS (Community of Science). The COS database has been made available for our use by the genorosity of the Research Foundation/CUNY.

The Foundation Center's grants database is an excellent resource for searching for funding. It contains a list of practically every private foundation in the country, along with detailed information on their funding priorities, applicant details, funding history, financials, and more. It also has a broad range of criteria for your search, allowing you to search by foundation, grant type, regional focus, or topical focus. However, it is a private service and is only accessible through our office. Please note that if a foundation excludes grants to individuals, you may still be eligible to apply since the Graduate Center, as an institution, will be the recipient of the grant, as opposed to it being made directly to you.

To have a search conducted, contact Debra Hilborn at 212-817-7234, or via e-mail at dhilborn@gc.cuny.edu, or visit her in room 8309. Please provide her with the following information:

• A detailed description of the project, including an abstract or prospectus (limited to a single page) if there will be any research assistants, projected timeline, and general brief discussion- not a proposal
• A detailed description of the funding request, including how much is needed and for what purpose the funding will be used
• Your professional background (e.g. graduate student, faculty, or staff) and funding history

Please keep in mind that Ms. Hilborn is a student in theatre and may not be familiar with some of the specialized language used within other disciplines. Please prepare your descriptions accordingly using simple language.

Ms. Hilborn's role is to find potential funding sources for you, not to be involved in the application process. Turnaround time varies, but usually results are gotten back to you at least a week after your request has been received.

For assistance with preparing the application/budget, and interpreting guidelines, you should contact Hilry Fisher, Director of Sponsored Research, at 212-817-7523, or via e-mail at hfisher@gc.cuny.edu. Please note that all proposals must be accompanied by the Graduate Center's application cover sheet.

Sponsored Research can assist you with preparation of proposals & budgets. Also, while in some instances you may be able to apply individually for an award, most funding sources will require the institutional official "sign off" of Hilry Fisher. For proposal and budget preparation guidance, institutional "sign off," or general assistance, it is essential to be in touch with Sponsored Research as early as possible. In the case of proposals being submitted electronically through Grants.gov, Principal Investigators are required to be present to sit with Ms. Fisher at least ten business days prior to the deadline in order to submit the proposal. It is advised that the P.I. bring with them to this meeting the completed proposal on a flash drive.

Agencies require considerable time to evaluate and review research proposals. Expect a minimum of six months between the submission of a proposal and the onset of funding, if it should be awarded.

Activities involving human subjects require approval by the Graduate Center Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.

A part of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Sponsored Research is located in room 8309, 365 Fifth Avenue, Hilry Fisher, Director, telephone: 212-817-7523. Kay Powell, is the IRB Administrator, telephone: 212-817-7525.

Online Resources:

In order to submit a proposal to most federal agencies, one must have an affiliation with the Graduate Center and obtain an eRA Commons login. To obtain the login, contact Hilry Fisher providing your birth date (month, day and year) and your social security number. Please note, the P.I. does not need to be registered with Grants.gov as the Graduate Center is already able to access this system. Make sure that you have the required software, as per the funding agency's guidelines for the grant program to which you are applying, installed onto your computer (if using a Graduate Center computer, contact Information Technology, 212-817-7300, to arrange for the installation of the software, as only they are authorized to do the installation).

Students are encouraged to apply for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Please note that Hilry Fisher is the program's Coordinating Official at the Graduate Center.

For Students:

DOCTORAL STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAM

Competition # 5

Resource Links:

On Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Dr. Betty Tuller, Program Director, Perception, Action and Cognition, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation made a presentation at the Graduate Center entitled: The NSF and Grant Opportunities for Faculty, Staff and Students. In that talk she presented an introduction to the NSF, including its mission and organizational structure. She also discussed how to find appropriate programs for funding and tips for successful grant writing. Dr. Tuller's PowerPoint presentation can be opened here.

Community of Science (COS)
focusses on all disciplines, not just the sciences. Individuals affiliated with the Graduate Center may log on directly.

Foundation Center
contains several useful tools, including links pages, for locating and contacting foundations. The independent, nonprofit Foundation Center (FC) publishes annually The Foundation Directory, the most comprehensive printed reference for information about private foundations. In addition, the FC maintains five libraries, one of which is located in New York City. FC libraries house a wide variety of materials related to grant-making, and they also offer free orientations on finding research funding.

NIH Guide
contains notices, program announcements, requests for applications, and articles related to NIH grants and contracts. The online guide is fully searchable. Also, a link at this site explains how to subscribe to the weekly table of contents LISTSERV.


Select Federal Funding Sources

National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Institutes of Health

National Science Foundation

US Department of Education

How to Register for FastLane:

FastLane access for PIs and Co-PIs requires prior registration, provided to the GC faculty and students by SRO. To be assigned a password, submit the following information to Nichol Gallimore at 212-817-7520 or ngallimore@gc.cuny.edu.