GradPortal Exploring Grants Tutorial

The goal of this exercise is to learn how to locate graduate student support by following the steps in a series of mock searches of the websites of funding agencies.

Example II. Searching the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Grants Database to locate funding for a specific program of graduate study

Summary Steps for Search Criteria = NSF Program

Active “Biocomplexity” projects contain potential funding sources for students. It is best to search for large multi-year awards.

Scroll down to locate grants that are relevant to your interests and preparation.

Click on award number 0083583 which is located on page 5 of the generated list.

Read the abstract to decide whether or not the award interests you. Note the Principal Investigator’s and Co-Principal Investigator’s e-mail address and institutional information. The next step is to begin to research these key contacts and their research programs.

In this example, the Principal Investigator (PI) is Alan Hastings from the University of California-Davis.

Locate the institution’s website using either: The email address of the Principal Investigator provided in the abstract: (amhastings@ucdavis.edu =====> www.ucdavis.edu) or an internet search engine

Locate the academic unit or department from which the grant emanates: you may search for academic departments at the University’s website, or use the University’s search engine to locate Dr. Alan Hastings web site.

Professor Hastings has an appointment in the “Department of Environmental Science and Policy.” Next, research the department and its activities. Look for “faculty”, “research” or “on-going activities” until you find the section for which the Project Director works.

After trial and error, we located Hastings in the “Graduate Group on Ecology.” Browse relevant links from the research group’s page including: Faculty, Areas of Emphasis, Funding (links for fellowships and assistantships), Related Associations, etc.

Often university websites will create websites for their funded award programs. If you are unable to locate more information on the NSF award after searching the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigators’ department(s), return to the University homepage and use the University search engine to try to locate the title of the NSF award. The title of Dr. Hastings’ award was “Dynamics of Invasive Non-Native Species.”

The search will provide the location of the website for the grant or a list of other projects that may be of interest to you.

Explore them as they may provide more information about the NSF award that you are investigating or names of other investigators in different departments. Each department’s research page could display information about the NSF award. Each investigator could also be a potential contact.

Once you have learned about the project director/professor’s research, research facilities, funding and colleagues, you will be able to determine

1) The degree to which the professor’s (or his colleague[s]’) research interests you.
2) How best to approach the professor in an email or other communication.

Your email or letter should incorporate a discussion of the professor’s work. This discussion will indicate that you have been reviewing his/her website and have an interest in his/her research. In most situations, this display of interest will indicate to the professor that you are eager to conduct research in his/her chosen field.

For project directors to succeed in their funded research endeavor (the Biocomplexity grant of our example), they must employ a team of dedicated and enthusiastic research assistants. If a student wants to be one of those research assistants, he/she should indicate a serious interest in this research.

Here is a sample letter or e-mail that you can adapt when contacting Professors.

Dear Professor NAME,

J. Smith