EEB 5100 Preparing for a career in EEB=Grad orientation...

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EEB 5100 Preparing for a career in EEB=Grad

orientation seminar18 October 2016Prof. Eric Schultz

The Funding Environment

Types of supportSources of supportSubmitting proposals and applicationsAnd, from last year’s presentation by Mike Willig

Preparing a competitive proposal

Why do we get grants?

Types of supportScholarships: financial awards given to eligible

students with no strings attachedFellowships: specifies a service commitment for

specified timeGrants: specifies goals that one has reasonable hope

of accomplishingContracts: specifies products that one promises to

deliver

Sources of supportIntramuralExtramural

Sources of supportIntramural

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship ($2000, competition within UConn) http://grad.uconn.edu/financial-resources/internal-funding-opportunities/semi-annual-doctoral-dissertation-fellowship-program/

Connecticut State Museum of Natural History Student Research Awards (apply in Spring)

Henry N. Andrews Endowment (botany) Katie Bu Fund (environment)George Clark, Jr. Endowment (ornithology) Russell and Betty DeCoursey Endowment (entomology) Alfred J. Hunyadi Endowment (forestry) Jerauld Manter Endowment (ornithology) Lawrence R. Penner Endowment (parasitology & invertebrate zoology) James A. Slater Endowment (entomology) Francis R. Trainor Endowment (aquatic ecology) Ralph M. Wetzel Endowment (vertebrate biology) Walter R. Whitworth Endowment (fishes) Ronald Bamford Fund (botany) - applications accepted up to $1500

Sources of supportIntramural

Sources of supportExtramural

IndustryFoundation: “a non-governmental entity that is established as a

nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust, with a principal purpose of making grants to unrelated organizations, institutions, or individuals for scientific, educational, cultural, religious, or other charitable purposes. This broad definition encompasses two foundation types: private foundations and grantmaking public charities” www.grantspace.org

State/RegionFederalNGO/Nonprofit

Sources of supportSearching for funding

Hits on search ‘ecological research funding’, ‘environmental grantmakingorganizations’American Society of mammalogists funding sources, last updated 2003

http://www.mammalsociety.org/uploads/asm.outside%20grants.rev4_.pdf

DMOZ (née Open Directory Project) Environmental Grant-Making Foundations http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Philanthropy/Grants/Grant-Making_Foundations/Environmental/

ESA Funding and Grants bulletin board http://www.esa.org/esa/?page_id=1574

Funding opportunities for research (environmental; last updated in 2011) http://www.environmentalcareerresources.uhh.hawaii.edu/funding_opportunities.html

Society for Conservation Biology bulletin board http://www.conbio.org/professional-development/bulletin-board/

UConn grad school http://grad.uconn.edu/financial-resources/external-funding-opportunities/

Office for Sponsored Programs http://research.uconn.edu/sps-proposals/funding-opportunity-announcements/funding-databases/

Pivot http://pivot.uconn.edu/

Pivot http://pivot.uconn.edu/; contact carolyn.mills@uconn.edu

Where EEB’s funding comes from

“Since 2005 EEB has received ~$21 million in external grant funds of ~$28 million awarded (~75.6 million when allocations to co-PIs at other institutions are included), with a dramatic increase of 62% in external grant revenue between 2008 and 2012. The Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) at the National Science Foundation has been the primary source of external support for research activities in the Department since 2005, funding most of the approximately 170 projects. Faculty have been supported by awards from the various incarnations of 11 DEB programs: Assembling the Tree of Life, Biotic Surveys and Inventories, Dimensions in Biodiversity, Ecological Statistics and Geography, Ecological Studies, Ecological Biology, Long Term Ecological Research, Long Term Research in Environmental Biology, Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy, Planetary Biodiversity and Inventory, Population Biology, and Systematic Biology. Additional support has come from 7 other NSF Divisions: Biological Infrastructure, Major Research Instrumentation, Integrated Organismal Systems, International Science and Engineering, Earth Sciences, and the “Cross Cutting” divisions of Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems and Information Technology Research.” EEB 8-year program review, self study (2012)

Faculty: N Avg grant Total funds

Industry 7 $41,870 $293,090

State or Regional Agency 22 $118,469 $2,606,320

Foundations and NGOs 19 $328,834 $6,239,304

International 5 $284,800 $1,274,000

NSF 54 $546,389 $29,505,004

Federal non-NSF 33 $283,640 $9,360,116

Graduate Students: N Avg grant

Foundations and NGOs 28

Societies 34

NSF DDIG 15 $12,262

Other Federal 11

Where EEB’s grad funding comes from (non-DDIG)

Submitting proposals and applicationsIf an institutional signature is needed on your

proposal you must submit through the Office of Sponsored Programs

Proposal Preparation

Environmental Understanding for

A Sustainable Future

What to Look for in a Program

Announcement (Solicitation)

Goal of Program

Eligibility

Special Requirements

A Good ProposalA good proposal is a good idea, well

expressed, with a clear indication of methods for pursuing the idea, evaluating the findings, and making them known to all who need to

A Competitive ProposalAll of the above

Appropriate for the Program

Responsive to the Program Announcement

What is a Competitive Proposal?

Likely high impact

New and original ideas

Succinct, focused project plan

Knowledge of subject area

Experience in essential methodology

Clarity concerning future directions

Sound scientific rationale

Realistic amount of work

Sufficient detail

Critical or innovative approach

What Makes a Proposal Transformative?

Results & Conclusions have the potential to:

• Contribute more than an incremental

advance in understanding (i.e., saltation)

• Effect change in theory or paradigms

• Transcend “sub-disciplinary” boundaries

• Ramify throughout other disciplines

Advice

• Learn to love and learn from rejection

• Contact the program officer with specific questions

• Revise and resubmit

• Collaboration is good, if appropriate

• Discover alternative funding sources

EssentialsKnow your audience

Conceptual diagram (roadmap)

Organization

Integration

Synthesis

Transformative elements

Preliminary Results

Clear methods (not ponderous)

Appropriate citations (knowledge of field)

EssentialsKnow your audience

3-4 Reviewers

Program Officers

Not all experts in your field

Reading 15-20 Proposals

EssentialsConceptual diagram (roadmap)

Links the major parts of your proposal

Shows the major drivers and respondents

Places research in broader context

EssentialsOrganization (Predictive)

I. Topic One

A. Hypothesis 1a

B. Hypothesis 1b

II. Topic Two

A. Hypothesis 2a

B. Hypothesis 2b

Regardless of outcome science is advanced

EssentialsIntegration & Synthesis

How do the parts add up: 1 + 1 = 2?

Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts:

1 + 1 = 3?

How will your work combine with extant

knowledge?

EssentialsTransformative elements

How does your work change the way we think?

Does your work contribute in more than an

incremental manner?

High risk: High Payoff

EssentialsPreliminary Results

Summarize to show the compelling nature of

your work

Summarize to document a high likelihood of

success

EssentialsClear Methods (not ponderous)

Sufficient to understand what you will do in

field or laboratory

Document state of the art approaches

Include how you will analyze data

EssentialsAppropriate Citations

(knowledge of field)

Some from your lab

Foundational literature

Most recent literature

Essentials

Tell them what you are going to tell

Tell them.

Tell them what you told them.

Writing Style

Mix of simple, compound, & complex

sentences

Write for the “ignorant” but intelligent

reader

Avoid ambiguity

Writing Style

Format (ease of reading)

Clear sections, sub-sections, & parts

… can save text

Bold, italics, and color

Necessary and incisive figures

EEB 5100 Preparing for a career in EEB=Grad orientation...

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