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/
Sources of supportSearching for funding
Office for Sponsored Programs http://research.uconn.edu/sps-proposals/funding-opportunity-announcements/funding-databases/
Sources of supportSearching for funding
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
Sources of supportSearching for funding
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
know.
A Competitive ProposalAll of the above
Appropriate for the Program
Responsive to the Program Announcement
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsKnow your audience
Conceptual diagram (roadmap)
Organization
Integration
Synthesis
Transformative elements
Preliminary Results
Clear methods (not ponderous)
Appropriate citations (knowledge of field)
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsKnow your audience
3-4 Reviewers
Program Officers
Not all experts in your field
Reading 15-20 Proposals
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsConceptual diagram (roadmap)
Links the major parts of your proposal
Shows the major drivers and respondents
Places research in broader context
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsOrganization (Predictive)
I. Topic One
A. Hypothesis 1a
B. Hypothesis 1b
II. Topic Two
A. Hypothesis 2a
B. Hypothesis 2b
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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?
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsPreliminary Results
Summarize to show the compelling nature of
your work
Summarize to document a high likelihood of
success
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
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
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
EssentialsAppropriate Citations
(knowledge of field)
Some from your lab
Foundational literature
Most recent literature
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
Essentials
Tell them what you are going to tell
them.
Tell them.
Tell them what you told them.
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
Writing Style
Mix of simple, compound, & complex
sentences
Write for the “ignorant” but intelligent
reader
Avoid ambiguity
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
Writing Style
Format (ease of reading)
Clear sections, sub-sections, & parts
… can save text
Bold, italics, and color
Necessary and incisive figures
Environmental Understanding for
A Sustainable Future
