IN THIS CHAPTER

Delving into the world of research grants

Understanding grantfunding terminology

Finding appropriate fellowship awards

Finding federal monies for your program or research project

Crafting information that funders will want to read and fund

For the post-secondary non-tenured faculty around the world, this is the chapter you’ve been asking for in past Grant Writing for Dummies editions. I listened to your needs and checked them off, one by one! I’ve taught non-credit courses in higher education for decades, so I know the pressure on tenure-track faculty members to secure grant monies in order to support their research as well as score another notch on the steep climb to being tenured.

For those of you who are new entrants into the world of college and university teaching, this chapter defines some commonly used terminology that you’ll likely hear other faculty use. Let’s delve more in to finding grants for academia purposes. This chapter addresses how to fulfill your chain of command’s expectations for bringing in department-level grant awards.

Having to chase grant funding has historically been a pursuit among academic as well as non-academic institutions in order to fund faculty projects and research activities. Research and writing are essential skills of tenure-track facility in order to continue their employment in higher education institutions. They are pushed to go after funding for sponsored programs for monetary support to start or continue their work. Grant funding also contributes to the overall financial health of an institution.

Reviewing Terminology That You Need to Know

To begin, sponsored programs or projects are activities that are sponsored or funded by an external organization, such as a federal, state, private organization or foundation. Within this realm, you’ll encounter the following terms that you should be familiar with:

• Deliverables: Documents and information that you are expected to report to your faculty supervisor and funders, such as a final technical report. These deliverables should always be tied to your grant request and what you promised to do if the grant was awarded.
• Financial accountability and/or reporting: The money awarded to your institution must be managed by your institution, and the funds must be separately budgeted and accounted for.
• Principal investigator (PI): If you are the grant applicant, you are also the PI. As the PI, you are directly responsible for executing the project within any administrative constraints imposed by the sponsor (funder) and the university or college.
• Specific scope of work or set of specific aims: When you are applying for research grants, it’s important to include your hypothesis, the methodology for proving it, and the benefit of the research findings to your institution and the world of academia.
• Specific period of performance: The length of the grant award. Research grants tend to be funded for multiple years in order to test the grant applicant’s hypothesis and incorporate a longitudinal study.

Because the funds you plan to apply for will be awarded to the institution that employs you, there is always a process of approval required before you can reach out to a potential sponsor or funder. Extramurally sponsored projects are made to your institution in its corporate name. Awards of funds for sponsored projects are awards made to your institution and commitments under grant agreements are commitments of the institution. Any work performed by a faculty member of the institution under a project must be considered as work performed for the institution. This is not your money to spend as you see fit. There are policies and protocols that must be followed throughout the entire process — from deciding to apply for a sponsorship to accepting the funding and finally fulfilling the scope of work. Be sure you know and understand these policies well before you attempt to secure a grant.

As a faculty member on the tenure-track, you must follow institutional protocol at all times. Circumventing any policies could put your position in jeopardy. Ask, read, and follow the guidelines for seeking sponsored program grants.

Finding Sponsored Program Grants

A sponsored program is any externally funded activity that has a defined scope of work or set of objectives that provides a basis for the sponsor’s expectations. Generally a sponsored program involves a written agreement representing the voluntary transfer of money or property by a sponsor in exchange for specifically enumerated performance of services, often including rights and access to results of this performance, as well as some formal financial or technical reporting by the recipient as to the actual use of money or property provided.

Sponsored program funding comes from a range of external sources (called sponsors), including government agencies, major corporations, and foundations. Funders issue various types of solicitations announcing the availability of funding to support projects within specific areas of interest.