Deciding Which Grant to Write

1. Browse the resources below.
2. Take advantage of specific calls that seem customed written for YOU. You’ll be competitive and the applicant pool is likely smaller.
3. Email the program contact when you find one that looks like a good fit. Send your aims or an abstract to inquire whether your proposed science fits their funding priorities. The contact often confirms alignment or suggests refinement. They appreciate the inquiry. And it’s never to early for you to start that relationship.

Foundation or Non-Federal

• Growing Opportunities Research Funding Board, curated by Edge for Scholars, lists about six months of offerings. Most are specific to a disease process or population.
• Your professional organizations and scientific societies may have offerings to support researchers exactly like you.

Federal

• NIH K Kiosk lists all the active career development awards, enabling easy comparison to find the fest fit for your science and credentials (eg, career stage, degree type).
• NIH F Kiosk lists the active fellowships for pre- and postdocs.
• NIH RePORTER and Matchmaker lets you search for similar research to see what is being funded and by which institutes. [There’s a blog post, too.]
• NIH Find Grant Funding database lists ALL the active funding opportunities. It is admittedly cumbersome, but complete and searchable for R-level grants.

Subscribe to have opportunities come to you

• Grant Forward, offered in partnership with Vanderbilt University, lets you browse funding opportunities by key word and also sends you recommendations of new opportunities that match your profile.
• NIH Table of Contents sends a list of the latest announcements every Friday afternoon. Included are new opportunities as well as changes to current ones.