Search results

The main purpose of the study was to identify the key elements that characterize successful grant proposals and the relative importance of issues that constitute difficulties and concerns in preparing the proposals. The study aimed, in particular, to explore grantsmanship perceptions based on the experiences of researchers in Thailand who had, or had not yet, successfully been awarded domestic and/or international research funding.

Anonymous online questionnaires were distributed to researchers in biomedical and public health fields in Thai academic institutes. The online survey asked the anonymous participants to complete a questionnaire comprising both multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

About 19% of 300 respondents had received both domestic and international research grants, and 60% of domestic research grants. The top 5 issues in grant applications were: (1) choosing a topic that matched the grant opportunity, (2) feasibility of research design and methods, (3) suitable research design and methodology, (4) model and theoretical justification, and (5) ethical considerations. Significant differences in perceptions among researchers were found for the feasibility of research design and methods and proposing a reasonable and justifiable budget.

The information derived from this analysis reflected the perceptions of the researchers and may or may not correlate with those of grant agency reviewers. The results of this study may be insightful and instructive for other researchers and form the basis for training and mentoring researchers in informed and effective grantsmanship, particularly novice researchers with limited or no experience in grant proposal writing. This study particularly reflected grantsmanship perceptions among researchers in Thailand. It may also serve to exemplify lessons learned for researchers in other low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) exposed to similar settings and situations applying for research grants.

This article discusses a practical means of combining library outreach efforts with user education techniques. The Office of Research Services and the Reference Department of Jackson Library, both of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, collaborated to purchase information resources and to provide grants workshops. Through conversations, print and electronic resources were identified with an emphasis on eliminating duplication of effort and cost containment. Collaboration between the two separate academic units allowed the sharing of responsibilities for planning, advertising and conducting the workshop. This article exemplifies the importance of building on an established collaborative effort.

I read a number of magazines devoted to fund raising, grantsmanship, nonprofit management, and philanthropy. And lately, I've been impressed by the number of both philosophical and practical hints the experts have shared about the basic approach to these activities. Combined with what has been hammered home to me over the years by colleagues from a variety of government agencies, corporations, and foundations, I have compiled a list of what I consider are the best of them.

If being funded for research or other projects were as easy as locating books on finding and writing grants, the grant seeking process would be greatly simplified. In the 1982–83 edition of Books in Print there are over 57 titles listed under the subject heading “Grants‐in‐Aid.” Most of these publications either discuss the grant process, i.e., how to prepare a grant proposal, or they identify sources of funding. A few rare exceptions do both. The procedures for organizing a grant proposal are fairly standardized, and any number of publications will provide the grant seeker who has a creative idea with the information needed to go from idea to grant proposal.

Claflin University is leading the way in graduating underrepresented minorities at the bachelor’s level and preparing them for graduate school in STEM. Claflin University is a small liberal arts institution with the primary focus on teaching. However, because of the national demand for STEM professions, and the gap between the supply and demand, Claflin administrators were astute enough (14 years ago) to realize that in order to be effective as a teaching institution, there must be a delicate balance between teaching and research. For the state of South Carolina which has the third largest percent population of African Americans (31%) in the country, educated and trained minorities in the STEM fields are in even higher need as they can serve as role models and help build up a minority higher education pipeline within their home towns. HBCUs are central to this mission of increasing minority participation in STEM and have been playing a vital role in educating underrepresented groups. Therefore, Claflin University made a courageous decision (14 years ago) to enhance the role of research-based teaching, specifically in STEM. This synergistic move would bolster Claflin’s competitiveness as a teaching institution with a strong and sustainable research core.

As any library strives to improve services and make them increasingly relevant, planning for change has become routine. During 2011, the University of Arizona's Libraries undertook extensive assessments in order to develop and improve services in support of research and grant services so that campus-wide achievements in research, scholarship, and creative works could improve. A project explored ways for the library to become more effective at increasing research and grant support to faculty, researchers, and graduate students in a scalable way, and to help the campus increase achievements in research, scholarship, and creative works. The project defined the library's role in research and grant activities and explored ways for the library to be involved at optimal points in these cycles. This chapter discusses the process developed for assessing what new research and grant support services the library might want to develop. This involved interviewing peer university libraries and surveying faculty and graduate students at the University of Arizona about their research and grant needs. The chapter also describes how results were analyzed to identify potential new library services. The project team recommended new services which were presented to the library for inclusion in its Strategic Plan. The methodology presented in this chapter can be used by any type of library for developing new services to include in their strategic plans.

The Internet provides a wealth of information (much of it free) to the fundraiser, grant seeker, and potential donor. Librarians can organize the information by category: people, newspapers, newsletters, foundations, government agencies, nonprofits, companies, financial/tax information, grants management/accounting resources, listservs and usenet groups, and grant writing for beginners. A resource guide of Internet sites is included.

The University of California at Berkeley now delivers more to the public of California than it ever has, and it does this on the basis of proportionally less funding by the State government than it has ever received. This claim may come as a surprise, since it is often said that Berkeley is in the process of privatizing, becoming less of a public university and more in the service of private interests. To the contrary, as the State’s commitment to higher education and social-welfare programs has declined, UC Berkeley has struggled to preserve and even expand its public role, while struggling simultaneously to retain its competitive excellence as a research university. This paper delineates how UC Berkeley has striven to retain its public character in the face of severe financial pressures. A summary of the indicators invoked can be found in the Table near the end of the text. This paper then addresses the sustainability and generalizability of the Berkeley strategy.

It is obvious to many librarians that requests for information on funding sources are increasing in most types of libraries. Public support programs are dwindling, and corporate profits are receding. The publishing field has responded to this need by producing a new array of tools to help grant seekers find appropriate funding sources.

This chapter tackles the tension between equity and excellence that critics often highlight in opposition of diversity initiatives and efforts in the higher education employment setting. We present several arguments that respond to the assumptions undergirding these criticisms, by drawing on prior research to emphasize that equity and excellence are not mutually exclusive. Furthermore, we present new evidence from a national sample of Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty (BHEF) (n = 68) to argue that their racialized work experiences promote exclusive environments that serve to sustain their underrepresentation and marginalize their performance contributions. We conclude with a new direction for how to cultivate inclusive work environments in higher education.