To help faculty find sources of funding and develop the skills necessary for successful proposal and budget development, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs provides information and support services that faculty can access in a variety of ways. Many of these services can be tailored to specific interests and needs, giving faculty members individualized assistance in seeking external funding.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) serves as a resource on campus for information on funding opportunities through external sponsors. Information is collected, maintained, and disseminated to faculty and staff concerning available funding opportunities, and a variety of self-help resources are also provided.

Maintaining a comprehensive faculty expertise database enables ORSP staff to target news of funding opportunities to the interests of specific faculty members. OSRP staff members regu­larly screen a variety of resources for announcements of funding opportunities and make this information available to researchers via email and on the ORSP website. 

Online searching for potential funding sources using various resources is also available via the Getting Started page in the ORSP Toolbox website section under Funding Opportunity Announcements. One such resource is Community of Science (COS), to which the ORSP subscribes for campus-wide access. COS is a searchable database of federal, non-federal, corporate, and foundation funding opportunities listing thousands of sponsors; researchers may also enter an individual expertise profile in the COS system and register to receive relevant funding opportunities by email. The ORSP website provides links to theFounda­tion Center’s database of foundations and corporate sponsorship programs, and to Grants.gov, which provides a single point of access for funding opportunities across the federal government. In addition, the ORSP directly receives program updates from many federal agencies and bulletin boards, and this information is regularly disseminated to researchers via the ORSP website.

Many federal government agencies provide announcements on their websites or via email directly to interested researchers. For example, the National Institutes of Health posts website listings of opportunities and deadlines, and it also offers a weekly email digest of new program announcements and related information. The National Science Foundation provides announce­ments on its website and also through an automated email alert system. Links to these and other agencies and resources are available on the ORSP website. ORSP staff are available to assist faculty in searching any of the available funding opportunity resources.

The ORSP website includes:

• information on services available and staff assistance for proposal development;
• internal forms and templates (including the UM Transmittal Sheet for Sponsored Projects);
• research-related policies and procedures;
• UM Manual for Research and Sponsored Programs: Policies and Procedures (this handbook) and other ORSP publications;
• information on ORSP internal support programs for faculty research and travel;
• links to federal and state government agencies, programs and information sites;
• links to online funding opportunities databases and other information sources;
• information on research compliance requirements and technology management issues;
• other sponsored programs information as available.

Workshops

The ORSP presents a series of workshops and forums during each academic year on a variety of research- and grant-related topics. The ORSP also sponsors visits from numerous state and federal agency representatives, as well as faculty travel to grant-related regional workshops and federal laboratories and centers. The ORSP encourages requests for coordination of workshops, for con­tacting and inviting federal or state funding representatives to campus, and for other proposal development activities.