A number of online resources exist for funding research. Below are samples of useful resources available at OSP. For assistance with any of these resources, or to schedule an appointment to access these resources, please contact OSP at (202) 885-3440, or by email to osp@american.edu.
SPIN, SMARTS, GENIUS
- SPIN (Sponsored Programs Information Network) is a listing of national and international government and private funding sources, updated daily. SPIN searching is used for one time searches of the database.
- SMARTS (SPIN Matching and Research Transmittal System) matches investigator profiles with funding opportunities in the SPIN database and delivers automatic daily updates by email.
- GENIUS (Global Expertise Network for Industry, Universities and Scholars) contains profile data for use in SMARTS. If you complete the optional fields in the GENIUS profile and release your profile for public search within GENIUS, researchers seeking collaborators can access your profile and contact you.
To use SPIN, SMARTS, or GENIUS:
Go to InfoEd and at the top right of the page select SPIN in order to run a one-time search from any computer on campus. Or, select GENIUS to create or update a SMARTS/GENIUS profile from any internet-capable computer (on or off-campus).
Instructions for database use and profile creation and editing are available on the InfoEd's website (see SPINPlus Tutorial).
COS Funding Opportunities and Funding Alert
Community of Science (COS) is a global resource for information critical to scientific research and other projects across all disciplines. COS is not science specific or medicine specific; it is a database of all disciplines and provides funding from the Arts and Humanities to the Social Sciences, and of course, the Hard Sciences including Nat’l Science, Engineering, Medicine, Physics, and Mathematics.
About COS Funding Opportunities:
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COS Funding Opportunities is the largest, most comprehensive database of available funding.
- More than 25,000 records representing over $33 billion in funding.
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Opportunities by sponsors throughout the world for recipients throughout the world.
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Sponsors include private foundations, public agencies, national and local governments, corporations and more.
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Funding for many purposes, such as research, collaborations, travel, curriculum development, conferences, fellowships, postdoctoral positions, equipment acquisitions, capital or operating expenses.
About COS Funding Alert:
COS Funding Alert delivers weekly updates about relevant funding information directly to the user's desktop. Using specific criteria the user defines, COS Funding Alert checks the COS Funding Opportunities database for new and updated information about funding in the user's area of interest.
Accessing COS FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES and COS FUNDING ALERT:
1) IP Access: From any on-campus computer, a user can go right to COS's Funding Opportunities webpage. Because AU’s IP addresses will be recognized by RefWorks-COS, one can start searching the database right away.
2) Username and Password: Setting up a COS username and password is easy: Go to the COS webpage and click the “New User? Register Free” icon near the top left of the screen. When registering, it is important to select American University from the dropdown list of institutions so that user can be authenticated.
Username and password access is necessary when a) a user is off-campus, or b) a user needs to save a Funding record or search (which must be done to set up a Funding Alert).
Grants.gov
Grants.gov is a central storehouse of information on over 1,000 grant programs and access to approximately $400 billion in annual awards. The federal government is steadily moving toward having all federal funding opportunities posted on grants.gov. OSP is registered with grants.gov on behalf of the university and can help you search and apply for grants. All university proposal submissions to the federal government must be administered by OSP.
The Grant Advisor and The Grant Advisor Plus
The Grant Advisor newsletter is updated monthly with new funding opportunities. Since 1983, The Grant Advisor newsletter has been a leading source of information on grant, research, and fellowship opportunities for US institutions of higher education and their faculty.
The Grant Advisor Plus is a web-based version that offers on-line access and features many extras, including the newsletter in Acrobat PDF format, database searches, deadline listings with extensive hyperlinks, and much more, all in an easy-to-use web interface. The Database Search allows you to enter your own search criteria (such as funding agency, keywords, academic division, and more). Results are displayed in the same powerful table format as the Deadline Memo Hyperlinks. The Article Search is available for keyword searching through hundreds of our program abstracts and Federal Register articles.
Access this service from any AU computer.
Federal Databases
Federal Agency Funding Opportunities
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS)
- NASA
- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation Guide to Programs (NSF)
- US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- US Department of Education (ED)
- US Department of Energy (DOE)
- US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)
- US Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- US Department of Justice (DOJ)
- US Department of State
- US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
