New Faculty Research Funding FAQ

How can I find funding opportunities that fit my research interests?

   The OPD website lists new funding opportunities as they are announced.  A list of funding opportunities announced in the last week can be found under New Weekly Funding Opportunities; links to previous weeks are given on the top of that page. A list of funding opportunities announced in recent months and helpful proposal resources can be found at New Monthly Funding Opportunities (you can also sign up to receive this list by e-mail by sending an e-mail to rlpearson@tamu.edu with subject line "subscribe to funding opportunities."  In addition, lists of grant opportunities that generally are reissued on a regular basis (often annually) are listed by discipline under Funding Opportunities by Discipline.  Links to funding agency funding pages, other websites that post funding opportunities and internal funding opportunities are listed at Funding Opportunities.

   We also encourage you to make an appointment to meet with one of the people in our office for a personal consultation to explore in more detail potential funding sources that fit your particular needs and situation.  To make an appointment, contact anyone listed under OPD Personnel.

I have written grant proposals before, but I'm not sure about the procedures at Texas A&M.  What do I need to do?

  Your Department Head and senior colleagues in your department are always the best place to look first for information on your department's particular procedures and requirements for submitting proposals.  Colleagues who have been well-funded by the particular agency to which you plan to apply can also offer invaluable information regarding the agency's priorities and expectations. Our office is also happy to meet with you to discuss particular funding programs and infrastructure at Texas A&M that might be helpful to you and to help you with the text of your proposal.  To make an appointment, contact anyone listed under OPD Personnel.

  The procedures for submitting a proposal at Texas A&M depend on your department and the requirements of the grant. Check with your Department Head to find out which agency you should work with to submit your proposal: for example,  Texas A&M Research Services , Texas A&M Research Foundation, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas Engineering Experiment Station or Texas Transportation Institute. No matter which agency you work with, be sure to contact them early to let them know you will be submitting a proposal, find out what their procedures and requirements are, and find out what assistance they can provide you.  Many of these organizations have proposal (or pre-award) administrators who will help you develop the budget for your proposal and help you upload your proposal if you are using Fastlane or Grants.gov.  These folks can be extremely helpful, and you will likely be working with the same proposal administrator for many proposals since they are typically assigned by department.  Cultivate a good relationship with them by talking with them early in the process, keeping them informed of your progress, and allowing enough time to route the proposal for approvals (they will tell you how much time they'll need).

  As we mentioned above, the best people to look to first for guidance are your Department Head and senior colleagues in your department.  They can provide guidance on possible funding sources, when it's an appropriate time for you to start applying for research grants, and knowledge and resources available to help you with your grant proposal.  The Office of Proposal Development also offers one-on-one consultation and help with proposal writing, as discussed above, and we offer a wide range of seminars and workshops on various aspects of finding and competing for grants.  Materials and presentations from seminars presented over the last two years are all posted on our website under "seminar materials" on the top bar - or you can click here to find seminars by date and by subject.  We also offer toolkits for various agencies and types of proposals and a Grant Writing Workbook that covers all aspects of writing proposals.  For a broad range of helpful proposal links and resources, see our Proposal Resources page.

If I'd like one-on-one assistance with a proposal from OPD, how does that work?

   Just contact one of us to set up an appointment.  (Our office is organized roughly along disciplinary lines, so you may want to contact someone based on the subject of your proposal.  If you're not sure who that might be, just contact any of us, or e-mail or call Libby Pasciak [libbyp@tamu.edu or 845-1811], and we will make sure you get to the right person.  Many proposals are interdisciplinary, and in that case, two of us will probably team up to work with you on your proposal.)  The earlier you contact us, the more assistance we can provide.  We can help you to find funding opportunities that fit your research interests, advise you on how to structure your proposal and the expectations of the particular funding agency, help with certain components of the proposal such as broader impacts and outreach components, read and edit your proposals, depending on what your needs are.  Because certain times of the year can be very busy for proposal submissions, it's always a good idea to give us a heads-up several weeks in advance of your due date even if you would just like a quick read-through of your proposal text.

Is there a charge for OPD's assistance?

   No.  We are part of the infrastructure available to all Texas A&M faculty. Our office is supported by the Division of Research and Graduate Studies, and there is no charge for our services.  

I'm not a native-English speaker.  Will OPD edit my proposal for grammar?

  Yes.  And, as with all proposals, we will give you feedback on other issues that will affect the competitiveness of your proposal:

• Does the proposal clearly address all of the questions and requirements in the application guidelines or RFP?
• Are the goals and significance of the proposed project clear and compelling?
• Does the proposal use terminology that is appropriate for the agency (e.g., "objectives" and "broader impacts" for NSF; "specific aims" and "impact on human health" for NIH)?
• Does the proposal clearly address the review criteria (e.g., for NSF, is it clear why the project is innovative; for NIH, is the impact on human health clearly discussed; for DoD, is the relevance to defense explicitly explained)?
• We will also help you avoid common mistakes in proposals that can undermine their competitiveness (e.g.,  describing a multi-investigator project without making it clear who is responsible for which parts of the project and the expertise that each person brings to the project; lack of details in the research plan or methodology section; lack of an evaluation plan for broader impacts or education components, etc.).

I am looking for collaborators at Texas A&M or across the Texas A&M System.  Can you help me with that?

   Yes.  Because OPD works across the university and the system, and we have developed collaborations with some universities outside the system, we can often help you to identify potential collaborators.   In addition if you are looking for a collaborator in the biomedical field please contact John Ivy, who works jointly for Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Health Science Center and is specifically tasked with helping to connect researchers at Texas A&M with researchers in the HSC.

Do you have a library of successful proposals that I could look at?

We do have some successful proposals that we can share.  These can be helpful to researchers who have never written a proposal before, just to get a feel for the language.  However, because agencies and programs vary widely, and requirements and expectations evolve, even within the same program, we recommend that you search out colleagues who have recently won a grant from the same program and agency and ask them if they would be willing to share some or all of their proposal and also ask them for advice regarding the expectations and goals for the particular program.  We also have access to a database that lists all externally funded projects received by Texas A&M faculty, so we can help to identify researchers who have been funded by a particular agency or foundation.

Where is your office located?

We are in the 3rd floor of the Jack Williams Administration Building in Suite 305 (just across the hall from the elevator).