BITC/Intro

This is an element of the biodiversity informatics training curriculum that's aimed at giving you some guidance on preparing effective proposals for funding. This has actually very little to do with biodiversity informatics for science at all It's simply how do you get enough funding to be able to do the science that you want to do. So like it or not we have to deal with proposals and requesting funding from institutions I am going to try to keep this model quite general so that it keeps applicable to many different types of proposals and types of funding but essentially you can think of three broad categories in some cases we have fellowships and scholarships So this is essentially proposed that request funding to proposed studies for an individual in many cases we are talking about research support this is funding to support a particular study and finally and biggest in scale is institutional support since it is essentially funding to support a a broad group or an institution and in often times seen as an umbrella for many different projects so you can kind of think those three kinds of proposals in general. Funding sources are going to be varied as well. Just to give you the spectrum in some examples.. in many cases you'll be looking in to some national source, National science foundation of which ever country you are located in there are international sources, for example, very specific biodiversity, there are some funding opportunities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and many of you would have access to international aid agencies as well and the finally we have private foundations I give two examples again The JRS biodiversity foundation is actually the foundation that's funding this project developing this curriculum and then on a different front the Mac Arthur foundation which funds quite a bit of work in conservation world wide. this list is not exhaustive, it's intended just to get you thinking on different scales and scopes of funding and the examples I've given are only that their examples. There are many more sources that could be identified so now I'm going to give you a series of suggestions first how to prepare for your proposal and then how to esseble your proposal a very important first step is to find and read very very carefully the request for proposals or call for proposals or whatever it's called something that states the exact dimensions of the program to which you are applying so you need to see the primary official announcement and avoid things that interpret or compact this information you need to read it multiple times very carefully if you don't you stand quite a risk of simply wasting your own time because you will find yourself eleminated from competition because you missed some element of the proposal or you ask for something that institution is not willing to fund essentially don't try to fit around XXXXXXXXXXXXXX if they say they are really looking for 'X' don't try to sell the 'Y' because you will usually not be successful on that note if you have questions at the end XXXX request for proposals you read don't be afraid to email or phone the official in charge of the program it's OK to ask 'you really want this' or 'how do I do that' that can be very useful in avoiding those mistakes which basically waste your time. So here's a list of key details that you need to look for in the request proposal who is eligible to apply, what format should the proposal take how long is the text, is it pages, is it words what's the limit on how long you can send something what is the duration of the project is it a one year funding or can go five years what are the budget dimensions which is to say what elements can be included in the budget for example studentships able to be included, salaries, equipment to be purchased all sorts of details like that and perhaps most important, what are the deadlines. when you have to be ready turning in your proposal so I'm going to give you some examples these are basically just funding sources and their requests for proposals and essentially how they work this is not intended to guide you for these programs rather it's just what to look for so here' the Mac Arthur foundation which frequently is looking for proposals from across the tropical world they have a very interactive website learn about what we fund and they say they make grants in a number of fields they've developed a rather peculiar set of cycles which I think we are going to see more of in a moment you can see they have current calls for proposals on housing matters then accepting increase they have this conservation insisting into development that's the category that most biodiversity XXXXXX projec ts are funded under Mac Arthur foundation So what Mac Arthur does is that they have a rolling set of geographic locii so at this moment geographical focus is on three regions the great rift lakes of east-central Africa, the greater Nikon in ZSouth east Asia and the watersheds of the Andes. again, I'm not giving a guide to Mac Arthur funding I'm just helping you to look for these key details they say they focus on four issues which is to say that they are particularly interested in climate change XXXXX adaptation, environmental and social considerations in XXXXX markets and Over exploitation & illegal use of marine fisheries so again, the idea is, learn to look for the details If you come in to this program with a focus on say deforestation this funding agency may not be so interested in that if it doesn't fit within these categories So more on Mac Arthur foundation, this is just a clip from their web page three year reccurring cycle, letters of increase submitted by below deadlines and then you come down here and you see that the deadlines for three of the regions by invitation only for the great lakes of Africa April fifth 2013 And so essentially these are the details that we need to seek out so we are certain that we understand how this particular program works Even further in, here's their conservation and sustainable development program and names of areas where they work in notice that it's not just the regions that I listed but also the Carribean, Madagascar, Melanesia but again you need to read the details and make sure you understand them Let's go to a very very different funding agency now This is the US national science foundation these are often big grants and again, may be you wont be using National Science Foundation funding I just wanted to give you the example of the request for proposals so these are very carefully formatted you can see this is the newest solicitation that replaces the old one we have our deadlines, 2013 deadline is April 1st and after that, the first Monady of April it tells you the changes that have been made for proposals in this program itgoes into details, for example data management plan has to be provided again I'm just trying to give you the idea of looking at these details and not missing something that's required. Award information, here we get to the budget for these same grants A plans to give 10 to 15 grants and a total amount of 15-20 million dollars pending availability of funds, so they don't have to give that amount of money but they may the awards will be this first category, the awards will be one to two years of duration but in this second category awards can go up to five years of duration so essentially those are the details that you that you should be looking for eligibility information (who could apply), universities, non-profits, independent museums but again you want to make sure you are on that list Dont fit a square peg in a round hole because it'll end up wasting your time here's a very very different opportunity, this is a small funding opportunity at the University of Kansas where I work and this opportunity is for seed grants and again you need to scan through here the searching debris that bring together the sciences, arts and humanities so you better be thinking about how to cross those boundaries Outcome of this seed grant should be development and submission of a XXXXXX research grant proposal so you are going to need to talk about your plans to generate that sort of proposal again read all these details here's more information upto $45000 available for one or more awards so right there you can see a strategy decision you can ask for the $45000 or you might ask for $15000 and think that way the agency can fund three grants So you have to decide and maybe consult with a program officer you have to decide what's the best strategy All funds have to be spent by that date so in your timeline you have to make sure that coincides with the end date and the considered must include a pre-proposal and a full proposal So these are the details I am not going into all the details but notice project cover page and all the elements, the abstract, the description don't cruise by these things these are important and if you ignore them the people who will be judging your proposal will get upset in the end.