Slides from a workshop to inform students and faculty at Ohio State what types of funding are available for underrepresented students, how to search, explain the application process and planning information.

1. Funding your graduate Education: Opportunities for students of underrepresented backgrounds
July 30, 2014

2. Welcome 2:00
Marcela Hernandez
Arts and Sciences – Recruitment and Diversity Services
Overview of funding opportunities 2:05-2:30
Patrice Dickerson
Marcela Hernandez
Arts and Sciences – Recruitment and Diversity Services
Using SPIN to find funding 2:30-3:00
Brian Morgan
Office of Research
Panel Introductions 3:00-3:30
Q & A 3:30-4:00
Today’s Agenda

3. •
Learning the art of proposal writing is part of your professional development.
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Clarify your thinking about your research and expose you to valuable feedback from top scholars in your field.
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Independent funding provides you with greater autonomy.
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Greater visibility for you, your research, and your institution.
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Distinguish your CV when you enter the job market.
Why Apply?

4. •
Predoctoral or Early Graduate Study Fellowships
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Predissertation Awards
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Dissertation Research Grants
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Dissertation Completion Fellowships
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Postdoctoral Fellowships
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International -- Fulbright
Types of External Funding

5. •
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
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NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health- Related Research
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National GEM Consortium PhD Science Fellowship
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Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
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U.S. Department of education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS)
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The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program
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The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG) of the U.S. Department of Defense
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The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships For New Americans
Predoctoral or Early Graduate Study Fellowships

6. •
Pre-dissertation funders are primarily private foundations and the U.S. federal government. Professional societies, academic organizations, libraries, and research centers may also offer small research grants to pre-dissertation students.
•CIC Smithsonian Institute and Traveling Scholar Fellowships
•To determine your pre-dissertation funding needs, ask yourself the following questions:
1.What kinds of special skills will I need to complete my dissertation research? (statistical skills, research methods training, language training, etc.)?
2.What kinds of sources will my dissertation use? (fieldwork, observation, interviews, laboratory results)
3.Do I need to conduct a preliminary experiment or field study to determine the feasibility of my dissertation project?
4.Will I need to travel to conduct my research?
5.Will I need to arrange for a collaborator or institutional host at my research site?
Pre-Dissertation Awards

7. •
SSRC International Dissertation Research Fellowships
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Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award
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NSF SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
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APA Dissertation Research Awards
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Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowships
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Professional Associations
Dissertation Research Awards

8. Types: In-residence vs. portable, teaching vs. non-teaching
Eligibility: Advanced to candidacy, dissertation proposal defended
Application Deadline: Fall for the next academic year
Competitiveness: varies widely
Examples:
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Josephine de Karman Fellowship
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Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship
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AAUW Dissertation Fellowship
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Ford Foundation Diversity Dissertation Fellowship
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Chavez/Eastman/Marshall Dissertation Fellowships
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Five College Fellowship
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Yarborough Dissertation Fellowship
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Bolin Dissertation Fellowships
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Consortium for Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Colleges
Dissertation Completion Fellowships

9. •
The H-net Fellowships Listing is an excellent research for funding in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
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GRAPES at UCLA (Graduate and Postdoctoral Extramural Support Database)
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Cornell University Graduate School Fellowships Database
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Duke University Funding Opportunities Database
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Harvard University GSAS Graduate Guide to Grants
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University of Chicago Graduate Education Fellowship Database
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Institute for Broadening Participation
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SPIN
External Funding Databases

10. •
Read carefully the most current solicitation or program announcement guidelines:
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RFP: Request for Proposals
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PA: Program Announcement
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FOA: Funding Opportunity Announcement
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BAA: Broad Agency Announcements
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Some programs now offer webinars
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Register for online submission, if applicable
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Make sure that your research fits the mission of the sponsor
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Find out what/who/how much the agency funds
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Talk to past reviewers and recent successful applicants
Before Applying
Best source of information. Read before during and after completing the application

11. •
Clarify your ideas
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Hypothesis
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Objectives
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Questions to be addressed
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Define specific experiments/strategies to test hypothesis
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Expected measurable outcomes
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Get help
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Read successful applications
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Identify a team of internal reviewers
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Faculty
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Peers
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Writing Center
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Discuss research with advisor
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Doubts or questions? Contact the relevant granting agency personnel
Before Applying

12. •
The Proposal Abstract
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The Proposal
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Budget
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Stipend
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Tuition
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Travel
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Supplies
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Other fees
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CV or Résumé
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Less is more –organize information to be easily accessible to reviewers and any administrators who handle the application at a glance
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Letters of Reference
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Critical part of the fellowship application
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Need to tell about the applicants’ potential or promise for scholarship
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May have specific format
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Make it easy for recommenders to do a good job
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Description of the sponsor’s mission
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Proposal summary or draft
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Deadline and submission process
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Links to online forms
The Application Materials

13. •
Timetable: Start with due date and work backwards:
Before Applying
4-6 months before
2-3 months before
1 month before
2 weeks before
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Identify Fellowship (s)
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Make a check list (Excel) with links, due dates, etc.
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Discuss with your advisor
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Reread guidelines and announcement
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Request transcripts and GRE scores
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Ask for letters (send CV and summary of proposal)
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Think about budget
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Start writing
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First draft of all the forms and have your advisor review them
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Print out a hard copy
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Enlist help from staff, peers, and others for proofreading.
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Final version ready
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Proof read it again-check items off your checklist
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Have someone who has not seen it before proofread it.
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Get all necessary signatures

14. •
Timetable: Start with due date and work backwards
Before Applying
Deadline
1 week before
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Be prepared to submit ahead of time
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If you need to send hard copy, send out and track the package
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If online submission, submit 2 days before the deadline
Relax!

15. •
Follow the instructions exactly
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Type size, font, spacing and margins
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Never exceed page, word, character limits
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Do not include attachments and/or appendices if they aren’t allowed
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Application should be "a pleasure to read”
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Organized
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Attractive presentation
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Easy to read
Scientific Writing from the Reader’s Perspective: A New Way to Gain Control of the English Language Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - 09:00 AM http://researchcalendar.osu.edu/index.php?eID=580
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Your objective is to make the reviewers enthusiastic advocates of your proposal
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Don’t make reviewers do extra work to understand your proposal
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Don’t rely only on your computer spelling/grammar checker. Use a dictionary and a thesaurus; proofread again and again.
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Avoid abbreviations, acronyms and jargon that a non-expert won’t understand. If you must, fully define them the first time
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Assume the reviewer is in a somewhat related field, rather than an expert
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Have final draft reviewed by advisor, other faculty, a good editor/writer
The Application

16. •
Poor (sloppy) presentation
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Not enough focus for the proposed project
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Incomplete application
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Formatting not in accordance with Guidelines
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Not enough proofreading/reviewing
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Research idea is not compelling; not innovative, not ground-breaking or not aligned with mission of the sponsor.
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Proposal is unrealistically ambitious.
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The literature prior studies review is lacking.
Common Pitfalls

17. •
Inform your department/program and our office that you received a fellowship. We like to track this information.
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If the sponsor requires progress or final reports, make sure these are prepared and submitted timely.
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Send a formal note of thanks to the program manager.
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The contacts you make via this process may be useful networking contacts later.
Post-award considerations

18. • Don Terndrup – Astronomy Professor
Reviewer for NSF Fellowship
• Yalidy Matos – Political Science
Recent winner of the NSF graduate fellowship
• Steven Villanueva – Astronomy
Recent winner of the NSF graduate fellowship
• Bennet Givens – Psychology Professor
Reviewer for NIH fellowship
• Chadwick Allen - English
Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, Arts and Humanities
Panelists

19. NSF Graduate Research Fellows
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Popular program, national competition
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$32k + 12k cost of education allowance
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2015 competition opens in August
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See http://www.nsfgrfp.org/
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Eligibility: graduating seniors, first and second year graduate students

20. Required elements
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Transcripts
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3 reference letters
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Personal Statement, Relevant Background and Future Goals
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Graduate Research Statement

21. Personal statements
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Hardest for committee to evaluate
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Positive elements: individuality, creativity, purpose
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Negative elements: boilerplate, stating the obvious, repeating what’s in the science part

22. Research statement
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Most of them sound like strung-together abstracts of recent papers
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Winning essays have these elements: - What is holding us up? - What is a promising line of attack? - What is the scale of the proposed work? - Why are you the right one for this?

23. What is your story?
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Spend a good deal of time designing your research story.
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Make a story board, and do it before you even make an outline.
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What is the ONE THING you want the reviewers to know?
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Know your audience and remember what the review environment is like.