What Is a Research Grant?

This post was originally published on December 6, 2016 and updated on October 7, 2019.

Within the realm of federal government grants, research and development grants are some of the most numerous and diverse. What types of research grants does the Federal government support?

When you search for “research” on Grants.gov, there are currently over 1,600 open grant opportunities! Each of these diverse assistance programs and grant opportunities are legislatively authorized federal assistance programs that federal grant-making agencies use to support research.

What do you mean by “research”?

A simple definition of research is the “careful study that is done to find and report new knowledge about something” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). While many of us may picture scientists in white coats performing lab experiments, the range of research grants is far wider.

User Story: Designing a Strategy for Finding Federal Grants

Over the last few weeks, we have begun featuring user scenarios from across the Grants.gov user experience. Click the User Story tag for all the posts in the series.

Now that Susan is up to speed on the phases of the federal grant lifecycle, she feels better equipped to begin scouring Grants.gov for grant opportunities that hold promise for her organization. To complicate things a bit, Susan’s university is looking for grants across a range of different categories.

So for each grouping of opportunities, she will need to use a different combination of keywords and search parameters. Of course, it would be great to be able to save these different search queries and receive emails when a grant comes up in them.

Let’s look at a three-part strategy Susan has designed for finding opportunities that may help you find the grants you are looking for.

New Hire to a University – The Beginning of Susan’s Applicant Story

You’ve probably been in Susan’s circumstance at some point in your career. You’re starting a new job, and it has something to do with grants but don’t know exactly what that means. Now you need to quickly learn about federals grants so that you can get one and manage it.

How Can Susan Learn about Grants?

Grants.gov Workspace for Colleges and Universities, Part 3 of 3

In Part 3 of our ongoing blog series, we will look at how a Big Team of Specialists can apply for a federal grant using Workspace. We assume you have read Part 1 and Part 2 because these go over the basics and allow us to get into more specifics here.

If you are beginning to see how Workspace might fit your grant process, but you are concerned that some of the more nuanced parts of your standard grant proposal development process will not fit, here are a few ideas.

Grants.gov Workspace for Colleges and Universities, Part 2 of 3

So, you work in the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) and have to lead your small grants team in applying for a federal grant. Before reading further, please read Part 1 of Grants.gov Workspace for Colleges and Universities. That’s the foundation we build on below.

Let’s say your IHE grant team fits the Small Team of Generalists category. You also know you don’t have a month to try to learn and test out a different grant application system. Here are your next steps to quickly learn whether Workspace will fit your team.

Grants.gov Workspace for Colleges and Universities, Part 1 of 3

Workspace is the new standard application method on Grants.gov. What does that mean for institutions of higher learning (IHE) that apply for federal grants? This 3-part series will provide tips for how you, as representatives of colleges and universities, can integrate Workspace into your grant application process.

The Office of Sponsored Research (or sponsored programs) is typically the go-to resource for principal investigators, researchers, professors, and other IHE employees who want to apply for a federal grant. For Tier 1 Research Universities, this may be a robust office with a very large team of specialized staff. For smaller public or private IHEs, this may be a couple full-time staff with institutional knowledge about who you should talk to for help with navigating Grants.gov or other federal grant systems.

Where to Find Federal Grant Applicant Resources on University Websites (Part 2)

In Part 1 of our series, we introduced the idea of seeking out free online applicant resources from federal government agency websites. In this post, we turn our attention to resources published on university websites.

To be sure, your best bet is always to seek out resources from the federal agency that posted the grant for which you are applying. But helpful tips and guidance can also be found elsewhere.