Congratulations are in order to one of our clients, the City of Raleigh! See Announcements, below, about the grant they won from U.S. DOT. Also in this issue, we provide Part II of Dr. Lori Brown's article on securing funding for STEM education from the National Science Foundation.  

 

Thanks for reading!

The data you use to support your need argument are limited only by your curiosity and research talents. In crafting the City of Raleigh's TIGER IV proposal (see Announcements, below), the grant-writing team found it necessary to develop a Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) linking proposed project improvements to anticipated transportation outcomes. To show a benefit associated with greater use of trains and buses, our research determined the average death per vehicle miles traveled. In North Carolina, this "fatality rate" was 1.19 per million vehicle miles traveled in 2011 (learn more--for national data, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website). With the number of deaths established per million vehicle miles traveled, our research next determined the value of a life, sometimes referred to as VSL (value of statistical life). One figure we found for the median value was $7 million (learn more). With this information, we made an argument that increasing train ridership would reduce highway traffic, thus reducing the number of highway deaths. While it is possible to argue with any of these data, or with the premise that there is a benefit to increasing train ridership, we share this information to demonstrate how data are available to support all varieties of positions.

By Dr. Lori Brown  

 

Despite cuts to federal grant programs, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has continued to offer funding for research-based grant programs that promote transformative learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. In an April workshop at the American Educational Research Association's annual meeting, NSF program officers discussed two criteria--intellectual merit and broader impact--that are critical to securing agency funding.

 

NSF grants require applicants to address these two criteria, which are analyzed during the merit review process. Failure to address either or both of these criteria leaves a proposal ineligible for funding, and a poor explanation in either section results in low marks. In fact, these criteria must be addressed twice in each proposal ... [Read the entire article on our website.]   

 

The sooner you know about a new grant, the more time you have to craft a winning proposal. Visit our Grant Alerts webpage to view all the latest funding opportunities, including the two below. We post a PDF of current Grant Alerts twice a month, and new Alerts daily on Twitter. 

 

NEW

Deadline: 2/5/13   

Program: Critical Zone Observatories
Agency: National Science Foundation 

Description: Funding for proposals to establish a network of Critical Zone Observatories ... [read more]
Award Amount: $8M (total funding, for 8 expected awards)
Website: NSF (via Grants.gov)
Eligibility: Unrestricted

 

NEW

Deadline: 10/10/12

Program: Institutional Development Grant
Agency: NC Biotechnology Center 

Description: Provides research equipment or core facilities that serve multiple investigators.
Award Amount: Up to $200,000
Website:  NC Biotech Center
Eligibility: Principal investigators from a NC academic or nonprofit research institute