Finding Research Funding is Now Easier
Last fall, the Libraries purchased the Community of Science Funding Opportunities (COSFO) database to help faculty find funding for a variety of purposes. COSFO is one of the most complete sources of U.S. and international funding information. Currently it has 25,000 searchable records representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion.
COSFO is valuable not only for the number of sources of funding a researcher can find but also because it serves researchers in all disciplines. It allows you to search for different types of funding, including research, travel, training, equipment, and program development. One can also search by level of funding, allowing you to easily match needs with amounts from $5,000 to $10 million.
The COSFO database is easy to use. Beginners can enter a couple of key words such as “Critical Theory” and find resources that have these words as part of their description. For the expert there is an interface to specify very specific needs like “travel money for a cell biology conference in Australia.” The user is then presented with a list of possibilities. They can choose to narrow the list down further or simply click on a particular grant. The records have a full description of the grant, deadline, amounts, and where to get further information.
COSFO can also be useful to new researchers and graduate students by helping them find the funding for professional presentations or as seed money for research because small grants are included. The inclusion of international funding also allows the researcher to find funding that has previously been difficult to find.
There is an online user guide for COSFO or you can ask the research librarian for your department for more information.
For more information, contact John Sisson, Research Librarian for Biology (jsisson@uci.edu or x44980).