Kansas State University

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs offers information sessions, training opportunities to help faculty and graduate students compete for funding

Submitted by Sarah Hancock

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, or ORSP, offers an array of information and training sessions to help K-State researchers — faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students — compete for internal and external funding.

Writing proposals for grant funding isn't easy, and the landscape is increasingly competitive. Proposals must be clear, adequately detailed and written for the right audience, and large multidisciplinary and multi-institutional proposals must be edited into a cohesive whole. ORSP helps faculty members learn how to find the best funding opportunities, improve submissions and more. Read more about services the office provides.

Information about fall 2016 training sessions is below. A full list of events sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research is also available on the faculty resources website. ORSP also provides online proposal development resources.

• Faculty Development Award and University Small Research Grant information sessions will be from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Sept. 9 and Sept. 20, in 207 K-State Student Union. ORSP staff will present any significant changes to this semester's application and discuss key points for preparing a great submission. Attendees will have ample opportunity to ask questions. No registration required. Information at both sessions will be the same.

• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program information session will be from 3:30-5 p.m. Sept. 15 in the K-State Alumni Center's Purple Pride Room. The program supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's or doctoral degrees. This session will take an in-depth look at the submission requirements. A panel of faculty members who have served on review panels for this program will discuss tips and provide advice that you will not find elsewhere. Students also will have an opportunity to talk about their research ideas with the panel. Don't miss this session if you are serious about submitting to this program. Please register.

• Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Introduction to the Department of Defense will be from 3:30-5 p.m. Oct. 20 in the K-State Alumni Center's Purple Pride Room. This session will broaden faculty understanding and awareness of how various basic and applied research areas align with the needs of organizations within the DOD. The session also will address how submitting to the DOD differs from submitting to other funders like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health as well as discuss in detail the two-step process that is typical of submitting to this funder. Please register.

• USDA: Introduction to Challenge Grants. Date, time and location TBD. Please check calendar listings.
  This session will be an introduction to grant writing for USDA programs, with a particular focus on Challenge Grant competitions. A panel of Challenge Grant awardees will add insights.

• National Science Foundation CAREER Information Session: Early to mid-November. Please check calendar listings. The Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, program is NSF's most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars. The session will start with a brief presentation about this program and the requirements for submission, then a panel of previous K-State CAREER awardees will discuss their experiences in submitting to this program and what the award has meant for their careers.

• Fulbright information session: Early December; please check calendar listings. The Fulbright Scholar Program offers nearly 500 teaching, research or combination teaching and research awards in more than 125 countries. The session will open with a brief overview of the submission requirements, then a panel of K-State Fulbright Scholar awardees will talk about their experience, the logistics of setting up an extended stay in another country and tips for the submission.

• Scopus training session: Date, time and location TBD. Please check calendar listings. Learn how Scopus can help you search for relevant topics and articles during the literature review phase, decide where to publish by analyzing the top journals and authors in your discipline, discover who is citing you, explore how many citations an article or author has received and identify potential collaborators, find information to support your grant or other applications and more. Co-hosted with K-State Libraries.