Proposal Development

Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or just starting out, our resources will help you explore both federal and foundational proposal development.

Federal Proposal Development

What are Federal Grants?

A grant is a way the government funds your ideas and projects to provide public services and stimulate the economy. Grants support critical recovery initiatives, innovative research, and many other programs.

The Federal Grant Lifecycle

The grant process follows a linear lifecycle that includes creating the funding opportunity, applying, making award decisions, and successfully implementing the award. Check out the Grant Lifecycle page to find out what the applicant and the grant-making agency do in the lifecycle.

The specific actions along the lifecycle are grouped into three main phases. Each of the three phases has its own page that provides a more detailed look at the process:

Federal Agencies Who Award Grants

Foundational Proposal Development

About Foundation Relations

As part of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), the Foundation Relations team builds strong partnerships with private and corporate foundations to grow Merrimack’s teaching, research, and community and civic engagement initiatives. We connect faculty and staff with a variety of funders and offer a wide range of support and resources for Merrimack faculty and administrators seeking external funding for their academic research and programs. We serve as the point of contact with private and corporate foundations, associations, societies, and other non-governmental organizations. We can:

Strategize, prioritize and coordinate foundation prospect research
Inform faculty and administrators of available opportunities
Review, revise and edit proposals, concept papers, and attachments prior to submission
Ensure timely grant submissions and reporting to funders
Coordinate site visits and other communications with foundation representatives

Finding Funding

These resources provide access to the major searchable funding opportunity databases available to all faculty at Merrimack College and will assist you in identifying appropriate funding sources for your research projects and/or civic engagement programs.

Instrumentl is a comprehensive grants management and prospecting database where grant seekers can research funding opportunities that include private, corporate and government funders. Instrumentl can also help you track deadlines, set reminders, and manage awarded grants. Merrimack researchers can request an account by filling out this form. If you have any questions, please contact Kate Baron at [email protected].

Pivot is a searchable database of external funding opportunities from federal, nonprofit, for profit, and international sponsors across all disciplines, whether you are looking for opportunities for research, scholarship, fellowship, or other creative pursuits. Merrimack researchers should create a user profile to set up customized searches involving their fields of interest or discipline. The profile can provide email alerts to researchers about new opportunities that match their search criteria. Use this Pivot Quick Start Guide to get started. Pivot is maintained by the McQuade Library. If you need any assistance, please contact the ORSP team or a McQuade librarian.

The Fogarty International Center’s Non-NIH Funding Opportunities is a directory that includes national and international grants and fellowships in biomedical and behavioral research, providing information about additional funding opportunities available to those in the field of global health research.

Previous Funders include:

Corporate Research Opportunities

Companies support academic research that aligns with their R&D objectives or philanthropic priorities. You can begin exploring corporate research grant opportunities by reviewing the corporate grants below or reach out to the ORSP to help identify corporate funders that may align with your research endeavors.

Funding Opportunities

Early Investigator Funding

Mid-Career / Senior Scientist Career Awards & Fellowship Funding

Equipment Funding

National Institutes of Health

Shared Instrumentation Grant Program (S10) Open to groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase or upgrade a single item of specialized, commercially available instrumentation or an integrated system that costs between $50K to $600K.
High-End Instrumentation Grant Program (S10) Open to groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase a single major item of equipment for biomedical research that costs between $600K to $2M.
Shared Instrumentation for Animal Research Grant Program (SIFAR) Open to groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase equipment for the support of research using animals or related materials.
Center for Inherited Disease Research High Throughput Genotyping and Sequencing Resource Access (X01) Located on the campus of Johns Hopkins University, CIDR provides high quality next generation sequencing and genotyping services.

National Science Foundation

Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) Proposals must be for either acquisition or development of a single instrument or for equipment that, when combined, serves as an integrated research instrument (physical or virtual).
CISE Research Infrastructure (CRI) Provides support for both institutional infrastructure and infrastructure for a broad-based community of researchers.
Earth Sciences: Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF) Supports acquisition or upgrade of research equipment; development of new instrumentation, analytical techniques software; multi-user facilities; and help for early career investigators in establishing their lab.
Improvements in Facilities, Communications, and Equipment at Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (FSML) Provides support for off-campus facilities for research and education.
Instrument Development for Biological Research (IDBR) The goal is to produce new systems that would benefit a broad user community through mass distribution of technology. This does not support access to an individual instrument in a user facility or on enhancing research capabilities in a specific research lab or consortium.
Ocean Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination Funding for instrumentation development that has broad applicability to ocean science research projects.
Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Provides funds for purchase of multi-user instruments and for the establishment and support of multi-user research facilities in the chemical sciences. Temporarily suspended.

Other Sponsors

- National Center for Atmospheric Research Allocations Provides large computing resources for university researchers in atmospheric, oceanic, and related sciences.
- Theodore Dunham, Jr. Grants for Research in Astronomy Provides funds for acquisition of astronomical equipment, computer time, hardware, or software that will be used in astronomy research.
- Unidata Community Equipment Award Provides funding for equipment required so that new members in the geosciences can join the Unidata community and so that existing members can continue their participation.
- World Community Grid Award Allows research proposals focused on humanitarian efforts to use their grid computing technology to accelerate computing results.

Other Funding Resources

Supplemental Funding

NSF Supplemental Funding – Supplements can be made under an existing NSF award or within a proposal for a new or renewal NSF award. The Principal Investigator should consult with the Program Director of his/her particular NSF award.
NIH Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
NIH Administrative Supplement Information
NIH NIAID Supplements to Grants Q&A

Other Funding

NSF Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) – The RAPID funding mechanism is used for proposals having a severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events.
NSF Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) – The EAGER funding mechanism may be used to support exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches.
NSF Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE)
NSF Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)
NSF Ideas Lab
NSF Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED)
NSF Conference Proposals
NSF Equipment Proposals
NSF Travel Proposals