External funding for research, scholarship, artistry, and engagement is usually obtained through a competitive process in which potential projects are evaluated and only the most promising receive funding.
Sponsored funding comes from federal and state government agencies, associations, industry, and private foundations.
NIU provides search engines for finding federal and non-federal sources of grant funding accessible via NIU credentials as well as internal funding opportunities.
To assist you in finding funding, click our core databases tab for links to NIU-sponsored databases and the federal grants.gov portal and basic instructions and tips.
The Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships at NIU subscribes to SPIN, a robust search engine for federal and non-federal sources of grant funding. For assistance or troubleshooting, email erahelp@niu.edu.
The NIU Libraries subscribes to a funding search database titled Funding Institutional, which also offers a variety of funding sources.
The NIU Foundation can assist with sources and databases for private and corporate foundations. For help pursuing private foundation and/or corporate funding, please contact Erin Smith, Senior Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations in the NIU Foundation at erin.smith@niu.edu.
Most federal agencies use one or more of the below methods to alert their readers to specific funding opportunities.
The following federal agencies are known to offer RSS feeds, Listservs or social media announcements. This list is not exhaustive, so please be sure to check an agency's website .
Besides RSS feeds, social media, and listservs, many agencies link directly to funding opportunities from their websites. In addition to the agencies listed above, below are some state agencies that are known to link to specific funding opportunities.
NIU offers internal funding opportunities through competitions such as the RIPS Research and Artistry program and the Graduate School’s Great Journeys graduate assistantship program (contact the Graduate School for information). The Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning has programs to support and fund undergraduate student engagement in research.
If you are looking to generate pilot data or to get proof of concept, you might consider an NIU Internal Competition such as the Research and Artistry or the Great Journeys Assistantships.
For external funding, these programs may be of particular interest to investigators:
Different agencies list different criteria for who qualifies as a new investigator, so be sure to check that you meet the criteria.
Some research projects involve an especially high degree of innovation and novelty, making it difficult to judge their potential impact through more traditional mechanisms. Projects in this category may lack preliminary data establishing feasibility, but simultaneously have the potential to create conceptual or technological breakthroughs. Although foundation funding does exist for such projects, it is likely to be most helpful to start your search by using grants.gov.
Particular programs to look for:
Specific programs to consider are listed below. At least some of these funding opportunities limit the number of proposals that may be submitted. See the ORD Limited Submission Funding Opportunities webpage for information on applying to limited funding programs.
The Small Business Innovation Research SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs provide federal agency funding to support partnership between small businesses and institutions of higher education to develop and commercialize technology. Unique to the STTR mechanism, the small business must partner with research institutions but will retain the rights to the technology they develop and are encouraged to commercialize the technology.
Resources for SBIR/STTR opportunities:
Contact the Office of Innovation for additional support to collaborate with industry partners.
Research is increasingly collaborative and global in scope. Some U.S. federal funding agencies have programs specifically targeting international research funding. In some cases, federal agencies will provide ad hoc funding for international research and scholarship as well (i.e., NSF Dear Colleague Letters). Non-U.S. organizations also offer funding for international Research :
The Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships has invested in SPIN, a robust grants search engine that will allow you to do your own searches whenever it is convenient for you. Moreover, you can save key search terms and SPIN will automatically search grant announcements for you and send the results to your email.
Log-In Information
Current NIU faculty, staff, and students can log in to SPIN with your NIU enterprise credentials. The best way to access SPIN is to log in to InfoEd using your NIU credentials and then click “SPIN” from the navigation menu. For assistance or troubleshooting, send an email to erahelp@niu.edu.
Conduct a Basic Search
Tip: You must choose to receive either plain or HTML email messages. If you choose neither option, the software will still perform the search but will not email it to you. It will be saved online for your review, but you would be missing out on an important convenience feature of this new search engine.
There is no limit to the number of saved searches you can automate.
Conduct an Advanced Search
If you are getting too many results with the basic search, you can switch to the Advanced Search. Doing so will set additional limits on your search. For most people, this type of search is the non-intuitive part; the interface is so minimalist that you may not necessarily see right away what you should do.
Adding filters
If you know that you want to restrict your results in some way (project type, citizenship, sponsor type, etc.), you can add a filter to your search.
Additional Resources
Click the “Help” menu on the SPIN database web portal for user guides, videos, and more support for using SPIN. For technical assistance (e.g., access/log-in issues or other technical problems), send email to erahelp@niu.edu and include “SPIN” in the subject line.
The NIU Libraries are now providing access to the Funding Institutional database. Funding Institutional sources data on active funding opportunities, awarded grants and funder profiles and combines it in such a way that, whatever role you play as an institutional stakeholder, you can apply it directly to your work, responsibilities and workflows.
NIU users have access to Funding Institutional via their NIU credentials. Registration is mandatory. How to register:
Contact Gwen Gregory, associate dean of University Libraries, for assistance at ggregory@niu.edu.
Grants.gov provides a valuable resource for searching for federal fellowships, grants, and other funding opportunities across multiple disciplines. Grants.gov provides information only on federal sources.
You can subscribe to receive notifications of new federal grant opportunities. Options include subscribing to all grant notices, selected notices based on specific criteria, or notices based on funding opportunity number.
Phone: 815-753-2573
Fax: 815-753-2902
Email: aac@niu.edu