Grants and Research Development is staffed by Charlotte Smith, University Grants Manager. She is available to assist faculty and staff with:
- Locating funding opportunities for sponsored projects
- Subscribe to one or more topic-based email groups, in order to receive funding opportunity announcements based on those topics. If you would like to modify your subscriptions at any time, all you need to do is send your request to Charlotte Smith via email, and your subscription preferences will be updated.
- See an archive of funding opportunities sent to campus each week.
- Email Charlotte Smith (csmith20@unca.edu) to request an account/profile in SPIN, a searchable database of over 40,000 federal, non-profit, and foundation funding opportunities
- View funding opportunities for new and young faculty (source: UC Berkeley’s Sponsored Projects Office)
- Reading and interpreting sponsor’s guidelines for proposal submissions
- Connecting faculty and staff with program officers to discuss proposal ideas and/or clarify sponsor’s guidelines
- Creating timelines for developing complex proposal submissions
- Developing proposal materials, such as the scope of work, project description, budget, budget justification, supporting documents, etc.
- Providing feedback on draft proposal materials
- Note: If substantive feedback is requested, please submit materials no later than two weeks prior to the sponsor’s deadline. For feedback on technical/scientific content, faculty and staff are advised to seek peer review.
- Submitting all proposal materials to the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (ORSP) for final review and required internal approvals prior to submission to the sponsor
- Note: Please submit materials to ORSP no later than five–seven full business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline.
- Ensuring faculty and staff meet sponsors’ reporting and stewardship requirements for awarded projects
Apply for the Preparation for Research Engagement Program (PREP)!
In order to support faculty and staff success with grant seeking, the Preparation for Research Engagement Program (PREP) supports the costs of faculty/staff attending training opportunities such as workshops, conferences, and seminars on grant seeking, grant writing, community/partner engagement, project development, etc. Faculty/staff will provide the first $50 of the training from their departmental professional development funds, and PREP funds will pay the remaining amount, up to $450, on a reimbursement basis. Note: for trainings costing more than $500, the faculty/staff member would pay the excess amount from their personal funds.
After identifying a training opportunity you wish to attend, in person or virtually, just please complete the PREP application form here and submit it to the University Grants Manager, Charlotte Smith. After approval from the Provost, you will be provided with the information needed to proceed with your training opportunity registration and pre-approval in Chrome River.
PREP will accept applications for support on a rolling basis, up to 11 individuals this year. After attending the training opportunity, the University Grants Manager will be available to assist you with conducting funding searches and developing future grant proposals, as needed.
Video Recordings of Grantsmanship Workshops:
Click here to view the Finding Grant Funding workshop, from September 23, 2022.
Click here to view the Grant Proposal Development workshop, from September 24, 2021.
Click here to view the Building a Budget for Grant Applications workshop, from October 1, 2021.