American grant funding in environmental science

ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY 5 (1) 2009, 25-31 American grant funding in environmental science Delia Gallinaro* Director, Office of Research and Special Programs, Sam Houston State University, P.O. Box 2448, Huntsville, Texas 77341-2448, U.S.A. Tel: (936) 294-3760, Fax : (936) 294-3622, E-mail: INTRODUCTION The workshop focused on American grant funding for foreign researchers in environmental science. It was divided into three sections: funding sources, agencies and programs and proposal development information. The National Science Foundation (NSF) will not allow a foreign institution to lead a project but does allow for extensive research partnerships. Some agencies however do allow foreign applicants to take the lead in a grant application. Both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) have awarded grants directly to international institutions. Most programs will state in the grant guidelines whether foreign applications will be accepted. For foreign scientists, American grant collaboration can include being a coPrincipal Investigator, Consultant, or Grant Participant. TYPES OF AMERICAN GRANTS 1. Scientific research and/or project grants to support investigations aimed at discovery of facts, revision of accepted theories, or application of new or revised theories. 2. Demonstration grants to establish the feasibility of a particular theory or approach. 3. Research and Development grants are awarded to investigate feasibility of an idea or technology directly tied to a problem. Example: EPA’s Office of Research and Development: 66.511 STAR Program supports research and engineering to: (1) determine the environmental effects of air quality, drinking water, water quality, hazardous waste, toxic substances and pesticides, (2) identify, develop, and demonstrate effective pollution control techniques, and (3) perform risk assessments to characterize the potential adverse health effects of human exposures to environmental hazards. Investigator initiated grants may be funded in broad areas such as environmental chemistry and physics, environmental engineering, and health and ecological effects of pollution. 4. Training grants are funds given to institutions to promote workforce development in a specific area. 5. Planning/Workshop/Travel grants are awarded specifically to bring collaborators together to discuss a project. 6. Grants for education are awarded for curriculum development, e-learning development, promoting special groups (e.g. women in science). Most agencies promote incorporating educational activities in research grants. Example: NSF’s International Collaboration for Higher Education and Social Change; this is a collaboration with the European Science Foundation(http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/ nsf08050/nsf08050.jsp). If a foreign institution participates in an American grant, they are required to follow the same ethical, compliance and administrative protocols as the American counterparts. Furthermore, they should expect that the lead institution will want to establish financial policies that will be used to provide compensation to the foreign researchers. Some issues that will need to be negotiated between institutions are: type of contract (fee for service, cooperative agreement or other), monetary conversion rate policy, administrative cost rate and program deliverables (including reports). NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provides training for foreign researchers at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/int/ grantspolicy/default.html. This training contains material that is applicable to most American grant programs. * Delia Gallinaro, MPA, has moderated the American Grant Funding in Environmental Science Educational Workshop (AGFES), which constituted a part of The Second International Environmental Best Practices Conference, 14-18 September 2009, Krakow, Poland 26 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY 5 (1) 2009 SECTION I. FUNDING SOURCES For foreign scientists, the most important aspect of finding American research funding is identifying American researchers or institutions that have scientific experience and skills in the same field of your research and developing a professional relationship that can lead to collaborative opportunities. In addition to attending professional conferences or joining associations, you can access online scientific databases that will provide you with peer-reviewed professional articles. Some examples of these databases are: • NIH’s PUBMED (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) for Environmental Health research, • NSF has an award database that you can search two ways: – by text, name or institution (http://www.nsf.gov/ awardsearch/), each of the awards also has the project summary, – or on the home page (www.nsf.gov); click FUNDING on second option on blue line directly below National Science Foundation; click on A-Z INDEX under second search option titled “Other Ways to Find Funding”; this is a comprehensive list of ALL programs, the page will display all awarded proposals; click on any option (award number, title, NSF organization, program, Start Date, Principal Investigator, State, organization, Award Amount to Date) and it will bring you to a summary page that includes PROGRAM ABSTRACT, • EPA has an award database that may assist you to identify U.S. based scientists in a particular field of research http://yosemite.epa.gov/oarm/igms_egf.nsf/ HomePage?ReadForm. There are also private subscription services aimed to facilitate funding information and collaboration among scientists worldwide. The most widely used resources are: • Community of Science (COS) (www.cos.com/); institutions must pay a fee to subscribe to this service. The COS network includes: (1) finding funding opportunities from 25,000 records, (2) identifying experts and collaborators from 1,600 institutions world wide with as many as 400,000 expert profiles, and (3) promote research through a Scholar Universe database. Representative for Poland is Krzysztof Murawski, Area Sales Manager; Tel: +48 2 2781 483, Mobile: +48 600 457 222, Fax: +44 1223 215514, E-mail: , • InfoEd International (www.infoed.org); this database also requires a subscription fee. It contains 14,000 funding opportunities. Contact for international inquiries are handled from their New York office - Tim Degregory; E-mail: , • American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (www.aaas.org/programs/); AAAS has 100 affiliated societies and 150 foreign corresponding members through its Consortium of Affiliates for International Programs (CAIP). CAIP members, including those from Poland, meet twice annually to discuss international activities and to exchange information on the status of international science. CAIP Representatives for POLAND: – Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 30, Warsaw, Poland; Tel: (48) (22) 26193, r e p r e s e n t a t i v e a n d s (...truncated)