The following internal and external links are a great place to beging the grant seeking process.
Internal Links
Fast Tex (Faculty and Student Teams for Technology)
(http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cit/fasttex)
Fast Tex is a program that promotes technology-based teaching at UT and provides grants for projects incorporating technology in the classroom. The program, run by the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), matches faculty members with technology-literate undergrad and grad student developers who help create instructional technology projects for faculty member classes. UT faculty submit grant proposals to the CIT in the fall. Successful proposals become projects that are awarded 100-600 student developer hours with the CIT paying students hourly wages and providing managerial, administrative, and technical support. For details on proposal types, review committee criteria, contact information, and more, go to the following link for the FAST Tex faculty handbook:
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cit/fasttex/faculty/handbook.html
Graduate Studies Funding
(http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/funding/)
This website offers lists of links to information on university-wide as well as departmental fellowships and grants. It also offers a list of outside fellowships and links to Financial Aid and student employment information.
Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS)
(http://www.laits.utexas.edu/its/grantsfunding.html)
This website offers information about the goals and deadlines of the LAITS grants. Funding is available for instructional technology projects that directly benefit students: course materials, classroom multimedia technology, student computer labs, servers, network upgrades. Costs covered by the grant include salary support for faculty (1 summer session’s worth), salary for graduate/undergraduate research assistants, hardware/software. The call for proposals is issued in the spring. Proposals must primarily benefit courses in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin.
Office of Sponsored Projects
(http://www.utexas.edu/research/osp/)
From the website’s mission statement: "The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) serves as the coordinating office for externally funded research projects submitted by The University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the OSP is to assist faculty and professional research staff in their efforts to secure external funding." This is the gate keeper of all external funding coming into UT. The site offers reams of policies and procedures as well as helpful answers to questions such as " How do I calculate the budget?" or " What if radioactive material is involved?"
External Links
Regional Foundation Library (FL) at the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
(http://www.hogg.utexas.edu/RFL/default.html)
This small library is a goldmine for grant and scholarship seekers. The entire library is devoted to providing resources for both individuals and non-profits, including schools, looking for funds. The two librarians are willing to help grant seekers at any stage of the process, whether it is finding the right grant for a particular project or reviewing your written proposal.
THE COLLECTION: The library contains up-to-date books on grants provided by family/individual foundations and corporations, or as they put it, “We have one of everything that’s current.” Much of this information is also available in databases that can be accessed both at this library and at the Austin Public Library (but not at UT). They also have books on how to write proposals.
ASSISTANCE: The library welcomes graduate and undergraduate students as well as other grant seekers. Librarians will help you search for funding for anything from tuition to dissertation research to CWRL computer and writing projects. Anyone is welcome to come and browse, but those needing any kind of assistance should make an appointment with one of the librarians first. You should also call beforehand to reserve materials to be used at the library for a specified length of time. The number is 512-471-5041.
LOCATION AND PARKING: This library is located off campus on the 4th floor of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, a University of Texas affiliate. The Hogg Foundation building is off Mopac on Lake Austin Blvd. You can view a map here: www.hogg.utexas.edu/RFL/map.html
If you have any kind of UT parking sticker, you may park in the side parking lot. Those without a sticker should park in the 15-minute spaces in front of the building, go to the library on the 4th floor, and ask a library staff member for a parking permit. You will then need to move your car to the side lot, making the permit visible in the window.
Chronicle of Higher Education: Grants and Fellowships
(http://chronicle.com/free/grants/)
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Grants and Fellowships webpage offers a collection of featured awards, online and print resources, and grant or fellowship-related news, jobs and events. The featured awards section keeps you informed of upcoming grants and fellowships, offering pertinent information like deadlines and contacts. This may be the most immediately useful part of the site if you check this page regularly. The online resources feature the usual suspects from government and foundation-sponsored grants and fellowships for the humanities and sciences. Print resources showcase how-to books on winning awards. The Chronicle’s sister company, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, runs a searchable database of foundation and corporate grants listed in its publication since 1995. You will need a paid subscription starting at $29 to access this electronic database.
The Foundation Center
(http://www.foundationcenter.org/)
The Foundation Center is an organization that compiles all the private philanthropy sources in the US and allows grant seekers to sign up for newsletters which target their grant-seeking interests. The Web site has tutorials for grant seekers in grant writing, links to a number of funding sources, and news about the field or new grants. A lot of the links on this web site require an additional subscription. These include Foundation Grants to Individuals Online--a monthly e-publication, The Foundation Directory Online which has links to grant-maker web sites, grant makers and grants, and Corporate Giving Online. This web site is useful only in that it places all of the links in one setting, but almost no information on this web site is free. The site also has links to online training courses, such as Proposal Writing, Proposal Budgeting, and How to Approach a Foundation. Most of the online courses are not free.
Grants.gov
(http://www.grants.gov)
This web site has a search site for grant opportunities. It lists a basic search which allows one to enter a title for the grant subject, a browse by category, a browse by agency, and an advanced search. All of the searches include closing dates for the grant, the grant title and link, the agency title, as well as the funding number. The web site as well includes training materials such as a user guide and a glossary of terms. There is also a technical development library which has archived materials, and a number of grant forms online. Finally, the web site provides a number of downloadable programs that help with the grant application process. You can search the site without registering, but in order to apply for any of the grants, you must register with the site. This process takes 3-5 business days.