Find Funding

The first step in obtaining research funding is identifying appropriate sponsors and opportunities. Although there is no single database that provides comprehensive information about all grant-providing organizations, there are several internal and external websites and databases that may be helpful.  The Office of Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy helps WPI faculty and academic departments connect with private and corporate foundations and provides technical support to help you present your research, project or program to potential donors.

Funding Databases and Resources

Pivot
WPI subscribes to Pivot an online resource which allows you to find, track and share funding opportunities.  Anyone with an @wpi.edu address, can register for Pivot, create a profiles and sign up for alerts in your area of interest. More information on Pivot can be found  here.

Foundation Directory Online Professional
Provides access to timely, comprehensive information on grantmakers and their grants. Included is a database of the entire universe of over 100,000 foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities in the U.S.; a database of over 4,000 sponsoring companies, offering a quick pathway to corporate funders; a database of over 2.4 million recently awarded grants; and a keyword-searchable database of over 700,000 recently filed IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF.

ProposalCENTRAL is an e-grant making website with listings of funding opportunities by many government, non-profit, and private grant-making organizations.

Grants.gov provides an RSS feed.

If you follow a specific agency, check their website to see if they have alerting features.

Limited Submissions

WPI’s Research Solutions Institute coordinates numerous Limited Submissions each year.

These are competitions for awards by outside agencies for which WPI can nominate a limited number of candidates.  Applications will go through an internal review process and candidates must receive approval from the WPI administration prior to submission to the sponsoring agency.  The goal is to identify the strongest projects with the highest likelihood of getting funded. Any interested applicant should contact RSI as soon as possible.  The internal submission deadline is typically 2 months prior to the sponsor deadline.

Investigators who independently identify limited submission funding opportunities cannot apply directly to the external sponsor and are requested to provide RSI or OSP with the funding opportunity information as soon as it is identified.

Please contact RSI rsi@wpi.edu for information on limited submission internal competitions.

Information on current NSF Limited Submission opportunities can be found at NSF Limited Submissions.

Limited Submissions to Foundations

For limited submission opportunities with Foundations please contact the Office of Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy

RSS Feeds

NIH Extramural Nexus (RSS) – news, updates and blog posts on extramural grant policies, processes, events and resources, including Open Mike blog posts