Resources for Grant Seekers
Identify and Track Funding Opportunities
- Search Requests for Proposals, a listing of current funding opportunities from corporate partners and private foundations.
- Search Community of Science (CoS), a comprehensive database of funding opportunities from foundations, corporations, and government agencies. CoS requires you to create an account (free to Northwestern staff and faculty).
- Search SPIN, a collection of funding opportunities from foundations, corporations, and government agencies. Northwestern faculty can access SPIN from their on-campus computers.
See Letter of Inquiry Guidelines
Often, the first contact with a foundation is through a brief, one to three page letter of inquiry (LOI). In general, the letter aims to attract the funder's interest in your project or proposal so that staff will request a more detailed proposal. Please note that individual funders may specify the content and length of this initial letter. Here are some general LOI guidelines to get you started.
Submit a Research Request
The Office of Foundation Relations will investigate funding opportunities for projects that have been identified as a priority by the University. To initiate a search to identify foundations that might be interested in funding your project, the first step is to complete a request for information/research form.
Other Northwestern University Resources
- The Office of Sponsored Research offers additional information on funding resources as well as the University forms and contacts required for institutional approval of grants and sponsored projects.
- The Office of Research Development works in partnership with faculty to provide support for the early stages of program and proposal development of multi, inter-, and transdisciplinary and team-based research. It also provides a listing of limited submission grant opportunities.
- The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute facilitates and helps grow the overall clinical and translational research enterprise at Northwestern. NUCATS offers a wide variety of services to faculty interested in these areas, including pilot funding.
- The Office of Fellowships offers information and assistance to fellowship seekers, including graduate students and post-docs.
There are also a variety of external funding resources and guides available to grant seekers.
