Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Would you like money to support your scholarly work?
There are two main ways to get funded, namely internal grants and external grants.
- Internal Grants — These are annual competitions within Bloomsburg University, administered by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Grants include Margins of Excellence and Research & Scholarship. Internal grants are to be meant for one-off research or artistic projects, or as seed money for developing external grants. They are not well-suited for salary replacement/supplement, or for recurring annual expenses. Calls for proposals go out in the fall semester and awards are made in the spring semester. Guidelines are here on the ORSP website. Press the FORMS button. Applications will be submitted through InfoReady Review.
- External Grants — External grants come in many forms. There are federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Education, and others. There are also private foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation. In addition there is an annual (state budget willing) grants competition through PASSHE, with calls in the late fall semester. In some fields there are corporate sponsors for faculty work. To get started finding external funding, press the SPIN button.
Before you apply for external funding, you must fill out the Intent to Submit form (yes, press the FORMS button). Many external grants require lab space, need university matching funds, will pay for you to have reassigned time which means others must teach your classes, or place other demands on university resources. BU needs to know these things are coming and agree to them in advance for your grant to be successful. You must also fill out the Financial Interest Disclosure form for everyone’s legal protection.
Students stay busy with summer research
More than 30 student research projects were done this summer throughout the region and even overseas. Pennsylvania’s bootleg coal rebellion, the effects of beetle infestation and in-home Internet hacking are just a few of the topics being explored through Bloomsburg University’s annual Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity program. URSCA provides a stipend of up to $6,000 for a full-time project to students during the 12 weeks of summer session. Thirty-two students of varying majors spanning business to liberal arts to science and technology were awarded research grants this summer.
Several of the projects are being done far from campus, including abroad like David Falacko’s study of new musical styles with master musicians at the Royal College of Music in London and Rachel Yenney’s work as a research intern in the Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers in Paris. Facia Sirleaf’s study of Sub-Saharan immigration in Morocco was actually a year in the making and inspired by her own personal journey as a child.