Vanderbilt University Medical Center strongly values research as part of its academic programs. In order to make new ideas into viable research opportunities, they must be financed! This list includes many resources to help you find exactly the kind of funding you need. Take the time to investigate those that most closely fit your research goal. Don't be afraid to think outside the box!
Vanderbilt Resources
- Discovery Grant Program: PI must be tenured or tenure-track faculty member. Program focuses on providing seed funding for research in order to increase the potential for external funding.
- Research Scholar Grant Program: Complements Discovery Grants program and designed to provide need-based internal funding for research that is unlikely to have extramural funding options.
- Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Pilot RFA for Quality: The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) and the Office of Personalized Medicine fund studies designed to address causes and targeted remedies for significant hospital quality and safety challenges.
- ViSE: Interventional Device Prototyping Funding and Support: The Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery and Engineering (ViSE, www.vanderbilt.edu/vise), in partnership with the Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC) and the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR), assists the Vanderbilt community in evaluating and developing early-stage ideas, and then turning them into proof-of-concept interventional device prototypes, with the goal of translation to human clinical use.
- Vanderbilt Physician Scientist Development Program: The VPSD program is designed to provide an enriching scientific environment and salary support to allow newly-appointed assistant professor physicians with research experience to receive additional mentored investigative training.
General
- American Association of State Colleges and Universities: Search engine containing more than 2,000 funding opportunities.
- The Chronicle of Philanthropy New Grants: Search engine posting new grants weekly.
- Council on Foundations: Help from corporations, nonprofits, and other institutions on best practices in philanthropy and where to look for funding.
- Foundation Center: Database with info from more than 550 institutions that give money to medical, scientific, and other causes.
- Grants.gov: Search for funding across a variety of disciplines.
- GrantSelect: Search for funding of educational, nonprofit, or artistic causes.
- The Grantsmanship Center: Search for grants by state.
- Pivot: Hosts an estimated $33 billion worth of financial awards.
- ResearchResearch: Seven thousand opportunities, including offerings from government and nonprofit organizations.
Health
- Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Provides grants for those concerned with curing childhood cancer.
- American Heart Association: Funds mostly research involving cardiovascular disease and stroke.
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Offers endowments to emerging scientists working in largely underrecognized and underfunded biomedical fields.
- The Commonwealth Fund: Aims to establish an affordable healthcare system for underserved populations.
- The Dana Foundation: Largely focused on providing funding for brain science research, but also backs arts education.
- Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation: Offers fellowships and awards funded by donations to advance cancer cures and preventions.
- The Foundation for Alcohol Research: Funds contributions to research on how alcohol impacts human physical and mental health.
- National Cancer Institute: Approximately $4.9 billion to divy among medical scientists.
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Funds scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine.
- National Institutes of Health: Prestigious and highly competitive endowments.
- ScanGrants: Updated daily with hundreds of grant and fellowship opportunities from the medical science industry.
- Society for Women’s Health Research: Female engineers and scientists benefit from these grants to support improvements in women’s health and education.
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Provides grants, loans, benefit programs, and contracting opportunities.
- U.S. National Library of Medicine: Funding covers a diverse range of fields that feed into medicine.
- Whitaker International Program: Focuses on the global reach of biomedical engineering.
Social and Civil
- The American Political Science Association: Fellowships, grants, internships, visiting scholars programs, and other chances to pay for political research.
- Economic and Social Research Council: Provides grants to researchers focused on social sciences.
- Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy: Annually offers fifteen grants covering all social sciences, judged based on how well they fit into policymaking.
- National Endowment for Democracy: Funding for those furthering peace and democracy.
- The Pew Charitable Trusts: Funds public policy projects.
- Russell Sage Foundation: Focused on best practices research feeding into equality and social justice initiatives.
- Social Science Research Council: Interested in increasing awareness of integral political issues.
- William T. Grant Foundation: Offers grants to advance the cause of creating healthy, character-building environments for young people.
Science and Engineering
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: Offers grants supporting science and leadership.
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Year-round funding covering science and engineering and how they relate to civics, education, and economics.
- American Physical Society: Physics grants offered to help tests new theories and ideas.
- CRDF Global: Dedicated to bettering social causes.
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council: Grants for the physical sciences as they relate to engineering.
- National Academy of Engineering: Awards promoting engineering advances, education, and media.
- National Parks Foundation: Focused on environmental preservation, ecology and accessibility issues.
- National Science Foundation: Science-focused funding.
- Sigma XI: Science funding that gives 75% of its grants to its members.
- U.S. Department of Energy: Endowments for energy-related projects.
Behavior and Psychology
- American Psychological Association: Sponsors psychology research across different concentrations, affiliations, and experience levels.
- American Psychological Foundation: Endowments that benefit up-and-coming students and professionals hoping to better humanity through psychological progress.
- The Foundation for Psychocultural Research: Workshops and symposia make up the majority of this organization’s grant recipients, and they must meet the theme of the given year.
- OppNet: Government departments funding basic behavioral and social science research.
- The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues: Funds efforts to apply psychological and behavioral studies to contemporary social justice problems.
Business
- EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program: Funds small businesses developing science and technology meant to address today’s most pressing environmental issues.
- TheFunded.com: More than 18,000 executives discuss investing and funding the most promising startups.
- National Association for the Self-Employed: Mostly sponsors microbusinesses, receiving up to $5,000 for the most promising concepts.
Education
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Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy: Nonprofit offering money based on financial need.
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Educational Cyberplayground: Grants for educational professionals.
- GrantsAlert.com: Grant and fellowship information from around the education industry.
- Institute of Education Sciences: Search engine for tons of education grants.
- National Center for Special Education Research: Assistance for research intending to make education more accessible for those with special needs.
- U.S. Department of Education: Funding options for all kinds of educational research.
Environment
- American Society for Environmental History: Funds scholars interested in furthering humanity’s understanding about its environmental legacy and impact.
- Cyber-Sierra’s Conservation Grants Center: Run by only one woman, Cyber-Sierra stands as a valuable resource for sifting through environmentalist grants and other financial opportunities.
- Environmental Protection Agency: Grants focused on keeping the planet healthy.
- Environmental Research & Education Foundation: Blends business with sustainability and promotes the industry through education and technological research.
- Resources for the Future: Funds policy-related scientific research within the environmental field.
- The Glaser Progress Foundation: Supports those interested in environmentalism and public health (specifically HIV/AIDS).
- Turner Foundation’s Growing the Movement Program: Endowments for young people and organizations devoted to ecological causes.
- U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science: Offers funding for various projects.
Multiple Specialties
- Bush Foundation Fellowship Program: Focus on leadership and those dedicated to improving their communities.
- Carnegie Corporation of New York: Distributes grants that cover media, peace and democracy, religious tolerance, and education.
- Ford Foundation: Offer grants to those supporting social justice.
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: Awarded for a variety of disciplines.
- MacArthur Foundation: No matter the discipline, the MacArthur Foundation realizes its potential to bring about world peace, and sponsors projects harmonizing with this ideal.
- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: Provides endowments in five different subject areas (performing arts, environmentalism, higher education, art history, and IT).
- The David & Lucile Packard Foundation: Offers grants for nonprofit organizations dedicated to growing education, charities, health, and other social justice causes.
- Volkswagen Stiftung: Volkswagen devotes its grants and other funding opportunities for a diverse portfolio of charities and charity-minded individuals.