Make good use of your campus resources – department administrators, graduate divisions, and offices of research (or sponsored research, contracts and grants offices) all receive RFPs from multiple sources and post or announce them within the campus or department. In addition, research offices and campus libraries often have searchable databases – ask your research office or seek out the reference librarian at your campus library. A list of campus research offices is available on the UC MEXUS website.
The University of California Office of the President website includes a site specifically for the Research Grants Program Office with several useful resources, including a page for current UC funding opportunities.
To search for opportunities from other private foundations or government agencies, consider the following links:
- Most UC campuses subscribe to IRIS, the Illinois Researcher Information Service. This is a comprehensive site with links to federal funding resources, funding opportunities, and tips for getting started. There is a link at the top to find out if you are at a subscribing institution or you can ask your research office. Even if you are not at a subscribing institution, IRIS serves as a portal to many useful sites and is worth the time to explore what it has to offer.
- Another similar comprehensive site is Pivot. If your campus subscribes to this service, you can create an account and use it to search for grant and fellowship opportunities. The site also provides funding news and profiles of researchers in your field.
- You can search by foundations or research areas if you are subscriber to The Foundation Center. If you are not, you can still use the RFP (Request for Proposals) search function. Try several search words related to your project, and the site will provide links to foundations with associated RFPs. Try to be imaginative in your use of key words. For instance, if "hydrology" yields nothing, try "water." Better yet, try both, one at a time.
- Government Grants — this site provides a portal to all federal grant-making agencies, with multiple searchable links.
- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the AAAS offer a grant-seeking resource. Subscription is free.
- The American Council of Learned Societies offers grants in the humanities and humanities-related social sciences.
- The American Association of University Women offers many fellowship and funding opportunities
- The Minnesota Council on Foundations provides very helpful tips on writing grant proposals to almost any funding organization.
Several foundations and organizations focus on research related to Mexico or Latin America. Check their websites for the dates and focus of their funding competitions or RFPs:
- The Pacific Rim Research Program is also a UC multicampus research program. It provides several grants programs that are complementary to those of UC MEXUS and with a broader geographical focus.
- The Inter-American Foundation offers grants for projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars offers residential fellowships to citizens from other countries with outstanding projects in the social sciences and humanities as related to national and/or international policy issues.
Or go directly to the sites of the big funding agencies in your discipline. Here is just a small sampling of the links:
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- Ford Foundation
- Fulbright Scholars Program
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (currently offering “Grand Challenges in Global Health”)
- J. Paul Getty Foundation
- Hewlett Foundation
- Kellogg Foundation
- Lindbergh Foundation
- MacArthur Foundation
- National Endowment for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- Packard Foundation
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Smithsonian Institution
- Social Science Research Council
- Spencer Foundation
- Tinker Foundation
- U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (look at the "quicklinks" and start with the Fulbright Program)
- U.S. Department of Education
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Institute of Peace
- U.S. Office of Justice
If all else fails, go for a broader strategy. Simply use Google, type in "funding opportunities" and a simple but specific search word, like "water" or even "water Mexico." Chances are you will find some surprises!