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The following sources will allow you to view projects, proposals, and occasionally applications that have received funding from various agencies in the past. These resources can help you identify the types of projects that various agencies tend to favor and determine the appropriate tone, content, and level of detail for your application.

Audience:
 
 
 
Disciplinary Area:
 
 
 
 

Graduate Student External Award Winners

Audience: Graduate Student
Disciplinary Area: Arts and Humanities, Health and Medical Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

Every year UNC-Chapel Hill honors the graduate students who successfully received external funding in the Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration. Graduate students also have their names entered into a searchable database, which can be used to find relevant awards in each discipline.

Go to External Award Winners

National Endowment for the Arts Recent Grants

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Arts and Humanities

The NEA database of recent grants made to organizations and individuals can be sorted by category, discipline, or state.  Names of review panelists are available for the different NEA program areas since 2006. The website includes a video tutorial on how to use the database.

Go to NEA database

National Science Foundation Award Search

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

NSF’s award search includes complete data for awards made after 1976 and incomplete data for awards made before 1976.

Go to NSF Award Search
Documentation

Search Guidelines

Free Text (labeled “Search Award For”)

  • Searches the title, abstract, and award number fields, unless restricted by the “Restrict to Title Only” checkbox. The search looks for awards with all of the entered terms.

Principal Investigator Name

  • Searches by the first or last name of the Principal Investigator. Example: Searching for “Pat” would match Patrick, Patricia, and Pat. This also applies to COPI if Include CO-PI Checkbox is checked. You can browse or search for Principal Investigators by entering the PI’s First Name, Last Name, Email, City, State, Zip, Country, or Department Name into the lookup search form.

Organization

  • Searches by the Principal Investigator Organization/Institution. Enter part of the name to get the most possible matches. You can browse or search for organization names by Name, State, Zip, Country, or Congressional District Code.

NSF Program

  • This search uses wildcards around the search term. Example: “bio” would also find “Frontiers in Bio Res (FIBR)” and “Postdoc Rsch Fllwshp Micro Bio”. You can look up the names of NSF programs by entering a Program Reference Code, Program Element Code, or Program Name.

Element Code

  • Element Codes are the four digit numbers which NSF uses to identify the funding source for the program. The search looks for awards with all of the entered codes. You can browse or search for element codes by the program element name.

Reference Code

  • Program Reference Codes are another type of NSF funding code, often used for cross-directorate or NSF-wide programs. The search looks for awards with all of the entered codes. You can browse or search for reference codes by the program reference name.

State or ZIP Code

  • This also includes US territories.

Awarded, Start, and Expiration Dates

  • Restricts searches to a date range.

National Institutes of Health RePORTER

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Health and Medical Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) is NIH’s awards made database. It includes award data from NIH, SAMHSA, HRSA, FDA, CDC, AHRQ and VA.

Go to RePORTER
Documentation

Search Guidelines

Free Text (labeled “Term Search”)

  • Searches project titles, abstracts, and scientific terms. If the “And” logic is selected (the default), all of the search terms must be found. If the “Or” logic is used, at least one of the terms must be found. Use quotes around the entered text to search for exact phrases.

Principal Investigator Name

  • Searches by the first or last name of the Principal Investigator. The % wildcard may be used if only part of the name is known.

Agency/Institute or Center

  • Searches by the NIH component responsible for administering the research grant or contract (Admin IC) or funding (Funding IC) the research. Admin is selected by default. Funding IC data is not available for projects funded prior to Fiscal Year 2008. You can browse for Agencies/Institutes by name.

RFA/PA

  • Searches for projects originally solicited under a request for applications (RFA), program announcement (PA), or notice (NOT) issued in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. RFA numbers take the format RFA-IC-fy-nnn, where IC is the Agency/Institute/Center issuing the RFA, fy is the fiscal year of the solicitation, and nnn is a serial number. PA numbers are formatted as PA-fy-nnn and notices NOT-IC-fy-nnn.

Activity Code

  • Search by the 3-character code applied to various funding mechanisms to identify a specific category of extramural research activity. A comprehensive list of activity codes currently in use may be found here. You can browse for Codes by activity type.

Project Number

  • For grants, this unique identification number is composed of the type code, activity code, Institute/Center code, serial number, support year, and/or suffix code. The ‘%’ wildcard may be used at the beginning or end of your entry into this field if only a portion of the project number is known. To limit query time, it is recommended to select the fiscal year of the project if known.

Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj)

Audience: Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Health and Medical Sciences

HSRProj is a us.gov website containing entries for in-progress health services research awards made by public and private funders. Users can search by free text, investigator, and supporting agency.

Go to HSRProj

National Aeronautics and Space Administration NSPIRES Database

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Life and Physical Sciences

NASA’s Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) contains past solicitations (calls for proposals) and selections (awards made). Entries can be sorted by title, solicitation number, release date, due date, and selection date. If selection information for a particular solicitation is missing, users may contact the program manager to request it. Contact information is usually included in the solicitation’s announcement documents.

Go to NSPIRES

Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant Search

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences

The IMLS database of awarded grants can be searched by grant name, institution, city, state, year, or keyword. This resource may be especially useful in tandem with IMLS’s selected sample applications for successful projects.

Go to IMLS database

Environmental Protection Agency Integrated Grants Management System

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The EPA Integrated Grants Management System (IGMS) allows users to search by applicant name, date, applicant type, grant type, location, and free-text.

Go to EPA IGMS

Department of Defense Awards

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Health and Medical Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The Department of Defense maintains awards made databases for two programs: Congressionally Directed Medical Research and DOD Small Business Innovation and Small Business Technology Transfer.

Links to Databases

Congressionally Directed Medical Research Search Awards

  • Search by research program, date, topic, primary investigator, location, or keywords.

Small Business Innovation and Small Business Technology Transfer Awards Search (SBIR/STTR)

  • Search by free text, program, military branch, state, number, or research institution.

Department of Agriculture Current Research Information System

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The USDA’s Current Research Information System (CRIS) includes projects conducted by or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in NIFA-administered grant programs.

Go to USDA CRIS

Transportation Research Board Research in Progress

Audience: Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Health and Medical Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The National Academies’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) database contains entries on in-progress and completed research projects . TRB funded projects can be viewed by subject, individual, or organization.

Go to TRB database

UNC System Sponsored Programs Reporting Portal

Audience: Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Arts and Humanities, Health and Medical Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences

The general public can access information on research and sponsored program awards to all University of North Carolina system institutions through the UNC System Sponsored Programs Reporting Portal portal (SPARC). Users can search for information by school, researcher, sponsor, or keyword. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) reports are also available for download.

Go to Sponsored Programs Reporting Portal

National Endowment for the Humanities Funded Projects

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Arts and Humanities

The NEH posts descriptions of previously funded projects on their website, allowing visitors to browse projects that have received grants from them in the past.

Go to NEH Explore
Go to NEH homepage

Department of Health and Human Services Awards Made

Audience: Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Faculty and Staff
Disciplinary Area: Health and Medical Sciences, Social Sciences

Awards made databases are available from the Department of Health and Human Services and its subsidiaries.

List of Resources