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College of Engineering 
Office of Faculty Development and Success

Research Resources

From funding tools to grant-writing assistance, these resources can help you take your research to the next level.

NC State Resources

  • College of Engineering Office of Research Administration (COE-ORA) – The Office of Research Administration in the College of Engineering is designed to advance research-related knowledge and skills by training and educating our faculty, students and staff.
  • Office of Research and Innovation – Provides state-of-the-art resources, nurtures alliances that stimulate innovation and promotes the discoveries of our world-renowned research community.
  • Research Administration and Compliance – Facilitates the submission of proposals, negotiation of agreements, the administration of internally and externally funded projects and the administration of sub-agreements that provide funding to NC State University.

Funding Search Tools

  • The National Science Foundation (NSF) – An independent federal agency, the U.S. National Science Foundation funds approximately 25 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted at America’s colleges and universities. This is the place to search for NSF funding programs.
  • Grants.gov – Grants.gov lists all current discretionary funding opportunities from 26 agencies of the United States government, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and many others — in other words, all the most important public funders of research in the United States.
  • Grant Resource Center (GRC) – A unit of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), GRC provides a comprehensive suite of tools, services and expertise to improve your success in securing competitive grants from federal and private sponsors.
  • Sponsored Programs Information Network (SPIN) – Run by InfoEd International, SPIN claims to be the most widely used funding opportunity database in the world.
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – The Foundation makes grants to support original research and broad-based education related to science, technology and economic performance; and to improve the quality of American life.

Grant Writing Assistance

  • NSF’s A Guide for Proposal Writing– This guide provides the essence of the advice often given to inquirers. These suggestions for improving proposals were collected from a variety of sources, including NSF Program Directors, panel reviewers and successful grantees.
  • Non-Profit guides – Non-profit guides are free web-based grant-writing tools for non-profit organizations; charitable, educational and public organizations; and other community-minded groups.
  • The Writing Center at UNC – Grant Proposals (or Give Me the Money!) provides information about the first stages of the grant-writing process, including pre-writing, organization, revising and budget planning.
  • Science Magazine – Through the support of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this website not only provides a list of organizations to search for funding, it also has several useful articles regarding tips and tricks to writing your proposals. Scroll to the bottom of the page for these insightful articles.