ANNOUNCEMENTS
From the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs
(scroll down for older releases)
In July of 2005 EOU created the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs (OGSP). Its mission was to “increase grant funding from external sources in support of infrastructure, research, instructional programs, public service projects, and professional development targeted to implementing the goals of EOU’s Strategic Plan, and facilitating its mission.”
External funding, whether from grants or donations, is one way toward moving our objectives forward, sometimes the only way. As we approach a time of new challenges to the campus, we need to focus attention on our strengths and work across the disciplines to develop our creative projects on a viable level.
Given the institutions relative inexperience and lack of a culture of grant writing, progress has been slow, but steady. During the first two years of operation of OGSP, almost 100 grants were submitted, and 60 approved for a total of $3.8 million, and a success ratio of 63 percent. Of the 96 grants submitted, 72 were new grants (as opposed to renewals, supplementals or no cost extensions of existing grants), and 37 of those were approved (with one still pending) for a total of almost one million dollars, and a success ratio of 51 percent. (See the OGSP website for detailed reports.)
By way of comparison, in the year preceding the start up of OGSP, only seven (7) new grants were awarded.
Now we have new policies and procedures in place to streamline the application review and approval process, an indirect cost recovery policy that rewards successful grant writers, a grants training program, IRB and IACUC committees, an Advisory Committee of faculty and staff, and some successes to celebrate. There is a growing interest in pursuing grants, and ongoing planning has enabled the institution to focus its efforts in better ways on both our strengths, and where we want to go.
This is reflected in the creation of 14 interdisciplinary Grant Development Focus Teams that currently have over 65 faculty and staff volunteer members. Organizational meetings will begin in October. Any and all interested parties are invited to participate.
The teams are listed below. Anyone interested in participating may contact Kerry Bullard at 962-3473.
The task is to discuss the needs and plans for the topic area, review the possible funding sources, and come up with specific program development plans that culminate in grant applications.
EOU faculty and staff collectively have a great wealth of knowledge and experience, which, if applied collaboratively toward planning, program development and grant writing, can result in bringing millions of dollars in grant funding for research, creative endeavors, institutional programs, public service projects, infrastructure, etc.
PROGRAM/GRANT DEVELOPMENT FOCUS TEAMS
Team |
Participants |
Target Funding Sources |
Collaboration of biology and chemistry |
Cavinato, Andrew, Corsini, Cain, Rinehart, Woodford, Mahrt, Greenlee, Herrmann, Grigsby |
NSF, NIH, Murdoch, Merck, Seaver, Keck, Dreyfus, NOAA |
Robotics, artificial intelligence |
Pratter, Croft, Roy, Hetteriachchi, Thurber, Tanner |
NSF Cyber-enabled Discovery, Cyber Infrastructure, ETIC, OPAS |
Institutionalization, expansion of programs |
Ettinger, Cavinato, Balaban, Woodford, Corsini, Cain, Timmerman |
NSF REU/RUI, CUR, Keck |
K-12/STEM; workforce development for teachers and scientists; access for first generation, minorities, etc. |
Rainboth, Lauritzen, Luz V., Cavinato, Laustsen, Contreras
|
NSF STEM, Dept of Ed – Minority Science and Engineering program, Upward Bound, OESE HEP and CAMP programs, OPE Minority Science and Engineering programs, Lumina |
Issues – child care, gender, women’s leadership, food & nutrition (Haven from Hunger), etc.; responsive to community development needs like the old Regional Services Institute |
St. Germain, Vernita Ediger, Grigsby, Powers, Jerofke, Annette Johnson, Valerio |
USDA - ERS, CREES, and Rural Development programs; EPA |
Issues – hunger, health, gerontology, suicide, training/education for health professionals; development of targeted applications |
Levine, Vernita Ediger, Grigsby, Powers, Jerofke, Wanda Clifton- Faber (BMCC); Pat Tempinski (BMCC); Susie Cedarholm, Veronica Wood, Carol Ledbetter, Sandy Ryman, Williamsen |
USDA - ERS, CREES, and Rural Development programs; EPA |
Development of unique interactive, collaborative website/database for local and western history |
Clay, Levine, Porter, Jerofke, Hartman, Pratter, Croft |
NEH, IMLS, SHPO, Getty, OCH, OGT, OCF |
Social Science focus (psych/soc/anth); cognitive psych/multi-media curriculum (Croft); Archeology Summer Field School (Jerofke) |
Croft, Jerofke, Lyons, Ettinger, Balaban, Grigsby, Timmerman, Hartman, Dahl, Williamson, Whitmire |
NSF Math/Science Partnerships, Broadening STEM Participation, Bolstering K-12 Education; NIH; NEH Teaching and Learning Resources; Lumina; EPA |
|
Levine, Cavinato, Valerio, Kelley, Ramey, Plattner, Braker, Woodford, Kaigler |
Private donors, institutional grants to support stage 2 of curriculum development |
|
Schulz, Braker, Gibian, Wells, McKinnon, Wolff, Curtis, Sanders, Matt Cooper |
NEH Curriculum Development; Language grants; Private funders, ACI/DED National Security Language Initiative; OPE Language Resource Centers, Undergrad International Studies and Foreign Language Program; OELA English Language Acquisition Program |
|
Winn, CSA Advisory Board, Foundation, Espinosa, Robertson, Bush, Knowles |
Arts and Sciences grants targeted for K-12 such as NEH, NEA, etc., and private foundations. |
Community-based initiatives, such as the Grande Ronde Symphony; Institutional grants |
CAS Faculty and Community Groups Cory Peeke April Curtis Nancy Knowles |
NEH, NEA, Title III, TRIO, FIPSE |
|
Nancy Knowles; Literacy Alliance; Oregon Writing Project; Literacy Advancement Resource Center (LARC); Carol Lauritzen, Shirley |
All funding sources for literacy projects, particularly related |
|
Jerofkee, Dahl, Levine, Jackie Grant, Curtis, Rainboth |
Wildhorse Foundation, NSF, BLM, USFS, etc. |
Grant writing is difficult and time consuming, but highly rewarding when persistence pays off with a grant that enables the University to create new programs, or allows faculty to pursue research or creative endeavors not otherwise possible.
In some cases there may be an additional reward. EOU’s indirect cost recovery policy allocates a percentage of any recovered indirect costs back to the Principal Investigator (grant writer), college and Vice President for certain types of grants. The purpose of this policy is to provide incentives to faculty and staff to pursue external grant funding for research, creative endeavors or other institutional purposes. The funds go into special accounts for each recipient from which they can purchase books, supplies, equipment, travel, etc., for the purpose of furthering the funded project, or promoting scholarship and further grant writing.
Two EOU faculty grant writers received an allocation for the 05-06 year - Instructor Donna Rainboth and Professor Dan Mielke of the College of Education.
Rainboth and Mielke also received allocations for the 06-07 year, along with Professor Anna Cavanato, Dean Jaeger, and Assistant Library Director Shirley Roberts. Provost Miller and the College of Arts and Sciences also were recipients of recovered indirect costs.
Over the last two years almost $20,000 of recovered indirect costs has been returned to grant writers and their administrative support units.
Faculty or staff interested in pursuing grants to fund program development, research or other creative endeavors should contact Michael Sirrine, Director of the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs (OGSP, 962-3700).
New grant development focus teams are being formed. See the OGSP website for more details (www.eou.edu/ogsp).
The word on the last grant still pending notification from 05-06 came 8-23-07 with notice of approval by NIH of an OHSU grant to which EOU is a subgrantee. OGSP processed 47 grant applications for the 05-06 year (July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006), requesting $18.68 million. Of these, 40 were “new” grant applications, as opposed to renewals of multi-year grants, ongoing grants, supplementals, or no-cost extensions. Twenty-two of the 40 new grant applications were approved, a total of $618,460, for a success rate of 55 percent. Twenty-eight of the 47 grants in total were approved for a total of $1.78 million. Click here for the report.
The GRC webcast on July 26th attended by eight faculty and staff provided a good overview of best practices for approaching foundations for funding support, based on current research of the national Foundation Center. Click here for the Resource List and other supporting handouts that were provided.
Thirty-two new grants were submitted in 06-07, and 15 have been approved. This is eight less than the number of new grants submitted in 05-06. However, the total number of grants submitted was up slightly, from 47 to 49, meaning that the number of supplementals, renewals and no cost extensions was up this year, due to where they fell in their cycle. There were 11 renewals this year compared to only 5 in the prior year. Perhaps for the same reason the total dollar amount of grants awarded this year is up about 17%, with $1.5 million still pending. The seven grants still pending are all new grants, so there is potential for the dollar amount of new grants awarded in 06-07 to exceed that of 05-06. Click here for the report.
Summary of Grant Submissions for 2006-2007
Fiscal Year |
Total # Grants Submitted |
Total $ Awarded |
# New Grants Submitted |
# New Grants Awarded |
Total $ New Grants Awarded |
06-07* |
49 |
$2,060,262 |
32 |
15 |
$306,095 |
05-06** |
47 |
$1,760,249 |
40 |
21 |
$599,967 |
As of 7-11-07
*(7 pending for $1.5 million)
**(1 pending for $18,493)
Donna Rainboth was awarded (June, 2007) a grant for $110,610 from the University/School Partnership program, part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which will provide funding for training for the next two years. Rainboth is currently completing a three-year grant for $210,000 from the same organization. This new grant will allow the College of Education to continue its successful one-week series of training sessions for public school teachers.
Under this new grant, twenty-five teachers from Union, Wallowa, Baker, Malheur, Umatilla and Deschutes counties will participate in the training, which will focus on Teaching Science through Developmental Inquiry.
"Incorporating science inquiry in the classroom is now a requirement in Oregon," said Donna Rainboth, instructor and natural resources specialist in EOU's College of Education. "The sessions will cover life science, chemistry, physics and earth science, helping teachers learn how to effectively engage their students in real science investigations," she said.
A total of 10 days will be devoted to the training, which will be divided into one-day sessions throughout the school year and five days during the summer. Rainboth is the director of the project. Miriam Munck, instructor of education at EOU's distance education center in Pendleton, and Michael Jaeger, dean of the College of Education, will help teach the courses.
"By following the teachers all year, we will be able to give them more ideas, get their feedback and help keep them motivated," Rainboth said.
The proposal development workshops presented on May 3rd by Peggy Lowry from OSU, and on May 4th by Richard Dunfee, Director of AASCU's Grant Resource Center, Washington D.C. were attended by 15 EOU faculty and staff, and 3 EOU and community partners. Sharon Porter, Shaun Cain and Joe Corsini submitted writing samples and participated in the critique session. Shaun Cain, Kristin Johnson, Sharon Porter, April Simpson and Melinda Davis participated in the mock panel review.
Grants training will resume in the fall. There may be more grant training events this summer to be announced later. Click here for other regional grant training opportunities.
The last meeting of the OGSP Advisory Committee for 06-07 was June 5th. This committee was created to help drive OGSP planning toward the creation of a campus environment more positive and supportive of grant writing endeavors, with a resultant growth in numbers of grant applications being made, and grant awards being received. All interested parties are invited to attend. Click here for the meeting notes from June 5th. Click here for the advisory committee's mission and function statement.
OGSP is interested in hearing from faculty and staff about the kinds of grants training needed at EOU. Click here for a response form.
On October 12, 2006 the La Grande Observer reported that Eastern Oregon University faculty and staff have significantly increased their grant writing efforts over the past year. Professor Cavinato and other faculty were acknowledged. Click here for the story.
EOU has approved an indirect cost recovery allocation policy that allocates a percentage of any recovered indirect costs back to the Principal Investigator (grant writer), college and Vice President for certain types of grants. Click here for details.
EOU’s membership in the Grants Resource Center (GRC) of the AASCU became effective January 1, 2006. The GRC provides a number of high quality resources and training opportunities for the development of grantsmanship skills and assistance in finding and submitting successful proposals. The GRC website (http://www.aascu.org/grc/) provides services that EOU faculty and staff can access directly, such as grant bulletins, a grant search engine, proposal library, etc. See Grants Resource Center for more detail and access information.
Michael W. Sirrine Director
Phone: 541-962-3700
Cell: 541-910-0843
Eastern Oregon University
One University Boulevard
218 Inlow Hall
La Grande, OR 97850
Eastern Oregon University is a member of the Oregon University System
