Government Funding

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Government Funding in IE/OR/MS
INFORMS PhD Colloquium October 18, 2003 Jan
Twomey, PhD Program Officer Manufacturing
Enterprise Systems Division of Design,
Manufacture and Industrial Innovation
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Overview

• Why is funding important
• Gov. sources of funding
• Know your source- before you submit, find a home
• Why NSF funding
• Who do they fund
• How much and when
• Special awards for new faculty
• Who controls the funding
• Proposal writing and grantsmanship

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Do You Need Grants?

• Virtually all engineering programs expect faculty
  to seek research support, less in management
• Grants can provide critical resources
• Summer pay to focus on your research
• Ph.D. students to help you do it
• Travel to disseminate it and learn from others

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Lots of Govt Sources

• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Office of Naval Research (ONR)
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
• Army Research Office (ARO)

• Natl Inst of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Natl Security Agency (NSA)
• Dept of Transportn (DOT)
• Dept of Energy (DOE)
• State research funds
• Sources
• www.informs.org/Funds/funding.html
• University Grants Office

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Know your funding source

• NSF Mission
• to promote the progress of science
• to advance the national health, prosperity, and
  welfare
• and to secure the national defense.
• Fund basic research, not development

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Know your funding source
National Science Board
Office of theInspector General
FY 2004 5,481M Total 4,106M
RRA 202M MREFC
Director
584M
562M
938M
330M
132M
212M
537M
688M
1,061M
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Know your funding source
Warren DeVries (163.1M)
(SBIR 101M)
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Before you submitfind a home
GOALI IOC Don Senich
Dr. Warren DeVries
Talk to program officer
DMII
Engineering Decision Systems
Manufacturing Process and Equipment
Manufacturing Machines and Equipment George A.
Hazelrigg
OR Service Enterprise Engineering Suvrajeet Sen
Engineering Design Delcie Durham
Manufacturing Enterprise Systems Janet Twomey
Material Processing and Manufacture Jian Cao
Nano - manufacturing Julie Chen
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Why NSF funding?

• NSF blesses research rather than fully funding it
• NSF grants also carry prestige
• Beware, other types of funding
• can divert and bog you down if too low level (to
  publish), with rigid deliverables, tight due
  dates

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Who do they fund?

• MES,OR, IOC, and SEE Audience
• Academic
• Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing
  Engineering, Operations Research, and Operations
  Management

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How much money?When do I submit?

• Base budgets 3M each
• Dispensed in grants of 50-150K per year over 1-5
  years (375 for 3yrs)
• 150 proposals per year with 10-20 funded
• Most have due dates Oct 1 and Feb 1
• At steady state, with average grants of 300K,
  this is about 10 new grants per year per program

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Special award for new faculty?

• CAREER Award
• A special NSF program for young faculty
• Must be Assistant Prof on tenure track
• Minimum of 400k for 5yrs
• Proposals due in July
• Advantages prestige, compete with peers
• Still very competitive
• 10-20 funded
• Come out of same budget as regular grants

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Who Controls Whats Funded?

• At many agencies, the program director decides
  what proposals are funded
• Typically require some informal pre-proposal
  first
• At NSF all proposals are peer reviewed
• Most OR/MES/SEE done by ad hoc panels of 8-10
  researchers to evaluate 20-25 proposals spanning
  the whole program
• Reviews will be returned to you
• Program directors influence only at the margins
  (top 20-30 in panel rankings)

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Proposal Writing

• Get to the point early
• Summary/abstract is most important, the Intro
• State what problem you wish to study, how you
  propose to approach it, what is novel, and why
  results would be significant (science or social)
• Industrial partners/endorsements offer valuable
  evidence that the work is worth doing (few s)
• For NSF, remember that you are writing to a
  panel, not just experts on your topic
• Get colleagues/mentors to read your draft

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Grantsmanship

• Get to know the agencies, processes and program
  officers
• For NSF a good way is to volunteer to be a
  panelist (mail PD an electronic resume)
• Or attend the annual Grantees Conference (all
  active grants will be displayed, and PDs provide
  updates)
• Talk/work with colleagues (cross-discipln valued)
• Dont waste time on hopeless long shots
• Keep trying on the grants you really want
• Sometimes good idea to start with small budget

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Finally

• Please volunteer yourself (and your friends!!!!)
• Email basic areas of competence to
• Jtwomey_at_nsf.gov
• ssen_at_nsf.gov
• DMII Grantees Conference
• http//engr.smu.edu/nsf2004/
• Thank you

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Questions