Proposal Development – Idea Refinement
Although we may not be experts in your discipline, we can assist you with refining your ideas, a process that leads to multiple outcomes, including:
- Developing broad ideas into clearly defined components, each of which lays the groundwork for your long term agenda for research, scholarship and creative endeavors
- Identification of potential collaborators
- Identification of internal and external funding opportunities that fit both your broad ideas as well as the more clearly defined components.
Expertise
It is critical for researchers to keep their academic profiles up-to-date because:
- Researchers with up-to-date academic profiles find it easier to search for collaborators, keep an eye on the competition and see what work in your field is being funded
- Research offices use this information to keep track of internal research capabilities, publicize research capabilities externally, identify peer reviewers for articles and proposals, discover prospective collaborators for ongoing research projects and systematically disseminate relevant grant information to individual faculty
- Corporations and R&D organizations are looking for prospective collaborators, ways to leverage existing R&D efforts and ways to keep up-to-date with basic science and academic research
- Federal funding agencies are searching for peer reviewers.
Expertise Resources
- Appalachian Faculty Portal
- This page is a one-stop guide to information to help you be successful in your career as a faculty member at Appalachian. The Portal was developed and is maintained by the Hubbard Center for Faculty Development.
- Community of Science Expertise database
- Contains 480,000 profiles of researchers, scholars and experts. This international database, spanning all academic disciplines, allows you to identify and locate potential collaborators on campus, at other University of North Carolina system campuses, or at other institutions in the United States or internationally.
- Appalachian & the Community Together (ACT)
- Appalachian State University's clearinghouse for community service, service-learning, and community-based research opportunities within the NC High Country area, as well as across the state, nation, and world. ACT maintains an extensive database that can connect the needs of non-profit agencies with student volunteers.
Funding Mechanisms
Funding agencies (sponsors) distribute funds to support sponsored programs through a variety of mechanisms. A sponsored program is defined as any scholarly, professional and creative activity that University of North Carolina-affiliated personnel conduct with support from external funding.
Funding Opportunities
The process of locating and evaluating funding opportunities begins once you have refined your ideas. The Office of Proposal Development offers a variety of resources and the requisite expertise to assist you with locating internal (within Appalachian State University) and external (sponsors like federal departments and agencies, state agencies, and foundations) funding opportunities.
