Where to find information about funding sources

There are a number of excellent resources which can help you in your quest for a source of grant funding. Here are a few starting points.

Research Councils UK (RCUK) provide a one-stop web portal which gives you access to all the Research Councils’ websites as well as general information about how to apply for Research Council funding. Research Councils’ own web pages will contain details of their funding programmes and news of any calls for research proposals in specific areas.

ResearchProfessional.com is an online newspaper which outlines research funding opportunities. It is a subscription service, but many universities have an institutional subscription and it is possible to apply for a personal login if you belong to a subscribing institution. It is particularly good for alerting you to smaller, more specialist or international sources of funding, which might be hard to track down otherwise. The site also posts digests of news that is relevant to the research community. It allows you to set up email alerts for news of funding opportunities in your chosen discipline and location. Contact your university’s Research Office if you want more details of how to access the site.

Community of Science is good for discovering funding opportunities and operates globally 

Do not discount newspapers and magazines as sources of information. Those which cover areas related to your research discipline will often carry news of one-off opportunities for funding.

Networking and networking sites such as Linkedin are a potential resource for identifying available funding in your research area.

Finally don’t forget to make use of your own university’s resources. The Research Office, the Staff Development Unit (or similar), your line manager and senior colleagues will all be able to help you devise a strategy to locate the information you need.

International

Euraxess runs a search engine for funding for international mobility (inward and outbound).