4  Where to look for funding

Funding

You can look for funding in a wide variety of places, there are many databases ## What is a proposal?

In short a proposal is just a written documnet that lays out some vision for some series of activities. There are many different kinds of proposals for various types of funders.

4.1 How to think about grant proposals

When thinking about grant proposals, you’ll need to get in the headspace of those who will be making the funding decisions about whether or not to take the document you wrote, your proposal and fund it. If you’re applying to a research funding organization like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, European Horizon, you’ll need to consider that most of your reviewers will be scientists who will look at the intellectual contribution of your proposed activities to the greater scientific community. They’ll do this often under the guidelines of an overarching research program or initiative, which will usually have clearly articulated objectives and funding areas it will be focused on.

If you apply to a philanthropic foundation, it will have objectives as well, but these will often be less scientific and more impact-based. A proposal to a philanthropic foundation that focuses heavily on advancing science, or deep technological work, may not hit the mark. Many philanthropic foundations and entities are looking to make grants that have impacts they can measure, within areas they’ve articulated they’ll be contributing to. So the voice of a proposal to a foundation will be quite different than to a national science body.

4.2 Building industrial partnerships

Is your research interesting or important to businesses? Do you know they’ve been using your software for free, without contributing? There is a possibility you can build a mechanism for them to contribute. Companies often can’t or wont “just donate” money to projects. They need something they can invoice against that has some tangible benefits to the company articulated. They’ll need some kind of structure to which they’re contributing to that can be sold to management and leadership internally.

Examples of structures:

  • Annual conference access / sponsorship
  • Standards group
  • Learning / teaching materials development / access
  • Software interoperability group

To find what might work in your space, think about what kinds of “research questions” you might ask of people who use your software in Industry.

  • How do you use our software?
  • Why do you prefer our tools over other commercial tools?
  • Does your organization / company pay for software? What are the mechanisms they use to pay for it?
  • How are license seats for specific-use software tools managed inside your organization?
  • Do you participate and help to lead key non-competitive industrial development spaces?/
  • Is your organization a member of any societies or working groups?
    • What benefits do you get from these memberships?

Examples in the wild of membership models:

  • Industrial affiliates programs
    • Stanford (look up links)
    • MolSSI (find a link)
  • Carpentries Memberships
  • Jackson Lab Model
  • Academic Industrial Partnerships
    • Indiana Advanced Aerospace Manufacturers Alliance

When is it an industry association, working group, professional society, standards group, and when is it a business?

It is a business when they companies you’re targeting want some tangible service in return for money. Perhaps they want a support contract, or access to project-based consulting from your developers. This kind of engagement generally is better handled with a business entity like an LLC, Partnership, or Limited Company (depending on your part of the world). Industrial affiliates, or simple membership programs can be managed under the umbrella of a non-profit, like a university or fiscal sponsor entity.