Getting Started – how to get the most out of RDFunding
1. Home page explained
2. Search for funding opportunities
Searching the RDFundingdatabase allows you to pull out a collection of relevant grants, do this by choosing Search from the home page. The criteria search screen below will then appear:
- Research Area
- Type
- Amount
- Duration
- Keyword
- Freetext
RDFunding allows you to select a term from one or more criteria. If you select two criteria the database will look for grants that match both criteria. It is therefore recommended that as a searching strategy you search on one term first, and then add other terms to refine the search. You can also select the order of the results (alphabetical by funding organisation or by closing date). You can also choose to see all grants selected from your search or just those whose closing dates are in the next 3 or 6 months.
Two keywords are available to show specific opportunities available for nurse researchers:
- Nursing - this shows all funding awards including those from International sources
- Nursing only - this shows funding awards specifically available for nurses from UK sources only
Once the search has been run, you can click on either the funding source name or the grant name to select more information from the search results.
For Freetext searching select 'Freetext Search' at the top left hand side of the 'Criteria Search' form. The following screen will then appear:
The freetext search facility is ideal if you are looking for funding that is disease specific.
As with the Criteria search, you can click on either the funding source name or the grant name to select more information from the search results.
Some advice on Searching
- Start with just one search term and see what you get from that. If you get too many results, then re-run the search with an extra term to narrow the results down. Continue this process until you get a manageable set of awards.
- You cannot search for multiple terms in the same field. For example, you cannot search for awards that apply both to Community Care and Primary Care. To do this you must run two separate searchers.
- A number of funding sources don't specify how much the award will be for or how long it will last. Therefore you are advised to carry a search for 'unspecified' using the Amount and Duration criteria.
- For funding that is disease specific, use the Freetext search facility. For example if you type 'Brain Injury' in the box and run the Freetext search button, the result will show all the funding sources and awards that contain the phrase 'Brain Injury'. It will not produce results where 'Brain' and 'Injury' are listed separately.
3. Funding by closing date
This section allows you to look at all awards which have a
closing date in any given month. Select Funding by Closing Date
on the home page and the screen below will show:
There are different formats for you to view this
information:
- Abridged - shows the funding organisation name only
- Newsletter - this provides more details including the organisation name, grant name, aims and funding available for the award, amount and funding criteria and closing date.
- Confirmed Dates only - same format as the newsletter but shows confirmed dates only.
Note: Not all funding bodies specify closing dates, and others have multiple closing dates of which only the first one is included in the closing date listings. More details can be found in the comments section of the relevant grants. There are two other groups of funding sources which either do not have fixed closing dates where you can Apply Anytime, or the next closing date is not known and are Unspecified
4. New entries
Find out what has been added or amended to the RDFunding database in the last 7 days, by selecting 'New Entries and Newsletter' from the home page. This is a good place to keep track of the latest calls for proposals.
For those of you who are responsible for disseminating information on funding opportunities round your organisation, you can produce a tailored newsletter showing the latest calls for proposals. If you use this facility, please acknowledge RDFunding as the source of the information and direct people to the website.
5. Profiling service
Another method of ensuring you are kept up-to-date on the latest calls is to register for updates. RDFunding will send you a weekly email including links to the grants which match your registered area(s) of interest. You can specific as many or as few areas as you like, or you can choose 'any' to be alerted about all funding opportunities, irrespective of the relevance.
6. Special editions
RDFunding have produced a range of Special Editions, pulling together information relating to types of research awards available. Of particular interest to nurses is the Nursing edition listing all the current grants available. The list of titles also includes grants for new researchers, travel awards and open opportunities.
7. Research process flowchart (including "Costing a proposal")
The Research Process Flowchart has been designed to help new researchers by compressing the process into ten steps, starting with turning your idea into a research question, through to disseminating the research findings. Included in the flowchart is a checklist of potential costing which should be considered when putting together a research proposal.
8. Applying for Funding
RDFunding has been given permission by Richard Jones and Brian Payne to publish some extracts from their book which deals with 'Writing a good application'. Though initially written for laboratory workers and clinicians, it will also be useful for other healthcare professionals. For other extracts and to find out more about the book select 'Support' on the home page.
9. Student Grants and Bursaries
For those looking for funding for a further degree, it is worth searching the database for 'types of awards' matching Studentships, Training Bursariesand Fellowships to see if any are available to you. Although strictly outside the remit of RDFunding, they have added some information on Student Bursaries and Grants which might help.
10. RDLearning
RDLearning - provides information on post-qualification courses, workshops, short courses and conferences available to health and social care professionals. RDLearning currently holds details of over 5,500 educational events and can be searched by geographical area, subject, keyword or level of qualification.
11. RDDirect
RDDirect is a signposting service for researchers. If you need any help or
advice with your research simply call RDDirect on 0113 29511 22 or email at
12. Feedback
Please help RDFunding make their website better, tell them what you like and what you don't, as well as what else you would like them to provide. This can be done either by the feedback form or by email.