Instructions on How to Apply for Funding Opportunities

 
The School of Social Sciences encourages all graduate students to apply for extramural funding opportunities (grants, fellowships, etc.) available through a variety of funding agencies. Before you begin applying for any external funding opportunities, please take a moment to review the application steps.

 

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Applying for Extramural Funding

Please confer with your academic advisor well in advance of applying to any of these agencies to determine whether you are academically prepared to do so. All decisions regarding grant and fellowship applications should be made in consultation with the student's advisor. Such consultation should occur well in advance of the grant deadlines, including the internal UC Irvine deadlines.

Step 1: Identifying Sources and Types of Funding

To begin the process for applying for external funding opportunities, you must first determine the agency and grant/fellowship to which you will be applying.

As you are researching different types of funding opportunities, you will find that there are three categories in which your grant/fellowship will fall:

Type 1

Monetary awards are directly paid to the student. You, the student, communicate directly with Social Sciences Office of Contracts & Grants, at the proposal stage only, and the granting agency/sponsor. Ex.: American Sociological Association

Type 2

Monetary awards are made to the university, rather than the student, and distributed through the Social Sciences Office of Contracts & Grants. You communicate with the agency via the Social Sciences Office of Contracts & Grants. Ex.: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, grants.gov

Hybrids - least common

Monetary awards are directly paid to the university but do not require Sponsored Projects Administration approval. You, the student, communicate directly with the granting agency/sponsor and work with the Social Sciences Office of Contracts & Grants at both the proposal and award stage. Ex.: UC Pacific Rim

To determine the type of funding to which you are applying, please contact Jin Chae, Social Sciences Contracts and Grants Manager (jin.chae@uci.edu; 949.824.2601). This information is important to determine at the beginning of the process as it will dictate how your funds will be distributed and tracked.

 

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Step 2: The Application Process

Type 1 or Hybrid

If you are applying for a Type 1 or Hybrid grant/fellowship, please complete and submit a Graduate Student Proposal Information Sheet. Your graduate student proposal contact will work with you on the pre-award details for your grant/fellowship (budget, budget justification, compilation of proposal components).

Type 2

If you are applying for a Type 2 grant/fellowship, you will need to contact your appropriate department manager at least one month prior to the grant application due date to begin the application/proposal process. Your department manager will work with you on the pre-award details for your grant/fellowship (budget, budget justification, compilation of proposal components) and provide university application cover materials.

 

 

 

For all other programs, centers, etc., please contact Jin Chae (jin.chae@uci.edu; 949.824.2601) for assistance.
 

 

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Step 3: Notification of Awards

Type 1

If you applied for a Type 1 grant/fellowship, you will be contacted directly by the grant agency/sponsor concerning any awards. Please notify the analyst listed on the Graduate Student Proposal Information Sheet.

Type 2 & Hybrids

If you applied for a Type 2 grant/fellowship, you and the Principal Investigator (PI) will receive notification concerning any awarded funds through Jin Chae, Manager, Social Sciences Contracts and Grants Liaison (jin.chae@uci.edu; 949.824.2601). Occasionally, students receiving Type 2 & Hybrids grants/fellowships are contacted directly by the funding agency regarding awards. If this happens, please contact Jin Chae (jin.chae@uci.edu; 949.824.2601) to let her know you have received notification.

After receiving notification of your award, you will need to schedule a meeting with Jin Chae (jin.chae@uci.edu; 949.824.2601) to fill out the necessary paperwork required to receive funds.

Your award is not official until you have received an award synopsis. DO NOT begin working on your funded project or begin spending funds until you have received your award synopsis and subsequent account number from assigned Business Office Analyst. You will NOT be reimbursed for any funds spent prior to receiving your account number.

 

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Step 4: Receiving Your Funds

Type 1

If you applied for a Type 1 grant/fellowship, you will be contacted directly by the grant agency/sponsor concerning the manner in which you will receive the actual funds. Some agencies prefer to give money all at one time while others prefer to pay in installments. In either case, the funds will be distributed directly to you.

Type 2 & Hybrids

Contact Jin Chae (jin.chae@uci.edu, 949.824.2601) for details on the distribution of your Type 2 award funding.

 

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Step 5: Post-Award Details

Type 1

Follow awarding agency guidelines.

Type 2 & Hybrids

You will receive a monthly statement detailing your account activity for all Type 2 funds. If you have questions at any point in the post-award phase, please contact Jin Chae (jin.chae@uci.edu or 949.824.2601).