Using the Community of Science (COS)
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How to use COS:Once you have joined COS (join here), the main page is called "My Workbench". From the workbench, one can access all of COS's functions, as well as enter person professional information that helps guide COS in finding funding opportunities for you. The main page is easy to navigate, a row of tabs remains on the top and these can be used to move through the site.
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The navigation tabs (above) will take the user to all of the sites main features:
Workbench Home: The main site for storing personal professional information and updating and adding funding alerts.
Search COS Expertise: A search engine of professional who use COS both on campus and beyond.
Search COS Funding Opportunities: The page for the main funding opportunities search. It is a useful resource for finding specific research funding and other awards and opportunities.
COS Reference Services: Another funding opportunities search that incorporates funding information from many other services and associations.
News: The latest news from the world of research and funding.
Searching COS for Funding Opportunities:To search for Funding Opportunities, click the “Search COS Funding Opportunities” tab at the top of the site.
You will be taken to a search engine. For a simple keyword search, use the text box provided. However, for an undergraduate student, it would be advantageous to select “Main Search” for a more detailed search tailored to the specific needs of an undergraduate student.
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Once inside the main search, there will be many fields available to help narrow down the search and provide more useful results for each individual.
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All Fields: A useful way of finding alerts for specific research. Example: “Zebra Mussels” or “Great Lakes” instead of broader topics such as “Earth Science” or “Biology”.
Sponsor: A self explanatory field used when the searcher would like to specify which sponsor their funding comes from.
Title: The Title is the name assigned to the specific Funding Opportunity. In the absence of an official, sponsor-supplied title, a descriptive title may be added by the COS technical editors. Here you can search by title.
Abstract: The Abstract provides a general description of the Funding Opportunity. The Abstract field may include information that also appears in other fields. Here you can search for keywords within the opportunities abstract.
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Deadline: The Deadline field contains deadline information as it is made available to COS. When a series of deadline dates for the processing of an application is provided, all mandatory deadlines are included in this field. Using this, the researcher can make sure they only get information on opportunities that fit his or her time schedule.
Internal Coordination: For some opportunities, sponsors accept only a limited number of proposals or applications from an institution or require an institution to rank or prioritize applications before submission. Undergraduate Researchers should always keep this box unchecked.
Amount: The numeric Amount field can be searched to identify opportunities for an exact amount of funding or for more (or less) than a designated amount.
Keywords: The Keyword field utilizes a large body of controlled vocabulary terms. These COS keyword terms succinctly describe the areas to which Funding Opportunities pertain. Clicking “Browse” will take the searcher to a calculated list of areas of study which can help narrow down the search by specifying the field or fields in which the searcher would like to conduct his or her research.
Activity Location: Activity Location identifies any requirements about where the grants may be used. Click on the 'Browse' button to open a second window and browse or search listings of valid location terms. It can be narrowed down to country or state is so desired.
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Requirements: Undergraduates should make sure to always have "Undergraduate Student" highlighted in the requirements field.This will assure that they only receive funding opportunities that they are eligible for.
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Citizenship or Residency: Defining a search using the Citizenship field will return all funding opportunities available specifically to citizens or residents of the chosen country(s) as well as the opportunities whose citizenship requirements are unrestricted or unspecified. To select more than one option, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (the Apple key for Mac users) and use your mouse to click.
Funding Type: The Funding Type field describes the type of activity or activities a Sponsor is willing to support for a particular Funding Opportunity. To select more than one option, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (the Apple key for Mac users) and use your mouse to click.
Sponsor Type: The Sponsor Type field contains the classification of a sponsor for a Funding Opportunity. To select more than one option, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (the Apple key for Mac users) and use your mouse to click.
Finally...make sure everything is correct and:
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For information on creating Email funding alerts please download this 2 page PDF.
FUNDING ALERTS are pre-composed searches that run weekly and locate new opportunities in your fields of interest and email them to you once a week. They are useful for helping undergraduates stay updated with the latest news in grants and awards in their research interests.
