US Federal Agencies
- Introduction
- Summary of US Federal Funding and availability to foreign organisations
- Agency Funding Profiles
- Other Key Advice
Introduction
Funding from federal (government) agencies in the United States of America has become an increasingly important part of the research funding portfolio at Oxford over recent years. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, has been one of the top 10 funders of research at Oxford over this period, whilst Oxford researchers have been successful in securing grants and contracts from a range of other US federal agencies such as the Department of Defence (and its sub-agencies such as DARPA, Office of Naval Research, US Air Force), Department of Education and Department of Energy.
We are very grateful to Wendi Hayes of the Office of Sponsored Projects at the University of California, Berkeley who, during an extended visit to Research Services in early 2012, developed the resources below to support Oxford researchers in identifying and accessing US federal funding. For further information or advice please contact your Research Services Divisional Team
Summary of US Federal Funding and availability to foreign organisations
The Federal Funders Profiles Summary 
(84kb) provides a summary of US federal funding by granting agency, the amount of research funding it allocated in a recent financial year and whether funding is available to foreign organisations (either directly as lead/sole applicant or via a sub-award on a project led by a US institution).
Agency Funding Profiles
Based on the summary information above, more detailed profiles have been developed for a selection of those agencies that currently offer the greatest opportunities for researchers at Oxford (in terms of scale of funding available and/or its availability to non-US organisations).
Each of the profiles provides a brief summary of the agency focus and its funding mechanisms, how to identify funding opportunities and submit proposals, and other points that might prove useful to Oxford researchers and Departments. Each profile also gives an indication of the scale of funding UC Berkeley received from that agency in a recent financial year, including the corresponding UC Berkeley Departments in receipt of the funding.
| Agency for International Development (USAID) (67kb) |
| Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (79kb) |
| Department of the Air Force (106kb) |
| Department of the Army (173kb) (note: Department of the Army and other Department of Defense agencies, fund across a range of disciplines including medical programs related to the public as well as the military) |
| Department of the Navy (97kb) |
| Department of Education (DOED) (65kb) |
| Department of Energy (DOE) (91kb) |
| Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (105kb) (excluding NIH) |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) (137kb) (please also see our dedicated NIH web page in particular for more details on the submission process and management of resulting awards) |
Other Key Advice
- All federal grant funding opportunities are advertised on Grants.gov. Grants.gov is also usually the electronic system through which applications for grant funding are submitted (for specific details see the information included in the call).
- Research Services has produced a factsheet - How to use Grants.gov to find funding opportunities (1,530kb) containing hints and tips on how to use Grants.gov effectively to identify funding opportunities.
- Advice is available on using Grants.gov for the submission of NIH applications. The Grants.gov submission route is not as straightforward as many other electronic systems and we advise researchers to allow additional time for the uploading and submission of applications.
- Some federal agencies also fund through research contracts (contracts are issued in connection with a call for specific programmes of work or activities). These are advertised in various places including the agencies’ own websites and on FebBizOpps and FedConnect.
- It is always strongly advised to talk to the Program Official/Scientific Officer when considering the preparation of a proposal. Some calls will specifically require that you do this first (especially when submitting as a foreign organisation). Program Officials can give good advice on the potential fit of your proposal to the agency’s call and discuss how to address any particular application requirements (e.g. the foreign component justification of an NIH proposal led by a non-US organisation).