Research Commons

A new tool curated by the Office of the Vice President for Research promotes internal funding opportunities from across campus so faculty can generate support to advance research and scholarship.

Research Commons, launched this month, provides a unique shopping experience for researchers to identify internal funding opportunities in one space without having to navigate multiple websites.

More than 20 units already use a web-based competition platform to help researchers find and apply for internal funding opportunities, but the platform does not allow for cross-promotion even though many of the opportunities overlap eligible faculty. Research Commons was developed so that internal funding opportunities already featured on the platform can now be promoted through one campuswide portal.

Some internal funding opportunities are only applicable to graduate students, while others target junior faculty or postdoctoral researchers. Research Commons addresses this through filters so users can identify opportunities based on job classification, as well as funding type, school or college, and area of research.

Members of the campus community can advertise and promote funding opportunities from InfoReady Review to Research Commons by following the steps below:

• Within InfoReady Review, from the Details page of your competition, select “YES” to the new question, “Increase Awareness of this Competition”

• On the Finalize page of your competition, click “Configure Tile” to open a window in Research Commons to create your tile

• Upload an interesting image to capture users’ attention

• Insert a Short Title (80 characters), a longer description (140 characters) and any three custom fields, such as Due Date, Amount of Funding, Eligibility, etc.

• Select which “Store front” or categories your opportunity is part of (pilot/seed, a limited submission, etc.)

• The most important step is to check as many boxes in the Search Configuration as applicable, and include as many keywords as applicable since this will be the best way faculty will search for opportunities on the site.

When faculty open your tile on Research Commons, they will be directed to your competition in InfoReady Review. Also, when your deadline passes, the tile is automatically removed from the site so there is no need to go back and make changes.

Research Commons can also advertise internal funding opportunities for those that do not use InfoReady Review by uploading basic information through the “Create a Tile” form on Research Commons. The goal is to advertise as many internal opportunities we have to make it easier for faculty to find.