While developing and refining your idea, it is important to identify early potential sponsors that might be interested in funding your project as well as specific funding opportunities available from a potential sponsor. This tactic can help you focus time and energy to those opportunities most likely to result in an award.

Some ways to identify potential sponsors, funding opportunities and recent awards include:

Scan the acknowledgementt section of the ‘products’ of scholarly endeavors applicable to your field, e.g. journal articles, monographs, presentations, installations , etc.
Ask your colleagues and peers, or advisors how their scholarship has been supported.
Search SU-subscription or publicly available databases for funding opportunities and recent award information.
- Consider what kind of funding you need (travel, fellowship, grad student, research etc)
- When do you need funding (plan ahead! - the entire application to award process, can take a year)
- How much money do you need?
- Is there anything unique about you or your project? e.g., location, junior faculty, post doc
- In the subscription resources, look up one or more funding opportunities you know "fit" your needs and review how it is described in the database, e.g., requirements, key words, eligibility or academic qualifications, citizenship, activities supported or funding type.
Review webs of likely funders for their current interests and recent grant recipients to confirm strong overlap between their goals and your project's focus or outcomes