We often think about grant writing as a means to secure funding for a specific research project, but there are other types of funding that can be useful during your career, including training grants, fellowships, equipment grants, and conference grants. 

🧑‍🎓 Institutional Training Grants 

Training grants support cohorts of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, staff, teachers, and/or faculty in a professional training program. Typically, a team of faculty mentors apply for a training grant to support these cohorts in a program they manage. Training grants are often limited submissions, so institutions are restricted in how many applications they can submit. If you're interested in applying for a training grant, be sure to reach out to your limited submissions team. 

📚 Individual Fellowships 

Fellowships support researchers of all career stages so that they can invest themselves in scholarship (e.g., research, writing, training). Unlike many other funding mechanisms, researchers apply for fellowships directly and receive funds directly from the supporting organization rather than applications and funds being routed through the institution as in many other funding mechanisms. Fellowships are ideal for faculty of all fields that need dedicated time to invest fully in a project. 

🔬 Equipment grants 

Equipment grants are a mechanism where institutions apply to fund large-scale equipment to be shared across the university and sometimes beyond. You may not be aware of the wealth of shared equipment across campus already available to researchers, but if there is equipment you think would further enhance the institution’s resources, talk to your institution about applying for an equipment grant. UC Davis Research Core Facilities recently launched a Research Cores Directory to search for existing campus resources to use for your work: https://research.ucdavis.edu/research-support/research-core-facilities/core-directory/. Much like with training grants, equipment grants are often limited submissions, so be sure to reach out to the relevant campus offices if you’re interested in this funding mechanism. 

🤝 Conference Grants 

Organizing a conference or workshop is a great way to network with colleagues and generate publications. Many funding agencies offer funding to facilitate convenings, and they are ideal for junior faculty who are still building their research programs and looking to make connections with others in specialty areas. 

🔹 Bottom Line 

While we often think about grants to support specific projects, there are other funding opportunities for those who are looking to support training cohorts of students, writing a book, or coordinating a conference. To learn more about any of these types of funding, visit our website at https://proposaldev.ucdavis.edu/other-funding-opportunities.