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MSU’s Office of Research Development leads strategic initiatives, locates and communicates research opportunities, provides proposal development, and fosters collaboration through networking. We help you find funding opportunities for your research and scholarship, and then provide resources and assistance to submit the most competitive proposals possible to external sponsors.

We are a highly qualified team of six, with specialization in areas of team science and interdisciplinary science, research impact, and budget development, to name a few. Our office also has extensive expertise with multiple federal sponsors.

Research Development can be thought of as “pre-pre-award”; it occurs early in the grant life cycle and focuses predominately on content, resources, and relationship building to increase the competitiveness of a given grant proposal. OSP handles submission and post-award phases of a grant, with emphasis on compliance and reporting. It is mandatory that researchers engage with OSP, while ORD engagement is optional.

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We can be as involved in the development of your grant proposal as you would like. Our services are a la carte; you may request as many or as few services as fits your needs. You will be assigned to work with a member(s) of our team based on the services requested.  

Yes! ORD services are freely available to the MSU Bozeman community.

Anyone affiliated with MSU who is pursuing funding for their scholarship and research is encouraged to contact ORD for support.

Currently, we have capacity to assist proposals of any size and scope. ORD services are not restricted to any proposal classification or discipline.

No, our office does not write grant proposals; investigators are responsible for writing their own proposals and ultimately for their proposal as a whole. However, ORD does provide non-technical reviews, including suggestions to strengthen a proposal’s content and narrative.

Yes, many templates are available on our Resources page. If you do not find what you are looking for, contact our office for assistance!

No, your OSP Fiscal Manager remains the person who will submit your final proposal to an external sponsor.

Services requiring at least 2 business days:
  • Locating funding
  • Solidifying a preliminary idea
  • Assessing proposal fit
  • Providing templates and institutional boilerplate language
Services requiring at least 3 business days:
  • Developing a white paper/concept paper for a potential sponsor
  • Interpreting proposal reviews and resubmission strategizing
  • Identifying potential proposal collaborators
  • Procuring examples of previously successful proposals
  • Consulting on intellectual merit and broader impacts
  • Conducting internal reviews of proposals (project description or equivalent)
Services requiring at least 5 business days:
  • Conducting internal review of proposals (full package)
  • Writing letters of institutional support
  • Collecting, organizing and verifying proposal documents for upload
Services requiring at least 4-6 weeks:
  • Coordinating limited submissions
  • Facilitating external reviews of proposals (if eligible)
  • Securing other external forms of specialized proposal support (if eligible)
Services requiring at least 12 weeks:
  • Supporting complex, multi-investigator proposals (Budget > $1M)

To avoid any unforeseen circumstances that may hinder the submission process, we urge PIs to submit their final proposal package to the Office of Sponsored Programs 72 hours in advance of their deadline!

PIs of limited submission proposals are required to participate in internal white paper competitions coordinated by ORD via InfoReady. Otherwise, our services are opt-in.

Limited Submissions are funding opportunities that allow a specific and limited number of proposals from a given institution. Extra submissions can result in rejection of all proposals submitted by that institution. ORD manages internal competitions to comply with sponsors’ limited submission guidelines. InfoReady is MSU’s internal application portal for coordinating limited submissions proposals and determining the competitive process when interest in the funding opportunity exceeds the allowable application limit. See the MSU limited submission policy for more information.

If you find a funding opportunity of interest that is limited but not entered into InfoReady, please contact ORD immediately to establish an internal competition or seek approval on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

For any competition that does not restrict the number of applications, reach out to ORD for assistance and contact your OSP Fiscal Manager to let them know you’re interested in applying.

Yes! The Office of Research and Economic Development funding opportunities can be found here.

You can email us directly at ord@montana.edu or fill out the support request form on our website. You can also stop by our new location on the third floor of the MSU Library within the Research Alliance space.