Find Funding

U-M resources for help with finding funding

Michigan Research Launchpad

The Michigan Research Launchpad connects researchers to programs and support systems that can help them find the many units within the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) dedicated to furthering the impact of U-M’s research efforts and supporting more competitive proposals for external funding.

OVPR Office of Research Development

The OVPR Office of Research Development (ORD) strives to catalyze interdisciplinary collaborations and increase investigators’ competitiveness in pursuing extramural research funding. Leverage ORD resources and services, including:

• Funding for Research guide.
• Research Commons, a central site for limited submission and internal funding opportunities.
• Research Blueprint, a newsletter that shares funding announcements, workshops, limited submissions opportunities and more. (Send opportunities to include to [email protected].)

Research Funding and Grants Guide

The U-M Library’s Research Funding and Grants Guide provides resources for finding research funding, links to tools for each phase of the research lifecycle, ways to sign up for research funding news alerts and consultations with informationalists on funding and grant searches.

Corporate and Foundation Relations

Corporate and Foundation Relations (U-M login required) helps bridge campus and foundation partners to secure grant support for projects, programs and research. They provide a list of open funding opportunities, a grantwriter’s toolkit and more.

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances 

Corporate and Foundation Research Alliances is a team within Innovation Partnerships that provides faculty-facing support to convert relationships with industry and foundations into successful sponsored research collaborations. The team also provides alliance management support for ongoing large research collaborations with corporate partners, working to broaden these relationships across the research enterprise.

Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC)

Translational research funding is key early-stage grant money to enable the transition from successful academic research to an innovation that is sufficiently developed, de-risked and on the path to commercialization. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has provided funding for five MTRAC Translational Hubs across the state. Innovation Partnerships manages two hubs, MTRAC for Life Sciences and MTRAC for Advanced Transportation, and collaborates with hubs run by other institutions for Advanced Applied Materials, Advanced Computing and AgBio.

Technology Transfer Talent Network

The Technology Transfer Talent Network is a Michigan Economic Development Corporation-supported program that provides support for U-M postdocs who are working to advance technologies with significant commercialization potential.

Commercialization Gap Funding

When available the Innovation Partnerships Gap Fund provides small grants to faculty tied to the commercial advancement of U-M technologies and research discoveries. Typical gap fund activities include customer discovery efforts; retaining consultants to help model and test a new concept or to address compliance, regulatory, security or other market issues; and building market prototypes to demonstrate customer potential. Gap funds address the commercial validation of promising technologies and startup opportunities  and complement the technical readiness focus of translational research funding.

Accelerate Blue Fund

The Accelerate Blue Fund (AB Fund) is an early-stage venture fund run by Innovation Partnerships that invests in U-M licensed startups. The goal of Accelerate Blue is to bridge the funding gap between initial launch and angel/VC funding for startups based on University of Michigan intellectual property (IP).

ADVANCE Proof of Concept Fund

The ADVANCE proof of concept fund at Michigan State University is available to all Michigan public universities and creates a pipeline of de-risked technologies and fundable startup opportunities. Similar to the MTRAC program, the Advance program provides strong incentives for faculty at Michigan’s public universities to collaborate with their Technology Transfer Offices and engage in commercialization efforts. Awardees benefit by reaching key early-stage milestones, such as proof of concept or market validation, that pave the way for future commercialization.

Limited submissions

A limited submission is a funding opportunity where the sponsor restricts the number of applications U-M can submit. To prevent institutional disqualification, OVPR manages a centralized internal selection process. When submitting for limited submissions, project teams must have a written approval email from OVPR attached to the PAF in eRPM. Learn more about limited submissions and view a current list of limited submission funding opportunities.

Things to keep in mind for future steps with ORSP

Keep these points in mind in the early phases of finding funding and proposal development to smooth the process later:

• Signature authority. Only ORSP (as the authorized institutional representative, or AOR) has the authority to sign sponsored project grants and agreements on behalf of the University. Learn more about signature authority.
• Submission for review. All sponsored projects must be routed through ORSP via the eResearch Proposal Management (eRPM) system for review, approval and submission. Teams should create their records earlier in eRPM to route the proposal approval form (PAF) for unit review and approval before it is routed to ORSP. 
• Negotiation and agreement. Utilize ORSP for negotiation and review of agreements and sponsored contracts.
• Deadline policy. Plan proposal development with ORSP’s submission deadlines in mind to ensure a compliant review.

Pre-proposal unfunded agreements

Prior to or during the proposal development process, some sponsors or collaborators may require U-M to enter into an unfunded agreement, such as a non-disclosure agreement, teaming agreement or intellectual property management plan. These agreements should be routed to ORSP as Unfunded Agreements (UFAs) through eRPM.