Grants, Funding, & Research | Postdoctoral Affairs | Case Western Reserve University

Office of Research & Technology Management

Nord Hall, 615 / 216.368.4510 / resadm@case.edu

Steps to Submitting a Grant Application:

* All grants need to be routed through CWRU's internal processes prior to submission. Keep this in mind when the grant submission deadline is approaching; allow a few extra weeks of processing time.

Step 1: Complete the Steps to get Research Ready and be aware of any Regulatory Requirements.

This includes (but is not limited to), getting access to the following:

Completing a Spiderweb Profile
Requesting a SpartaPre Account
Requesting a SpartaCOI Account
Completing the COI Disclosure Form

Step 2: Find Funding Opportunities

Search for funding opportunities using some of the following databases:

Step 3: Check in with the Office of Research Compliance

The mission of the Office of Research Compliance (ORC) is to ensure University compliance with federal, state, and local regulations with regard to research. Their office will ensure you are following all appropriate guidelines in your research.

Step 4: Work with your mentor to submit the application.

Be sure you have garnered their support for submitting the funding application. Your mentor should then help you develop your research proposal, lay out a timeline, and submit the application following your department or school's policies and procedures.

SPARTA Grants

SPARTA Grants will oversee the submission, management, and tracking of sponsored projects at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).

Data Management Plan (DMP) Tool

DMPTool is a web application that helps researchers create a data management plan (DMP) for their grant application. It provides assistance throughout the process of writing a DMP, including advice about what to include in order to satisfy institutional as well as prominent granting agency requirements. Also included with the application are DMP templates from funding agencies and links to helpful resources. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and data management best practices resources. Log in using your CWRU email address.

Find the Research Data Lifecycle Guide for guidance and best practices in the following areas:

Open Access

The Open Access Policy was proposed by FSCUL was officially approved by the Faculty Senate in 2024. Four major publisher deals were negotiated by OhioLINK that allow CWRU authors to publish OA articles at no cost. The multiyear deals were implemented with Cambridge, Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley and often include new journals for researchers to access.

There is also a summary of several CWRU-local OA publishing opportunities provided, including a major deal being finalized with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Other local OA opportunities include Scholarly Commons @CWRU, CWRU's open-access repository of scholarly content produced by faculty, staff, and students, as well as a hosting platform for campus journals and research events.

CWRU authors have the opportunity to share their scholarly articles, books, gray literature, and more on Scholarly Commons to increase access and broaden their readership.
Contact for more information: Karen Caputo (kxc835@case.edu)

Need some help writing a grant and don't know where to start?

Check out NIH RePORTER's list of PIs at CWRU who have been awarded specific grant types. They may be able to offer valuable advice or input into the application process.

In the search bar, type 'Case Western Reserve University'
Click Charts on the left side.
Summary By: Activity Code.
This will give a list of the different types of grants. Cntrl+F to find the one you're looking for (R01, R00, K99, etc). Click the link with the total Projects.
This will bring up all of the PIs who have been awarded that grant type.
Click Organization to sort CWRU to the top.

The Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIE) at CWRU School of Medicine works to foster commercialization, build relationships with pharmaceutical and biomedical device corporations, and develop strong partnerships in biomedical research at all levels.

Flora Stone Mather Center for Women - Research & Professional Development Grants

The Flora Stone Mather Center for Women offers grants to support the professional development and research of women-identified individuals in underrepresented fields such as STEM and research on feminism or women and gender equity.

Typical grant amounts range from $100–$800; however, they will consider larger requests. Proposals can be for such items as:

Publication subventions
Participant incentives
Research materials
Travel for research
Travel to conferences in cases where the applicant is on the program
Travel to professional development on feminism or women and gender equity

NIH Loan Repayment Programs

The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) provide educational loan debt relief to help both intramural and extramural NIH researchers stay in the career they love and continue to make a significant impact on the public health of this nation and around the world. In exchange for a commitment to conduct biomedical and behavioral research, the NIH will repay on-fourth of the total eligible debt, up to $50,000, for each year of the award.

* Applications accepted September 1 - November 15.

Funding Opportunities - Database from Johns Hopkins University

This is a continuously updated repository of federal and private funding opportunities that are intended for postdoctoral investigators. The opportunities are pre-sorted chronologically and alphabetically, and can be searched by funding amount and subject matter.

Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, please refer to the sponsor’s funding announcement for complete details on each opportunity.

See the data base here

Responsible Conduct of Research

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) means having high standards of ethics and accountability in planning, conducting and reporting research. Responsible Conduct of Research is demonstrated through behavior that meets generally accepted standards. These standards are set forth by state and federal regulations, institutional policies, professional codes of conduct and personal convictions.

The building blocks of Responsible Conduct of Research include:

Honesty: conveying information truthfully and honoring commitments,
Accuracy: reporting findings precisely and taking care to avoid errors,
Efficiency: using resources wisely and avoiding waste, and
Objectivity: letting the facts speak for themselves and avoiding improper bias

Scientific Illustrations

Often postdocs have a need to make scientific illustrations for magazines or presentations.

For software, we recommend BioRender to help you create scientific figures.

For local assistance, we recommend reaching out to the Cleveland Institute of Art; they have a Life Sciences Illustration major. Postdocs can email Thomas Nowacki (Chair) (tnowacki@cia.edu) and Beth Halasz (ehalasz@cia.edu) on the same email. Thomas and Beth will share your email with the students to see if anyone wants to pick up the job (CIA students can do contract-based work). Students will reach out to the postdoc directly via email if they are interested. Please be sure your email contains your name and email, approximate project deadline (try to allow at least 14-30 days), budget, and a concise description of the project needs.

When someone reaches out to you about the job, feel free to ask the students to submit a resume and/or small PDF portfolio of their work to apply for the job. Cost would depend mostly on the scope and complexity of the work. The ballpark range would be around $300-1000+. This would very much depend on the scope of the piece. A single, b/w, relatively "normal" piece might be in the lower range, while a more complex, full-color piece would be on the higher end.

For any work being done, there should be a contract in place and it should address copyrights. Typically, medical/scientific illustrators maintain the copyright to their work and license work to the client for the requested needs (publishing, presentation, etc.)