National Science Foundation

NSF Structure
NSF's budgets and research agendas are determined by disciplinary and organizational units, including the Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering and the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences. Directorates include Divisions such as Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences and Programs such as Linguistics (both in SBE). Program Directors should be your first contact with NSF. People who've reviewed grant proposals are also a helpful local resource.

Co-review and co-funding across programs (even across divisions and directorates) is typical at NSF. Most of the interdisciplinary work done by faculty and students in the Cognitive Science Program can (and probably should) be sent to multiple programs. Below are programs in SBE that fund Cognitive Science research.

• Division of Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences
  • Perception, Action, & Cognition
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Developmental & Learning Sciences
  • Linguistics
• Division of Social & Economic Sciences
  • Decision, Risk, & Management Sciences
  • Law & Social Sciences,
  • Methodology, Measurement, & Statistic

Some Typical NSF Grant Types

• Regular research grants to faculty are the most typical of NSF's grants.
• Graduate Research Fellowship - GRFs provide multi-year support for beginning graduate students.
• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant - DDIGs provide support for dissertation projects (e.g., subject payment, equipment, travel). Importantly, they do not provide stipends for PI (typically the advisor) or co-PI (typically the student).
• CAREER Awards - These multi-year grants support beginning faculty. They require integration of research and education activities.

In addition, NSF supports conferences (proposals due a year before the proposed meeting), programmatic training (e.g., from the IGERT Program or in REU Sites), risky or exploratory research (e.g., via Small Grants for Exploratory Research), and outreach activities (e.g., various programs in the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education).

The NSF Grant Review Process
Most grants are reviewed by a combination of ad hoc reviewers and a standing panel, both review mechanisms managed by the Program Director. Proposals reviewed by multiple programs require cooperation of these reviews, which can add time to the review. NSF's turnaround is the shortest of the federal funding agencies though, typcially within six months. Some proposals are reviewed by ad hoc panels (e.g., IGERTs). All proposals to NSF, including GRF applications, are evaluated on two sets of criteria: intellectual merit and broader impacts.

National Institutes of Health

NIH Structure
Institutes have the budgets, the research agendas, and ultimately set the funding levels for grants. Below are some NIH institutes that fund research in Cognitive Science. Each institute usually has sub-programs with a contact person listed. Be sure to email or call that person as you prepare a proposal. S/he can often tell you the likely interest that the institute will have in the proposal, how to get the proposal reviewed by the most appropriate group, and other very helpful information.

• NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS funds research on hearing, ear infections, deafness, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. Click here for NIDCD staff contacts.
• NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT funds research on fertility, pregnancy, growth, development, and medical rehabilitation. Click here for NICHD staff contacts (You'll still need to do some digging.)
• NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING funds research on the biomedical, social, and behavioral aspects of the aging process; the prevention of age-related diseases and disabilities; and the promotion of a better quality of life for all older Americans. Click here for contact NIA information (each of the 4 research areas lists an email generic address.)
• NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE funds research, both basic and clinical, on the normal and diseased nervous system, fosters the training of investigators in the basic and clinical neurosciences, and seeks better understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders. Click here for NINDS staff contacts.
• NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH has as its goal understanding, treating, and preventing mental illnesses through basic research on the brain and behavior, and through clinical, epidemiological, and services research. Click here for general NIMH contacts, but probably the most relevant link for Cognitive Science is the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science.

Some Typical NIH Grant Types

• R01 - typical faculty research grant
• NIH Small Research Grant Program (R03) - The R03 award supports small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. These are sometimes good for first-time grant applications.
• NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21) - The R21 is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects.
• Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) - For student support during the later part of the Ph.D. program Note, many institutes fund these for students from minority groups or students with disabilities, however, fewer institutes fund F31's across the board. Check with the relevant institute(s) before submitting.
• Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (F32) - More institutes fund these, but again, you need to check before submitting.

The NIH Grant Review Process

• The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) organizes study sections on particular research areas that might cut across institutes. R01's and other research grants are often reviewed by this mechanism. For example, the LCOM (Language and Communication) study section reviews grants that are funded by NICHD, NIDCD and NIMH. The types of grants reviewed in this way include most of the Investigator Initiated Research Grant (R01) applications (and sometimes review small numbers of R03, R21, Conference, AREA and K applications, among others).
• Standing committees within particular institutes often review RFA's (requests for applications on specific agency-priority topics), training grants, and some fellowships. For more information on where a particular fellowship application might be reviewed, look at the CSR Fellowship website.