The Libraries now provide access to an exciting new grant finding tool to assist faculty and administrators in finding funding sources for research. The Community of Science Funding Opportunities (COSFO) is one of the largest, most comprehensive databases of U.S. and international funding information. Currently it has 25,000 searchable records, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion.

As one of the nation’s top research universities, UC Irvine is improving lives through the discovery and dissemination of knowledge in numerous forms to all levels of society. Our faculty bring in over $300 million annually in grants and contracts from the federal and state governments. Almost $224 million of that is spent on the expenses of doing research: buildings, equipment and staff. So it is no surprise that faculty are constantly looking for new opportunities for funding.

As partners in the educational enterprise, the Libraries provide not only the books and journals to do scholarly research, but also the tools faculty need to find these funding sources. COSFO is valuable not only for the number of sources of funding a researcher can find but also because it serves researchers in all disciplines– natural sciences, social sciences, technology, arts, and humanities. COFSO allows faculty and graduate students to find the resources they need in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $10,000,000.

In addition to this new resource, the Libraries have an on-going commitment to meeting the changing and growing information needs of the UCI campus. It is not enough to provide the tool or resource, we also work hard to provide access -- through guides and specialized resource pages. These resources will help UCI to continue to be an economic engine that drives Orange County in the 21st century. For further information on COFSO, please contact John Sisson, Research Librarian, at 949.824.4980 or jsisson@uci.edu.