OSR Information Team

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (OSR) information team provides information about opportunities for research funding and communicates useful and accurate information that contributes to the success of the research enterprise. It assists researchers by locating Requests for Proposals, forms, application materials, and agency guidelines. The information team provides training for staff and others involved in research, and also oversees the processing of proposals and awards, and maintains OSR's internal data systems.

OSR maintains and utilizes a number of electronic resources to assist researchers in finding support for projects. The major resources are Community of Science (COS), Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS), and Federal Information Exchange, Inc. (FEDIX). Both COS and IRIS can be used to initiate a single, narrowly focused search. In addition, researchers can use COS, IRIS and FEDIX to establish a funding profile. After the profile is established, the researcher receives periodic e-mail messages with potential funding sources. OSR also notifies deans, department chairs, and faculty about hundreds of opportunities each year via e-mail. Northwestern faculty members or staff should contact Michael Green, OSR ERA Specialist, at 847/491-2749 or for more information about funding opportunity search engines and alert services, or OSR e-mail notifications.

The information team also maintains OSR's Web site. This site is the first place to look for Northwestern research policy, facilities and administrative (indirect) cost rates, and object codes. Also featured on this page are downloadable OSR and NIH forms, program deadlines, instructions for using various funding opportunity search tools, and links to other useful research sites.

Training for faculty and staff which focuses on funding alert services, National Science Foundation's (NSF) FastLane, and use of downloadable forms, is provided by the information team. For a specific training need, contact Susan Ross at 847/491-4236 or sross@northwestern.edu.

In October 1998 the information team started a university-wide e-mail listserv for research support staff. The listserv has been used to announce new policies and forms, major sponsor deadlines, and information about funding opportunities. To subscribe to the OSR listserv, send an e-mail message to with the following text on the first line of the message body: subscribe OSR YourFirstName YourLastName.

There is a common thread to OSR information team services: electronic research administration (ERA). ERA is rapidly becoming standard operating procedure for researchers and research administrators. For example, NSF already requires electronic proposal submission for many of its programs, and will require that all proposals be submitted electronically via FastLane by October 1, 2000. In addition, several Northwestern faculty recently submitted their noncompeting continuation proposals to the National Institutes of Health electronically via the NIH Commons. Finally, the major federal sponsors continue to progress in the design and development of a common electronic proposal submission system . OSR information team staff members are knowledgeable about ERA and are working to help the Northwestern research community make a smooth transition to various ERA systems.