Where the portfolio is thin — and where new GRANTED proposals could land with the least overlap and the highest leverage.
Only 3 active GRANTED awards explicitly target this capacity area, with $391K committed. A planning grant cohort could surface shared service models.
Only 6 active GRANTED awards explicitly target this capacity area, with $6.25M committed. A planning grant cohort could surface shared service models.
Only 9 active GRANTED awards explicitly target this capacity area, with $23.39M committed. A planning grant cohort could surface shared service models.
Only 10 active GRANTED awards explicitly target this capacity area, with $10.93M committed. A planning grant cohort could surface shared service models.
Only 55 awards in the portfolio mention rural / epscor explicitly in title/abstract — a gap relative to NSF's emphasis on broadening participation.
Only 27 awards in the portfolio mention primarily undergraduate explicitly in title/abstract — a gap relative to NSF's emphasis on broadening participation.
Most projects develop bespoke evaluation rubrics. A shared GRANTED-wide evaluation toolkit would let NSF compare service models, ROI on administrative simplification, and downstream proposal win rates.
Several awards mention data infrastructure and AI in passing. A testbed coupling AI proposal-tooling with research-development staff training could de-risk adoption at smaller institutions.
RD professionals at emerging and MSI institutions often lack senior peers locally. A structured peer-mentoring cohort — pairing experienced RD leaders with newer offices — could accelerate capacity building without requiring new infrastructure grants.
Many GRANTED-funded offices still rely on ad-hoc spreadsheets and email for proposal tracking. A consortium to co-develop and maintain lightweight, open-source grant-management tooling could reduce administrative burden across dozens of institutions.
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no GRANTED awards. A bilingual hub offering Spanish-language proposal development, budget training, and NSF liaison support could close this geographic and linguistic gap.
GRANTED emphasizes broadening participation, yet few awards explicitly broker industry partnerships for smaller schools. A brokerage model — matching corporate R&D priorities with non-R1 research strengths — could diversify funding portfolios and trainee pathways.