Community of Science is a well-liked tool for gathering information on grants and other funding opportunities. In fact, COS bills itself as “the most comprehensive source of funding information available on the Web, with more than 23,000 records, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion.” Jeffersonians can access COS via the JEFFLINE Database Access page.
COS' full-time staff of technical editors gather information directly from federal and regional governments, foundations, professional societies, associations, and corporations. COS Funding Opportunity records include the following information:
- Sponsor
- Title
- Abstract
- Deadline/Amount
- Eligibility
|
- Descriptor
- Activity Location
- Citizenship
- Funding Type
- Sponsor Type
|
Individual researchers and research administrators rely on COS Funding Opportunities to identify funding information as it relates to research, collaborative activities, and also travel, curriculum development, conferences, fellowships, post-doctoral positions, equipment acquisition, or operating and capital expenses.
As of September 30, 2003, features available through Thomas Jefferson University’s subscription to the Community of Science (COS) will change substantially. This change results from the need to reduce costs and to provide a searchable faculty expertise database that more closely meets the needs of Jefferson researchers. University Administration is working with Jeff-IT to create a database that reduces maintenance by linking to existing datasets and that offers additional information that researchers have requested, such as a core facilities list.
COS features that will still be available to the TJU faculty include:
- COS workbenches and profiles that can be
- updated at any time by the user
- linked to from other sites
- used to generate a CV
- used to access COS weekly online funding newsletter
- used to search databases on funded research, meetings, and conferences
- COS funding opportunities as a searchable database
COS features that will not be renewed as of September 30, 2003 include:
- COS e-mail funding alerts
- ability to search COS expertise database
- ability to look up passwords, run reports and make changes to records without logging into individual user workbenches
The timeline for the in-house Jefferson Faculty Research Interests database is:
- Jeff-IT has provided a searchable web database (based on COS content). Changes to the profile must be made by Jeff-IT service request
- Faculty will be able to update their profile via web by January 2004 using their Campus Key
- The database will be linked to other campus data sources by September 2004
Additionally, the Library will provide support for Faculty by updating the JEFFLINE Grants Information Service website, and scheduling regular workshops to describe alternative services for funding searches and funding alerts.
In the meantime, faculty can update their COS profiles by logging into their workbenches at http://workbench.cos.com. Any information updated by September 25th will be included in the local faculty expertise database. If you need a reminder of your COS Expertise password, please contact Margy.Grasberger@jefferson.edu.
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