From 1995-2003, I worked in a PUI setting and subscribed to both COS and
InfoEd's SPIN.  Actually, over a four-year stretch, I subscribed
concurrently to COS and SPIN.  Three observations I would share:

(1)  In each case the support staffs were really great.

(2)  In a PUI setting, the director of the sponsored programs office is
constantly looking out for funding opportunities in a broad range of
disciplines and a wide range of activities.  The fact is you're looking out
for everyone.  So, I appreciated the fact that the InfoEd product provided
me funding alerts on a daily basis; the COS alert system, on the other hand,
provided a weekly summary.  In this regard, SPIN was more helpful.  A weekly
alert can be overwhelming; a daily alert is much more helpful from the
perspective of office director.  (On the other hand, I can see how faculty
may prefer the weekly summary).

(3)  This may sound silly, but...  You cannot imagine how often COS was
perceived as exclusively about the sciences.  From a PUI-marketing
perspective, the company has a problematic name.  My office would be
criticized for catering to the science community and invariably COS was
cited as evidence - despite the fact that I spent newsletter after
newsletter and workshop after workshop trying to educate people to the truth
that COS covers all disciplines.

COS vs SPIN?  You can't go wrong with either.  The foolish thing is for PUIs
not to invest in one of these services at all.  Grants.gov and other free
(private) services are nice, but not the same.  COS and SPIN are very
worthwhile investments.

Finally, if money talks - I am presently back in a research-intensive
setting and I plan to subscribe to COS in our next fiscal year.

IRIS?  I have no experience with IRIS - no opinion or observations to share.

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On Behalf Of
Vileisis, Dr. Birute
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 2:38 PM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] COS, SPIN, or IRIS: If you could choose only one?

Dear RESADMers,

Faced with an ever-rising COS subscription rate, we are in a quandary
whether to ditch it altogether and switch to a more economical funding
opportunities database.  Any thoughts you'd like to share on the merits of
COS vs. SPIN vs. IRIS would be most welcome.

We are a mid-size, predominately undergraduate teaching institution with 350
faculty members and 5500 undergraduates.

Many thanks.

Birute

Birute Anne Vileisis, Ph.D.
Associate Academic Vice President,
Academic Grants Office
Loyola Marymount University
One LMU Drive, University Hall, Suite 3025
Los Angeles, CA  90045-2659

E-mail: xxxxxx@lmu.edu
Tel:  310/338-6004
Fax: 310/338-5193

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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