When I first took my present job 10 years ago I tried to develop a funding
interest list and then used it to decide who received what.  Within a
month I had been praised by many...but also told by more than a handful
that the school had made a big mistake in hiring me and that I should
never ever send them anything again.

Suggestions:

1) Make sure they understand that the topics they give you will be used to
target funding announcements.  If you ask just for the areas they are
interested in you will get some lists that are pages long.  There are many
reasons why this happens but I'd think that people with little research
funding experience tend to creatively but unrealistically see themselves
doing all sorts of things.

2) Ask yourself what level of detail YOU want to work from AND the
specificity that the faculty will expect.  Biology?  Cell biology?  Cell
signaling?  G-proteins?
I would think a LOT about the different personality types you are serving
and how much tolerance people will have for announcements that do not deal
with what they do.

FYI...I no longer send out much in the way of funding announcements.  I've
taught them to fish themselves with SPIN, NIH Guide, our own lists, even
Google.  We still talk up big $$$ programs and will occasionally send out
a hodge podge list of stuff.  But the latter is done mostly to please that
still surviving group who think that anything we do is fantastic.

Charlie

> Good Afternoon,
>
>
>
> One of my tasks as Information Specialist at GWU is to notify faculty of
funding opportunities. I'm looking at some NSF announcements and can't help
> but think that they're probably already getting this information from
the
> NSF website. So I'm contemplating an idea to poll the faculty about
notifications and research interests and I have some questions.
>
>
>
> How often do you poll faculty?
>
> What kinds of questions do you ask?
>
> What method(s) do you use to poll them? (post a questionnaire on your
website? Adobe forms?)
>
>
>
> I understand that I would be lucky with a 1/3 response rate but any
input
> from the faculty on receiving announcements would be beneficial for me.
>
>
>
> Thank you and have a great afternoon,
>
> Laura
>
>
>
> Ann Laura Walker
> Information Specialist
> Office of the Chief Research Officer
> The George Washington University
> 2121 I Street, NW, Suite 601
> Washington DC 20052
> Telephone: (202) 994-9136
> Fax: (202) 994-9137
>  <http://www.gwu.edu/~research> www.gwu.edu/~research
>
>
>
>
>
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