Resources
Campus Research Resources
Finding Funding
Internal Funding:
The Office for the Vice President for Research provides a regularly updated list of internal funding opportunities as the University. Because many external funding sources limit the number of applications coming from one institution, the VPR's office maintains an internal funding portal that hosts internal competitions to choose the most competitive applicant to put forward.
Funding Opportunities Internal Funding Portal
External Funding:
The university offers resources to make the funding search process easier. Pivot allows researchers to independently search for funding as well as potential collaborators. The Proposal Development Office can also assist in conducting a funding search on behalf of researchers.
Pivot Proposal Development Office
Preparing Grants
Preparing Grant Submissions:
New! The College of Medicine Office of Research offers Grant Development and Navigation Services mission is to facilitate grant acquisition by providing services ranging from proposal editing to navigating the proposal submission process. You may contact them at any point in the proposal lifecycle, from "I think I may want to do research. Where do I start?" to "My proposal is written. Can you please check it for typos?" Consultation requests can be made at the link below.
Administrative assistance with proposals including budget preparation is provided by the Office of Sponsored Project Administration. Once an award is issued, OSPA's college grant officers will oversee the administration of the grant.
The Proposal Development Office provides more involved assistance with your application including editing and critiquing your proposal. The PDO has additional writing resources, NIH sample applications, and guidance on NIH rigor and reproducibility.
The Vice President of Research's office offers a video library with tutorials and guidance on grant writing, proposal development, and industry advancement. The video library requires a linkblue login and can be accessed below.
The NIH and NSF also provide grant writing guidance and resources.
For Early Researchers looking at NRSA grant - This is an excellent resource on writing that first training grant.
IP Considerations:
The Office of Technology Commercialization serves to aid in the commercialization of innovative ideas developed at the University of Kentucky. The office does not provide legal representation but assists in technology transfer, licensing, and new venture development.
Core Facilities and Laboratories
Division of Laboratory Animal Resources: Provides animal care, technical services, surgical resources, breeding colony management, and species specific training.
CATSS Stroke Animal Surgery Core: All of the necessary equipment to perform multiple experimental stroke models on mice and rats including stereotactic devices, dissecting microscopes, laser Doppler flowmeters, anesthesia machines, surgical tools, etc. are available
Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Core: Flow cytometry cell analysis and high-speed sorting. Multiparameter fluorescent analysis and sorting of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell types. Cell sorting also available for live human cells and infectious samples.
Light Microscopy Core: State-of-the-art imaging equipment for research on biological systems ranging from neuroscience to physiology, and cutting-edge materials science.
Electron Microscopy Core: This Core is housed in the College of Engineering. This core provides expertise in sample preparation and electron microscopy. It contains two transmission electron microscopes.
Proteomics Core Facility: Offers proteomic analysis services; identifcaiton of proteins and peptides and characterization of protein modifications.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center: Includes a 3T Siemens Magnetom Trio for human and animal studies and a Bruker/Siemens 7T MR scanner for animal studies.
Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Facility: This lab is located within the Analytical Core of the UK Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences (UK-CARES). It provides access to state of the art instrumentation for structural analysis and quantitation of a wide range of analytes using mass spectrometry based approaches.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Center (NMRSC): This Center is located within the Department of Chemistry. It has 6 instruments and several data stations for offline processing NMR data. The instruments include two upgraded GEMINI 200 MHz instruments; one is a dedicated H/C machine, the other has multinuclear and variable temperature capability.
Rodent Behavior Core: Offers validated and reliable testing of mice over a broad range of physiological and behavioral domains, including general health, cognitive, emotional, sensory and motor function.
Bone Diagnostic and Research Laboratory: Bone histomorphometric analyses. Sections obtained from bone biopsy are analyzed and histological diagnoiss and results are provided.
A&S Imaging Center: Microscopy facility in the Jacobs Science Building. Includes 10x Genomics Single Cell services, Zeiss Lightsheet Z.1, TEM Prep Services, and others.
Imaging Center
Mass Spectrometry Facility: located in the ASTeCC building. Provides a continuum of services from routine analysis to long-term collaboration, assistance in experiment planning, analytical methodologies, and data interpretation.
Genomics Core Laboratory: Providing wide range of services for clinical care including DNA, RNA, and Sanger sequencing, Fragment Analysis, Gene Expression Microarray, NanoString, Real-time PCR, Bionalaysis, and other services.
Genetic Technologies Core: The Advanced Genetic Technologies Core provides a range of services related to the manipulation and delivery of nucleic acids to biological systems.
Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center: Maintains a breeding colony of Mexican axolotls and distributes axolotl embryos, larvae, and adults to researchers.
COBRE Cores:
Molecular Medicine Obesity & Cardiovascular Disease Cancer and Metabolism
Research Support Services
University of Kentucky researchers are fortunate to have myriad resources to support their work on campus. In addition to resources provided by the NRPA and identified here, extensive support can be found at the following:
New! The College of Medicine Office of Research offers Grant Development and Navigation Services mission is to facilitate grant acquisition by providing services ranging from proposal editing to navigating the proposal submission process. You may contact them at any point in the proposal lifecycle, from "I think I may want to do research. Where do I start?" to "My proposal is written. Can you please check it for typos?" Consultation requests can be made at the link below.
UK Research provides a jumping off point for identifying research support and provides an overview of research at the University. From here you can link to supporting offices including the Office of Research Integrity and the Office of Sponsored Project Administration.
The Office of the Vice President for Research aims to facilitate research across UK and oversees the University's 13 multidisciplinary research centers and seven core facilities. The VPR's webpage also includes funding opportunities and additional resources for researchers.
The Center for Clinical and Translational Science provides a broad spectrum of services and resources to support research including funding. Included among these are a Biomarker Analysis Lab, a biobank, the CRSO (discussed below), data safety monitoring, grant management, participant recruitment services, and Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design. For researchers, the CCTS can provide meaningful support and help navigate many of the ins and outs of research development and compliance.
The Clinical Research Support Office provides support for clinical research by reducing administrative burdens, increasing compliance, and removing barriers. Their Research Billing Integrity unit provides coverage analysis, required for all clinical trials, and determines the potential for Medicare reimbursement. The CRSO financial management team also provides pricing and budget development, sponsor negotiations, account monitoring, and other services. Finally, the CRSO has Regulatory and Recruitment Support teams. The Regulatory team ensures compliance with ethical and regulatory requirements and the Recruitment team supports researchers in recruitment planning and marketing.
Office of the Attending Veterinarian In addition to ensuring all vertebrate animals used in research are appropriately cared for and provided veterinary clinical care, the OAV provides administrative support to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC oversees the policies and procedures in relation to the ethical treatment of animals at the University.
iMERS - Interactive Mentoring to Enhance Research Skills: UK offers a highly focused program of grant-writing workshops, Interactive Mentoring to Enhance Research Skills (IMERS), to empower faculty researchers from NIH SCORE-eligible institutions in their efforts to develop and submit competitive NIH grant applications.
iMERS workshops are delivered by:
- Donald T. Frazier, Ph.D.,
Professor Emeritus, UK College of Medicine,
Director, Donald T. Frazier Science Outreach Center
Multi-PD/PI, NIGMS-sponsored grant-writing workshops
- Brett Spear, Ph.D.,
Professor, UK College of Medicine,
Director of Graduate Studies, Integrated Biomedical Sciences IBS Program, College of Medicine
Multi-PD/PI, NIGMS-sponsored grant writing workshops
- A team of experienced scientists and research development professionals dedicated to grant-writing outreach.
Biobanks
In addition to the NeuroBank, focused on biospecimens from patients with neurological diseases and disorders , UK houses several excellent biobanks.
The Sander Brown Center on Aging biobank collections inlcudes brain specimens (frozen and paraffin), CSF, neurocognitive testing, and MRI images.
Cardiovascular Biorepository (CVBR) at the Gill Heart Institute: maintains a collection of cardiovascular tissues retrieved from organ donors and patients undergoing cardiovascular surgeries.
UK's Center for Clinical and Translational Science provides research services support across the University. Included in this is the UK Research Registry and Specimen Bank and the more recently established National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C).
Markey Cancer Center Biospecimen Procurement and Translational Pathology Shared Resource Facility (BPTP SRF)
Center for Muscle Biology Healthy Muscle Bank: collections of vastus lateralis muscle samples from health volunteers.
