Resources for SJSU Librarians

Notification: Notify the library chair or your immediate supervisor of your intention to apply for a grant. This step is especially important if the grant is limited to one award per campus.

Collaborators: Full-time faculty may be contacted directly regarding their availability as collaborators on a grant. 

If considering part-time faculty or staff as collaborators, first reach out to the library chair or their immediate supervisor.

Notification: Inform the Dean and Director of Development (Virginia Wright) about your grant application. The latter will advise you which office -- the Research Foundation (RF) or the Tower Foundation (TF) -- will handle the paperwork.

• RF handles grants from governmental agencies
• TF handles grants from private institutions

Notification: Notify the appropriate office: RF or TF.

Research Foundation: https://www.sjsu.edu/researchfoundation/principal-investigators/submitting-proposals/index.php

Tower Foundation
(Scroll down to see the “Schedule an appointment” option):

https://www.sjsu.edu/cfr/campus-partners/index.php

Application Timeline: The RF and TF need paperwork at least 7-10 business days before the grant application deadline.

This is because they will review everything and route the completed packets through multiple offices, starting with you (and your collaborators), the library chair, maybe the ADs, the Dean, and others at their office, for signatures before submitting the packet.

Budgets: Grants will typically ask for a budget and a budget justification narrative, so consulting Lixia is advised.

Make a list of everything that has a cost: from student hours to printing materials to the cost of gas. If your project has multiple components, plan on hiring a project coordinator. 

Important: The RF charges a significant ‘facilities and admin’ cost, up to 45% of the grant funding. The TF charges an administration fee of about 5-10% on everything (e.g., general expenses, salaries, benefits, etc.) So, plan your budget accordingly.

Application Submission: All grant agencies are different. Sometimes, they want applicants to upload PDFs in their portal and sometimes they have a portal into which the applicant needs to add relevant text.

(Note: If you are working with the RF, they will do this work, but they need to receive all finalized documents in order to complete this step before routing begins.)

When submitting, the applicant is SJSU and the department is the Library. The RF or TF will create logins for the agency's designated portals for submission.

Grant Award and Reimbursements: When the grant is awarded, the funds will be held by the appropriate agency (TF or RF), and that office will manage any fund transactions.

For both agencies, pay expenses with your personal funds then submit receipts to Lixia for reimbursement. She will work directly with TF and RF.

Research Foundation Note:  plan to be patient. They have a lot of paperwork to complete if you work with independent contractors (for example, trainers, advisory board members, and others who are non-SJSU).