New Pivot Database Helps Identify Grant Funding Sources and Potential Collaborators

Faculty seeking grant funding opportunities and potential collaborators in their areas of research expertise now have a new integrated tool to help with both tasks. The Pivot database, which replaces the former Community of Scholars Funding Opportunities database, provides access to funding opportunities worth an estimated $33 billion from a wide variety of sources in the U.S. and other countries.

But Pivot is more than a search tool for grants. It also features a database of some three million scholar profiles - including WPUNJ faculty - based on their publications, associated web content, and additional details contributed by individual researchers, matching these to current funding opportunities. This additional content means Pivot users can search for a funding opportunity and instantly view matching faculty from inside or outside their institution; or conversely, Pivot users can search for a scholar and view funding opportunities connected to that individual's area of subject expertise.

Pivot provides all WPUNJ faculty with access to a personal account that can be used to create complete personal profiles, set up automated searches for new grant opportunities keyed to their own discipline, and identify potential collaborators both inside and outside WPUNJ.

Pivot is funded by the WPUNJ Office of Sponsored Programs and is accessible from its web page as well as from the Cheng Library's databases directory. Support for faculty is available through interactive training webinars (live and recorded), a series of training videos available on YouTube, and a six-page Quick Start Guide (in PDF format) that can be downloaded from Pivot's web site. On-campus support is also available from the Office of Sponsored Programs (x 2852, grants@wpunj.edu) and the David and Lorraine Cheng Library (x 2116, refdesk@wpunj.edu).