Grant bytes on the web

can be an arduous task when your idea doesn't quite fit the proposal guidelines of familiar agencies. Where do you go when your idea doesn't quite fit? Grant information usually filters slowly down to the department level in a university or college-sometimes too late to prepare a proposal. Most guidelines that are available from a university or college research office are also available on the Web, so why not use the Web to search for funding sources? While it is impossible to describe all the potential sources for funding that may be found on the Web, a few of the sites that emerged in a brief search are described below. In looking for federal sources of funding, the first stop was a familiar site, the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education [1]. In this column last year, the NSF programs for undergraduate education were discussed. Since then, the Division of Undergraduate Education has reorganized its programs. The Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement and the Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement programs have disappeared. In their place is a more comprehensive, coordinated program called the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement program which supports curriculum innovation and laboratory improvement at the undergraduate level. The Division of Undergraduate Education continues to fund the Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation program that supports projects for the preparation of K-12 teachers and the Advanced Technological Education program which promotes exemplary improvement in the education of technicians. In addition to these programs, you can find other NSF sources of support for undergraduate education [2]. The second stop in the search for federal funds was the U.S. Department of Education [3]. The most well known program for higher education from this source is the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education [4] which was cancelled this year due to the allocation of funds to targets identified in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Don't cross it off your list for next year, however. If your interests lie in the area of teacher education, the DOE site [5] describes new initiatives for the coming year. One of these, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Competition [6], provides funds to consortia that are working to improve and expand new applications of technology in schools. Another program from DOE that focuses upon systemic reform in the preparation of teachers is the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology program [7]. Hardware and software vendors may also be …