Get to Know DoR – Melanie Bauer Supporting Researchers and University-wide Research Development
Melanie Bauer is NSU’s Grant Writing Manager, working in the Grant Writing Lab under the central research department known as the Division of Research and Economic Development (DoR). Melanie supports faculty and professional staff through all proposal development stages—finding funding, project ideation and scoping, enhancement of proposal drafts, and revision and resubmission of unfunded proposals. She also supports other aspects of research capacity building at the university, including trainings, communications, and strategic planning.
What resources and programs do you offer for faculty from every career stage to help secure external funding?
One of my favorite types of one-on-one meetings is when a new faculty member has been told, “Hey, you should go talk to Melanie!” We could have a goal, like talking through a particular grant opportunity the faculty member found. Or it can be more open, and I can talk them through the research resources and support personnel available to them in whatever discipline of research or scholarship they work in.
Having passed the 5-year mark at NSU, I’m usually prepared to answer questions like, “Do you know anyone who does work in…?” or “Who do I talk to if I want to learn more about…?” Faculty should feel comfortable asking me their beginner or clarifying questions—I won’t say “dumb questions,” but I do really mean that there is no reason not to ask something, and faculty usually find that I’m someone they can trust to ask.
What efforts have you made to secure funding directly? What were the outcomes? How are your grant efforts supporting research development at NSU?
It has been an unexpected delight to write grants while here at NSU as a Principal Investigator myself. In my prior position as Assistant Director of a STEM education lab at Yale University, we were big submitters to the National Science Foundation (NSF). When I came here, I couldn’t get NSF off my mind. Two opportunities have opened up over the years for me to submit to NSF grant programs and secure collectively $400,000 to support various initiatives related to supporting early-career faculty as well as interdisciplinary teams.
What does this position me to do for NSU? Well, I actually just got off a Zoom call with an NSF Program Director, the one who funded my first NSF grant. We were talking about future initiatives. Previously, as part of the same program, I was invited to visit the NSF building in Alexandria. Through my second grant, I have gotten to know several additional NSF Program Directors, allowing me to continue learning more about the NSF perspective on funding so I can advise faculty for positioning their grant projects for success with federal agencies.
What advice do you have for other grant seekers?
If it wouldn’t be too shameful to plug myself, I would say email me: mbauer1@nova.edu. If you forget that, you can always remember to email GrantLab@nova.edu or DoR@nova.edu, which are other emails I respond to.
Let’s set up a 30-minute Zoom chat. Help me get to know you and your goals. Through these conversations I inevitably have resources and people I tell faculty to connect with next. Once you unlock one door in the Division of Research, many more open!
What is the next grant proposal or project on your agenda?
I will give a vague spoiler. I work in a professional field called Research Development (RD), which is complementary to the field of Research Administration (RA). Staff in these sister fields are sometimes involved with the formation of interdisciplinary faculty interest groups, networking events, and even research institute formation. Myself and colleagues are interested in learning more about the roles that RD and RA professionals play in this interdisciplinary research support space. We’re planning for statewide and national engagement on the topic, so we hope to learn more in the “best practices” domain that can be translated back to NSU as well as open up opportunities for unexpected collaborations and partnerships.
NSU has an opportunity to be a thought leader not only in the various traditional academic disciplines that our faculty engage in, but also in the research administrative arena. How can we lead in cultivating and sustaining robust infrastructure and a fertile academic environment for research to thrive?
