Got a grant proposal almost ready to submit to the federal agencies?

Better hurry.

“Now is the time,” Leora Rosen of USC’s Office of Research Advancement in Washington, D.C., told faculty at the annual social sciences and humanities retreat, hosted on March 6 at the Huntington Library by Peter Mancall, associate vice provost for research advancement.

President Barack Obama’s stimulus package includes $3 billion in one-time additional funds for the National Science Foundation, which provides a large share of federal funding for the social sciences. The foundation’s money has to be spent by September 2010, Rosen said, which means that program officers will make their decisions in the next 12 months or so. Most of the money is expected to go to proposals submitted in the 2009 fiscal year ending in September.

The stimulus package will not supply more program officers to handle the infusion of cash. Agency staffers will be under pressure to disburse the funds quickly and efficiently.

Rosen, who monitors federal funding trends in the social sciences, policy and humanities, shared some broad funding priorities with more than 50 faculty members who attended the retreat:

• environment, society and economy: decision-making strategies related to current or predicted environmental change on a local, regional or global scale
• innovation policy: how to shape processes for transforming investments in science and engineering into tangible social and economic gains
• science, technology and society: historical, philosophical and sociological questions arising from the interaction of technology and society
• ethics and education in science and engineering.

Although most stimulus-based social science funding will come from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health also received stimulus funds and has allocated at least $200 million for a program of challenge grants (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge_award). Several of the challenge topics are in the social and behavioral sciences.

Adding a perspective on White House priorities, Sarah Spreitzer of Lewis-Burke Associates, a D.C.-based consulting firm that works with USC, said the president’s Office of Science Technology Policy wants to see more research into the motivations behind individuals’ financial and household decisions. The idea is to consider social factors in research on sustainability and other issues that could involve major lifestyle changes.

“They’re very interested in behavioral economics,” Spreitzer said.

The private funding picture is murkier. Linda Zukowski, director of development in USC’s university advancement office, described mixed prospects for foundations in the ongoing economic crisis. Foundation giving did not decline noticeably in past recessions, Zukowski said, but the current crisis defies prediction.

The Hewlett Foundation and Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s Family Foundations, among others, plan to reduce their annual giving.

Other foundations have pledged to at least maintain their giving at current levels, even if their endowments have dropped, as in the case of the MacArthur Foundation.

Wal-Mart’s foundation plans to increase its giving this year, Zukowski said. Wells Fargo will give the same, but spread it out in smaller grants to try to accommodate a larger number of requests.

Zukowski noted that 80 percent of private foundation grants for USC research originate in California. She added that nine out of 10 private foundations are based in other states, suggesting that faculty and schools may have unexplored options.

Zukowski runs weekly tutorials on foundation proposal writing, Thursdays from 2 to 6 p.m. in ADM 260.

The March 6 retreat also included presentations on advancing one’s research by establishing an academic center or institute; on maintaining an active research career; and on approaching university presses with book ideas.

External guests included representatives of the University of Pennsylvania Press, Stanford University Press and the University of California Press.

In opening remarks, executive vice provost and sociologist Barry Glassner spoke of the importance of the social sciences and humanities to USC’s mission.

“USC has long prided itself on offering students breadth with depth, and this requires strong programs in all areas.”

Added Randolph Hall, vice provost for research advancement: “I believe there’s no better time for funding in the social sciences.

“Now is the time to pursue the opportunities.”