PRINCETON UNIVERSITY                       Office of Research and Project Administration

                                                                                4 New South Building, Princeton, NJ 08544-0036

TO:                 Members of the Faculty

DATE:            July 1, 2008

FROM:           Jeffrey Friedland, Director      

SUBJECT:      Availability of Community of Science

             As the new fiscal year begins, ORPA would like to remind the University community of the services available through Community of Science (COS), and encourage individuals to take advantage of this valuable resource, which can be accessed at: http://www.cos.com/

          COS provides web-based tools to aid faculty, staff and students in identifying potential funding sources and in promoting collaborations with colleagues.  It is a user-friendly system developed to assist individuals seeking external funding for a variety of activities including research support, fellowships, equipment needs, travel, and related research and educational endeavors.

            All members of the University community may use the COS services provided through our subscription, which include:

            COS Funding Opportunities http://fundingopps.cos.com/about/fundingopps.shtml, a fully searchable database of more than 22,000 opportunities, updated daily, containing comprehensive funding information from federal, state, and private sponsors.  Search COS Funding Opportunities at: http://fundingopps.cos.com/  

            COS Expertise http://expertise.cos.com/about/expertise.shtml, a database containing more than 480,000 researcher profiles at over 1,600 institutions worldwide, which can be used to publicize an individual’s research interests and expertise, and to identify prospective collaborators, or peer reviewers for articles and proposals.  Search COS Expertise at: http://expertise.cos.com/

            Funding Alerts http://fundingalert.cos.com/about/fundingalert.shtml, optional weekly e-mail messages, targeted to individuals based upon personalized profiles they have established, that identify currently publicized funding opportunities.

            COS Workbench http://www.cos.com/about/workbench.shtml, providing a home base for the individual’s profile and access to the services described above, plus the option to generate an on-line CV and view your personal weekly Funding Alerts.

            To establish a basic profile in the COS Expertise database log on to the website at http://www.cos.com and register as a new user to join.  (refer to “About COS Profile” for details: http://expertise.cos.com/about/cosprofile.shtml).  Periodically, an email request is sent asking faculty to customize this profile in order to provide accurate and precise information about their individual research interests and areas of expertise.  Access to the profile requires entering your personal username and password at the COS Workbench: http://login.cos.com/loginForm?request_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fworkbench%2Ecos%2Ecom%2F%3F

            ORPA would like to encourage faculty members who have not yet customized their profiles to do so at their earliest convenience.  An up-to-date profile will facilitate more effective targeting of the weekly Funding Alerts, and searching of the Expertise database by individuals who wish to identify faculty colleagues with interests and expertise in particular areas.  Non-faculty may also establish profiles and receive targeted Funding AlertsThe COS profile may be updated at any time from the COS Workbench, and it can be edited section by section or all at once, as schedules permit.  

             ORPA would be happy to provide a COS orientation/training session for any department or group of users who are interested.  Please feel free to contact Joseph Broderick at 8-3976 to set up a demonstration, or if you have any questions about this valuable resource.