The College of Social Work Office of Research promotes active faculty, research, staff, and student engagement in scholarly activities and identifies and facilitates collaborative research opportunities in areas that are integral to the science and practice of social work. In Fiscal Year 2009, the College of Social Work received more than $7 million in funding, and experienced a significant increase in grant applications submitted. This included awards from the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Education, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Justice, the US Department of Agriculture, and numerous federal, state and local foundations and agencies (see: COSW Research Report for a summary of recent accomplishments). 

The primary goal of the Research Office is to assist faculty, staff, and students with activities to increase research and scholarly productivity for the College, promote sustainability and quality through research, and enhance the academic culture, incentives and faculty resources.  

Key office activities include:

• Research, identify and disseminate funding opportunities;
• Distribute competitive funding announcements from federal, state and local agencies and private foundations;
• Support for all phases of the sponsored award life cycle, from pre-award application and submission to post award implementation and management;
• Link investigators to potential collaborators;
• Develop interdisciplinary application teams;
• Arrange Mock Review pre-submission external and internal peer reviews of applications as requested;
• Work closely with USC's Sponsored Awards Management Office (SAM) to route and track COSW grant applications and contracts;  
• Draft position (concept/white) papers on research ideas for investigators;
• Produce the COSW Research Report;  
• Edit and proof-read proposals as requested;
• Assist faculty with proposal guidelines and formats as requested;
• Track recent proposal and award activity for the College and maintain database;
• Coordinate the COSW Research Advisory Committee (RAC) ;  
• Offer grant training and workshops;
• Coordinate the COSW Colloquia Series;  
• Assist COSW faculty, staff, and students with other grant application and contract development support as requested;

  The contact information and roles and responsibilities of the office are included below. In addition, please visit the following links for more detail on the grant proposal process: