Elsevier is launching a new grant searching tool called SciVal Funding, which allows researchers to collate grant information that is otherwise dispersed in many locations across the Web.

The computer program plugs researchers into the usual government, corporate and non-corporate funding sources, but it also helps them find collaborators and scan for projects that received awards in the past to hone their applications and searches. SciVal Funding also spits out grant recommendations based on the researcher's personal profile and publications list on Scopus, an abstract and citations database.

Some features of SciVal Funding have been built with younger researchers in mind, said Josine Stallinga, product manager at Elsevier, in a Web presentation yesterday (June 30). Young researchers who may not have enough of a publication record to generate robust grant recommendations of their own can search for recommendations under the name of a more senior scientist who does similar work. The advanced search function can also be used to refine a search for opportunities specific to junior scientists. "Junior faculty are working hard and getting desperate," Stallinga said, "We tried our best to address their needs." (Read Stallinga's comment to The Scientist's recent article on finding new grant sources.)

One simple feature allows users to look up the details of one particular grant, and then toggle between two other screens, one showing a list of past awards and awardees of that grant and another with related publications. Looking at past awards can give users clues about the types of grants funded, what keywords to use, and what labs might make good collaborators, Elsevier says.

An Elsevier spokesperson said that the product will be available in the US starting August 1st, and will be rolled out to other geographic areas including Europe and Australia in 2010. It will be available through institutional subscriptions that will be priced "on a sliding scale," the spokesperson said.

Correction (1 July 2009): The original version of this article referred to Elsevier's product as SciVal. In fact, Elsevier has two SciVal products: SciVal Funding and SciVal Spotlight. This article describes SciVal Funding. The Scientist regrets the error.


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