ResearchResearch.com has recently rolled out a new feature for Networked subscribers (that includes Lincoln) which enables you to import funding opportunity deadlines into your desktop calendar, such as Outlook.

For full instructions on how to do this, please consult this entry on the researchresearch.com wiki:

Researchresearch.com Wiki: Online funding calendars

A calendar can be generated for any funding search:

To generate the calendar, simply run a search, select the search bar (so that it is highlighted in blue) and click the ‘Calendar’ button, , in the action bar. This will open up a calendar for this search in a new window.

You can generate a calendar for a saved folder of bookmarks in the same way – i.e. load the folder, highlight the search bar, and click the Calendar button.

Once you’ve created a Calendar, you can download it to your computer to import it into your Outlook calendar (or whichever desktop calendar application you use, e.g. iCal for Mac). Just click on the “Download” link and save the file to your hard disk.

The instructions for importing into Outlook 2003 on Microsoft Windows are as follows:

1. Open Outlook
2. Click File
3. Click Import and Export
4. Choose “Import an iCalendar or vCalendar file (.vcs)”
5. Find your file using the pop-up Explorer window which appears
6. Make sure “Files of type” in the drop-down menu displays “iCalendar”
7. Click OK

The calendar you generated will now be imported into your Outlook Calendar. You will need to edit each individual entry if you want to set reminders and change the colour of the notifications, although you can use Outlook’s “Automatic Formatting” feature, under the Edit menu, to make this easier (just search for all calendar events with the text researchresearch.com in the subject and notes fields).

If you have a newer version of Outlook, or if you use other compatible desktop calendar software, you can subscribe to a calendar of funding opportunities, instead of downloading it. The main advantage of subscribing is that the funding deadlines automatically update, whereas downloading just gives you a fixed list of deadlines. So, if you were to run a search for funding opportunities from the ESRC, for example, subscribing to the funding calendar for that search would automatically update your Outlook calendar with all ESRC opportunities as and when they are announced on researchresearch.com.

If you’re interested in learning more about this feature, why not come along to the next Finding Research Funding training session on Wednesday 3rd February from 12 – 1pm in Computing Services Training Room 1, 1st floor, Main Administrative Building.