Pivot is a searchable database of external funding opportunities valued at more than $65 billion of available funding from federal, non-federal, and international sponsors in all disciplines. In addition to more general keyword searches, researchers can create a user profile to set up customized searches with e-mail alerts about new opportunities that match their search criteria. Access and use of the Pivot database is free using your UA NetID.
Training Videos & Tutorials
The UA Libraries created a Pivot Tutorial, which provides guidance on logging in, searching, and customizing your profile.
A number of tutorials for using Pivot are available on the ProQuest Pivot YouTube channel. In addition, ProQuest offers regular user webinars, available at the ProQuest WebEx page.
Once logged in, a “Help” key in the upper right-hand corner of the page becomes visible. Clicking on the “Help” key brings you to a page of tutorials, articles, and FAQs on getting started, your Pivot homepage, finding funding opps, finding scholars, and online training.
Helpful Tips
While you can search Pivot for funding opportunities without logging in, the functionality increases exponentially once logged in. These tips include:
- Logging in
- Customizing your profile
- Conducting basic searches
- Saving searches and tracking opportunities
Logging in
In order to utilize all of Pivot’s functionality, users will need to register and/or login in the upper right-hand corner of the webpage. If you do not have a current account, use your UA NetID email to register for an account by following the “Register for a Pivot account” link in the “Log In” option. Ensure that you select “University of Arizona” as the “Affiliated Member Institution” during the registration process.
Customizing your profile
Once logged in to Pivot, you will want to claim or create your profile. Claiming or creating a profile, and subsequently updating the profile, provides you access to Pivot Advisor. Pivot Advisor provides suggestions on available funding opportunities based on your research profile. The recommendations are automatically available on your Pivot Homepage under the “Advisor” tab.
To claim your profile, log in to Pivot. In the upper-right hand corner where your name is displayed, click on the arrow to display the options. In the options, select the “Claim profile” link where a list of potential matches may be displayed. If you locate your name, select the “This is me” option to the right of the profile name. If no results are displayed you will need to select the “Create a Profile” link located either in the center of the page when no results are located or to the left of the results list. After claiming or creating a profile, you will receive an email confirmation.
To customize your profile, select the down arrow next to your name and click the “Your profile” link. You will then be given the option to “Update your profile”. Once within your profile you can “edit”, “add", and “re-order” information on your profile including fields such as your expertise, affiliations, past affiliations, degrees, languages, ORCID, and keywords. When finished, select the “Done” option to save your changes.
Additional tips on customizing your profile are available through the online “Help” key in the upper right hand corner of the page (when logged in) or through the Pivot YouTube channel.
Conducting basic searches
COS Pivot provides basic searches by text or by sponsor. Searching by text allows easy searches across all fields and sponsors in a funding opportunity and will provide broad searches. Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT, as well as the use of quotation marks for exact phrases, and asterisks for truncated words may assist in narrowing down the results.
Searching by sponsor allows you to search the entire list of sponsors. Sponsors can be found via keyword search or through an alphabetical list. Note that if browsing alphabetically, some sponsors may be nested under their larger controlling entity, for example, the National Institutes of Health is listed as a department under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Additional search tips are available through the online “Help” key in the upper right hand corner of the page (when logged in) or through the Pivot YouTube channel.
Saving searches and tracking opportunities
If you have a search, whether basic or advanced, that you would like to revisit frequently, you can “Save Search” by selecting the option in the top, light-gray bar with the heading “Search Funding Results”. You will be asked to name your search. Once named, the search will be available from your Pivot homepage under “Saved Searches”. Pivot also provides you the opportunity to receive weekly email digests of your saved search results. Emails are distributed on Sunday and will list all new opportunities released during the previous week. You will only receive one email for all of your saved searches.
If you would like to narrow down the results of your search and only track a few of the search results, you can select the opportunities by selecting the checkbox next to the opportunity and clicking the “Track” option. Tracking an opportunity puts the opportunity into your “Tracked” searches tab on your homepage.
Additional search and tracking tips, in addition to information on other Pivot features, are available through the online “Help” key in the upper right hand corner of the page (when logged in) or through the Pivot YouTube channel.
Pivot Training Workshops
UA Research Development Services is in the process of planning one-hour COS Pivot Workshops for any College, Department, or Unit. The Workshops will provide hands-on-training that covers logging in and claiming/creating a profile, introduction and overview of search capabilities, and training on how to save and track funding opportunities. Check back to this page shortly for additional details or contact us.