GIS and Grants

Show/Hide All Answers

What are some key ways that GIS can facilitate a grant project?

GIS can be applied to many different industries and projects, but there are some key ways that GIS can facilitate grant projects in general:

• Describing your project's impact
• Doing research and analysis
• Conducting outreach, education, and advocacy
• Engaging public participation
• Evaluating your project's results

How can GIS help me describe my project’s impact?

Grants often request information about how your project will impact communities. What geographic area will be served by your project? Will your project serve certain populations: low-income, those with primary languages other than English, disadvantaged minority groups? Does your project need to target a certain age group such as parents with young children or the elderly? GIS can be used to locate these populations, describe them with maps (including intersections of multiple socioeconomic and geographic variables), and illustrate how your project will be accomplished in the community. With GIS, you can demonstrate your project's impact on targeted areas or populations.

How is GIS applied to research and analysis?

In general, GIS can be applied to many phases of a research project. Many people use GIS to perform

• Data collection
• Data management and storage
• Data analysis

GIS can be used to collect data in the field using mobile applications. Many different industries and academic disciplines can streamline field data collection efforts and ensure greater accuracy by using mobile GIS. Mobile field data collection can be easily integrated with desktop- or server-based GIS to manage, edit, and store data. Using a variety of tools in desktop- or server-based GIS and extensions, data can be analyzed to find significant patterns and illustrate results.

How is GIS applied to outreach, education, and advocacy?

GIS can assist in outreach, education, and advocacy efforts by providing a visual means of communicating problems, projects, solutions, and potential impacts. By enabling both the publication of printed maps and interactive Internet map displays, information can be readily shared with local officials, professionals, decision makers, and the public at large in a format that is easy to understand.

How can GIS be used to engage the public for participatory research?

Grants often encourage public participation in research, either by incorporating public opinion and/or knowledge or by engaging the public in the project work plan. Grant directives sometimes call for promoting local job training, employment, and economic opportunities as well. GIS can facilitate public participation by offering Web-based interactive maps, complete with the capacity for the public to report information. A grant project can also involve the public by training and employing local people in GIS data collection and management.

How can GIS help with evaluation of my project’s results?

A key grant directive that is of increasing importance across all funding agencies’ programs is the necessity of having a clear outcome of your work and a plan for evaluating your project’s results. Different funding programs describe this crucial aspect to your project differently, but all programs require that you delineate the results you expect to achieve and a plan for evaluating whether or not your project was a success. GIS can assist in the process of evaluation, turning your data into reports and maps that illustrate the work you accomplished.

How can I ensure that my project has the best GIS solution possible?

When applying for a grant, you must generate a specific vision for how GIS relates to your particular goals. To obtain help with integrating GIS into your specific project, please contact your Esri account manager.