GrantOtter is a web app — no installation needed. Open it at{' '}
grantotter.streamlit.app{' '}
in any browser. You'll be greeted with a sign-in screen before accessing the app.
Creating an account
Click the Create Account tab on the welcome screen.
Enter your email address and choose a password (minimum 6 characters).
Click Create Account. You will be signed in automatically.
Enter your email and password in the Sign In tab and click Sign In.
To sign out, use the Sign Out button in the sidebar at any time. Your profile and saved data are stored securely and will be there when you sign back in.Forgot your password? On the sign-in screen, click Forgot password?, enter your email, and click Send Reset Email. A reset link will arrive in your inbox within a few minutes.
{/* Step 1: My Workspace */}
Meet My Workspace — Your Central HubMy Workspace is the home base for everything you build in GrantOtter.{' '}
Before diving into any feature, it helps to know where things live. Your researcher profile, preferred collaborators, saved grant opportunities, and previous proposals are all managed from this single tab.
My Workspace has five sections:
My Profile — your AI-generated researcher profile (created in Step 2). Download it, replace it with an edited version, or delete it here. This profile powers grant matching, brainstorming, and biosketch generation — and triggers weekly grant alert emailsevery Monday with new matched opportunities.
Potential Collaborators — a discovery shortlist of researchers you're considering. Add anyone interesting from the chatbot or institution pool. These are not yet part of your active team.
Preferred Collaborators — profiles of team members you've committed to working with. These appear in team selectors across the app and are used in grant matching and brainstorming. Promote researchers from Potential Collaborators to this list once you've decided to include them on a proposal.
Saved Grant Opportunities — grants you've bookmarked from Match Grants results for later review.
Previous Proposals — upload specific aims pages, 2-pagers, or full proposals from past applications. These can be used as an alternative starting point for new grant matching.
{/* Step 2: Generate Profile */}
Generate Your Researcher ProfileThe profile is the foundation of everything in GrantOtter.{' '}
Every feature — grant matching, concept brainstorming, biosketch generation — draws from your researcher profile .md file as its primary knowledge base. The more complete and accurate your profile, the better every downstream result will be.
GrantOtter builds this profile by searching the web — pulling from Google Scholar, PubMed, ORCID, ResearchGate, your institution's faculty page, NIH RePORTER, and public grant databases. It includes:
Research expertise — scored areas with evidence and recent activity
Your name and institution are the only required fields. We strongly recommend completing two fields that directly shape your grant recommendations in Match Grants:
Developing Research Interests — areas you're actively moving into, even if you have few publications there yet. GrantOtter will prioritize these when ranking grants.
Areas to Avoid — research areas you do not want to see in grant recommendations. This filters out irrelevant matches so your ranked list stays focused.
The best profile starts with your CV. Upload it directly in the form for the most accurate and complete result. If you don't have a CV ready, make sure these are up to date:{' '}
Google Scholar (publications + citations),{' '}
ORCID (publications + grants linked), and your{' '}
faculty or personal website (current role, affiliations, research areas).
How to do it
Open GrantOtter and go to the Generate Profile tab.
Enter your full name and institution (e.g., "Yuke Wang, Emory University"). These are the only required fields.
Optionally fill in Department, Rank, ORCID, and Google Scholar URL — especially important if your name is common.
Optionally upload your CV (PDF, Word, Markdown, or plain text — up to 10 MB). When provided, the CV is treated as the highest-priority source of truth and the AI fills gaps with web search.
Fill in Developing Research Interests and Areas to Avoid.
Click Generate Profile. The AI will search the web and stream the profile live — this takes 2–3 minutes.
Review the profile and save it as My Profile in your workspace.
◆ Weekly grant alerts
Once your profile is saved as My Profile, GrantOtter will automatically email you every Monday with new grant opportunities matched to your research. Each alert includes AI-generated explanations and one-click buttons to rate or save grants directly to your workspace.
Reviewing and updating your profile
The AI-generated profile is a strong first draft — take a few minutes to review it before using it for grant matching. Things to check:
Expertise scores — adjust any that feel too high or too low (scale 1–5)
Missing or incorrect affiliations — department, secondary appointments, collaborating centers
Publication list — titles, years, and your authorship role
Grant history — confirm listed grants and your role on each (PI, co-I, key personnel)
Contact identifiers — ORCID iD and Google Scholar URL
How to update your profile
Go to My Workspace and find your saved profile under My Profile.
Click Download to save the .md file to your computer.
Open the file in any text editor (Notepad, VS Code, Obsidian, etc.) and review each section.
Make any corrections, then save the file.
Return to My Workspace, click Replace under My Profile, and upload the edited file.
{/* Step 3: Match Grants */}
Match Grants to Your Profile
GrantOtter compares your profile against 2,000+ open funding opportunities — federal grants (e.g., from NIH and NSF), plus foundation and institutional grants — using a three-stage pipeline:
{/* Pipeline */}
{[
['01 · Hard filters', 'var(--teal-deep)', 'Instantly removes ineligible grants based on your eligibility type, application deadline, budget range, and funding mechanism.'],
['02 · Rule-based scoring', 'var(--teal-deep)', 'Scores remaining grants across multiple dimensions — research expertise match, agency preference, career stage fit, and budget alignment — to surface the strongest candidates.'],
['03 · LLM evaluation', 'var(--orange-deep)', 'AI reads your profile and each top candidate in depth, ranks them by overall alignment, and writes a plain-language rationale for each recommendation.'],
].map(([label, color, desc]) => (
{label}{desc}
))}
You can match grants in two modes:
By Researcher Profile — matches based on your expertise, grant history, and research interests. Best for general discovery.
By Previous Proposal — paste or upload a previous proposal (specific aims page, 2-pager, or full proposal) and GrantOtter finds new funding opportunities aligned with that research direction. Ideal for finding a new home for a rejected proposal.
How to do it
Go to the Match Grants tab and choose your matching mode.
Set your filters: Deadline (days ahead to include), Minimum award, and Maximum award (enter 0 for no maximum).
Select your profile (Researcher Profile mode) or upload/select a proposal (Previous Proposal mode). Proposals saved in My Workspace appear automatically in the dropdown.
Click Find My Grants. Results appear in about a minute.
Review the ranked list — each grant shows a fit score, rationale, and deadline.
Click Email Results to send the full report to your inbox, or Save a promising grant directly to My Workspace.
When saving a grant to My Workspace, the dropdown searches by both grant number (e.g., PAR-25-131) and title. Type either to quickly find the right grant.If you have a previously rejected proposal, upload it to My Workspace → Previous Proposals first. It will be saved for reuse across sessions so you don't need to re-upload each time.
{/* Step 4: Find Collaborators */}
Find & Add Collaborators
GrantOtter gives you three ways to build your team: use the AI chatbot to discover collaborators through your institution network, search the faculty pool directly by name or keyword, or add colleagues you already know.
AI collaborator chatbot
The chatbot is the most powerful way to find collaborators. Describe the expertise you're looking for in plain language, and the AI searches the institution network, identifies the best-matched faculty, and tells you how you're already connected to each person — through shared departments, centers, co-authorships, or institutional affiliations.
Go to the Find Collaborators tab and use the chatbot at the bottom of the page.
Describe what you're looking for — e.g., "I need a biostatistician with experience in longitudinal data and clinical trials" or "Who works on social determinants of health and has NIH R01 funding?"
The AI returns a list of faculty matches with expertise summaries and connection paths showing how you're linked through your institution network.
Save promising matches to your Potential Collaborators list in My Workspace — a holding list for people you're considering but haven't committed to yet.
Search the institution profile pool
Open the Institution Profile Pool section in the Find Collaborators tab.
Enter a name or keyword in the search box (e.g., "Lin" or "health disparities").
Browse results and click on a profile to read their full expertise summary, publication record, and grant history.
Save to Potential Collaborators for consideration, or directly to Preferred Collaborators if you're ready to include them on a proposal.
Add a known collaborator
Use the Generate Profile tab to auto-generate a colleague's profile (enter their name + institution), or upload a profile file they've shared with you.
Save the profile as a Preferred Collaborator — preferred collaborators appear in team selectors across the app and are used in grant matching and brainstorming.
Use Potential Collaborators as a discovery shortlist — save anyone interesting from the chatbot or profile pool, then promote them to Preferred Collaborators in My Workspace once you've decided to include them on a proposal. Only preferred collaborators are used in grant matching and team assembly.
{/* Step 5: My Applications */}
Manage Your ApplicationMy Applications is your end-to-end grant application hub.{' '}
Everything GrantOtter generates — profiles, concepts, biosketches — can be assembled into a single application package and downloaded as a ZIP, ready to load into any AI platform for the next stage of writing.
Create your application as soon as you identify a grant you want to pursue — ideally right after Step 3 (Match Grants). That way, when you generate draft concepts (Step 6) and biosketches (Step 7), the Save to Application button will already have a destination.
Each application has five sections:
Overview — title, status (Not Started / In Progress / Submitted), submission deadline, and notes
Grant Opportunity — link the FOA or RFA from the grant repository so the full document is always at hand
Team Members — select the PI and co-investigators; their profiles are bundled into the ZIP download
Documents — attach draft concepts, biosketches, budget justification, letters of support, facilities pages, and any other files (PDF, Word, Markdown, or plain text)
Checklist — track every submission component with color-coded due-date badges (red = overdue, orange = within 7 days, yellow = within 30 days, green = more than 30 days out). Use Generate Checklist to auto-populate items from the grant FOA with due dates pre-filled.
How to do it
Go to the My Applications tab and click New Application.
Give the application a name (e.g., "NIH R01 — Health Informatics 2026") and set the submission deadline. You can rename it at any time using the Rename button.
In Grant Opportunity, search for and link the grant by grant number (e.g., PAR-25-131) or title — both work.
In Team Members, select yourself (My Profile) as PI and add co-investigators from your Preferred Collaborators list.
In Documents, upload supporting files or use the Save to Application button from the Draft Concepts or Create Biosketch tabs to attach outputs directly.
In Checklist, click Generate Checklist to have AI extract required submission components from the linked grant FOA — with due dates pre-filled based on the application deadline. Edit items or add custom ones as needed.
When ready, click Download All as ZIP — this bundles the grant document, all team profiles, and every attached file into a single package.
Use the ZIP download as the starting point for your AI writing session. Upload it to Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini — the AI gets full context on the grant, your team, and your draft concepts in one go. See the Power User section below.
{/* Step 6: Draft Concepts */}
Brainstorm Proposal Concepts
Once you've found a promising grant, GrantOtter can generate 2–3 tailored proposal concepts aligned with the funding opportunity's priorities, your team's expertise, and realistic budget constraints — in minutes.
How to do it
Go to the Draft Concepts tab.
Select a grant document. The built-in grant repository covers federal, foundation, and institutional funding opportunities. Pick from the list, enter a federal grant number directly (e.g., PA-25-131), or paste the full grant information as plain text for any other funder.
Select the PI — your own profile (My Profile) or any preferred collaborator. The PI doesn't have to be you.
Add Co-Investigators from your Preferred Collaborators list.
Optionally add Guidance: a short paragraph describing your angle, preliminary data, or any constraints. The more detail, the more targeted the concepts.
Click Generate Concepts. GrantOtter produces 2–3 proposal concepts, each with: a working title and central hypothesis, specific aims outline, innovation score and rationale, and estimated budget breakdown.
Download the brainstorming report as a Markdown file, or use Save to Application to attach it directly to an application (requires creating an application in My Applications first).
{/* Step 7: Create Biosketch */}
Generate an NIH Biosketch
GrantOtter auto-generates a properly formatted NIH Biographical Sketch (Format Page) from your researcher profile — pulling your publications, positions, and personal statement to give you a solid first draft in seconds instead of hours.
How to do it
Go to the Create Biosketch tab.
Select the target grant from the dropdown — the biosketch will be tailored to that FOA's scope.
Select the researcher profile to generate the biosketch for.
Click Generate Biosketch. GrantOtter drafts all four sections: Personal Statement, Positions & Scientific Appointments & Honors, Contributions to Science, and Research Support.
Download the output as a Markdown file, or use Save to Application to attach it directly to an application. Use the downloaded file as a reference to fill in the NIH Biographical Sketch common form on SciENcv.
Always review the Contributions to Science section carefully. The AI selects your most relevant publications for the target grant — but verify dates, journal names, and authorship order before entering them into SciENcv.
{/* Power User */}
Take Your Proposal Further with AI
GrantOtter generates a set of rich, structured documents — your researcher profile, a grant summary, a brainstorming report, and a biosketch draft. Together, these files form a ready-made knowledge base that you can hand off to any general-purpose AI assistant to continue developing your proposal through natural language conversation.
Instead of starting from a blank page, you're starting with context the AI can actually use — your expertise, your team, the grant's requirements, and a set of targeted concepts. The difference in output quality is significant.
How to do it
In My Applications, assemble your full application package — link the grant, add your team, attach your draft concepts and biosketches.
Click Download All as ZIP. This bundles: the grant FOA/RFA document, your researcher profile and all team member profiles, draft concept reports and biosketch drafts, and any other attached documents.
Open your AI app of choice — Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini — and create a new project or conversation.
Upload the ZIP contents as context attachments.
Start the conversation with a clear instruction. Examples:
"Based on my profile and the brainstorming report, draft a one-page Specific Aims section for the PA-25-131 proposal. Use NIH formatting conventions."
"Draft a short email I can send to Dr. [Name] inviting them to join this proposal as a co-investigator. Mention their expertise in [X] and explain how it complements the team."
Iterate through conversation — ask the AI to tighten the language, adjust the framing, or tailor the tone. Each round takes seconds, not hours.
◆ real example
In a recent session, a researcher uploaded their GrantOtter profile, a collaborator's profile, and a brainstorming report into Claude. In one conversation, they drafted a complete Specific Aims page in a Word-ready format, then immediately drafted a recruitment email to bring a colleague on board as co-investigator — both in under 2 minutes.
· most researchers finish profile-to-matching in under 30 min
{/* Three cards */}
{(() => {
const chairMailto = 'mailto:?subject=' + encodeURIComponent('GrantOtter — AI grant discovery for our department') + '&body=' + encodeURIComponent(
'Hi,\n\nI\u2019ve been using GrantOtter, an AI-powered grant discovery platform that matches researchers to relevant funding opportunities based on their expertise and research profile.\n\nI think it would be valuable for our department. A few highlights:\n\n\u2022 Covers federal, major foundations, and internal grants (2,000+ opportunities, updated weekly)\n\u2022 Generates a rich researcher profile from your publications, grant history, and expertise\n\u2022 Sends a personalized digest of new matching opportunities to each researcher every Monday by email\n\u2022 Supports the full workflow: find collaborators, brainstorm proposal concepts, generate NIH biosketches, and manage application packages\n\nWould you be open to a 1-hour demo for our department? Sessions are free and tailored to your department\u2019s research areas.\n\nLearn more: https://grantotter.com\n\nBest,\n[Your Name]'
);
const cards = [
{
n: '01', color: 'var(--teal)',
label: 'Get Matched Every Monday',
desc: 'Generate your researcher profile and save it as My Profile in My Workspace. GrantOtter will automatically email you new grant opportunities matched to your expertise every Monday.',
},
{
n: '02', color: 'var(--teal)',
label: 'Start an Application',
desc: 'Open My Applications, create your first application, link a grant, assemble your team, and start building your submission package.',
},
{
n: '03', color: 'var(--orange)',
label: 'Share with Your Chair',
desc: 'Bring GrantOtter to your whole department. Click to open a ready-to-send email to your department chair with a link to book a free 30-minute demo session.',
mailto: chairMailto,
},
];
return (