What is competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process of collecting, analyzing and disseminating data to provide insights that contribute to an institution’s competitive edge. Competitive Intelligence supports leadership, investigators, faculty, staff and other university stakeholders in making strategic decisions to strengthen MU's sponsored projects portfolio.

Leadership support

  • How can we grow U.S. Department of Education funding at MU?

  • How can we leverage our strengths in agriculture to improve U.S. Department of Agriculture rankings?

Faculty support

  • Who can fund me? Where should I look for funding?

  • How can I grow my network? How can I find partners in other disciplines for collaboration?

The CI process

Collect
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Gather data relevant to business purpose. Sources may include databases of internal sponsored projects, human resources, public federal grants, publications, patents and more.

Analyze
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Transform and visualize data to gain useful insights using analytical tools such as Excel, Power BI and Python.

Interpret
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Provide actionable insights to answer business questions and realize goals. Deliverables are tailored to be concise and accessible for the intended audience.

Deliverables

  • Funding landscape report: What kind of funding is available in a research area?
  • Sponsor analysis report: What research does a particular sponsor fund? What are they planning to fund? What are their funding priorities?
  • Program analysis report: What is a specific program interested in funding?
  • Peer funding landscape report: What kind of funding have our peers been awarded?
  • Capacity analysis report: What are MU’s strengths and weaknesses?

Sample deliverables (login required)

  • FY23 Congressional Budget Request
  • DOD Analysis
  • NIH T32 Program Analysis

How do I request CI insights?

Please contact us by email with request details and the type of analysis you need. If this is for a proposal submission, please share the funding opportunity details including submission deadline.

Expected turnaround time for a CI analysis is 10-15 business days.

Contact us

310 Jesse Hall
Email: researchanalytics@missouri.edu Phone: 573-882-9500