Call for Proposals
The Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) and partner institutions, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) are pleased to announce a seed grant program for 2014. The aim of this initiative is to stimulate new collaborations between IMET faculty members and faculty members at each of the three partner institutions. The key criteria are that grants 1. serve as “seed funding” to start new collaborations and generate preliminary data that that will lead to very strong major grant applications to federal agencies (NIH, NSF, NOAA etc.) or commercial entities in the future; 2. Promote scientific excellence in new, productive collaborations.
Each proposal will have an IMET PI and a PI at one of the three partner institutions, UMB, UMBC and UMCES. The “IMET PI” and “partner institution PI” do not have to be affiliated with the same institution. There will be one award with each of the three partner institutions. Each award will be $100,000 in direct costs for 1 year. Indirect costs are not permitted. The budgets will be shared equally between the two PIs. Funding for each award comprises $66,000 of IMET Development Funds and $33,000 of matching funds provided by each of the partner institutions, as agreed by the IMET Governing Council. Individual investigators may submit multiple proposals but can participate as a PI on only one awarded proposal. Individual investigators may be a PI on one funded proposal and collaborator/co-PI on other funded proposals.
This program will run initially for one cycle with the possibility of additional cycles. The long-term success of this program will be judged primarily by its effectiveness in stimulating new external funding for research.
The review process will be managed by the IMET Program Committee. If members of the Program Committee choose to put in applications, they will recuse themselves from this committee for the purpose of this review. The IMET Program Committee comprises Russell Hill (Chair; IMET Director, IMET-UMCES); JoAnn Goedert (USM), Associate Vice Chancellor, University System of Maryland; Jim Kaper (SOM/UMB), Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Bill LaCourse (UMBC), Dean, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, UMBC; Tom Miller (UMCES), Director, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, UMCES; Terry Cook (UMBC), Senior Associate Vice President, UMBC; Gerardo Vasta (IMET-SOM/UMB) and Yonathan Zohar (IMET-UMBC). The IMET Program Committee may request reviews from external scientists and may request that colleagues from IMET or the three partner institutions who have not submitted proposals serve on the Program Committee Review Panel.
If you have any questions regarding this Call for Proposals, contact Russell Hill, IMET Director at hill@umces.edu or 410 234 8802.
Program Details:
Proposals must be submitted as a combined pdf file to hill@umces.edu, with a cc to slangrall@umces.edu prior to 5:00 pm EST March 15, 2014.
Eligibility: All full-time faculty members who are eligible to serve as PIs at their respective institutions may apply for this funding. Each proposal must have one IMET PI (listed at http://imet.usmd.edu/people/faculty.html) and one PI affiliated with an IMET partner institution (UMB, UMBC or UMCES). The “IMET PI” and “partner institution PI” may be affiliated with the same institution or with different institutions. Three awards may be made with a maximum of one award to each of the three partner institutions.
Review criteria: Proposals will be evaluated by the IMET Program Committee supplemented by external reviews or additional panel members, as decided by the program committee. Proposals will be reviewed for their likelihood to 1. start new collaborations and generate preliminary data that will lead to very strong grant applications to federal agencies (NIH, NSF, NOAA etc.) or commercial entities in the future; 2. promote scientific excellence in new, productive collaborations. Applicants should not expect detailed written critiques of their proposals.
Allowable and unallowable expenses: Allowable expenses are research supplies; purchase or rental of equipment for new research; travel for research purposes (excluding travel to meetings or conferences); and salary support for PIs, technicians, research associates (post-docs) and/or graduate students. All expenses must be justified. Any equipment purchased is the property of the university with which the PI is affiliated and must remain should the PI leave the University. The following expenses are not allowed: secretarial support, general telephone services and postage, alterations or renovations of laboratory space, purchase of laboratory or office furniture, purchase of periodicals and books, and dues and memberships in scientific societies.
Conditions and reporting: A final project report is due one month after the end-date of the project. An additional brief report is required two years after the end-date of the project, providing an update and list of all products resulting from the funding, including a list of proposals submitted, pending and funded. Note that eligibility to participate in any future calls in this Program is absolutely dependent on submission of a proposal based on this seed funding. Awards made to PIs are not transferable without prior approval of the IMET Director and the appropriate institutional representative, the Chief Academic Research Officer, UMB, the Vice President for Research, UMBC or the Vice President for Administration, UMCES. Funds that are not spent during the one-year timeframe of the projects will be returned to IMET in the case of IMET PIs and to the appropriate institutions in the case of PIs at partner institutions. No-cost extensions will not be granted.
Proposal format:
Cover page listing title of project, PIs and affiliations. (1 page).
Body of proposal comprising Specific Aims, Project Description, Significance and Collaborative Linkages between PIs. Arial 12 point, single-spaced. (5 page limit).
Bibliography. (No page limit).
Statement of future funding applications leading from this award. Identify specific agencies and programs. (1 page).
Budget: Separate budget and justification for each PI. Maximum of 1 page for each budget and 1 page for each Budget Justification.
Biosketches for both PIs in standard NSF or NIH format (3 page limit).