Opportunity fund grants at COM 4/24/19

The UF Office of Research has announced the 2019 Research Opportunity Seed Fund competition. Projects should be innovative, have strong potential for garnering future funding from external sources OR have outstanding commercial potential. Research Opportunity Seed Fund awards are not intended to support on-going projects – they should support new projects (not a supplement to current research) and/or new collaborative partnerships. The proposal must emphasize novel research. To be competitive, proposals must be multi-/interdisciplinary and must involve faculty from at least two departments/units/colleges. Single-investigator proposals are not eligible. Awards will be limited to $100,000 for the entire project period (two years).  

Timeline Fri, Oct 5, 2018 Send out announcement Mon, Oct 29, 2018      Letters of Intent due to COM Office of Research Affairs Thu, Nov 15, 2018      Selected applicants invited to submit a full proposal Wed, Jan 2, 2019       Full proposals due to COM Office of Research Affairs Tue, Jan 22, 2019       Notify PIs selected to move forward to campus-wide competition Wed, Jan 30, 2019     Selected COM proposals due to the UF Office of Research (submitted to UFIRST by PI) April 29, 2019 23 final proposals are reviewed campus wide

Proposals may be submitted by any UF faculty member (PI) eligible to submit a proposal for external funding: (see Policy on Eligibility to Submit a Proposal for External Funding). Pdf Guidelines posted

Eligibility It is University Policy that any individuals who hold one of the following UF positions and have signed the Patents and Copyright Agreement can be a Principal Investigator (PI) and submit proposals for external funding: A. Faculty in Tenure Accruing Tracks Professor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor Graduate Research Professor Distinguished Service Professor Distinguished Research Curator Eminent Scholar B.  Faculty in Non-Tenure Accruing Tracks Scientist, Assistant Scientist, Associate Scientist Scholar, Assistant Scholar, Associate Scholar Research Professor, Assistant Research Professor, Associate Research Professor Clinical Professor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor

COM process To submit a letter of intent (due Monday, October 29, 2018): https://researchaffairs.med.ufl.edu/resources/research-opportunity- seed-fund/

The College of Medicine can submit a maximum of 11 proposals for this campus- wide competition. As such, the College of Medicine Office of Research Affairs is conducting an internal selection via a two-stage process:   Stage 1. Letters of Intent – due Monday, October 29, 2018 A cover page that includes project title, submitting investigator, submitting investigator department, and names of all co-investigators and their departments One-page technical summary inclusive of a description of the interdisciplinary, collaborative nature of the project Current NIH biosketch for each investigator (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm) Submit electronically as a single PDF to our website (see below) Applicants will be notified of the Stage 1 review results on or around November 15th, 2018. Approximately 20 selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal for Stage 2 of the College of Medicine’s internal selection process.

Stage 2. Invited full proposals will be due Wednesday, January 2, 2019 Stage 2. Invited full proposals will be due Wednesday, January 2, 2019. These proposals will be internally reviewed, and 11 will be chosen to move forward to the campus-wide competition. These eleven proposals will be submitted to the UF Office of Research (by Wednesday, January 30, 2019) and will undergo a uniform and centrally coordinated scientific review by faculty panels.   The UF Office of Research will make every effort to notify the Principal Investigators of their award status by April 30, 2019.

REVIEW CRITERIA – RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY SEED FUND Definition of Multi-/Interdisciplinary: (Wikipedia) “Multidisciplinarity is a non-integrative mixture of disciplines in that each discipline retains its methodologies and assumptions without change or development from other disciplines within the multidisciplinary relationship. Multidisciplinarity is distinctly different from Interdisciplinarity because of the relationship that the disciplines share. Within a multidisciplinary relationship this cooperation "may be mutual and cumulative but not interactive" (Augsburg 2005: 56) while interdisciplinarity blends the practices and assumptions of each discipline involved.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidisciplinarity

An overall priority score based on 5 criteria: Significance and Innovation: Does this study address an important problem? Is the project original, multi/interdisciplinary and innovative? Does the project develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies, tools, or technologies? What will be the impact of these studies on the methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this area of research? Do the proposed outcomes represent a new paradigm for concepts in this area of research? Does the project represent a new direction of investigation for the faculty involved, or is it a new collaborative partnership? Does the project have commercial potential? (Please note commercial potential is not required.) Does the proposed project address UF’s strategic goals? Approach: Does the application represent a new conceptual/multidisciplinary approach to the identified problem? Are the conceptual framework, design, methods, and analyses adequately developed, well integrated, well-reasoned, and appropriate to the aims of the project? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative tactics?

Likelihood of obtaining external support: Do the investigators present reasonable plans to garner extramural support from specific funding agencies? Is the proposed timeline reasonable? Investigators: Are the investigators appropriately trained and well suited to carry out this work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the principal investigator and other researchers? Does the investigative team bring complementary and integrated expertise to the project? Is there evidence of the ability of the team of investigators to work together in an interdisciplinary fashion? Environment/Resources: Do the proposed studies benefit from unique features of the scientific environment or employ useful collaborative arrangements? Do the PIs have the additional resources (e.g., equipment) to successfully accomplish their goals?

Budget No salary for faculty Salary for staff and trainees (including tuition) Supplies No travel

strategy COM is the most competitive college May be beneficial for COM faculty to be Co-I Establish ground rules with co-I(s) before submission of who is doing what how much money goes to whom Who owns the results? Think publications and future grant proposals