The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) promotes and supports research and scholarship that will result in new knowledge and discoveries that benefit Minnesota and the world. The National Academies has stated that “fostering opportunities for researchers to cross disciplinary and professional boundaries is of paramount importance to scientific progress. Today’s extraordinary societal challenges call for reaching beyond the established patterns and organization of the research community.” In order to help propel research and scholarship beyond the ordinary, the OVPR is pleased to fund the Minnesota Futures Grant Program. The objective of the Minnesota Futures Grant Program is:
To nurture interdisciplinary ideas or methodologies to a point where they are ready for and attractive to external funding. This program intends to underwrite the costs of converting ideas into viable research questions to enable faculty members to respond collaboratively and boldly to emerging opportunities in interdisciplinary research.
Modeled on the successful National Academies “Keck Futures Initiative,” the Minnesota Futures Grant Program will consist of two grants:
Symposium Grant is a call for proposals to develop and convene interdisciplinary symposia around research questions of current significance which are engaging to multiple disciplines. The purpose of the symposia is to encourage development of new interdisciplinary research and scholarly collaborations with the potential to achieve external funding. A maximum of three awards, each providing up to $25,000 to support a symposium, will be made. Symposia are expected to be open events, not invitation only, designed to attract engaged discussion by a large number of researchers.
Research Grant is a call for interdisciplinary research and scholarship proposals that originate from new interdisciplinary groups*. A maximum of three awards of $250,000 each for up two years will be made. The purpose of the research and scholarship is to develop new ideas into external competitive projects.
Details about the program, eligibility, evaluation criteria, and application instructions follow.
General eligibility: All faculty members and others otherwise eligible to serve as principal investigators, per the Board of Regents policy Submitting and Accepting Sponsored Projects:
http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/administrative/Submit-Accept_Projects.html.
Research Grant 2009-11 WINNERS announced:
| INVESTIGATOR |
TITLE |
| Kumar, Vipin |
Automated Assessment of Forest Cover Change
ABSTRACT
|
| Lefebvre, Paul |
Optimization of Algal Lipid Production for Human
Nutrition and Bioenergy
ABSTRACT
|
| Macosko, Chris |
Beyond Taxol®: Nanoparticle Delivery of a Paclitaxel Silicate Prodrug
ABSTRACT |
Research Grant 2009-11 Call for Proposals
Due date for application: April 6, 2009
Tentative award date: June 2009
Project start date: July 2009
Project completion date: June 2011
Program Description
Because today’s extraordinary societal challenges call for reaching beyond the established patterns and organization of the research community, the MN Futures Grant Program is designed to promote research and scholarship beyond existing initiatives through fostering opportunities for researchers to cross disciplinary and professional boundaries. The MN Futures Grant Program has two components. The Symposium Grant is designed to provide funds for scholars from diverse areas to come together to discuss new, potentially fruitful areas of research. The Research Grant is designed to promote more in-depth work to convert ideas into viable research questions to enable faculty members to respond collaboratively and boldly to emerging opportunities in interdisciplinary research and scholarship.
Proposal Narrative
The Proposal Narrative should include the following:
- Formation of the new group*
- Interdisciplinary nature of the group
- Rationale for proposed activity in terms of the societal problem being addressed
- Research or scholarly design
- Proposed outcomes
- Management plan
- Timeline
- Potential for future funding and impact
- Budget
Other Requirements
- The PI must be from the University of Minnesota
- The funds must be spent at the U of MN (except in unusual situations)
Selection Criteria
Research and scholarly proposals will be evaluated by peer review using the following criteria:
- The newness of group*(see definition below);
- The breadth of disciplines and communities involved;
- The importance of issues addressed;
- The quality of the research design;
- The feasibility of the plan of operation; and
- The potential for future funding or scholarly impact.
*Definition of a New Group: Because the intent of the MN Futures program is to foster fresh and novel collaborations, new group means a group that has not worked together before. Although there might be some history of collaboration between different sets of the collaborators, the group itself should not have worked together for more than a year or so. For example, two or three members of a larger group of collaborators could have published together but the whole group should not show a history of joint work. The proposal must provide a narrative of how the new group was formed and describe how it is distinct from other interdisciplinary work group members may have conducted in the past. Proposers who had developed or participated in Symposium Grant symposia would be at an advantage in that any symposium would have provided the opportunity for new groups to come together to address emerging issues and areas for research.
Budget Information
Allowable expenses up to $250,000 over two years for the proposal include personnel costs (senior personnel, post docs, graduate students and others); travel; materials and supplies; consultants; computer services; etc. General use equipment or supplies including computers, books, or subscriptions are not allowable.
Outline
The suggested outline for the Research proposal:
- The Cover Page (download template)
- The proposal narrative (not to exceed 15 pages)
- A single page budget (use of EGMS budget prep is encouraged)
- No indirect costs will be paid
- Support from other sources, if any, must be disclosed and explained in the budget
- Bio-sketches of key collaborators (no more than two pages each)
- Completed Proposal Routing Form:
Insert OVPR as sponsor name in item number 1
Choose "electronic" for item 5, enter sunde005@umn.edu and insert the following in the Instructions for Electronic Proposal box:
ATTN: Peggy Sundermeyer
Minnesota Futures Grant Program
Vice President for Research
420 Johnston Hall
If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Peggy Sundermeyer, sunde005@umn.edu and 612.626.7850.
Submission Process
Please send your proposal (items 1 – 4 above) as a single PDF document, via e-mail using
MN Futures Grant in the Subject line to Peggy Sundermeyer, sunde005@umn.edu,
due date April 6, 2009. The PRF should be routed electronically to Sponsored Projects Administration where it will be forwarded to OVPR, Collaborative Research Services.
Research Grant Timeline
Link to Symposium 2009-10 Call |
