The UF Informatics Institute (UFII) invites interdisciplinary, faculty-initiated research projects with potential for extramural support.
Projects should be innovative, support the mission and goals of the Informatics Institute, and have strong potential for garnering future funding from external sources. Seed Funds are not intended to support on-going projects – they should support new projects (not a supplement to current research) and/or new collaborative partnerships. Projects should be ‘shovel-ready’, meaning seed funds will be used to produce proof-of concept data that can be used to obtain extramural funding.
Projects should be related to information representation/analysis/mining in any discipline of research. As a guide, the UFII is loosely organized into the four thematic areas of
- Informatics Techniques and Technologies
- Biomedical and Life Science Informatics
- Informatics for Engineered Systems and the Physical Sciences
- Informatics in Social Science, Humanities and Education
For details refer to http://informatics.research.ufl.edu/about-us.html
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
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. Proposals involving hypothesis-driven research should clearly and explicitly state the hypothesis. Projects that are methodological should focus on specific, key interdisciplinary problems.
Proposals may be submitted by any UF faculty member (PI) eligible to submit a proposal to an external funding agency (see Eligibility to Submit a Proposal for External Funding: http://research.ufl.edu/dsp/proposals/eligibility-to-submit-a-proposal-for-external-funding.html). Courtesy, Adjunct, Visiting and OPS faculty; Assistant In, Associate In, Senior Associate In; Research Associates; and Postdoctoral Associates are not eligible to be PIs; they may participate as co-PIs or co-investigators.
PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
Proposals should consist of the following materials in this sequence:
- Cover Page: Include title, list of PIs, co-PIs and all faculty contributing time to the project and their departmental/college affiliations, email address of primary contact PI, project start date and budget request.
- Abstract. Up to 1 page. Explain the rationale for the work to be accomplished in terms that can be understood by an “intelligent non-expert.”
- Project Description. Up to five (5) pages of text MAXIMUM describing the project. If proposals are longer than 5 pages, only the first 5 pages will be reviewed. The project description should be written such that it can be understood by an interdisciplinary faculty committee. PIs must keep in mind that their proposals are not being evaluated by a discipline-specific committee, but rather by an interdisciplinary one. Project description to include the following:
- Specific Aims/Objectives
- Background and Significance Proposals should explicitly spell out the interdisciplinary nature of the proposed project.
- Innovation/potential impact of research
- Approach/Research Design and
- Preliminary data (if applicable)
- Literature Cited (no page limit)
- Key Personnel. A list of the individuals to be involved and details of their participation. (no page limit)
- Plans to obtain continuing external support for the project (1-2 pages). Proposals must specifically list the sources of external support that will be pursued following the seed money provided by the Seed Fund (such as R01, P01, NSF Center Grant, NSF Career Award, YIPs DoD MURI, etc.). Please identify a tentative date of submission for seeking external support. Provide specific reference to the RFA/RFP and mention why/how the data gathered from this seed project/resulting publication is aligned with the requirements of the solicitation.
- A current biosketch of the Principal Investigator and each of the Co-PIs/Co-Investigators (NIH- or NSF-style biosketch suggested) and a list of their currently funded research with percent time commitment to each funded project. (Maximum of 4 pages for each individual.)
- Appendices, if necessary to support the proposal, should be brief; please do not attach manuscripts or other lengthy documents.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Proposals must be emailed in Word or PDF format only as ONE file. Please submit all proposals to Dr. Sobha Jaishankar at sjaishan@ufl.edu with a copy to Dr. Jeevan Jyot (jyotj@ufl.edu) on or before May 9th, 2014.
A signed DSP-1 form is required and may be scanned and submitted as a separate file on as many pages as are necessary to obtain all signatures (or it may be delivered or mailed to the Office of Research). Please ensure that ALL faculty contributing time to the project, as well as their chairs and deans sign the DSP-1 form. DSP-1 forms should be submitted on May 9th, 2014, along with the proposal. However, if there are delays with obtaining signatures, an extension for the submission of DSP-1 forms ONLY until May 16th, 2014 will be permitted.
Because these are internal awards, proposals should not be submitted to the Office of Research via the UF PeopleSoft system. They will be entered in PeopleSoft only if funded.
These proposals are not routed to DSP’s Proposal Processing Office at the time of submission; all proposals and inquiries should be directed to Drs. Sobha Jaishankar and Jeevan Jyot.
BUDGETS
Project Budgets should be in the range of $25,000 – $50,000. A total of $250,000 has been allocated for this particular round of seed funds.
The budget may include all normally allowable costs of research with the exception of faculty salaries and indirect costs. Faculty salaries may NOT be charged to the Seed Fund grant. There are no indirect costs associated with these grants. The percent effort of each participating faculty member must be included in the budget justification. Seed Funds are to be expended on campus. Exceptions will be allowed in instances where specific techniques are not available on campus. The award will be for the duration of one year.
No cost extensions will be very strongly discouraged. PIs are to remember that projects must be ‘shovel-ready’.
The review process will include a close scrutiny of the budget, and the budget can be negotiated prior to the setup of the award.
Performance Period: 1 year from the date of the award.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
Proposals must use single spacing; font size no smaller than 11 point; minimum 0.5 inch margins; tables and figure legends can be in 10 point.
REVIEW PROCESS
Proposals submitted by the faculty to the Office of Research will be reviewed by faculty review panels, which include members of the UFII steering committee. The faculty review panels will make recommendations to the Vice President for Research and a decision will be finalized.
DEADLINES
The deadline for RECEIPT of proposals by the Office of Research is 5 p.m. Friday MAY 9th , 2014, via email to Dr. Sobha Jaishankar (sjaishan@ufl.edu) with a copy to Dr. Jeevan Jyot (jyotj@ufl.edu).
NOTIFICATION OF AWARD
Every effort will be made to notify Principal Investigators of their award status by June 20th, 2014. The earliest start date for the award is July 1st, 2014.
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Six months after the award, all awardees of the seed fund program are expected to participate in a symposium/poster session. At the termination of the 1 year award, PIs are expected to submit for internal review a draft of the proposal planned for submission to the agency and program referenced in the section ‘Plans to obtain continuing external support for the project’ (Proposal Requirements: section 6).
QUESTIONS
Contacts:
Primary: Dr. Sobha Jaishankar, sjaishan@ufl.edu (352)-392-8247
Secondary: Dr. Jeevan Jyot, jyotj@ufl.edu (352)-392-4804