The solicitation for the National Science Foundation 2010 Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program is anticipated to be released shortly. If there are no changes this year, it is anticipated that the University of Florida will be able to submit no more than three (3) proposals. No more than two proposal submissions may be for instrument acquisition. To promote instrumentation development, the MRI program continues to require that if an organization submits or is included as a funded subawardee/subcontractor in three MRI proposals, at least one of the three proposals must be for instrument development. (NOTE: We fully expect that UF, as the lead institution, will submit the maximum allowed proposals; therefore, UF faculty will not be able to participate on another university`s MRI submission.)
If there are no changes this year, the maximum request will be $4 million for acquisition proposals or $2 million for development proposals. Acquisition proposals over $2 million must be for single instruments only. The minimum request will be $100,000. Proposers may request an award period up to three years for acquisition proposals and up to five years for development proposals. The anticipated earliest starting date is August 1st after submission.
The Office of Research is inviting internal pre-proposals for the MRI program in advance of the actual announcement to begin the internal coordination process.
INTERNAL SUBMISSION PROCEDURES: Because of the limitation on the number and type of submissions, the following procedures will be followed for internal screening and selection:
1. College of Medicine pre-proposals (following the format/content guidelines below) should be submitted as a single pdf file to Karen Pastos (pastos@ufl.edu) by Thursday, November 19th, 2009.
2. College pre-proposals will be prioritized and submitted to the Office of Research. An ad hoc committee will review the submissions and make selection recommendations to the VP for Research.
INTERNAL PRE-PROPOSAL FORMAT/CONTENTS: Pre-proposals should be no longer than five (5) single-spaced pages and contain the following information (Items 1-6):
(1) Category of application (acquisition or development);
(2) Brief description of instrumentation;
(3) Impact of instrumentation on current/future research and research training activities;
(4) Demonstrated need for the equipment;
(5) Qualifications of the persons who will use or develop the instrument;
(6) Projected cost, including plans for covering the cost of operation and maintenance of the instrumentation; and
(7) A list of NSF-funded research projects at UF that will benefit from the instrumentation (include: PI name, department, project title, budget/project period, award amount) (This list is not counted as part of the 5-page limit.).