Funding-Limited Submission – NSF – EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: Track-2 Focused EPSCoR Collaborations (RII Track-2 FEC) (17-503); January 10, 2017

Purpose: The NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) promotes partnerships with government, higher education, and industry designed to effect sustainable improvements in a jurisdiction's research infrastructure, Research and Development (R&D) capacity, and hence, its R&D competitiveness. RII Track-2 FEC builds interjurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in scientific focus areas consistent with NSF priorities. Projects are investigator-driven and must include a PI and co-PIs from academic institutions or organizations in at least two RII-eligible jurisdictions (i.e., Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, US Virgin Islands, West Virginia, and Wyoming). Proposals must describe a comprehensive and integrated vision to drive discovery and build sustainable STEM capacity that exemplifies diversity of all types (individual, institutional, geographic, and disciplinary). The development of diverse early-career faculty is a critical component of this sustainable STEM capacity.

For FY 2017, RII Track-2 FEC proposals are invited on a single topic: Understanding the relationship between genome and phenome.

Funding Amount / Project Period:

• If institutions from two RII-eligible EPSCoR jurisdictions collaborate on a proposal, the award amount may not exceed $1 million per year for up to four years.
• If institutions from three or more RII-eligible EPSCoR jurisdictions collaborate on a proposal, the award amount may not exceed $1.5 million per year for up to four years.

Institutional Limit: 1 RII Track-2 FEC proposal.

Only one RII Track-2 FEC proposal may be submitted in response to this solicitation by an organization in a RII-eligible jurisdiction. For the internal competition process, however, UK researchers are encouraged to work with their collaborative institutional partners and ask them to consider submitting the same project to their local institutions, with UK as the subcontracted collaborator. If the same project is prioritized to be lead at more than one institution, the research groups can jointly decide which institution will submit to NSF as the lead institution, and a different project can be prioritized by the non-lead institution.

If any researchers have questions or would like assistance with contacting other jurisdictions, they should contact Rodney Andrews, Director, KY NSF EPSCoR.

Link to Funding Opportunity Announcement

Internal Competition: To participate in the University’s selection process, researchers are to submit the following material electronically, assembled into a single PDF document, to the Office of the Vice President for Research at limitedsubmissions@uky.edu and a copy to their Associate Dean for Research by Tuesday, December 6, 2016:

· Names and departments of UK’s PI, Senior Project Personnel, and collaborating researchers at RII-eligible institutions/jurisdictions

· Title of the program and/or funding opportunity announcement number

· Brief project description (2 pages maximum).

A committee will be convened to review the material and make a recommendation. For questions, email the limited submission mailbox (limitedsubmissions@uky.edu) or call 257-2861.

NSF Deadlines:

Letter of Intent (required) – January 10, 2017.

Full Proposal – February 10, 2017.