Funding-NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant Program and Required Information for Letter of Institutional Commitment; March 15, 2016

 

 

Please note the corrections from previous announcement highlighted below in yellow.

 

 

The NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) supports the Shared Instrumentation Grant program for expensive, specialized instruments or integrated systems that cost at least $50,000. Maximum award is $600,000. In FY 2017 ORIP intends to fund approximately 75 awards, corresponding to about $35 million. The NIH deadline is May 16, 2016.

 

Complete Program Announcement:  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-16-054.html

 

Specific requirements for this program include:

 

Financial Plan: The application must include a specific financial plan for long-term operation and maintenance of the instrument, with details on how various operational costs will be met. The financial plan MUST include a table for year one of operation with dollars for anticipated expenditures and anticipated income showing how these estimates were derived. For Year 1 specific dollar amounts are required; for Years 2 -5 approximate dollars are recommended. Also required is a description of projected changes to the financial plan over the subsequent four years for operation, maintenance, supplies, anticipated income, and institutional support.

 

Institutional Commitment and Letters of Support: The application must describe the institutional infrastructure available to support the instrumentation, including space to house the instrument and site for sample preparation, if needed, and confirm the institutional support toward the maintenance and operation of the instrument. In particular, the institution must commit to provide backup of the financial plan for five years from installation of the equipment or for the effective lifetime of the instrument. Note that the NIH prefers locating the instruments in a centralized core facility whenever possible

 

The Vice President for Research will provide the institutional support letter for instruments that will be placed in a core facility that is over-seen by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Applications for instruments to be housed in college-level core facilities or that will not be in core facilities will need to acquire institutional support letters from the college dean, center/institute director and/or department chair. The Vice President for Research will consider committing to partial support of these instruments after an internal review for alignment with institutional research and budgetary priorities. In all cases, the Office of the VPR will provide the table of all previous S10 awards to UK within the past five years that is a required part of the application.

 

Researchers planning to submit a proposal to the Shared Instrumentation Grant program for an instrument to be housed in an existing VPR Core Facility should send the following material electronically, assembled into a single PDF file, to the Office of the Vice President for Research at limitedsubmissions@uky.edu and a copy to Alan Daugherty (adaugh@uky.edu), Associate Vice President for Research by March 15, 2016.

 

·         Name of the PI and Core Facility

·         Instrument requested and approximate cost

·         Proposed user group (a minimum of 3 NIH-funded investigators is required)

·         A description of the instrument capabilities/uses, and a one page narrative of how the instrument addresses current institutional research priorities and will extend UK’s capabilities to facilitate additional NIH-funded research

·         A draft financial management plan for Year 1 and any projected changes for Years 2-5

 

Researchers planning to submit a proposal to the Shared Instrumentation Grant program for an instrument NOT to be housed in an existing VPR Core Facility are requested to inform the Office of the Vice President for Research of their intent to submit and include a description of the instrument and how the institutional financial commitment will be handled. If partial support is requested from the Vice President for Research, send the following material electronically, assembled into a single PDF file, to the Office of the Vice President for Research at limitedsubmissions@uky.edu and a copy to their Associate Dean for Research by March 15, 2016.

 

·         Name and department of PI

·         Instrument requested and approximate cost

·         Proposed user group (a minimum of 3 NIH-funded investigators is required)

·         A description of the instrument capabilities/uses, and a one page narrative of how the instrument addresses current institutional research priorities and will extend UK’s capabilities to facilitate additional NIH-funded research

·         A draft financial management plan for Year 1 and any projected changes for Years 2-5

·         If the instrument is intended to be part of an existing service core (recharge center), identify which one; if a new recharge center is being proposed, provide proposed name and location and include a letter of support from the relevant Dean that includes the commitment to provide financial back-up for the proposed financial plan if it should fall short of the projected income. Describe the request for VPR support.

·         If the instrument is not intended to be part of a service core, delineate the department/center/institute and college plans for instrument support in terms of personnel and service costs and include a letter of support from the relevant Dean that includes the commitment to provide financial back-up to ensure operation and maintenance of the instrument. Describe the request for VPR support.

 

Questions about the submission process may be sent to Ms. Annette Evans in the Office of the Vice President for Research (alevan4@email.uky.edu or 257-1663). To identify potential NIH-funded investigators, researchers may contact the Proposal Development Office (PDO@uky.edu) or search SPIFi, the database of UK funded projects (http://www.research.uky.edu/ospa/info/spifi.html).