Funding-NIH Shared
Instrumentation Grant Program and Required Information for Letter of
Institutional Commitment; March 24, 2015
The
NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) supports
the Shared Instrumentation Grant program for major research equipment costing
between $100,000 and $600,000. ORIP intends to commit approximately $40 million
in FY 2016 to fund approximately 80 new awards. The NIH deadline is May 29,
2015.
Complete
Program Announcement: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-15-088.html
Management
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 approximate dollars for anticipated expenditures and anticipated income
showing how these estimates were derived. Also required is a description of
projected changes of the financial plan over the subsequent four years for
operation, maintenance, supplies, anticipated income, and institutional
infrastructure.
Institutional
Commitment: The application must
describe the institutional infrastructure available to support the
instrumentation and confirm that the institution will commit to provide backup
of the financial plan for five years from installation of the equipment or for
the effective lifetime of the instrument. The PD/PI, upon recommendations and
approval of the local Advisory Committee, may request permission from the NIH
for any future changes to this commitment due to unforeseen alterations in the
use of the instrument (i.e., transfer of title to another institution, trade-in
towards a more advanced instrument, etc.).
Letters of Support: Letters from
institutional officials for the institutional commitment and letters from the
biosafety committee, if applicable, should be combined in a single file named
Letters of Support and uploaded as a separate attachment via Other Attachments.
The institution must provide an official letter of support that includes an
explicit commitment to provide backup for the proposed financial plan. This
letter must state that if the financial plan should fall short of its projected
income, the institution will commit funds to replace the shortfall and maintain
operation of the instrument. Applications without an institutional commitment
to support a shortfall in the financial plan will not be accepted for review.
The institution must also provide a Letter of Support that includes a table
with information about instrument performance of all previous S10 awards for
instruments awarded or installed within the past five years. The table should
include: S10 grant number, year of award, PD/PI’s name, generic name of
instrument, current instrument status (i.e., in use, traded-in, transferred,
non-functional), approximate hours used per year, status of maintenance
agreement, and number of publications citing the S10 award. If the instrument is
currently non-functional, the institution must provide a supplementary
explanatory text.
Because this program
requires an institutional letter of support, researchers interested in
submitting a proposal
to the Shared Instrumentation Grant program are asked to submit the following information 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 Tuesday, March 24, 2015:
·
Name
and department of PI
·
Instrument
requested and approximate cost
·
Proposed
user group (a minimum of 3 NIH-funded investigators are 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 management plan for year one 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 the proposed name, 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
·
NIH
prefers locating the instrument in a centralized core facility whenever
possible; however, if the instrument is not intended to be part of a service
core, delineate the departmental/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
If
any level of financial support will be requested from the Office of the Vice
President for Research, the Vice President for Research will appoint a
committee to review and recommend those proposals best aligned with
institutional research and budgetary priorities.
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).