Proposal Timeline:

• Applications are due on or before May 31, 2018 at 5:00 pm CST.

Fund Information:

• It is expected that 2-3 seed grants will be awarded in 2018, depending on the quality of the proposals and fit to the mission of the program. The awards will be announced by June 20, 2018. The awards will start on July 1, 2018 and end on June 30, 2019, with a project mid-term report due date of December, 31 2018.
• The total amount requested in a given proposal cannot exceed $20,000 in direct costs. Facilities and administrative costs (F&A) are not permitted to be charged to the Fund. All proposals must have a planned duration not to exceed 12 months.

Eligibility:

• The Program aims to promote excellent collaborative and interdisciplinary research programs among faculty members in the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University and in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Emphasis of the program is placed on developing new collaborations between Rice and BCM.
• The seed grants should lead to self-sustaining, nationally competitive research programs that will address critically important problems related to surgery. It is expected that recipients of the seed grants will submit an extramural grant application related to the seed grant.
• The principal investigators (co-PIs) must be faculty members (Assistant Professor or higher rank) from Rice University, School of Engineering and Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Surgery. At least one co-PI from Rice and one co-PI from BCM are required.
• The collaborations among investigators should be new, or investigators who have collaborated previously must be proposing to collaborate in a new area or direction of research.
• Proposals must have strong potential for sustainability beyond the duration of the seed grant via competitive funding sources.

Review Criteria:

Review of proposals to the Engineering Solutions in Surgery Seed Fund will be conducted by a Review Panel, which will evaluate proposals based on: scientific merit, fit to the mission of the program, and the strength of interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration through planned subsequent competitive, peer-reviewed funding.

How to Apply:

Applications should be single-spaced, with Arial 11 pt. font and 1" margins all the way around. The proposal should include: 1) specific aims (maximum one page); 2) research strategy (maximum two pages); 3) collaboration and interaction plan (maximum one half page); and 4) extramural funding plan (maximum one half page). References cited do not count against the above page limits.

Proposals must include a face page containing the title of the proposal, names of the co-PIs and their affiliations, and two abstracts (each with a 250-word limit). One abstract should represent a standard technical abstract that would normally accompany an NIH or NSF grant. The other abstract should be written for a “lay person” and should clearly describe, with minimal use of scientific/technical jargon, the health problem(s) being investigated, the methodological approaches that will be pursued, and the potential outcomes of the research.

Abbreviated CVs (maximum five pages) or standard NIH or NSF Biosketches should be included for the co-PIs.

A line item budget and budget justification should be included, with total direct costs of up to $20,000. No indirect costs (i.e., F&A) are allowed.

Requests for salary for the Rice or BCM faculty are not permitted.

Applications are due May 31, 2018 and should be submitted as one pdf file, via email, to Andi Gobin at agobin@rice.edu; with the subject line: 2018 Engineering Solutions in Surgery Seed Fund Application.

Questions:

For questions or feedback, please contact Andi Gobin (agobin@rice.edu).