Greetings colleagues,
As part of our mission to promote and sustain excellence in research at Rice, the Shared Equipment Authority (SEA), a faculty committee comprised of eighteen members drawn from our stakeholder departments across the schools of engineering and natural sciences, works to increase the availability and facilitate the use of shared research infrastructure on campus.
The SEA staff includes over 20 expert research scientists and technicians currently managing over 150 pieces of shared research instrumentation across 12 core laboratory facilities, supporting the efforts of more than 800 individual users across dozens of research groups from both schools, as well as users external to Rice.
User fees are charged to cover consumable costs and maintain the instruments. To view the current list of SEA equipment, please see https://research.rice.edu/sea/instruments
We invite the science and engineering community to submit proposals for equipment that they believe would be of great value as shared research infrastructure. If you would like to recommend an instrument, please fill out this proposal submission form in its entirety: https://forms.gle/hMK6CvZeRHXVLJfr5
Please note the following:
- For the FY 2025 call, we will limit the maximum proposal to ~$2M.
- The SEA considers a shared instrument or facility to be one used by the research groups of two or more faculty members.
- You are encouraged to provide ample supporting documentation (vendor quotes, letters of intent, etc) where available.
- Submission reviews will begin on a rolling basis after Nov 1, 2024
- Submissions will be accepted until Nov 8, 2024.
- Authors of proposals will be invited to present during the SEA faculty board meeting on Nov 14, 2023, with rollover to the Dec 12 meeting as needed.
- Final decisions will be made during the January SEA faculty board meeting.
Proposals will be evaluated by the SEA faculty board and staff using a standard rubric based on the following criteria:
- Enhancement and innovation of the research capabilities on campus
- Breadth and size of anticipated user base
- Financial sustainability of the instrument, based on anticipated utilization and maintenance costs
- Requirements for facilities, space, and staffing
In the past, successful proposals have been developed with input from SEA staff to successfully address all these criteria. You are encouraged to leverage the expertise and vendor relationships available through SEA Research Scientists (SEARS) to enhance your proposals; our staff welcomes your engagement and partnership.