Office of Research

Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant Program

Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant Program

SIRG II: 2012/2013 Academic Year

General Information

The Cal Poly Pomona Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant (SIRG) Program is designed to promote interdisciplinary initiatives involving at least two departments and usually more than one college. Awards will range from $10,000 to $25,000 and will provide assigned time for two to four PI’s/Co-PI’s per funded project. Requests for overload support will not be considered, but requests for up to $5000 for supplies or travel to help collect essential pilot data will be considered. We expect 4 to 7 proposals to be awarded for the 2012/2013 academic year.

Priority consideration will be given to proposals that are viewed as likely to result in major interdisciplinary contracts or grants that are consistent with our mission. Partial funding of some proposals may be possible. If there are not a sufficient number of high quality proposals in the first round to justify the strategic allocation of all the available funds, some of the funds may be retained for future years.

Research areas: All important research areas will be considered. However, special consideration will be given to proposals that fit into one or more of the following strategic priorities which are being considered for development by the Capital Campaign: Water, STEM, Cybersecurity.

The funding in this second round (SIRG II), with a May 7 application deadline, will be for the 20012/13 Academic year. There may be another round of applications, for Summer 2013, depending on availability of funds.

Awards will be made by the Provost in consultation with representatives from the University Research Council, the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, the Provost’s staff, and the Deans Council.

All Cal Poly Pomona members of Unit 3 - Faculty, Librarians, Coaches, and Counselors, are eligible to be team members for funding from this program. However, the PI (team leader) must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member.

Activities will include the writing of an interdisciplinary contract or grant proposal for an external agency. Each PI/Co-PI can request $5000 to provide 4 WTUs assigned time during the 2012/13 academic year.

Procedure for proposals: One original signed (hard copy) of each proposal must be submitted to the Office of Associate Vice President for Research, Bldg. 1, Room 225, by 5:00 PM on May 7, 2012. Award announcements are expected by June 18.

Formatting Limitations: The entire application must be single-spaced in 12-pt Arial font with 1” margins.

Applications will not be reviewed if they are incomplete, do not comply with the formatting instructions, exceed the page limitations, or if they are received after the 5 PM deadline. Applicants are encouraged to deliver their applications in person to ensure they are received by the deadline.

The application must include:

A Cover Page including Abstract (use Cover page form located at the end of these guidelines). The Abstract must not exceed 20 lines.
Signature Page including each PI/Co-PI and their Department Chairs. The Dean of the College of the PI must also sign, indicating approval.
Letters of Support from the Department Chairs (a letter for each PI/Co-PI)
Project Narrative (a maximum of five pages) written for an educated general audience. The narrative should include the following information:
A description of the interdisciplinary problem to be addressed
A brief description of how the proposed activity relates to one or more of the core values of Cal Poly Pomona. http://www.csupomona.edu/mission.php#corevalues
A brief summary of the expertise of the PI and each of the Co-PI’s, and their roles in the project.
A description of the agency or agencies that could be a source of external support for the project. Be as specific as possible regarding the program and amounts of awards that are possible. Correspondence with program chairs is encouraged and should be documented if possible, in a appendix if needed.
A budget, with the support for the PI/CoPI’s indicated for the Fall, Winter or Spring quarter, and, if necessary, funds for supplies or travel.
Objectives and measurable outcomes for activities planned, with a timeline.
A bibliography of citations from the project narrative. This does not count against the five page limit.

A Curriculum Vitae (maximum of two pages) for the PI and for each Co-PI, demonstrating that the team as a whole has the qualifications necessary to compete for the external funding. The two page limit does not include the required list of peer-reviewed publications and list of relevant current and previous contracts and grants. The Curriculum Vitae will be used to help evaluate the potential of the PI/Co-PI team to compete successfully for grants and/or contracts from external funding sources.

Evaluative Criteria:

Clarity of the statement of a significant interdisciplinary question or problem to be addressed;
Organization and clarity of the written application;
Relevance of the proposed project to the core values: http://www.csupomona.edu/mission.php#corevalues

and the academic strategic plan:

http://academic.csupomona.edu/academic/docs/Academic_Strategic_Plan.pdf

of Cal Poly Pomona

Special consideration will be given to proposals that align with one of the following

strategic priorities: Water, STEM, Cybersecurity;

Reasonableness of the proposed time line;
Reasonableness of the amounts of requested assigned time/summer stipends to achieve the project objectives
Potential for submitting a competitive application for significant external funding. Criteria will include:

Potential programmatic impact, creative contributions, or contributions to the basic and/or applied body of knowledge
Publication track record of the team and its relevance to the proposed grant application;
Clear definition of the role of each PI/Co-PI in the team;
Presence of pilot data, if necessary, to support the grant application;
Potential of obtaining external support for the proposed research (includes quality and relevance of the research/programmatic idea);
Availability of external support (funding) for research or program development in this interdisciplinary area;
Evidence of correspondence with program director(s) confirming the feasibility/suitability of proposal(s) for those program(s)
Likelihood of indirect cost recoveries resulting from external funding is one consideration

Required reports from funded projects:

For successful proposals, a progress report will be due on December 14, 2012. The final report, in the format of a full length proposal that was submitted, or is planned to be submitted to a particular funding agency, will be due on June 10, 2013.

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