MPC Spring 2008 Proposal Development Grants

The deadline for the Spring 2008 awards has past.

Eligibility

All MPC faculty affiliates and MPC-affiliated post-doctoral researchers are eligible to apply. Graduate students doing population research and working with an MPC faculty affiliate are also eligible to apply. Faculty or postdoctoral researchers who are not currently affiliated with MPC can request affiliation (and thus become eligible to apply) by contacting Cathy Fitch at fitch@umn.edu.

Funding Priorities

Priority will be given to applications that will yield fundable external grant proposals between January and October 2008. We prefer applications that will yield proposals to be submitted to the National Institutes of Health, but we will also consider applications that will yield proposals to be submitted to other agencies or foundations. Priority will also be given to junior researchers (including faculty, post-doctoral researchers, and graduate students), to members with interdisciplinary research projects, and to senior researchers who are developing new lines of investigation.

Awardees must commit to submitting a population-related grant proposal to an external funding source.

Submission Instructions

Applications should be no longer than 1,500 words, and should include the following: (1) The applicant’s name, departmental or center affiliation, and current position (e.g., full professor); (2) The anticipated specific aims of the external grant proposal; (3) A summary of the background and significance of the research to be proposed; (4) Information about prior research on the topic under investigation; (5) The anticipated research plan, including a discussion of likely methods and data; (6) The applicant’s plans for applying for external funding (including the date the proposal will be submitted and the agency or foundation to which the proposal will be submitted); (7) Information about human subjects concerns (if any); and (8) Details and justification for the proposed MPC Proposal Development Grant budget (including information and how, when, and why the funds will be used).  Applications should be emailed to Laura Olevitch (olevitch@umn.edu) in Microsoft Word or PDF format by Thursday, February 28, 2008.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated by the MPC Advisory Board on the basis of their scientific merit; their responsiveness to the funding priorities described above; and their likelihood of leading to successful external grant proposals.  Funding decisions will be announced by Friday, March 14, 2008, and funds will become available shortly thereafter.

Award Information

Awards are primarily intended for salary support or for other expenses necessary for proposal development. The MPC expects to make two to three awards in fall semester and two to three awards in spring semester. Faculty members who already have two months of summer support may apply for a third month of support through this program. We do not encourage applications to provide salary support for research assistants, but will consider such applications under special circumstances. Awardees will be required to submit a brief report explaining how their awarded funds were used; this report should be accompanied by a copy of the grant proposal(s) that resulted from the MPC Proposal Development Grant.

We strongly prefer that awardees’ external grant proposals be administered by the MPC, and will work with awardees’ department heads (or center directors) and deans to negotiate a satisfactory financial arrangement. For all awardees the MPC will provide proposal development services beyond those normally provided by academic units, including assistance on determining the proper funding mechanism, crafting compelling arguments, developing clear and manageable research plans, creating biographical sketches and other necessary forms, budget preparation, assembling the final proposal, and guiding the proposal through the University bureaucracy.