Details of UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee Intercampus Research Incentive Grants Program announced

University of Wisconsin–Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago have announced the establishment of the first UW–Madison/UW-Milwaukee Intercampus Research Incentive Grants Program, an initiative to support research projects and scholarship undertaken jointly at the two campuses.

The program, launched last month, is designed to support joint research and promote partnerships.

Here are the details of how the program will operate:

Proposal Development and Structure
The universities encourage faculty and academic staff to initiate projects that will lead to productive intercampus interactions and promote partnerships in many areas, including water/energy, health care, advanced manufacturing, biomedical engineering, K-12 education, social sciences and the humanities. Successful grant proposals should lay the groundwork for future federal or state grant submissions, or funding from private foundations.

Investigators may wish to focus on a problem within a single discipline or collaborate with the intention of implementing a cross-disciplinary project (leveraging strengths from the physical sciences, engineering, humanities, the arts, and social sciences). The project should be defined in such a way that its potential for extramural support is apparent, including specific plans to seek significant external funding for on-going collaboration. All proposals should be structured so that they reflect the engagement of investigators from the two institutions. Both new collaborations as well as further development of existing collaborations will be considered.

The lead principal investigator (PI) must prepare the proposal and budget in keeping with the practices of their institution. Involvement of the other institution shall be in the form of a subcontract to the partner institution. At least 25% of the budget must be for activities at the partner institution.

Funding
Budgets with a recommended maximum of $50,000 for a term of one year will be considered. Overhead costs should not be included. Funding levels for successful proposals will depend on the budget request, the reviewers’ evaluation of budgetary need, and the ranking of the proposal. This program is made possible by the generous support of UW–Madison/UW-Milwaukee donors.

Submission Guidelines

1. The application should show the exact roles of the PI and co-PI in the project.
2. The proposal should be no more than three (3) pages single-spaced plus a one-page budget including justification and a table indicating what work will be performed on each campus.  The proposal document should be headed with a short (50 word) summary statement. 
3. In addition to the proposal, a CV of no more than two pages for each PI should be included.

Selection Criteria

1. Demonstrable synergistic interactions between the two institutions.
2. Likelihood that the work would continue beyond the grant period.
3. It should be clear in the proposal that without this funding the work would not be performed.
4. Focus in key project areas, including water/energy, health care, advanced manufacturing, biomedical engineering, K-12 education, social sciences and the humanities.
5. Quality of the proposed work.

Selection Process
Proposals will be evaluated for their synergistic potential and possibility of future outside funding. Reviewers will consider the quality of the proposal together with the demonstrated records of scholarly achievements and promise. Senior faculty will be judged on their scholarly activities, junior faculty on the promise of their individual research programs and the role they will play in the collaboration.

Each chancellor shall designate deans, faculty and foundation staff to serve on the selection committee. The selection committee shall make recommendations to the chancellors who will make the final selections.

Deadline and Proposal Submission Address
Applications must be received by April 2, 2010, and should be sent electronically to Petra Schroeder (pschroeder@bascom.wisc.edu) and Brian Thompson (briant@uwmfdn.org).