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| May 12, 2008 |
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Proposal Process19 December 2006 Dear Researcher:Texas Sea Grant is soliciting preproposals for the two-year funding cycle scheduled to begin on March 1, 2008. The process will require nearly a year to complete. The steps involved are spelled out in the following Request for Preproposals (RFP). Preproposals should address one of the priority research areas described in the RFP. Additional opportunities for funding in the areas of Aquatic Invasive Species, Ballast Water, Gulf Oyster Research and Oyster Disease may be available under separate calls for proposals issued by the National Sea Grant Office. Those calls will occur during the latter part of 2007 and additional calls for those and/or other topics are anticipated to appear in the years that follow. However, at the time of this writing, the FY 2007 budget for Sea Grant has yet to be passed by Congress, so we do not have details about which programs may or may not be continued. In addition to the Request for Preproposals issued by Texas Sea Grant, we are involved in a regional research proposal solicitation. This solicitation deals with coastal natural hazard events. Details of that request can be found at http://www.flseagrant.org/funding/GOM/index.htm. Please share information on the availability of the Request for Preproposals with colleagues who might be interested in developing a preproposal for the 2008-2010 cycle. In addition, please plan to attend one of the informational sessions listed in the Request for Preproposals. Those meetings will provide you with the opportunity to learn more about the submission and review process, preparation of your budget, details of electronic submission and other important topics. Your questions will also be answered during those meetings.
Robert R. Stickney
Request for Preproposals The next two-year research funding cycle for the Texas Sea Grant College Program will begin on February 1, 2008, and will run through January 31, 2010. As in previous years, our process involves investigators submitting brief preproposals that will be peer reviewed within the state for their fit within the priority areas described below. It should be noted that preproposals outside of the scope of the priority areas will be considered if they appear to have the potential for addressing an important problem within the state, region or nation. You will also see that Texas Sea Grant desires to conduct a special study in addition to those identified as priority areas for research. Following written peer review of preproposals, a panel of experts will advise Sea Grant as to which preproposal Principal Investigators (PIs) should be encouraged to submit full proposals. Our intent is to encourage submissions of full proposals in numbers that provide PIs with at least a reasonable chance of funding. Full proposals will be subjected to written peer review followed by prioritization of highly ranked final proposals by a second external review panel. Once final decisions on which proposals Texas Sea Grant intends to fund have been made, an omnibus proposal will be prepared for submission to the National Sea Grant Office (NSGO). Final funding approval is not provided to PIs until the omnibus proposal is accepted by the NSGO (late 2007). Proposals may be written for research lasting up to two years.Eligibility Faculty members (including research scientists who may not hold professorial rank) at institutions of higher education in the state of Texas may submit preproposals for Texas Sea Grant College Program funding. We encourage involvement by at least one graduate and/or undergraduate student in each research project.Research Priorities The Texas Sea Grant Advisory Committee, comprised of individuals representing various industries, state and federal agencies, academia and non-governmental organizations, was convened in 2006 to develop the research priorities for the new proposal cycle. As a result, two primary priority areas were put forward:• Sustainable Coastal Communities and Economies • Coastal Ecosystems and Habitats The committee recommended a special study that falls under the first of the above priorities. More information on that study is provided in the next section. In addition, the advisory committee supported maintaining a priority area in which Texas Sea Grant has traditionally attempted to fund at least one proposal per cycle: • Marine Education After obtaining the recommendations from the Sea Grant Advisory Committee on research priorities, a new strategic plan for the period 2007-2011 was drafted, distributed for comment, revised and finalized. That plan lays out the priorities with goals and objectives for the next two proposal cycles. PIs should consult the plan and try to fit their preproposals to one or more of the areas that are of particular research interest as outlined in the plan. The strategic plan can be found under the “About Us” section of the Texas Sea Grant web page at http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu. There was a research topic recommendation made by the Program Assessment Team (PAT) that evaluated the Texas Sea Grant College Program in 2004 to assess the importance of Texas Sea Grant activities to the state. We did not receive a proposal on that topic in the 2005-2007 cycle and are soliciting proposals once again. Because this is a high priority for Texas Sea Grant, we intend to fund a proposal that addresses the “Importance of the Texas Coast to the Economy of the State and Contributions Made through Sea Grant Research, Outreach and Education,” assuming a high-quality proposal is submitted. Collaboration and Funding Targets Multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional proposals are encouraged since many of today’s research problems lie beyond the expertise of an individual investigator, or even within one of the fine universities within the state. University researchers also may partner with non-university researchers, although all preproposals must be submitted through a university by a qualified faculty member. Multi-disciplinary teams might include some combination of natural scientists, social scientists and engineers. While no absolute numbers are placed on the upper limit of proposal budgets, the following targets should be kept in mind:• Proposals involving single investigators: maximum of $80,000 per year for up to two years. • Multi-investigator proposals: maximum of $50,000 per investigator per year for up to two years with a target budget of no more than $150,000 per year. Sea Grant is a matching program. For every two federal dollars received by a PI, there is a one-dollar non-federal matching requirement under federal law. Overhead rates accepted by Texas Sea Grant are those that have been negotiated between applying universities and the federal government. Benefits to the State Sea Grant’s research program is aimed at conducting studies that help resolve problems of national, regional, and importantly, state and local interest. To that end, we request that each preproposal and full proposal contain a statement of the importance of the proposed research to Texas. You may also wish to broaden your statement to indicate how the research may have local, regional and/or national implications.The Schedule The following timetable outlines the overall process. Details of some of the steps follow the timetable.
Meetings with Investigators The Texas Sea Grant administrative team will once again conduct public meetings with interested scientists at three locations in January 2007. The purpose of the meetings will be to answer questions associated with the research priorities, reporting requirements, matching requirements, and interaction with Texas Sea Grant Extension and/or the Marine Information Service. The meetings will be held at the following locations:
Other universities interested in scheduling a meeting should contact Peggy Foster, Assistant to the Director. Questions on budget development, including development of multi-institutional budgets, should be addressed to Terry Poehl, Fiscal Officer. Both can be reached at (979) 845-3854 or via e-mail pfoster@neo.tamu.edu or tlpoehl@neo.tamu.edu Preproposal Process Preproposals can be submitted for one- or two-year projects, although funding beyond the first year will be contingent on Congressional appropriations to the program and progress reports submitted no later than April 1 of the second year. Written peer review of preproposals will be by Texas Sea Grant Extension personnel, members of the Sea Grant Advisory Committee and other experts. A small panel will be convened to prioritize the preproposals and select those to be requested as full proposals. Summaries of comments from both written reviews and the review panel will be provided to those submitting preproposals. Preproposal evaluations will focus on the responsiveness to Sea Grant’s priority program areas, goals and objectives. Full Proposal Submission Full proposals are expanded versions of preproposals that contain literature reviews and far more detail. Guidelines for preparation of full proposals will be mailed along with the letters of invitation to submit full proposals and comments from reviewers of the preproposals.We will continue to have at least one individual from either Texas Sea Grant Extension or the Marine Information Service (MIS) interact with the researchers involved with each funded project so the research results can be transmitted to stakeholders in a timely manner when they become available for release. Principal investigators submitting full proposals are encouraged to contact one of our Extension or MIS staff to solicit their involvement throughout the proposal development process. For those who are not familiar with the staff, details of their interests can be found on our web site (http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu/mas/index.php). Texas Sea Grant requires a final report that is to include an Executive Summary. Up to 10 percent of project funds can, under our contract, be withheld until an acceptable final report is received.
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