|  | | | Healthy Food, Healthy Lives (HFHL) Initiative | | Request for Proposals - March 2007
The
Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives (HFHL) initiative is supported by the
office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
The deans of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources
Sciences (CFANS) and School of Public Health (SPH) co-lead this
initiative with CFANS serving as the fiscal agent for the initiative.
The Deans of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the Medical
School and Extension together with the lead Deans (SPH and CFANS) form
the HFHL Council of Deans.
An important objective of this
initiative is to enhance the research capacity with the goal to invest
in research areas that have high potential for growth and for becoming
self-supporting over time. Therefore the HFHL Council of Deans is
requesting applications for research grants to fund faculty research
teams in the five collegial units collaborating in this presidential
initiative. Funds will be distributed through a competitive review
process. Three projects will be funded through this request for
proposals.
One award will be made to a research team for each of the following priority areas:
- Prevention of diet-related chronic disease and obesity
- Food safety, from farm to table
- Public policy and public education to influence eating behavior
These
topics include nutritional issues that are of central interest to
global health including over and under consumption of energy and
specific nutrients, environmental exposure to toxins and infectious
agents, translation of knowledge into policies and procedures that
improve human health.
Specifically, the HFHL Council of Deans
requests proposals related obesity/chronic disease prevention, food
safety, and public policy.
Funding
Up to 3 grants
will be awarded to project teams for projects with a maximum total cost
of $ 200,000 per year for up to 3 years of funding. Projects should be
faculty-led, focused on well defined problems, and should assemble an
interdisciplinary and across colleges team for basic and/or
translational research. Initiative funds should be requested for
purposes that especially facilitate new collaborations and team
development. Appropriate uses could include, but are not restricted
to:
- Support for co-advised graduate students, or other research personnel
- Shared equipment
- Database or other infrastructure development
- Purchase of support services for research
- Funds are not for support of an ongoing program. The funds should be designated for the direct support of research.
- Funds should not be used to support faculty salaries.
- The
most important criteria for funding will be interdisciplinarity,
innovation, new collaborations, quality of the research proposal, and
potential for future outside funding.
- All projects must include a well developed public engagement/outreach plan.
Project
funding for the second and third years will be dependent upon
successful performance evaluation. Performance criteria includes
building on competitive advantages, developing new synergies amongst
research teams, publications demonstrating interdisciplinarity,
submission of a proposal for extramural funding, and integrating the
research activities with teaching, training of graduate
students/postdoctoral fellows and significant public engagement.
Who is Eligible:
Faculty from CFANS, SPH, CVM, Medical School and Extension are eligible
for these grants. However, it is important to understand that this RFP
is intended for support of multi-investigator (faculty teams)
proposals. Faculty from other units across the university can only
participate as research collaborators. A faculty member may apply for
only one grant per cycle on which he/she would be the PI or co-PI.
There is no limitation to the number of grants on which a faculty
member could participate as an investigator or other role.
Review Process:
1. Letter of Intent: maximum of two pages and should include the following
- Background information
- Project hypotheses
- Proposed research projects and design
- Summary of proposed methods
2.
Proposal: After evaluation of Letters of Intent, two to three of the
most qualified proposals and teams will be invited to submit a full
proposal in an NIH-like format and total page number.
- Face page
- Abstract
- Research Plan (not to exceed 25 pages)
- Statement of Hypothesis and Specific Aims
- Background, Significance, and Rationale
- Preliminary Results (if applicable)
- Research Design and Methods
- Optional expanded description of methods (not to exceed 1 added page)
- Budget and justification for the entire proposed period of support by year.
- Biosketch for the Principal Investigator(s) on standard NIH PHS398 forms
- Letters of support from collaborating investigators
- References (need not be included within 2-3 page limit)
3. Evaluation of Team Proposals: Criteria for determining project awards include:
- Research must be interdisciplinary and across colleges.
- Graduate Student Support
- Outreach plan of action
- expertise and track record of members of the interdisciplinary research team,
- intellectual merit of the proposed research,
- identification of specific extramural granting opportunities, plus potential competitiveness for external funding,
- uniqueness and comparative advantage,
- enhancement of academic synergies,
- development and leveraging of resources,
- and appropriateness of the project budget for the proposed activities.
Review Process:
The
HFHL Council of Deans will select the reviewers. The review panel will
include one or more faculty members from each school or college and
external reviewers. The review panel will recommend additional members
and reviewers for specific proposals depending upon the number of
applications submitted and the areas of proposed research.
Recommendations of the review panel will be submitted to the HFHL
Council of Deans for final decision and approval. Score sheets and/or
written reviews will be sent to all applicants.
Application Process:
1.
The deadline for receipt of letters of Intent is May 31, 2007 (5 pm).
Letters should be submitted to F. Abel Ponce de León, Associate Dean
for Research (CFANS), at apl@umn.edu .
2. Invitations to submit full proposals will be issued on June 29, 2007
3.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is September 28, 2007 (5 pm).
Invited grant applications (original plus 6 copies) should be submitted
to Dr. Mindy Kurzer, HFHL Institute Director (CFANS), Food Sci and
Nutrition 266 F Sc N,1334 Eckles Ave. St Paul, MN 55108. A Proposal
Routing Form (PRF) should be completed and signed by the department
head and dean for the PI, co-PIs and any other key investigators. (DO
NOT SEND THE PRF and PROPOSAL TO SPONSORED PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION). An
electronic version of the application (PDF file) should also be sent to
Lettie Ebbert at ebber001@umn.edu. This request for proposals is not restricted to one per college.
4. Awards will be announced November 30, 2007.
5. Funding will commence December 17, 2007.
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Biographical Sketch Form
Biographical Sketch Sample
RFP Process Frequently Asked Questions
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