Council on Research & Creativity / Social Sciences Program Enhancement Grants

Florida State / Office of Research / CRC

DATE: August 2009
TO: All FSU Faculty
RE: Social Sciences Program Enhancement Grants (SSPEGs) Request for Proposals (RFP)
2009 - 2010

Important Dates and Messages:

First Steps

Letter of Intent Form & List of Potential Reviewers Form Deadline: Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:59 p.m. This is the CRC's deadline and it is FIRM, no exceptions; your department or college/school may have imposed an earlier deadline; check with them.

Next Steps

Deadline to Submit Proposal Electronically: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 11:59 p.m. This is the CRC's deadline and it is FIRM, no exceptions; your department or college/school may have imposed an earlier deadline; check with them.
A separate deadline for the original Proposal Transmittal Form (PTF), with all required signatures in ink, is 4:30 p.m., Thursday, January 14, in 109 Westcott.
External review period: mid-January thru mid-February 2010
Internal FSU review period: mid-February thru early March 2010
Award notification, directly to the PI, via email w/attachments, is planned on/about April 1, 2010.
Award Period aka Performance Dates: Variable, based on submitted PTF information
Read all instructions now. Print out a copy of this RFP.

At a minimum, the software you will need is: Internet access, MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Acrobat (read, write/edit and save capabilities will require that you have more than the 'free' Acrobat reader).

Please be mindful that program coordinators and proposal reviewers will not be able to read all types or versions of software, so please limit your uploaded documents to MS Word (.doc), MS Excel (.xls), Acrobat (.pdf). WordPerfect (.wp) or Lotus (.wk) formats are also acceptable, but not preferred. Do not use .mdi or any photo program to save or submit your documents.

Overview:

The Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) is soliciting proposals from FSU faculty under the Social Science Program Enhancement Grant (SSPEG) program. SSPEGs are designed to enhance the productivity of FSU researchers through funding initiatives, seeding major new research programs in the areas of behavioral and social science, social work, business and law, information studies, nursing, communication, criminology, education and policy science of long-term significance to FSU. These grants are often employed to encourage connections between two or more research groups with different disciplinary backgrounds.

The funds for a SSPEG, provided by the CRC, will be made available based on competitive external and internal review processes for an amount up to $100,000 for a period of up to two years.

These CRC grant funds can be used only to support research and creative activity.

The Overall Goals of the SSPEG Program are:

to advance the national and international recognition and stature of FSU social science disciplines, such as behavioral and social science, social work, business and law, information studies, nursing, communication, criminology, education and policy science research programs;
to bring together FSU research capabilities, expertise, and resources - especially those disciplines related to the academic strengths of FSU and to the problems and needs of the state and the nation; and
to increase the external support for FSU researchers by providing targeted support through a competitive grants program for both centers and individuals.
Submission of at least one external proposal through FSU's Sponsored Research Services within one year of the acceptance of this award is an expectation of the award.

Eligibility, Determination of and Limitation of

Participation is open to all FSU faculty in the social sciences who are eligible to apply for external support. Exceptions to the eligibility policy should be submitted by email to the Vice President for Research with supporting rationale provided by the department chair, dean or equivalent official prior to the proposal deadline. It is the applicant's responsibility to plan, direct and execute the proposed project. Each application must indicate a single Principal Investigator (PI) as the primary contact person. To be eligible for funding, the deadlines shown herein must be satisfied.

Hiatus

PIs who have been awarded previous SSPEG funding may submit a new proposal only after a two-year hiatus following completion of the final year of the previous award's term.

NOTE: Only one proposal per PI may be submitted to the SSPEG program per competition round.

Important Notations regarding this SSPEG program to be considered as you prepare your proposal:

It is the intention of this grant to fund research not already supported by other means. Therefore, faculty who already have a well-recognized, well-funded research program are discouraged from submitting a proposal to this program.
SRAD funds are invested to support this program with the expectation that successful external proposals will be generated through FSU's Sponsored Research Services within one year after any award from this program to provide more SRAD funding to the University.
Proposal elements must be written in clear, concise language so that reviewers will be able to understand the scholarly merit of your plan; appropriateness of the research approach and methodology; potential contribution to knowledge or scholarship; and likelihood the expected outcomes will be met.
Reviewers will be following CRC review guidelines and standards for scoring the proposal. The CRC makes final funding decisions based on the number and merit scores of proposals received and funding allocated to the program. Guidelines and standards will be those specifics laid out in these notes and in the proposal text according to the Proposal Contents instructions found below.
Each reviewer is expected to provide 'blind,' electronic feedback, not just a numeric score, which will be shared with the PI and department chair and dean. It is expected that reviewer identification will never be known by the PI.

Initial Process

We recognize that considerable effort is required to prepare a competitive proposal for consideration under this program. Therefore, we will solicit a Letter of Intent (LOI) Form and a list of 5 potential reviewers from outside FSU, but inside the United States, whom the applicant has determined (through communication with the potential reviewers) are willing and available to engage as potential reviewers. The LOIs will be used to determine the research fields from which SSPEG proposals are anticipated. The list of 5 unbiased, recruited colleagues from outside FSU, but within the United States, to serve as potential reviewers will help us as we plan the review process. Do not list, as potential reviewers, any current or past collaborators, co-authors or others who may represent a conflict of interest with your planned research or activity, nor anyone located outside the United States. See Proposal Contents section below for forms and instructions to complete the LOI Form and the List of 5 Potential Reviewers Form.

General Information:

When preparing a proposal to this program, you must adhere to all instructions as these make it possible to properly and expeditiously manage the process. Failure to follow instructions may render your proposal unacceptable.

Here is a brief overview of First Steps relative to the Letter of Intent and Reviewers:

Submission of a SSPEG Letter of Intent (LOI) Form (to file a proposal) which will include a brief abstract statement.
No pre-proposal is needed.
No Proposal Transmittal Form (PTF) is needed at the LOI stage.
Names and complete contact information for five expert, unbiased, recruited potential reviewers from outside FSU, but within the United States, is required on the List of 5 Potential Reviewers Form.
Electronic links to websites or forms are reflected below in blue; you need only complete one version of any form shown below.

LETTER OF INTENT INSTRUCTIONS

This competition requires that a Letter of Intent (LOI) Form PDF Word Doc and List of 5 Potential Reviewers Form PDF Word Doc be submitted electronically via email to the Program Coordinator at jtownsend@fsu.edu by the October 22 deadline. The LOIs will provide preliminary information regarding the research fields from which full proposals are anticipated.

Using the required LOI form, you must stay within the one page form as designed. You must use the type font already identified within the form, no smaller than the 11 point type therein, and the text must be single spaced. The word count in the LOI text area will not exceed 250 words.

Inclusion of the List of 5 Potential Reviewers Form will allow the Program Coordinator to randomly select up to three of the five reviewers representative of the pertinent disciplines. Do not suggest current or past collaborators, co-authors, or others who may represent a conflict of interest with your planned research, or anyone located outside the United States.

The form for the list of potential reviewers may increase in number of pages as needed to accommodate the required detailed contact information.

Potential reviewers will have indicated to the PI that they are willing and available to review and evaluate the proposal, if selected (see Important Dates & Messages at the top of this RFP), using an electronic review process, considering:

the intellectual merit of the proposed activity;
the proposal's effect on advancing knowledge and understanding in the field;
the relationship of the work to existing or planned institutional research programs and capacities;
the proposal's quality and the PI's qualifications and capabilities (and the rest of the team, if appropriate);
plans for long-term scientific and financial sustainability of the projected effort based on the likelihood of increased external funding;
appropriateness of the proposed budget, duration, staffing, purchases, and capacity to utilize funds;
appropriateness of instrumentation purchases, if any, for accomplishing proposed purposes;
utilization of graduate assistants whenever possible and appropriate; and
the availability of other existing support to leverage external funds in the future.

These two forms are to be submitted via email only to the Program Coordinator by the October 22 deadline.

If, after submitting a Letter of Intent Form, your intentions change and you decide not to compete in this program, send an email to that effect to jtownsend@fsu.edu

Here is a brief overview of First Steps relative to the Proposal and Related Forms:

Proposal Transmittal Form (DSR Form 1) is to be created at this stage.
Other items included will be the proposal text (up to five pages), the budget, current & pending grant information, curriculum vita, and any appropriate appendix items. More detail follows below.

Example Proposals: Examples of selected successful proposals are available. Email the Program Coordinator at jtownsend@fsu.edu for examples.

FULL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS:

It is expected that any Letter of Intent automatically will be followed by a full proposal unless otherwise indicated by the PI; there will be no formal invitation to submit a full proposal once we receive your LOI. The deadline to electronically submit full proposals is January 14, 2010 at 11:59 pm.

You must stay within all forms as designed; you may not modify any of the formats. You must use the existing type font, no smaller than 11 point. The proposal text is to be written in a document you create with margins no smaller than 1" top, bottom and sides, and the text must be single spaced and single-sided. Each page of the proposal text document also must reflect your name in the top margin (header). These documents are not submitted via email but rather through the CRC online Proposal Submission process. See instructions following the Special Notes section below.

Proposal Contents

NOTE: Some forms have been modified. Do not use forms you may have stored from previous years. Old forms will not be accepted.

A complete SSPEG proposal electronic upload (upload instructions follow later in this RFP) will consist of:

SSPEG Proposal Transmittal Form (DSR Form 1). Word Doc OR PDF Open the document; note that there are instructions for completing the form. Fill it in electronically; save it to your computer. Print out the saved copy. Sign it as the PI. Take the printout to your department chair and dean for signature; note that they may want to read the proposal and see the budget or other documents before signing. Once you have all signatures, including those of any co-PIs and related department chairs and deans, scan the document and upload it. If you don't have a scanner, upload an unsigned document. However, you must also bring the original signed document with ink signatures to the program coordinator for additional processing at least before 4:30 p.m. the day of the electronic deadline (see last page of this RFP for the delivery location).
Abstract PDF OR Word Doc Do not make the abstract any longer than the one page form provided. Use 11 pt font already indicated within the form. Word limit is 250.
Proposal Text. PDF OR Word Doc The proposal text (usually 5 pages or less; excessive length can be a reason for a reviewer to discount a proposal's merit) will contain sections based on the following. Sections are to be numbered to agree with the following format. Do not put each section on a separate document page!
1. Summary of the research activity proposed and any plans to pursue additional external funding support; specific attention must be paid to responding to the points listed in the Important Notations section above and various instructions in this section as well;
2. Description, only somewhat technical, of your proposed project, including scientific objectives, data or materials to be used, methods of analysis or performance of the project, basis for evaluation of results or conclusions, and the importance, significance or contribution of your project to the field;
3. Statement indicating the amount of progress anticipated during the two-year grant period and the intended schedule for completion of the plan (including start and completion dates), publication, etc. If appropriate, briefly describe the program mode before the grant period and subsequent work that will be necessary, if any;
4. A proposed schedule of activities, with a detailed two-year budget explanation, is required. The information should mirror the items you will be placing in the actual budget form;
5. Statement indicating how your proposal will decisively or significantly enhance your research as outlined;
6. List any professional obligations the PI has during the award period;
7. It is expected that this supported research activity will lead to proposals to external agencies for the further support of your proposal research area.
  1. Summarize information on anticipated outside funding sources to support any follow-up activity, including, when possible, specific programs, amount of money available in those programs, and other pertinent detail; how this award will enhance the prospects of external funding; and plans for submitting proposals to agencies or foundations;
8. What federal/state or other grant applications have you made in the last five years, including FSU CRC or Cornerstone grants? Briefly list them, indicating agency, date applied, status and if funded, what was the award amount? This request would appear to duplicate information required in the Support Document (Current & Pending) form below, and so it does; this duplication is intentional.
9. Keywords for electronic searches should mirror any keywords you typed into your Proposal Transmittal Form;
10. Statement indicating your permission to use this proposal as an example of an awarded format in the event it is funded;
11. Documents such as Animal Use Form, any Human Subject approval documents, any Hazardous Materials approvals, DNA, RNA approvals, must be uploaded behind the Proposal Document. This will NOT count as Proposal Text pages.
12. References, if any, will be placed in this section or, if too detailed, they can be shown as part of the appendix section. Note: include any appendix materials at the end of your proposal text document. Then upload that document. And
13. Remember, while you may add any appendices or approval forms to the proposal text document for uploading purposes, the proposal text per se remains limited to 5 pages of text; i.e. you might have an upload in the proposal text section of 10 pages (5 proposal text pages and 6 appendices pages, or a total of 10).
Support Document (aka Current & Pending) PDF OR Word Doc

Use this form for listing titles of current or pending funds for research projects indicating by what external agency funded/expect to be funded and at what monetary level, for the last five years.
Concurrent submission to other agencies will not prejudice proposal review.
You also will summarize prior CRC or Cornerstone awards, if any, for the last five years indicating the outcome of each, including successes or failures in attaining additional internal or external funding.

Proposal Budget PDF OR Excel Doc

Use this form to outline your two-year budget plan.
Up to $100,000 in available SSPEG funding is proposed. Guidelines for allowable expenditures under this program are those normally allowed under federal contract and grant programs. Some other allowable expenditures might include:

faculty and/or student travel associated with the project;
personnel costs of assistants, including any fringe benefits, tax considerations, and terminal leave expense;
faculty release time, if any;
acquisition of research materials and equipment (including books);
rental of space for the project; and
printing subventions and dissemination costs. Publication per se is not a requirement.

As indicated above, the usual award size for SSPEG proposals are in the up to $100,000 range.
The CRC does NOT support tuition or matriculation fees in its awards. Make certain to select the correct Waiver in Section 43 of the Proposal Transmittal Form (DSR Form 1). Waiver 1 will be the default if no tuition or matriculation fees are being supported using means other than the CRC.
Account close out will automatically occur within 60 days following the award period end date. See also Payback Circumstances later in this RFP.
Applicants are advised that requests solely for summer salary or sabbatical support through the SSPEG program will not be considered. However, summer salary or sabbatical support as part of a larger budget plan will be considered. Applicants requiring support solely for summer salary should not seek SSPEG funding, but rather consider applying to the CRC COFRS program which provides some summer salary support. See the COFRS website.

Curriculum Vita PDF OR Word Doc
1. Use this form complete the top of the form. Then in the body of the form, list the following:

Research Compliance Notes:

Research activities requiring compliance review and approvals (human or animal subjects, DNA, RNA, hazardous materials or marine lab facilities for example) will require the completion and submission of appropriate forms to the appropriate FSU department or group, seeking and receiving approval for such research, BEFORE such research is attempted and BEFORE any funds can be released to the PI, if awarded. See human subjects website, site for animal research information, site for Environmental Health & Safety or SRS forms page for other compliance requirements which may apply to your research or performance plan.
Also see Proposal Text, item #11.

Special Notes:

No-Cost Time Extension. To request a no-cost time extension, no later than 30 days prior to the current award period end date, send a detailed email to the Program Coordinator at jtownsend@fsu.edu justifying why you need this extension and suggesting a new award period end date. The CRC will consider your request and advise you by return email. It is possible that the CRC may need to discuss this request with your department chair or dean before rendering a decision.
For additional advice on preparation of this proposal, PIs may want to consult colleagues who have been successful in other CRC funding competitions.

How to Electronically Submit a SSPEG Proposal: (the link to the online proposal submission site is shown below in the fifth paragraph)

You Must Use:

the CRC Online System. The CRC has its own process and is NOT part of OMNI workflow.
DO NOT SUBMIT A PROPOSAL INTO OMNI FOR THIS PROGRAM. If you mistakenly submit a proposal into OMNI for this program, you must email jtownsend@fsu.edu with the Proposal ID Number so that she can locate the proposal and take the necessary actions.

The CRC programs utilize a special on-line proposal submission process which provides

an electronic method for submitting your proposal to the Program Coordinator;
an electronic method for the Program Coordinator to assign those proposals to reviewers; and
an electronic method by which those reviewers can submit their evaluation scores and comments regarding the proposal back to the Program Coordinator.

This office, acting as in the role of an agency (similar to NSF, NEH or NIH) will require that you submit your proposal through the CRC On-Line Proposal Submission process. You do not need special training to use the CRC On-Line system. It is only through this process that your proposal will be accessible to reviewers so that evaluations can be recorded and funding recommendations made, and perhaps awarded.

To begin the process, you will need to completely understand the instructions in this announcement and then prepare and save the various proposal elements to your computer. See Proposal Contents section above for specific forms required for submissions.

Once you have done this, then go to https://submissions.research.fsu.edu and follow the simple instructions.

If you have completed a profile for the CRC Online process in the past, do not make a new profile. Go right to #3. If you have never submitted a proposal through our system, first make a profile so our database will know who you are.
If you don't recall having created a profile, contact the Program Coordinator.
Start the Submit a New Proposal process by answering all the questions and uploading all the required elements.
You will have an opportunity to submit/store/save your proposal and update/edit it up until the posted deadline for the program.
You will receive an email confirmation of your proposal submission, even in its initial form, providing you with a login name and passcode so that you can revisit your proposal in the CRC system until you are satisfied that it is final, or the deadline is reached, whichever comes first!

You should note that proposals finalized after the deadline will not be processed and incomplete proposals will not be accepted, so please revisit your proposal to make certain it is complete before the deadline.

CRC Required Reports

Within 30 days after of the close of the award period, the awarded PI will be asked to electronically report the results of this funding, plans for the next phase of research, and the submissions of external proposals resulting from this award. This report is required. The PI will be sent an email reminder with directions to the website for filing the report and the required login information. This award will be followed via this report process for two years beyond the initial award year.

Payback Circumstances

PIs who later find that they have funding from another source for similar or same support are requested to decline acceptance of this award so that funds can be redirected to provide support for other applicants who would otherwise go unfunded.
Deans and department chairs note:

In the event the PI resigns from FSU prior to Fall 2010, the awardee's dean or department chair has the responsibility of notifying the CRC's Program Coordinator. Any expense support received by the PIfrom this program prior to an effective resignation date from FSU must be repaid to the CRC by the PI, the dean or the department chair.
Sixty (60) days after the award period ends, if it is determined by the Program Coordinator that an award has a positive balance, the CRC will reclaim the unused portion of this SRAD project. Conversely, if sixty (60) days after the award period ends, the award appears overexpended, has a negative balance, the Program Coordinator will contact the designated departmental representative via emailto review the records and then make arrangements for the proper transfer of the negative balance to another of the department's SRAD projects.
If there is no response from the department after the email notification, the Office of the Vice President for Research will deduct any negative balance from the departmental SRAD account. If there are insufficient funds in the departmental SRAD account, the department's E&G or future SRAD distribution will be tapped for the negative balance. Department chair and dean will be notified via email.

What are the review criteria?

Initially the proposals will be evaluated by an electronic review process completed by the external FSU reviewers. Once the external reviews (comments and scores) are received, a sub-committee designated by the CRC will recommend a priority order of projects to be funded, considering both the external reviews and FSU's current research interests and direction.

Proposals will be evaluated by all reviewers on the basis of:

the scholarly merits of the proposed research or activity;
the effect the proposal will have on advancing knowledge and understanding in the field represented by the proposed work;
the vision and productivity of the project leader;
the overall integration, coherence, and credibility of the efforts among disciplines and researchers who would carry out the proposed plan; and
the relationship of the work to existing or planned institutional research and capacities. It is recognized that external reviewers will not necessarily have this particular knowledge, but this bulleted item will be considered by the internal FSU committee.

Evaluators will also consider the following factors:

the proposal's quality and the PI's qualifications and capabilities (and those of the rest of the team, if appropriate);
plans for long-term scientific and/or financial sustainability of the proposal based on increased external funding;
appropriateness of the budget, staffing, and duration of the project;
appropriateness of instrumentation purchases, if any, for the work proposed;
utilization of graduate assistants whenever possible or appropriate; and
availability of any other existing support to leverage external funds.

Questions?

Jan Townsend is your conduit for CRC proposal submission. Here is her contact info:
Program Coordinator, CRC
Office of the Vice President for Research
Florida State University
109 Westcott Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1330

Direct line: 850.644.8636 or jtownsend@fsu.edu