Pre-proposals are due to UM ORSP by December 4, 2013 for this limited funding opportunity to acquire or develop shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training.

This program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering by providing shared instrumentation that fosters the integration of research and education in research-intensive learning environments. Development and acquisition of research instrumentation for shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use are encouraged, as are development efforts that leverage strengths of private sector partners to build instrument development capacity at academic institutions. ORSP will conduct a review process to select up to three pre-proposals for advancement into full proposals to NSF, and up to 2 alternates as contingencies.

Key Dates (2013-4):

Monday, Nov. 4:           Date of this announcement
Wednesday, Dec. 4:    Internal pre-proposals due to jghale@olemiss.edu
Monday, Dec. 10:         ORSP will announce selected pre-proposals
Dec 10 – Jan. 15:         Investigators expand pre-proposals into full proposals
Dec 14:                          Confirm that department/school/center can meet cost share
Friday, Jan. 9:               Submit draft of summary & project description to ORSP for review
Friday, Jan. 16:             All proposal documents (including transmittal sheet) sent to ORSP
January 23, 2014:        Full proposal deadline to the NSF

Funding:            Up to 175 awards in the range $100,000 – $4 million. Proposals of less than $100,000 permissible for mathematics, or social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
Duration:           Up to 3 years for acquisition proposals or 5 years for development proposals.
Cost Sharing:   Required at a level of (precisely) 30% of the total cost of the project.
Limitations:       UM may submit up to 3 proposals, 2 for instrumentation and 1 for development; Investigators may participate in multiple proposals.
Format:              Internal pre-proposals must be completed using the UM ORSP MRI Internal Pre-Proposal form attached to this announcement, which follows the format described in the solicitation. Please read the entire Solicitation.

Not Required for the internal pre-proposal: Biosketches, Cover Sheet, Data Management Plan, Conflict of Interest Statement, Other Supplemental Documentation.

For More information:

• Full Solicitation
• Questions: Jason Hale, jghale@olemiss.edu

In last year’s competition, ORSP received 1 development pre-proposal and 4 acquisition pre-proposals. 2 pre-proposals and 1 development pre-proposals were selected and developed into full proposals to NSF, resulting in one one award: Award No CHE-1338056, “MRI:  Acquisition of a GPU Cluster for Computational Science in Mississippi," under the direction of Greg Tschumper, Brian Hopkins, and Robert Doerksen.