The University of Nebraska–LincolnOffice of Research

Request for Proposals

Layman Award

Proposal Deadline: November 13, 2008, at noon

FACULTY FORUM to Discuss Projects

October 1, 2008

9:00-10:00 a.m. – City Campus Union

DESCRIPTION: The Layman Awards provide seed money for projects that will enhance the grantee’s ability to obtain external funding to support prominent scholarly work. Priority will be given to non-tenured tenure-track faculty and to other eligible faculty who propose projects of high promise and who make a compelling case that Layman funding is critical to their success.

AWARD AMOUNT:The maximum Layman award is $10,000.

SCOPE OF THE AWARD:

  • Awards may be made for pilot projects, prototype development, faculty development and preliminary educational or public service programs.
  • Award recipients are expected to actively pursue external funding sources and, therefore, to submit a proposal for external funding within 24 months of receipt of the award.
  • Funds may not be used for remodeling or alteration of facilities or for core facilities.
  • Awards may not be used to replace current funding.
  • Tenure leading/tenured faculty salary may not be requested. Funds may be used for salary for non-tenure-track research positions, post-doctoral positions, graduate students and technical personnel for no more than a two-year appointment.

ELIGIBLITY INFORMATION:

  • Applicant must be a UNL faculty member on a continuous appointment (tenure-leading or tenured with a rank of assistant professor or above), or a research (associate/assistant/full) professor or senior lecturer on the payroll of UNL.Visiting and adjunct appointees and other lecturer ranks are excluded.
  • For each program, a faculty member may submit only one application as principal investigator but is not limited as a co-investigator on other projects.
  • UNL faculty can be awarded only one internal awardas a PI in any academic year. Furthermore, UNL faculty cannot be awarded more than two internal grants as PI over any 4-year period.

REQUIREMENTS FORALL OFFICE OF RESEARCH AWARDS:

  • Applicants should Identify external sources of funding and specify a timeline for proposal submission that will be pursued as a result of this internal funding.
  • Recipients are expected to participate in at least one grant writing seminar sponsored by the Office of Research during the award period if they have not already done so.
  • Recipients are expected to actively pursue external funding sources (grants and/or fellowships) and to submit a proposal for external funding as described in the timeline within 24 months of receipt of award. Failure to do so will disqualify the applicant from future competitions.
  • A final report is required, due to the Office of Research no later than one month after the conclusion of funding. A template for this report will be sent with the award notification.
  • Recipients must agree to serve as a reviewer on at least two Office of Research review panels over a 4-year period. Failure to do so will disqualify the applicant from future competitions.

REVIEW AND AWARD PROCESS:

  • Applications will be reviewed by a panel selected by the Vice Chancellor for Research (VCR) and prioritized by the respective college Dean.
  • The VCR will make the final selection that will be submitted to the University of Nebraska Foundation for final approval.
  • Announcement of awards will be made inspring 2009, following approval by the NU Foundation.
  • The anticipated award period isJuly 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.
  • A one-page final report must be submitted to the Office of Research by August 1, 2010. A template for this report will be sent with the award notification.
  • Submission of a proposal for external funding is required by June 30, 2011.

GENERAL SELECTION CRITERIA: All proposals must target and provide a specific external funding opportunity, and must address the following criteria:

  • Scientific or scholarly merit
  • Potential for generating external funding to support prominent scholarly work
  • Priority will be give to projects that are consistent with current national funding priorities
  • Importance of Layman funding to the applicant’s success.

PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

Download an application package from the table of internal funding opportunities found at Click the red “Apply” button for the Layman Awards program. Be sure to read carefully the guidelines for submitting applications that come with the package.

Electronic submission of proposals is required. The document may be in MS Word or Adobe PDF formats. ALL information must be contained in a SINGLE FILE – please DO NOT SEND the proposal, CVs, etc. as separate files. Pages must have a minimum of 1-inch margins and text must be 11 point or larger. Proposals that do not adhere to page length and other formatting requirements will not be reviewed. Proposals must be received by noon on the deadline date. Late proposals will not be accepted.

Applications for the Layman Award must include:

  1. Completed cover sheet with project title, name and department of the P.I. (and co-investigators), signatures of PIs, chairs/heads, deans/directors and name, phone number and e-mail address of lead PI or contact person. Identify Layman Awardas the program under which the application should be considered.
  2. Three-page proposalthat includes sufficient detail to convince reviewers of the project’s scientific or scholarly merit, and written in language understandable to non-specialists.The proposal should include information to demonstrate to reviewers its merit and potential for external funding,including the following elements:

a. Introduction

  • Provide background/rationale for project, including significance.
  • List project’s longer term goals and shorter term objectives.

b. Proposed plan

  • Describe project methodology and expected outcomes.
  • Identify specific research or scholarly activities that funds will target and how these enhance the competitiveness for external funding.
  • Describe what these funds will accomplish that cannot be achieved through other means.

c. Timeline for proposal external funding submission

  • Identify external program/agency and submissiondeadlines, including a description of howthis project fits intothe applicant’s long-term plan for program development.
  • Articulate the fit of the proposed project to external funding priorities/opportunities.
  1. Two-page biographical sketch/vitae summary for all faculty involved in the project.
  2. List of all funded and pending internal and external grants of all faculty involved in the project, includingtitle, award amount, funding period, and funding agency. Include information regarding outcomes of previously awarded internally-funded projects from the Office of Research. Include reviews from external funding applications where pertinent to project aims.
  3. One-page budget and one-page justification.

If you have questions about the submission process, please contact Peg Filliez in the Office of Research at

(402) 472-2851 or by e-mail at .