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The Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation (IMCI) requests white papers outlining ideas for research projects related to our mission. IMCI fosters interdisciplinary research by bringing together modelers and empiricists to address problems across all disciplines and levels of organization.

First consideration of white papers will begin on February 15, 2020 and will be accepted until March 1, 2020. We anticipate supporting the following, contingent on the availability of funds:

Pilot Grants (up to four grants): Selected projects will be funded at up to $80K / yr for 1 -2 years. The white papers will be used to select projects to invite for full proposals.

Mini-Grants (as funds permit): Small grants will generally be funded in the range of $5K to $10K and are intended to support access to technology or other resources needed to promote specific IMCI projects. Applications to support the development of new research proposals are encouraged.

Eligibility criteria:

Pilot grants: Both tenure track and non-tenure track faculty of any rank are invited to apply. Members of the IMCI Admin Team and Internal Advisory Committee are not eligible.

• One person must be designated as project director (PD). Up to two collaborators / co-investigators are permitted but co-PDs are not allowed. Non-UI personnel, including collaborators, cannot receive funds from these grants.
• For half of the projects, preference will be given to early career, tenure-track faculty. For this white paper, these are faculty who have never obtained external support as PD/PI from either Federal or non-Federal sources and are within seven years of obtaining their PhD.
• A subset of the funded Pilot Grants must be for NIH-fundable research. Use the keyword search feature of NIH Reporter (http://projectreporter.nih.gov) to see if NIH has funded work similar to what you would propose.

Mini-Grants: Both tenure track and non-tenure track faculty of any rank are invited to apply.

Other criteria and future deadlines:

• Proposals must be focused on modeling (e.g., mathematical, computational, statistical, molecular).
• Ties to empirical data are strongly encouraged and empirical work that compliments the modeling can be included in the proposal.
• A subset of PDs will be invited to write full proposals, due in April 2020. The anticipated start date is mid to late summer, 2020.

Format:

The application should consist of a single PDF emailed to IMCI Director Holly Wichman at hwichman@uidaho.edu with the subject line “IMCI WHITE PAPER” and include:

• Cover letter (maximum 1 page). The cover letter must describe:
  • whether the proposal is for a Pilot Grant or a Mini-Grant;
  • the fit of the proposal to IMCI;
  • the fit of the proposal to NIH, if applicable;
  • the role of the PD and each collaborator on the project.
• Project narrative (maximum 2 pages). The title, PD, and up to two collaborators should be clearly indicated at the top of the first page. No abstract is required. Font size should be 11-point or larger and margins should be 1”. The narrative should include the central hypothesis, overarching goal, specific aims, context, significance, and an overview of the planned approach. Use of figures is encouraged.
• Bibliography/references (maximum 1 page). The white paper may include up to 10 full citations.
• University of Idaho formatted CVs for the PD and collaborators.
• No budget is required for Pilot Grants at this time. Mini-grant proposals should include the amount requested and a brief budget justification as part of the 2 page project narrative.