2023 COM internal competition (RFA-23-ROSF-COM)

Important Dates

Award Overview

The Research Opportunity Seed Fund (ROSF) targets multidisciplinary, faculty-initiated research projects with potential for extramural support. The program focuses on new projects and new collaborative partnerships. Projects must be innovative, have strong potential for garnering future funding from external sources, or have outstanding commercial potential. Research Opportunity Seed Fund awards are not intended to support ongoing projects — they support new projects (not a supplement to current research) and new collaborative partnerships. The proposal must emphasize novel research.

To be competitive, proposals must be multi-/interdisciplinary and involve faculty from at least two colleges (see Review Criteria for more information). Single-investigator proposals are ineligible. Collaborative projects require intellectual contributions from the principal investigator (PI) and all co-PIs, and these contributions to the partnership must be reflected clearly in both the research plan and the budget distribution. Proposals must be based on a clearly articulated problem or hypothesis and should clearly and explicitly state the hypothesis, problem or research question being addressed. Proposals for equipment are allowed if the funds will be used for instrument development. The need for seed funding must be critical for the execution of the project.

The ROSF award (DRPD-ROSF2023) provides funding towards research projects in the amount of up to $100,000 for up to two-year period. Each college will select its best proposals through an internal screening process. College of Medicine faculty interested in applying to the Research Opportunity Seed Fund should follow the instructions below for internal selection procedures and deadline (RFA-23-ROSF-COM).

The College of Medicine will conduct an internal competition to select proposals to be submitted to the university-wide competition.

• Letters of intent (LOI) submitted before the deadline will be reviewed and up to 20 projects from College of Medicine-Gainesville faculty as contact PI and up to 4 from UF Scripps faculty as contact PI will be invited to submit a full application.
• Full applications will be internally reviewed, and the College of Medicine will nominate 12 proposals for the university-wide competition; ten (10) of those invited will be from UF College of Medicine-Gainesville faculty listed as contact PI and two (2) proposals will be from UF Scripps faculty listed as contact PI.

Eligibility

• Faculty members eligible to submit a proposal to an external funding agency (see Principal Investigator Eligibility – UF Research (ufl.edu)) are eligible to apply for ROSF award.
• Courtesy, Adjunct, Visiting, OPS faculty, Assistant In, Associate In, Senior Associate In, Research Associates and Postdoctoral associates are not eligible to be PIs on ROSF. They may participate as co-PIs or co-investigators.
• To avoid potential conflict of interest, Deans at all levels (Assistant, Associate, etc) are not eligible.
• Faculty who have previously received ROSF award (either as PI or co-PI) are not eligible to submit another proposal for 2 years after the completion of the first award. For example, FY2018 ROSF PI or co-PI recipients may not submit another proposal until FY2023 competition (RFA-23-ROSF-COM, October 2022)

Letter of Intent

LOI is required to be considered for the award. LOIs will be reviewed and select projects will be invited to submit a full application.

• Cover page: that includes project title, submitting investigator, submitting investigator department, and names of all co-investigators and their departments
• Project Description: One-page technical summary inclusive of a description of the multidisciplinary, collaborative nature of the project
• NIH- or NSF-style biosketch for each investigator (max 2 pages per investigator)
• Statement of current and pending support

Full Application Instructions

Proposals should include the following components below, assembled into a single pdf file.

• Cover page: that includes project title, submitting investigator, submitting investigator department, and names of all co-investigators and their departments. Use the template provided here. The title of the proposal submitted MUST start with DRPD-ROSF2023 prefix (Proposal Title: DRPD-ROSF2023: XXXXX).
• Abstract: rationale for the work to be accomplished that can be understood by an intelligent non-expert
• Abbreviations: if any are used in the proposal (1/2 page maximum)
• Project Description: The description of the proposed scientific plan (5-pages maximum) that includes:
  • Specific aims
  • Background and significance
  • Preliminary data (if applicable)
  • Innovation/Potential impact of research
  • Approach/Research Design, Expected outcomes, Challenges, Alternative Strategies, Timeline for completion
• Plans for continued support and/or commercial potential (1-2 pages):
  • Plans to obtain continuing external support for the project. Proposals must specifically list the sources of external support that will be pursued following the seed money provided by the ROSF.
  • Alternatively, or if applicable: a description of the commercial potential, including a statement of potential market size and how the funding could increase the marketability of the technology. Commercial potential is not a requirement for funding, nor is it a review criterion.
• References cited (no page limit);
• Key personnel: list of individuals involved and details of their participation (no page limit);
• Budget table and Justification of expenses (no page limit)

• Budget justification:
• Budgets should not exceed $100,000 for the entire project period; most awards will be for less. Budgets may be for a period of up to two years. Awards will be administered for up to two years.
• Include costs for PI and allco-PIs.
• A brief justification of the need for support from the Research Opportunity Seed Fund is required.
• The budget may include all normally allowable costs of research with the exception of faculty salaries and F&A costs; however, research faculty or soft-funded faculty (non-tenure track faculty) may request salary in the budget. Student, Postdoc expenses are allowed. The time commitments in months (faculty effort) of each participating faculty member must be included in the budget justification. Research Opportunity Seed Fund awards are to be expended on campus and are not to be used for the purchase of standard pieces of equipment. Exceptions will be allowed in instances where specific techniques/equipment used in the research are not available on campus. There are no F&A Costs associated with Research Opportunity Seed Fund awards.

Formatting guidelines for all applications

• 11 pt font; Single spacing; ½ inch margins;
• Tables and figure legends can be 10 point;
• Adhere to page limit restrictions as noted below;
• Compile all application packet documents into a single pdf in the order indicated above, make sure to include page numbers and applicant name on header;
• Final applications should be a single pdf labeled ‘2023_OppFund_PI last name.pdf’.

Review criteria – Merit descriptor

Projects will be reviewed and assigned an overall priority score based on meeting the following review criteria:

• Significance and Innovation: Does this study address an important problem? Is the project original, multi/interdisciplinary and innovative? Does the project develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies, tools, or technologies? What will be the impact of these studies on the methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this area of research? Do the proposed outcomes represent a new paradigm for concepts in this area of research? Does the project represent a new direction of investigation for the faculty involved, or is it a new collaborative partnership? Does the project have commercial potential? (Please note commercial potential is not required.) Does the proposed project address UF’s strategic goals?
• Approach: Does the application represent a new conceptual/multidisciplinary approach to the identified problem? Are the conceptual framework, design, methods, and analyses adequately developed, wellintegrated, well-reasoned, and appropriate to the aims of the project? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative tactics?
• Likelihood of obtaining external support: Do the investigators present reasonable plans to garner extramural support from specific funding agencies? Is the proposed timeline reasonable?
• Investigators: Are the investigators appropriately trained and well suited to carry out this work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the principal investigator and other researchers? Does the investigative team bring complementary and integrated expertise to the project? Is there evidence of the ability of the team of investigators to work together in an interdisciplinary fashion?
• Environment/Resources: Do the proposed studies benefit from unique features of the scientific environment or employ useful collaborative arrangements? Do the PIs have the additional resources (e.g., equipment) to successfully accomplish their goals?
• Budget: Is the requested budget appropriate for the scope of work?

Electronic copy of the ROSF review criteria is available here

Conditions of Award Acceptance

Funding success related to the ROSF award will be tracked. Award Recipients will agree to:

• Acknowledge the support of the ROSF Award on all future publications resulting from the award;
• Submit 2 progress reports. Non-compliant PIs/colleges may not be allowed to submit future requests to Research Opportunity Seed Funds.
  • First Report will be due at the end of the two-year award period.
  • Second Report will be due three years after that.
• Budget changes: will require approval from Dr. Sobha Jaishankar. No cost extensions may be provided on a limited case-by-case basis if a strong justification is provided. However, a no cost extension means that the award is still active, and participating faculty cannot apply until 2 years past the last termination date.

Contact

If you have any questions about the UF College of Medicine internal selection process, please contact Todd Barnash in the College of Medicine Office of Research (barnash@ufl.edu).