Call for Proposals for EDO Research Activities

EDO has funding available to support activities relevant to EDO’s mission of developing large research projects and missions incorporating planetary, earth, engineering, and optical sciences to advance our understanding of Earth processes and changes. This call focuses on preparation for new external proposals, such as upcoming NASA Earth Venture calls. EDO proposals targeting external funding for missions/instruments or interdisciplinary climate research greater than $1 million will be given priority. Read more...

 

Proposal Deadline: Friday, September 10, midnight

Funding period: Funding will be available as soon as awards are formally announced (by October 1). Funding must be spent by June 30, 2022.

Submit proposals (and questions) to Anjani Polit

 

Proposal content:

  1. Prepare a 3-5-page proposal containing the following sections:
    1. Contact: Person making the request (name, department, and contact info)
    2. Team: Current and potential UA and external collaborators
    3. Future funding opportunity that this will support: external funding agency and specific funding program, deadline(s), and anticipated funding amount overall and to UA. If this work is not targeting a specific external funding opportunity, this section must address the benefits to the UA and EDO.
    4. Description of the external proposal planned and/or future work enabled by this EDO work, and why UA is expected to be competitive. Description also should convey the research’s relevance to EDO and its interdisciplinary/ collaborative aspects. Include the scientific background and context.
    5. Proposed activities under EDO funding: what will take place with the EDO funding, what will be the outcomes, and how will these outcomes strengthen the larger proposal? Be specific—who will be hired, when and how long will events be, what are travel destinations and purposes, etc., and what will come of it?
    6. Proposed timeline for using EDO funding.
    7. Previous and other possible funding. If you have previously received EDO funding, include that information and the outcome/return on investment. Are there other potential UA sources for internal funding such as UASI or AIR?
  2. Budget with justification (use provided spreadsheet and an additional page for justification): provide an itemized budget specifying the funding you are requesting (itemize wages, salary, and ERE per person; and categories of operations: travel, campus meetings, workshop, materials, etc.)

 

Evaluation criteria

  • What is the potential return on investment?
  • Does the request meet EDO’s terms and conditions? Is it well thought out and clearly presented?
  • How relevant are the proposed research activities to EDO’s goals and objectives and what is the benefit to UA and EDO? Do they include cross-disciplinary collaborations?
  • Are the anticipated outcomes from the requested EDO funding clearly identified and justified?
  • Are the proposed activities and their outcomes feasible with respect to the requested budget and proposed timeline?
  • How much will the proposed outcomes strengthen the external proposal and/or follow-on work? How critical are they to its (potential) success?
  • Are there other UA internal funding opportunities that could cover this work instead? Have they been pursued?
  • Partial awards may be made based on available funding and how well the request meets the above criteria.

 

Terms and Conditions

  • Funding may be used for wages/salaries/ERE for non-faculty UA staff, postdocs, grad and/or undergrad students; travel for UA employees or visitors to UA; field work; lab work; workshops or other events/activities in support of proposal development.  Funding for equipment is not included.
  • The targeted proposal must align with EDO’s goals of working across disciplines to develop new research projects, missions, and proposals linking science, engineering, and optics to study the Earth.
  • Funding requests ranging from $500 to $40,000 will be considered. The proposed budget for the external funding should be at least one or two orders of magnitude higher than the request for EDO funding.
  • Awardees are expected to participate in EDO activities and events and provide periodic updates on their project.
  • Award funds are managed by the awardee’s home business department via a sub-account set up by EDO.
  • UA RII and EDO must be acknowledged in any publications resulting from the award.

 

Eligibility

  • UA faculty or staff researchers affiliated with EDO are eligible to apply for EDO funding.

 

Reporting Requirements

  • Within 30 days after the funding has ended, a 1-3-page report must be submitted by the awardee that outlines the outcomes of the funding and progress toward the targeted proposal submission.

Please see Budget proposal here.