ANR invites proposals for competitive grants, introduces new grant opportunities

Wendy Powers, associate vice president, announced the request for proposals for ANR's 2017 competitive grants program, which can be found at http://ucanr.edu/compgrants2017.

In addition to releasing ANR's competitive grants call, she shared information on a couple of newly developed funding opportunities: “high risk/high reward grants program” and “opportunity grants program.” Below are descriptions of the three different funding mechanisms.

ANR Competitive Grants Program

The purpose of the ANR competitive grants program is to address high-priority issue areas identified by at least one of the strategic initiatives: Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases (EIPD), Healthy Families and Communities (HFC), Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE), and Water Quality, Quantity and Security (Water).

ANR Competitive Grants Program 2017 Cycle:

• Application submission cycle
  • Letter of Intent (LOI) due March 20
  • LOI decisions April 26
  • Full proposals due June 19

• Technical peer review: mid-June to early September 2017
• Strategic Initiative review and recommendations: end of September 2017
• Program Council review and recommendations: October/November 2017
• Announcement of funded grants: November/December 2017

Through this program, ANR will continue to invest in short-term, high-impact research, education and outreach projects that address high-priority issues that are consistent with the Strategic Vision, encourage collaboration among academics from diverse disciplines and across initiatives, strengthen the research-extension network and demonstrate relevance and likelihood of impact on significant agricultural, economic, environmental and social issues in California and beyond.

For questions about ANR's competitive grants program, please contact Melanie Caruso at mmcaruso@ucanr.edu.

High Risk/High Reward Grants Program

Given the complexity of societal problems, high risk research is necessary to achieve gains for real progress in addressing present and emerging challenges. This program will provide funds to initiate and complete research and proof-of-concept efforts that serve as the basis for larger funding opportunities. These projects must be of a high risk/high reward nature that are best conducted in a controlled, research setting and, if successful, lend themselves to subsequent larger funding opportunities and/or intellectual property development.

Proposed projects must be within the scope of the ANR Strategic Vision. All ANR academics with PI status are eligible to apply. Proposals will be accepted using the same timeline as outlined for the traditional competitive grants program, but reviewed separately due to the nature of the proposal.

High risk/high reward grants will be limited to no more than $100,000 per project. Proposal format and duration is available at http://ucanr.edu/highrisk2017.

For questions about the High Risk/High Reward grants program, please contact Melanie Caruso at mmcaruso@ucanr.edu.

ANR Opportunity Grants Program

This opportunity grants program will provide small amounts of resources to initiate and complete critical short-term research, outreach or training efforts. These projects must be time-sensitive in nature and take advantage of a unique opportunity where a small pilot project to collect initial data or an immediate, crucial outreach effort must take place in a timely manner to address an issue of importance.

Proposed projects must be within the scope of the ANR Strategic Vision. All ANR academics with PI status are eligible to apply. Proposals will be accepted at any time, as the opportunities arise. Proposals will be submitted to the Associate Vice President and reviewed by the ANR Strategic Initiative Leaders and two ANR Vice Provosts.

“Because we recognize that these are time-sensitive projects, the review process will take no more than one month,” Powers said.

Proposals will be no more than three pages in length and must include a justification indicating why it is critical that this project be addressed in a short timeframe, description of the project (study design, educational framework/audience, training program, etc.) and detailed budget. Opportunity grants will be limited to no more than $10,000 per project. All projects, including the final report, must be completed within 12 months of initiation. Furthermore, no extensions will be allowed. All projects will require a final report with stated outcomes/impacts or anticipated outcomes/impacts.

ANR will provide a limited pool of funds for this grants program on an annual basis. The exact amount will be determined and announced annually based upon resource availability. The pool of funding will be managed to ensure that some resources are available year-round for timely projects.

For questions about opportunity grants, please contact AVP Wendy Powers at wendy.powers@ucop.edu.

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