Skip Navigation

COVID-19-Related Rapid Response Research Seed Grant Call for Proposals Due April 6

Skip Side Navigation
Coronavirus
March 30, 2020

COVID-19-Related Rapid Response Research Seed Grant call for proposals due April 6

Deadline is Monday, April 6, 2020 at 5 p.m. CDT

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (OVPRP) at the OU Norman Campus, in close partnership with the Office of the Vice President for Research at OUHSC, is accepting applications for an unprecedented Rapid Response Research Seed Grant call for proposals to address the growing crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The OVPRP is offering fast-tracked seed grants for short-term projects that position OU faculty and their collaborators to effectively compete for significant external funding opportunities related to the COVID-19 prevention, mitigation, diagnosis, treatment, social factors and disparities, risk assessment and decision making, and societal impacts.  Principal Investigators (PIs) must be OU Norman campus faculty (all categories and including Norman Campus programs faculty in Tulsa). We strongly encourage teaming with colleagues at OUHSC, as appropriate. The requested funds can be used to support OUHSC colleagues. Collaborations and teaming with colleagues outside the OU community (universities, companies, national labs, etc.) are also encouraged, but OVPRP resources cannot be used to support work of collaborators external to OU.  

We seek teams with PIs and Co-PIs to provide compelling ideas, approaches, and solutions to address current issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals can run the gamut from biology of the virus, development of novel epidemiological models, risk assessment and decision making tool application and development, environmental and societal impacts, the use of art, music and other creative activities to mitigate social impacts, community responses, testing protocols, vaccine development, advanced manufacturing of needed materials and supplies, and so forth. Each proposal must be designed to turn around results within four to six months, and engaging students (both undergraduate and graduate) is highly encouraged. The main objective is to position OU researchers to generate new proposals for significant external funding.  

We anticipate being able to fund proposals for $5K-$50K each for a four to six month period with the goal of incentivizing researchers and positioning OU teams to be more competitive for near-term external funding opportunities. The total number of awards will be subject to available funding, the current estimate is four to six awards. 

Due to this critical need, the application (specific instructions below), review and award processes for these seed grants will be expedited with applications due by Monday, April 6th. Awardees will be notified no later than April 14th and projects are expected to be begin mid-April to early May. Highly impactful, multidisciplinary, collaborative short-term research projects that can be completed within 4-6 months and position OU researchers for submission of new external** grant applications will take precedence. If you have any additional questions about this opportunity or would like regular updates on this opportunity, please email cfe@ou.edu.  

OU Libraries have created a webpage of COVID-19 research resources that publishers have agreed to place in open access. They can be accessed here: https://libraries.ou.edu/content/coronavirus-covid-19-information 

Application instructions:

  1. Cover page with project title, Lead PI, co-PI(s)* or other collaborators listed with institutional affiliations and contact information
  2. Research plan (1 – 1.5 pages concept paper)
    • Problem: What is the problem or need?
    • Significance: What is the gap between what's been done and what you propose can be done to improve the situation?
    • Approach: What will you do to solve the problem?
    • Expected outcomes:
      • How will your research impact human health and society?
      • How will your work on this internal seed-grant position you and your team to succeed at obtaining external funding to continue this work?
  3. Literature citations, if applicable. Half a page limit
  4. Proposed targeted external funding opportunities. Half a page limit
    • (CFE** and our colleagues at Lewis Burke and Associates in Washington, D.C. stand ready to help identify federal and other targets of opportunity)
  5. Bio sketches for PI and co-PIs only (NSF or NIH formats are fine)
  6. Budget proposal (Half a page. Direct costs only) with budget justification

Process: rapid submission, rapid internal review 
Submission date:  5:00 pm CDT, Monday, April 6, 2020 
Award notification§: no later than April 14, 2020 

Submit application as a single PDF to Dr. Ann West, Associate VPRP in the Norman Campus (awest@ou.edu). 

§ If seed funds are awarded, all institutional compliance protocols (IRB, IACUC, IBC) must be approved prior to the start of the project.


*For help in identifying potential OUHSC collaborators, contact Dr. Jimmy Ballard (jimmy-ballard@ouhsc.edu), Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology or Dr. Mary Beth Humphrey (marybeth-humphrey@ouhsc.edu), Associate Dean, School of Medicine.

**This rapid response seed grant opportunity is a joint partnership between the OVPRP and Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE).  The CFE stands ready to help interested applicants identify relevant federal funding opportunities related to COVID-19. Please contact Dr. Clara Smith, Associate Director, CFE (clara.smith@ou.edu) for more information.  Also see the OVPRP webpage (http://www.ou.edu/research-norman/grants/funding-opportunities) for a list of current COVID-19 federal funding opportunities. 

FAQ

Submission

Applications must be submitted as a single PDF to Dr. Ann West (awest@ou.edu) by 5pm CDT on Monday April 6, 2020. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be reviewed.

OU Norman faculty do not need to fill out an ORS Information Sheet or discuss the budget with ORS. For projects that will support efforts at OUHSC, project budgets must be routed through the OUHSC ORA as with any other grant proposal. OUHSC ORA has waived their “3-day in advance of the deadline” routing policy for this internal RFP.

Principal Investigators (PIs) must be OU Norman campus faculty (all categories and including Norman Campus programs faculty in Tulsa). We strongly encourage teaming with colleagues at OUHSC, as appropriate. The requested funds can be used to support OUHSC colleagues. Collaborations and teaming with colleagues outside the OU community (universities, companies, national labs, etc.) are also encouraged, but OVPRP resources cannot be used to support work of collaborators external to OU.

Contact the following people for help with:

Identifying OU Norman collaborators: OU Center for Faculty Excellence (cfe@ou.edu)

Identifying OU HSC collaborators: Dr. Jimmy Ballard, Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology (jimmy-ballard@ouhsc.edu) or Dr. Mary Beth Humphrey, Associate Dean for Research, College of Medicine (marybeth-humphrey@ouhsc.edu)

Identifying corporate partners: Joyce Burch (jburch@ou.edu)

Future funding opportunities: Dr. Clara Smith (clara.smith@ou.edu)

No, there are no extensions to this program.

Format

Applications should use Arial or Times New Roman with font size of 11 pt. Margin size should be 1 inch on all edges of the page.

Your application should at most include: Cover sheet (1 page), Research Plan (1.5 pages), Literature citations (0.5 pages), Proposed external funding opportunities (0.5 pages), Budget proposal and justification (1 page). Biosketches for PI and co-PIs must also be included and should follow the NIH format (5 pages per person) or NSF format (2 pages).

Budget

Funds can be requested for expenses such as: OU personnel including faculty, staff and students; project supplies; and other direct costs. For Graduate Research Assistants supported by your Seed Grant proposal, please charge salary and fringes – tuition and fees do not need to be included.

No. While we encourage collaborations with other organizations, funds from this program can only be used to fund expenses internal to OU Norman, OU HSC, and OUTulsa.

No longer than six months after project start date.

Review

  • Overall impact of proposed study on current issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Plan for future funding
  • Track-record and breadth of team members
  • Interdisciplinarity of team
  • Budget aligns with project scope

Awards

Awarded projects will be expected to work with the OVPRP office to determine deliverables such as an external proposal submission and final report.

Applicants will be notified no later than April 14th, 2020.