Grants & Awards

Cottrell College Science Awards

Multi-Investigator

How to Apply

Application Process

The application process is initiated by taking an eligibility quiz to establish both institutional and team eligibility. Eligible teams will be directed to a webpage containing application forms and instructions for online submission. View a  sample application here

Eligibility

a. Institutional Eligibility

Applications will be accepted from teams of faculty members at public and private institutions of higher education in the United States. Applicants must hold tenure-track faculty appointments at departments that offer baccalaureate, but not doctoral, degrees, in the applicants’ disciplines. Institutional commitment to research is an important consideration in evaluating the potential of the proposal.

b. Team Eligibility

Applications will be accepted from teams of faculty with a demonstrated interdisciplinary constituency.

An eligible team will consist of: (a) at least two, and no more than three, faculty from at least two distinct science departments; or (b) two science faculty from the same department but with research expertise in different sub-disciplines of Chemistry, Physics or Astronomy. For example, an appropriate team would have a cosmologist and a particle physicist, both from the same Physics and Astronomy Department, or a physical chemist and an organic chemist, both from the same Chemistry Department.

All team members must have faculty appointments at the same home institution. One of the team members must be from a department of chemistry, physics or astronomy. Only team members from non-PhD granting departments are eligible. While up to one team member may be a tenured faculty, the remaining team members must be tenure-track faculty within six years of their first tenure-track faculty appointment at the time of an award. Team members may have previously held a SI-CCSA, but cannot have an active award at the time of application for a MI-CCSA, nor can a team member have both an SI-CCSA and MI-CCSA application pending at the same time. Applications containing members from a Department or School of Engineering or Medicine will not be accepted.

Award Size and Matching Requirements

The award amount is $75,000 for a two-investigator team and $100,000 for a three-investigator team. The award duration is two years with a single, one-year, no-cost extension available on request. An institutional match of $25,000 is required on all applications. Allowed budget categories include faculty summer stipends, student summer stipends, equipment, supplies and funds for travel needed to conduct the research.

In general the same budget guidelines and restrictions apply as currently in force for the SI-CCSA , but pro-rated to the number of faculty on the team. For example, for a team consisting of three co-PI's, the budget could include no more than six faculty summer stipends of $7,500 for the two-year budget from RCSA funds (i.e., no more than two summer stipends per faculty member over the duration of the award). No indirect costs are allowed from the award and the only fringe benefit allowed is FICA/Medicare of 7.65%. Institutional matching must consist of a cash contribution to the above categories and cannot include building renovation, academic year release time, facility charges, overhead or fringe benefits beyond FICA/Medicare.

Review Criteria

a) Scientific significance, originality and feasibility of the research project.

b) Composition of the team and qualifications of the team members to advance the problem proposed.

c) Potential for the project to be sustained by attracting significant federal funding by the end of the MI-CCSA period.

d) Probability that the project will produce peer-reviewed publications, and engage and advance undergraduates to science careers.

e) Potential of the project to further cross-disciplinary work more broadly at the home institution and contribute to building a supportive culture for teaching and research across departmental boundaries.

Review Process:

All proposals are reviewed by scientific experts, RCSA program directors and the foundation's Science Advisory Committee.

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