Coastal Resilience Research Proposals

Coastal Resilience Research Proposals

Deadline: July 15, 2014

(4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time)

This document contains the following sections:

A. General Information

B. Research Priorities

C. Preparing the Proposal

 D. Submitting the Proposal

June 2 – July 15, 2014

GENERAL INFORMATION

Who is Eligible to Apply?

These funds are available to researchers in Florida at universities, agencies, or other organizations. However, the Principal Investigator must meet the criteria in item C on page 2 of this call for proposals.

1.   Sea Grant Funding Cycle

The selected research projects will nominally be funded for 21 months, and should be proposed for the period December 1, 2014 to August 31, 2016. Note that Sea Grant allows for a one year no-cost extension on research projects should unexpected issues arise that result in a project taking longer than expected until completion. As with all Sea Grant research competitions, funding ultimately is dependent on the transfer of funds to our state program from NOAA.

Key dates:

2014

June 2 – Special RFP Posted
July 15 – Proposals Due (no later than 4 PM, no exceptions)
July-August – Peer Review Conducted
Sept 18 – Technical Panel Meets to Discuss Proposals
Sept 30 – Proposals Selected for Funding
Oct 3 – Faculty Notified if Proposal Successful
Dec 1 – Projects Start (assuming there are no unexpected issues with disbursing funds)

The next opportunity to compete for Florida Sea Grant core program funding will be in early 2015 for projects that begin February 1, 2016.

2.   Priority Topics

Proposals must be responsive to one of the following topics, and it is required that Principal Investigators work with end-users to formulate project plans that have a clear description of how the results are being conveyed to those communities, businesses or residents.

• Develop innovative approaches that help coastal communities implement policies and plans that increase resilience to coastal hazards.

OR

• Develop innovative approaches that change the behavior of coastal businesses and/or residents so that they are more resilient when making decisions and taking actions in a risk-prone environment.

3.   Review Criteria

      3.1 Criteria to Qualify for a Review

To be considered in this review process, ALL of the following criteria must be met. Proposals that do not meet ALL of these criteria will be returned without a review and will not be considered in this special research competition.

A. All required materials identified in this RPF must be submitted to Jackie Whitehouse by email (jhw04@ufl.edu) on or before 4 PM on July 15, 2014.

B. The proposal must clearly indicate that the Principal Investigator has worked with an end-user in order to develop the proposal that is applied and relevant to one of the aforementioned priorities, and there must be a clear plan whereby information will be transferred from the investigator to the end-user, which may be a coastal community, a coastal business sector or coastal residents. C. The Principal Investigator must have documented expertise in the specific area of proposed research, as evidenced by a record of peer-reviewed journal articles in the subject area of the proposal.

Peer review is the responsibility of the Florida Sea Grant Program (Director). Oversight of the peer review process is the responsibility of the National Sea Grant Office (Program Monitor). Florida Sea Grant will obtain reviews from subject area experts, and reviews from a technical panel of experts recognized for both their disciplinary and program leadership experience. They will consider email reviews and their own review in identifying the top proposals for funding.

        3.2 Specific Review Criteria

Three criteria will be used to evaluate your proposal:

A.  Scientific Merit (30%) — the degree to which the proposed project is innovative and will advance the state of the science or discipline through rigorous state-of-the-art research.

B.   Users, Participants and Co-Sponsors (30%) – the degree to which users or potential users of the results of the proposed activity have been brought into the planning and funding of the project, will be brought into the execution of the project, or will use the results.

C.   Results, Applications and Benefits (40%) – the degree to which the completed project is expected to meet one of the objectives identified above and provide a community, business sector or residents new approaches to becoming more resilient in their planning, or decisions and actions.

Note: Investigator qualification no longer is a rated criterion because it now is a required criterion for peer-review.

4.   Size of Grant Award

Awards will be made for up to $200,000 for the duration of the project, with no more than $100,000 of total costs budgeted in any single year. Every two federal dollars must be matched by one dollar from non-federal sources. If you are partnering with a state or local agency please be very careful about this non-federal requirement on the match. Agencies often have funds that have come from a federal source, and these federal ‘pass through’ funds do not qualify as matching dollars on NOAA awards.

We expect to fund three research projects in the amount indicated above.

5.   Contact Information:

Jackie Whitehouse (jhw04@ufl.edu) Phone: (352) 392-5870

PREPARING THE PROPOSAL

Typing instructions: use no smaller than 11 pt New Times Roman font and margins should be at least .75 inches all around. Tables, graphs, and images are allowed but count toward the 10 page limit for the main body of the proposal. A list of references does NOT count towards the page limit, nor does the investigator biographical data forms, nor the other required NOAA forms listed below.

The following elements are required components of a full proposal. Please submit as Word, Excel or PDF files.

A. Title Page B. Project Record Form (90-2) C. Budget Form Sea Grant Budget Form D. Budget Justification E. Proposal Narrative (10 page limit, not counting references) F. PI biographical_data_sheet(s) G. Letter from the municipality, business sector or community group(s) that you are working with. H. Cost-sharing letter I.  University of Florida Faculty Only – Fully signed DSR-1 form

A. SIGNED TITLE PAGE: Investigators and the responsible university research or sponsored programs office must endorse this. Please submit the original signed page to the Florida Sea Grant office. After signatures are obtained, scan and save as a PDF and include in the email.

B. PROJECT RECORD FORM (90-2): The project record form follows the title page and is not numbered. This form is very important in the review process. We suggest completing it after you write the body of the proposal, because it is a concise summary of what has been stated in that text. Please follow the instructions given below.

The Project Record Form is intended to present a concise description in non-technical language of the proposed project in a form useful to a variety of readers not necessarily requiring detailed information. The description must fit on one page. You will need to provide information for each of the following headings:

PROJECT TITLE: Self-Explanatory. We prefer a title that identifies the intended outcome of the work.

DATES: December 1, 2014 to August 31, 2016

PRINCIPAL, CO-PRINCIPAL, ASSOCIATE INVESTIGATORS: Names of the Investigators (last name first, full first name and middle initial) whose efforts are significant to the success of the project.

AFFILIATION: The academic affiliation of investigators, e.g., FAU Ocean Engineering, FSU Biology.

OBJECTIVES: This section should state concisely what the investigator intends to do. Stated objectives should enable comparison later to project results.

METHODOLOGY: Describe the methods to be used to conduct your research including any modeling, participatory decision-making, or tool development and implementation. Be specific, concise and limit this section to two paragraphs.

RATIONALE: This section must identify the specific issue that is being addressed within one of the priorities listed above and identify the end-user that has the issue that will be resolved.

IMPACTS: Explain how the research is expected to resolve the issue identified in the rationale section.

C. BUDGET FORM (90-4): Complete one budget page per year of the project. The form automatically populates the cumulative budget page when you fill in years 1 and 2. Note: separate budget forms will need to be completed for each investigator if they are located at different institutions. Then a final cumulative set of budgets (YR 1, YR 2, cumulative) will need to be completed. On the cumulative budget page, the right-hand column must total at least 50% of the total Sea Grant funds requested.

All expenditures listed in the budget must be in compliance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circular A-21 on cost accounting standards. OMB circular A-21 states that administrative and clerical salaries and other general office supplies, such as laptop computers, will be charged as indirect costs. For more information on circular A-21 please contact the contracts and grants office of your institution. Any variation from OMB circular A-21 will be the sole responsibility of the grantee institution.

Please be informed that no budget justification information is to be put on the budget form 90-4. Each line item of your budget needs to be justified in a budget justification narrative that is prepared (See separate instructions, below in this section).

1. On the 90-4 form, the budget year line should have a number after the word year representing the year of the Budget, i.e. Budget Year 1, Budget Year 2, or Cumulative Budget.

2. The Grantee Institution line – Line 7 Column C – is for the name of the primary principal investigator’s institution, e.g., University of South Florida.

3. Principal Investigators Line 9 Column C: Should contain the name of primary principal investigator who is responsible for this project. If there is more than one you may list them as well. e.g., J.C. Porter/T.W. Day.

4. Line 8, Column C Duration/Months: The number of months this budget period is for — e.g., 11/01/14 to 8/31/15 = 9 months and 9/1/2015 to 8/31/2016 = 12 months.

5. The Grant Project Number is assigned by Florida Sea Grant – Line 7, Column H.

Lines A1a through line A2h:

6. Column E: The Number of People involved with each line item.

7. Column F: Cumulative Man Months committed by all individuals identified in the line item.

8. Column G: Sea Grant Funds represents the amount of federal funding you are requesting from Sea Grant.

9. Column H: This is the amount of Match Funding that you and your institution will provide. One dollar of matching will need to be provided for every two dollars of federal funding received. Any form of pass-through federal dollars cannot be used as matching funds.

10. Each salary line item will require a justification on the Budget Justification page. (See instructions below.) For line A2h Other, you may type in your own description on the 90-4.

11. Line B: Fringe Benefits, represents the cumulative amount for all employees.

12. Line C: Each item must be separately identified and justified in the budget justification page of the grant.

13. Line D: Expendable Supplies and Equipment. You must break down the cost of your expendable supplies in the budget justification, by category.

14. Line E 1 +2: Travel. The cumulative costs for domestic and international travel will need to be shown separately. Make sure in your justification that you identify each trip that will take place and report its cost separately. Identify the cost for each category of expenses for each trip (e.g. flights, hotel, mileage, etc.).

15. Line F: Publications. Make sure that the cumulative cost of this line has been justified in the budget justification page of the grant.

16. Lines G 1-9: Other Cost. Some of the major components of the other cost section have been identified for you. Make sure you justify each line item in the justification section of your proposal. Two lines have been left blank so you may write your own description. Misc. is not considered a valid description; if you use the caption Misc. make sure it is for a small amount and break down the cost of these items in your proposal budget justification section.

17. Line TDC: The total direct cost line is the sum of all the direct project costs identified by the Grant Budget Period.

18. Line MTDC: This is the Modified Total Direct Cost line. The amount that goes here is the amount of direct costs that will have University Indirect Costs (IDC) assessed.

19. Line IDC: Indirect Cost – Enter your IDC percent in the appropriate column and on its corresponding line. Multiply the MTDC line for each column by the IDC % that applies to each line in that column. Please note there is a line called “Other IDC” if you feel your IDC calculation does not fit the budget form enter the amount of IDC required for each column and explain it in the Budget Justification. The indirect cost will vary from institution to institution depending on what was negotiated between the federal government and your institution.

D. BUDGET JUSTIFICATION: Instructions for completing the budget justification section of the proposal appear below. This section must be detailed enough to satisfy university and federal fiscal staff. Each line item in the budget will need to be justified. Note: Do not over-match; matching funds need be only 50% of the Federal request, no more. Please include a copy of your current IDC rate agreement and the fringe rate amount identifying what is included in the fringe rate.

The proposal Budget Justification should track directly with each line of the 90-4 budget form, giving item-by-item justifications for expenses. It is important to explain the items listed on the budget form. Tell the major duties of personnel and percentages of time for graduate students (e.g., “Laboratory Technologist I – This employee will be a 1/3 time appointment and will perform the following duties.) Although students are appropriate and significant components of Sea Grant projects, federal funds cannot be spent on student expenses for class work or thesis manuscript-related activities, such as word processing, after the research is finished.

Each piece of capital or permanent equipment must be listed separately along with the cost, a brief description, and the purpose of each item. Include a lease vs. purchase analysis for each item requested. Capital equipment and office or general equipment must be approved by the federal office before purchasing or leasing. Construction funds and purchase or repair of vessels and vehicles are not eligible for Sea Grant funding but prior approval of rental for vessels or vehicles may be obtained from the agency. Rates per hour or trip and estimated number of hours needed should be given.

For travel, give the formula for deriving the proposed amount (e.g., number of miles X rate per mile to some destination so many times a year). Remember to include estimated airplane fare or mileage allowance rate, per diem, lodging and or food and incidental rates and number of days and personnel. This information is required for each trip, including location if possible.

Do not include costs for reprints or publication page charges. Manuscript, illustration preparation costs are allowable.

Consultants must be justified as essential to the project, not just convenient. The Federal office must also approve them in advance based upon this justification. Rates and estimated number of hours should be stated. Biographical Data Sheets must also be included for consultants. Florida Sea Grant will give preference to projects that make use of students rather than technicians or consultants to conduct the work.

The Budget Justification also should include a description per line of each source of matching funds, particularly from user groups. Institutional matching funds should be distinguished from those obtained from participating users. Institutional matching funds are in-kind items such as faculty salaries and overhead, operating expenses on campus, etc., while extramural funds are so-called hard dollars, represented by actual dollars given to the project, labor supplied, etc. In the review process, extramural matching funds are an advantage as they demonstrate end-user commitment. Note: matching funds on the budget form should not exceed the 2 federal dollars to 1 non-federal dollar ratio.

E. PROPOSAL NARRATIVE SECTIONS: Use 10 pages of single-spaced 11-point New Times Roman font for the main body of the proposal (including tables and figures). Please proofread the proposal carefully.

PROJECT TITLE: Self-explanatory. We prefer titles that identify the anticipated outcome of the work.

INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE: This section needs to address both the scientific rationale for the project, and quantify from a practical standpoint that the issue is a high priority. Identify the specific priority that you are responding to with the research proposal. Describe using quantitative information the issue, the magnitude of the situation or opportunity, and the relevance of the issue or problem to Florida, regional, and national needs. Describe why this topic important and what makes the project innovative.

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES: In one sentence, concisely state the overall goal of the proposed project. Then, please number and list the objectives. Proposals must state objectives in a way that enables measurable comparison to expected project results. Be realistic and do not list too many objectives.

PROJECT DESIGN: Describe in detail (for peer review) the overall project design. If a hypothesis is being tested, state the hypothesis. Explain how it will be tested. Describe specific methodology and major aspects such as the spatial and temporal scale, controls, replication, sampling, surveys, selection of models, calibration, validation, etc. If the project involves developing new policies, tools, or technologies explain clearly how their effectiveness will be evaluated and how you will work with end-users to test and disseminate the new tools, policies, procedures, etc.

PARTICIPANTS AND CO-SPONSORS: Identify the specific end-users that you are working with and clearly identify their role in the implementation of the project. By necessity, these projects require partnerships, so make it clear how the partnership will work to take the research to application.

ROLE OF INVESTIGATORS: For projects with more than one investigator, explain the specific role of each co-PI and collaborator.

EXPECTED RESULTS, APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS: Describe the expected outcomes of the project.

REFERENCES: Provide complete reference information, per your disciplinary reviewed literature format. Up-to-date citations are expected.

F. FLORIDA SEA GRANT BIOGRAPHICAL DATA SHEET: Please complete this one-page (maximum) form for each principal and associate investigator. This will help to evaluate qualifications and past performance, consistent with stage of career development.

H. COST SHARING LETTER

I. For UF Faculty only: a DSR-1 form signed off on by the principal investigators and their department chairs, deans, and sponsored programs office.

SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL

Download and complete:

Title Page (Word Doc) Project Record Form (90-2) (Word Doc) Sea Grant Budget Form (90-4) biographical_data_sheet(Word Doc) For UF Faculty DSR-1

For this special RFP process, we are not using our standard online submittal system. Instead, all of the required components of the proposal should be submitted by email to Jackie Whitehouse at jhw04@ufl.edu. For questions about the proposal process, our telephone number is (352) 392-5870. Your complete proposal package must be received by 4 PM on July 15, 2014, or earlier if possible. Late proposals will not be considered. Please note that none of the proposal preparation expenditures are to be charged to any current Sea Grant project.

PDF of Coastal Resilience funding opportunity Florida Sea Grant Special RFP June 2014