This Call is For: UF/IFAS Faculty

Submission Deadline: 

Click here for the announcement of the awardees.

Overview

University of Florida/IFAS is committed to fostering integrated, team science that addresses grand challenges faced by Florida and the world, and assisting faculty to develop and transfer tools and technologies that drive important innovations and fuel the economic engine of the state of Florida.

To promote and grow integrated research and Extension team efforts toward emerging agricultural enterprises, the UF/IFAS Dean for Research Office and Dean for Extension Office in partnership with the Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources are requesting proposals to the SEEDIT Program.

A total of up to $1,000,000 will be awarded in Phase I. Proposals are expected to range from $5,000 to $75,000, with the possibility of additional funding in Phase II. Successful Phase I grants will be announced in Spring 2020 and should be spent within 18 months.

Eligibility

PI or Co-PI of the proposal must be in a tenure-track faculty position with a tenure home in UF/IFAS. The PI or Co-PI must have a REEport project (individual or multi-state HATCH, or McIntire-Stennis) approved by NIFA prior to submission.

Scope and Criteria

The intent of the funding is to facilitate development and success of research and Extension programs related to emerging agricultural enterprises. Accordingly, these funds should be spent within 18 months to help build and support integrated teams working toward alleviating “choke points” in the development of emerging enterprises in Florida. Successful proposals will enable development and advancement of projects, collection of new data, and/or analysis of existing data to assist in the creation and transfer of tools and technologies with commercialization and business enterprise potential. The work funded under this program should also lead to significant extramural funding, whether private or public.

Proposals will be evaluated based on:

1) Scientific merit and rigor of the integrated research and Extension project;

2) Capacity, expertise, and experience of the interdisciplinary faculty team;

3) Identification of chokepoints related to technical feasibility, biophysical/environmental limitations, economic/social considerations, and/or regulatory/policy limitations;

4) Potential for the seed funding to lead to the creation and transfer of marketable tools and technologies and/or business enterprises;

5) Potential for the funds to be leveraged with extramural private and/or public sector funding; and

6) Impact of the proposed project on the investigators’ research and Extension program development, including intellectual property and publications.

Submission Process

Please submit the requested materials here: https://researchtools.ifas.ufl.edu/apps/seedit/. The information requested includes:

• Online cover sheet:

a. Project title

b. Integration Team information (investigator names, titles, affiliations, email addresses, and REEport project numbers if applicable)

c. Institutional Review Board or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee determination

d. General audience abstract (limited to 200 words)

e. Non-proprietary statement briefly describing the potential path to commercialization and enterprise development (limited to 100 words)

f. Budget (faculty and TEAMS staff salary is not allowed, and IDC is not applicable to this internal program)

• Attached PDF narrative with the following information (maximum 3 pages excluding literature cited and evidence of industry support, one inch margins on all sides, at least 11 point font including tables and figures):

a. Title, and Integration Team names and affiliations

b. Introduction: A brief overview of the literature, justification (e.g., chokepoints), and relevance of the project to the team’s research and Extension programs and goals

c. Expected outcomes and impacts: A brief description of the potential outcomes and impacts to stakeholders and to the faculty members’ programs

d. Methodology: A description of the plan to integrate research and Extension toward commercialization and enterprise development, project objectives, hypotheses to be tested, and methods

e. Project timeline: A project timeline, including a final report due mid-August 2021 and a Phase II Summit presentation in September 2021

f. Extramural funding strategy: A summary of specific private and/or public sponsor(s) and program(s) that will be targeted for funding (include web links if possible) using the outputs of this project, and the anticipated times of submission

g. Budget justification

h. Literature cited (does not count toward the page limit)

i. Evidence of industry support (does not count toward the page limit)

Selection Process

The Deans for Research and Extension are responsible for final award decisions. Proposals not adhering to the specified format or not submitted by February 20, 2020 will not be considered.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please contact Damian Adams (dcadams@ufl.edu), Saqib Mukhtar (smukhtar@ufl.edu), or Linda Smith (lasm@ufl.edu). Contact Nancy Wilkinson (nwilkin@ufl.edu) with financial questions.