Call for Proposals

In line with Loyola University Chicago’s strategic intention of fostering multidisciplinary research and building stronger partnerships with other organizations and institutions, the Office of Research Services invites teams of collaborative researchers to develop external proposals to help support promising cross-disciplinary and campus initiatives.

Two-three awards of up to $30,000 per project will be allocated to research teams that are prepared to submit a multidisciplinary proposal to a nationally competitive funding agency. This support is intended to provide a basis for project development and pilot research ultimately leading to independent funding. Multidisciplinary research teams will typically comprise several full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty with complementary expertise in relevant disciplines. This program is not designed to support dissertation projects for graduate students.

Funds may support summer salary and fringe benefits for (co-)investigators and key personnel, cost of grant-writing consultants, travel to consult with funding agencies, professional travel to conferences, graduate and undergraduate assistants, equipment, and materials and supplies as necessary to organize, prepare and submit a proposal to an external agency. Requests for course release during the regular academic year will not be funded because the main activity to be supported by this program (developing an external grant proposal) is considered part of a faculty member’s regular duties. For the same reason, salary support for Health Sciences Campus (HSC) faculty will not be funded, nor may HSC faculty be awarded consulting agreements under this program. 

Preference will be given to proposals that involve research in one of the following three focus areas: life sciences and health care; ethics and social justice; and children and families. 

Investigator(s) Eligibility
Because the money for this program is (indirectly) generated by research done by Lake Shore and Water Tower campus investigators, this competition is restricted to Principal Investigators from either or both of those locations (i.e., the College of Arts & Sciences, Arrupe College, IPS, IES, the Centers of Excellence, and the schools of Business, Communication, Continuing & Professional Studies, Education, Law, and Social Work). Co-investigators, however, can be located at the Health Sciences Campus. Generally, if a person is eligible to submit an external proposal through the lakeside PTAP system as a Principal Investigator, that person would be eligible to be a Principal Investigator on a multi-disciplinary grant. Each application for this program must have a Principal Investigator and at least one Co-Investigator from a different department.

Proposal Submission Guidelines
The primary goal is to develop coherent multidisciplinary research proposals that are positioned competitively to secure external funding from Federal agencies.  Proposals for this internal competition must clearly demonstrate the multidisciplinary nature of the project and identify specific external sources of support for the project.

Proposals must be double spaced, font size 12 points or higher, and submitted (all as PDF files except for the budget in Excel) through the IPRS system. [NOTE: If an investigator needs a compliance committee approval (e.g., for work involving human subjects or lab animals) he/she should apply to the relevant committee for their location (lakeside or HSC) and then inform the other investigator(s) of the outcome.]

The application must include:

• A cover page clearly identifying the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigators, along with their department and college/school of primary appointment; joint appointments should also be identified.  Also indicate which strategic goal of the university is aligned with the proposed research: life sciences & health care; ethics & social justice; children & families. The cover page must be signed by the relevant dean (or equivalent) for each investigator. Use the template that is provided here; electronic signatures are acceptable.‌
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• An abstract, written for a general audience, that summarizes the project and its expected outcomes.  The abstract must not exceed 300 words.
  
• A project narrative of the scope of activity, including the objective(s) of the project, the significance of the project, the methodology or approach to be used, the expected outcomes or products, and the contribution that a successful project will make to the strategic goals of the Loyola University Chicago.   The project description must not exceed eight (8) pages.  Recommended sections are:
  
  1. Objectives
     
  2. Significance
     
  3. Methods of analyses [if high performance computing capability is needed, indicate whether use will be made of Loyola's Research Data Center]‌
  4. Broader impact and expected outcomes
     
  5. Prospect of stimulating further research at LUC
     
• A one-page summary of plans to move the project toward sustained, external funding. This should list potential sources of support, such as programs within agencies.
• A two-page management plan, explaining the roles of each investigator in the project.
• A one-page budget that lists the major categories of expenses. [NOTE: budgets that request funding for fringe benefits should use the "operating" rate - see http://www.luc.edu/finance/fbrates.shtml].
• A budget justification, with each line item being explained and justified.
• A two-page biosketch for each investigator must include the individual’s current professional position, degrees (with institutions and dates), professional positions held, recent relevant publications, artistic performances or other original products, and grants and contracts received, both external and internal.

Appendix materials will NOT be accepted

Submission and Review Procedure
All proposals must be submitted through the IPRS system (https://iprs.luc.edu/Login.aspx) and will be reviewed and ranked by a peer-review panel convened by the Associate Provost for Research.

Deadline: 5 pm Friday, March 20, 2015.

Award Processing
Awards will be announced in May, usually with a start date of June 1. Each award will be assigned its own “AU” number. Costs incurred at both lakeside and HSC locations can be charged to this AU.

Open Access
Scholarly papers, journal articles, posters, conference presentations, etc., that arise, directly or indirectly, out of the work supported by this grant program should be made available to the Loyola University community and beyond. Grant recipients should post relevant research products to Loyola’s eCommons to the extent allowed by copyright. Grant recipients should negotiate with publishers if applicable to ensure that research products are open access. Contact ecommons@luc.edu for assistance with this process.