CBAS Bridge Funding Opportunity Announcement

Bridge Funding Application

CBAS bridge funding program logo

Funding Opportunity Title: CBAS Bridge Funding

Funding Opportunity Summary: This Funding Opportunity Announcement invites applications from faculty who have recently submitted a proposal for external grant funding and are seeking bridge funding to begin working on the proposed activity in the interim between external proposal submission and funding and/or re-submission.  The Funding Opportunity seeks to promote quality external proposal submission and provide resources for an improved resubmission with a higher chance of success.

Application Due Dates: Applications will be reviewed and funded in three cycles during an academic year as indicated below. To be eligible, submission of an application for Bridge Funding must occur no more than 12 months from submission of the associated external proposal.

Funding Cycle

Application Submissions Open

Application Submissions Due

Funding Notification

1

February 16th

June 15th

August 1st

2

June 16th

October 15th

December 1st

3

October 16th

February 15th

April 1st

 

Funding Opportunity Description:

  1. Program Purpose: The College of Basic and Applied Science (CBAS) aims to increase success in external grant funding metrics, including high quality grant proposal submissions, number of funded awards, and external funding dollars.  In the current external funding environment, achieving success of first-time submissions is challenging.  This Bridge Funding opportunity seeks to accelerate the generation of early-stage results and other relevant activities to improve the likelihood of resubmission funding. This Bridge Funding can be applied to expenses that jump start the external proposal or generate preliminary data towards resubmission of the external proposal.
  2. Eligibility Information: All CBAS affiliated, research active faculty applying for external funding are encouraged to apply for CBAS Bridge Funding.  The following constitute eligibility requirements;
    1. The applicant must be a tenured or tenure-track member of one of the departments within CBAS.
    2.  It is required that the applicant has submitted a proposal as Principal Investigator (PI) for funding from an external agency (e.g., federal, state, private) of at least $100,000 in direct costs over any period of time to support research activities at MTSU. Submission of an application for Bridge Funding must occur no more than 12 months from submission of the associated external proposal.
    3. Faculty with no or limited current external funding will be given priority consideration.
    4. Faculty with >$5,000 in remaining start-up funds are only eligible to apply for GRA support (see Section 3.a.ii below).
    5. Faculty who have accepted two Bridge Funding grants will be ineligible for further Bridge Funding grants until they have received external funding of $100,000 or more in direct costs.
    6. Faculty may not apply for funding more than once every 12 months.
  3. Award Information: Award funding is meant to accelerate the generation of early-stage results and improve the likelihood of successful resubmission for external funding.
    1. Applicants must select a funding tier when submitting their application for internal funding.  A select number of awards will be given in each tier.
      1. Tier 1: up to $5,000 – Faculty may request up to $5,000 to support data collection and analysis expenditures, including for example consumables, small equipment, undergraduate researcher stipends, travel to collect data, software, and participant costs. 
      2. Tier 2: up to $15,000 – Faculty may request up to $15,000 to support a 4-month graduate research assistant (GRA; $2,000 per month), associated tuition and fees (https://www.mtsu.edu/tuition/), and data collection and analysis expenditures, including for example consumables, small equipment, travel to collect data, software, and participant costs
    2. In general, funding may only be used for the categories outlined within the Tiers. Funding may not be used to pay for faculty extra compensation, faculty summer salary, conference travel, publication fees, or other expenditures the review committee deems ineligible.
  4. Application Structure: The application is a single Dynamic Form, linked at the top and bottom of this webpage.  The Bridge Funding application will require the information below. 
    1. External Proposal Summary – Provide information on the applicant and the submitted external proposal including funding agency, date submitted, budget, funding period, Co-PI information, and link to funding agency announcement.
    2. Research Summary – A summary of the proposed research, including the sections listed below. The Research Summary will be a separate document uploaded to the Dynamic Forms application.  The Research Summary is restricted to three pages, single-spaced in Times New Roman 12-point font with normal margins.
      1. Background and Significance – What is the importance of the research?  How is it relevant and competitive for external funding?
      2. Research Approach – Summarize the proposed research to be carried out with adequate detail understandable by researchers from diverse fields.  Note that this should be focused on proposed research that will be funded by this Bridge Funding mechanism and may mirror the proposed research within the first year of the external proposal.
      3. Short-Term and Long-Term Objectives – Briefly state how successfully completing the proposed research for Bridge Funding will increase the likelihood of successful funding of the original external funding proposal.
      4. Applicant Experience and Qualifications - Discuss the experience that makes the applicant qualified to successfully complete the proposed research.
    3. Budget – Select the desired Tier of funding and input the total request Bridge Funding. Refer to Section 3 for information on Tiers and budget restrictions.  Complete and upload a Budget Details Form that lists and justifies the requested funding. If applying for Tier 2 funding and a graduate student is already positioned for GRA funding, please indicate this.
    4. Funding Support – Provide a list of all external and internal current and pending research support, including title, funding agency, role, amount, funding dates, and funding status.  Also include information about any prior CBAS Bridge Funding awards.
    5. Optional Documents – If available, provide the following optional documents to facilitate review.
      1. Final reports from prior CBAS Bridge Funding awards.
      2. Scores and reviews for the external proposal related to this CBAS Bridge Funding application if the proposal was previously reviewed by an external funding agency.
  5. Application Review: Applications will be reviewed by a number of CBAS researchers within and outside of the applicant’s discipline.  The rubric included in the Appendix of this FOA will be used to review and score applications.  Applications will be ranked based on scoring and final funding decisions made by the Dean of CBAS in consultation with the CBAS Research Committee.
  6. Award Termination:
    1. The following situations will result in termination of a Bridge Funding award.
      1. All awarded funds have been spent by the applicant.  There is no mechanism for renewal or to request additional funding of the same award.
      2. Award funding will be discontinued twelve (12) months after the Bridge Funding award was issued.
    2. Upon award termination, faculty are required to submit a final report using the final report form.  This report will detail what was accomplished during CBAS Bridge Funding, how this funding was used, and the plan for resubmission of the related external proposal.

Application, Budget Details Form, and Rubric

Bridge Funding Application       Budget Details Form      Evaluation Rubric