Internal Funding

Office of Research

Research & Creative Activity

Objectives
Research and Creative Activity Award is a campuswide small grants program supported by the Office of Research. It is designed as seed funding for original and collaborative research. Preference will be given to proposals with strong potential for external funding. During the application process, faculty must identify the future external funding opportunities that are a good fit for the proposed project.

There are no submission deadlines. The RCA reviews are conducted on a rolling basis during the fiscal year (July 1-June 30). Applicants will generally receive notification of the funding decisions within eight to 10 weeks of their submission date.

Anonymous internal U-M peer reviewers have conducted peer reviews. The UM-Flint Office of Research solicits online peer reviews through the university’s competition space, InfoReady.

Requirements: RCA proposal narratives are limited to three single-spaced pages with text no smaller than 11-point Arial and margins of at least one inch. Budget documents should be one page in length. Budget justifications explaining the expenses proposed and the basis for the cost estimates are limited to one page. Biographical sketches or abbreviated curriculum vitae must follow NIH, NSF or NEH submission criteria.

See the Biosketch proposal development webpage for ways to highlight your expertise using NIH format and the Working with NSF webpage to think about NSF biosketches.

BUDGET GUIDANCE:

Single investigator: Project budget requests are limited to no more than $20,000. The UM-Flint Office of Research will only fund requests that reflect reasonable and necessary costs to achieve project objectives. Based on scholarly merit, the practicality of the request, and available funds, the Office of Research may offer less than the originally requested amount.

Collaborative: Joint funding requests involving two or more faculty members can request up to $30,000. Joint funding requests will be evaluated using the collaborative and integrative nature of the research as an additional criterion to the standard evaluation criteria of significance, innovation and approach.

Eligibility Information: The principal investigator must be a faculty member in one of the five schools and colleges of UM-Flint and may only participate in two active RCA grants simultaneously, one as a PI and one as a co-PI. Preference will be given to early career PI-eligible faculty.  

Scoring Proposals
A common scoring rubric will evaluate each proposal. The scoring system for anonymous review follows four criteria, with space in the online review form for scores and comments in each section. Following the review process, comments from the reviewers will be shared with the applicants.

1. Significance: The potential impact or scholarly merit of the project is clear for the field or applicant(s) research potential and progress.
2. Innovation: The potential of the project to develop novel concepts, approaches, methodologies or technologies.
3. Approach: Overall strategy, methodology and analytical strategies are appropriate to achieve aims.
4. Investigators: PI, co-investigators are well suited to carry out the project, with appropriate experience and training

Eligible Project Components
Faculty are encouraged to develop the research or creative activity project that will best meet their specific needs. A research or creative project can include any or all of the following components:

1. Course Release Time or Spring-Summer Stipends: With approval of the chair and dean, a faculty member can request compensation up to 1/9 of salary for a course release during the academic year (fall/winter) or a stipend (maximum of $6,500) during spring/summer semester.
2. Research Assistance: Both student and non-student research assistants are eligible. Whenever possible, however, the RCA encourages the inclusion of UM-Flint students to serve as assistants on research projects supported with RCA funds. The latter will be given priority as per the rubric point system described above. Student assistants must be enrolled at UM-Flint during the project period.
3. Fringe Benefits and FICA: Applicants should factor FICA and fringe benefits into their requests. Please view the RCA Submission Guideline for more details.
4. Materials, supplies, and equipment: Itemization and description of expenses are required.
5. Travel costs associated with conducting off-campus research/creative activity may be budgeted. Travel costs may also be budgeted for dissemination at professional meetings. Budgeted publication costs must not exceed 10% of the total budget, and the home unit must match publication costs 1:1.

Exclusions
The following items are not eligible for inclusion in RCA grants.

1. Graduate research and dissertation writing for faculty and students.
2. Computer hardware/software for routine use. In rare cases, funds may be provided for highly specialized computer hardware/software.
3. Equipment necessary to contain health hazards in a laboratory.
4. Funds for organizing conferences or colloquia.

Project Timeline
Proposed projects are usually expected to be completed within a one-year time frame. If special circumstances exist, a no-cost extension request, for up to one year, must be completed in InfoReady and submitted prior to the end of the award for UM-Flint Office of Research approval. If progress is seen as insufficient during the awarded or extended project performance period, unused funds will be returned to the Office of Research.

Final Report
Within 60 days after the end of the period of the award, the principal investigator will be reminded to provide a brief report to the Office of Research of project outcomes, which will be made available to the RCA Committee. The final report should be completed in InfoReady and include:

1. The work completed on the project relative to objectives stated in the original proposal.
2. The relationship between the original timetable and the actual completion of tasks.
3. A detailed budget summary including a description of any deviation from the original plans.
4. Any scholarly or creative work, publications and/or presentations that resulted from the work

Please contact research administrators in the Office of Research to request a budget template in Google Sheets or Excel format.

Forms
Submission Guidelines
Scoring Rubric
Sample Bio Sketches

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Dr. Ben F. Bryer Foundation Medical Research Fund

The Ben F. Bryer Foundation Medical Research Fund was established by the family of Ben F. Bryer to encourage and support the medical research endeavors of UM-Flint faculty. This research fund honors Bryer’s accomplishments as a surgeon, scientist, educator, author and humanist in his pursuit of medical knowledge. Special gratitude is extended to his sister and foundation trustee, Bess Hurand, and her husband, Arthur, for making this fund possible.

Bryer graduated from Flint Central High in 1930 before receiving a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh. His postgraduate studies were interrupted when he joined the U.S. Army as a surgeon during World War II, eventually becoming the lieutenant colonel M.C. with stations in Texas and China. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1946, Bryer continued his study of surgery specializing in abdominal and gastro-intestinal procedures. Although his later appointments were in New York, he continued to share his knowledge of medicine through fellowships, international medical lectures and publications including “The Multiple Injury Patient” which has been distributed to all Medical Schools and Medical Libraries in the U.S. and abroad. His achievements earned Bryer several awards including the Gold Achievement Award from the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons and features in Who’s Who in the World and a place in the Wisdom Hall of Fame.

This fund will be available to full-time UM-Flint faculty on an application-by-application basis to support medical and biomedical research, with a priority given to cancer research.

Eligibility for each submission will be determined by how closely the proposed project embodies the level of medical and biomedical research intended by the Ben F. Bryer Foundation. Qualifying projects will involve formal medical and biomedical research that furthers knowledge in disease prevention and control.

Applicants must apply for the Bryer Medical Research Fund via the Research and Creative Activity competition page on the Office of Research InfoReady site. The RCA application template allows applicants to request support from the Bryer Fund and RCA funds simultaneously. Applicants can request up to $10,000 from the Bryer Medical Research Fund, and an additional $10,000 from RCA funding, for a maximum total request of $20,000. Please contact research administrators in the Office of Research with any budgeting questions or to request a budget template prior to submission.

Forms
Submission Guidelines
Scoring Rubric
Sample Bio Sketches

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Proposal Writing Academies

The lack of research development time is a significant impediment to UM-Flint faculty seeking external funding with major scientific agencies or professional foundations. This proposal writing program is designed to provide teaching release time to underwrite and incentivize the pursuit of external research funding. Each of the two largest national funding agencies, the NSF and NIH have regular submission cycles that permit some advance planning about funding streams well suited to research agendas at UM-Flint, and many professional Foundations also have regular annual competition cycles.

Pre-Proposal Due	Deadline	Writing Time	Sponsor Deadline
Fall	Mid-October	Spring/Summer	Next Year (Sept.-Dec.)
Winter	Mid-March	Fall Term	Next Year (Jan.-Apr.)
Spring-Summer	Mid-August	Winter Term	Next Year (May-Aug.)

Faculty are encouraged to work with the UM-Flint Office of Research to learn about the opportunities best suited to their research ideas, explore the upcoming funding opportunities, and seek proposal writing time through the UM-Flint Proposal Academy. PI-eligible faculty (tenure-track or tenured) may apply for a course release for the four-month period in advance of a sponsor’s submission deadline, which the UM-Flint Office of Research will fund. Applicants are asked to provide a one-page summary or abstract of the proposed project, similar to the document that might be sent to a program officer at a federal agency or a foundation, prior to a formal submission. The summary and the faculty biosketch or brief CV will then be reviewed for their potential by anonymous reviewers within the three U-M campuses via the InfoReady review competition space.

Faculty selected for the proposal writing academy will receive a course release and will be expected to participate in proposal writing workgroups facilitated by the UM-Flint Office of Research to draft the required sections of research proposal month by month during the academic term in which the release time is funded. Additional workgroup team members will be recruited to work with the Academy awardees based on their research expertise, interest in providing feedback to their colleagues and learning more about the submission and proposal writing process.

To Apply for the Proposal Writing Academy:

• Applicants must first submit a pre-proposal. Applicants are asked to develop a one-page summary or abstract of their proposed research project. This is a concept document similar to a one-page abstract normally shared with a program officer at a federal agency or a foundation to inquire about the relevance and fit of the idea with the sponsor’s current programs. The one-pager should address:
  • Significance: potential impact or scholarly merit is clear.
  • Innovation: the potential to develop novel concepts, approaches or technology.
  • Approach: design, methods and analytical strategies are appropriate to achieve goals.
• Applicants to NIH and NSF competitions must provide a biosketch using the required NIH (three pages max) and NSF (two pages max) formats. Foundation applicants must provide an abbreviated CV (three pages max). Each format focuses on preparation and publications most relevant to the proposed project.
• Applications will be routed for approval to the department chair or director and the Dean’s Office. Faculty must discuss a potential course release with their unit leadership before proceeding to a preliminary review.
• Preliminary review of one-page proposal narratives will be conducted by anonymous reviewers via InfoReady, UM-Ann Arbor, UM-Dearborn, UM-Flint, and U-M Foundation Relations.

In addition to the course release, faculty will receive proposal writing help from the Office of Research, statistical or graphical design assistance (if needed), and additional feedback (depending on subject matter) from mock study sections like those at Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research or U-M’s research development network.

Eligibility: This program is aimed primarily at junior or mid-career faculty members (in years 3 to 10 of a tenure track appointment) for each sponsor track: NIH, NSF or the Foundations Academy.

A three-credit course buyout for most applicants typically represents a 1/9th replacement cost of the faculty member with a nine-month appointment.

University year (nine-month appointed) faculty who seek protected proposal writing time during the spring/summer months are eligible for a salary stipend of up to $8,000 but precluded from teaching during the spring/summer award period.

During the academic year (fall and winter), all PI-eligible faculty may request support for a three-credit course buyout. Twelve-month appointed faculty may request a three-credit course buyout in all three cycles.

The Proposal Writing Academies will be offered in the fall, winter and spring/summer terms. During each application period, and subject to available funding, this program will select two to three faculty. Faculty will receive notification of whether they have been selected for this program within four weeks of the application deadline. Faculty not selected for the program will be encouraged to participate in proposal writing workgroups.

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Research Commons

Learn about new funding opportunities by searching in the Research Commons. The portal uses the InfoReady platform to pool internal opportunities, limited submissions, and some external opportunities. Find funding opportunities quicker by using the keyword search, and filtering by campus, school or college, discipline, career stage, funding type or areas of interest.