TAMU Internal Guidelines 2007 Advanced Research Program

Texas A&M University

Office of the Vice President for Research

Office of University Research Services

Advanced Research Program Guidelines 

Procedures for submission of proposals to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) 2007 Advanced Research Program (ARP). 

BACKGROUND 

The Advanced Research Program and the Advanced Technology Program were created by the Texas Legislature in 1987 as competitive, peer-reviewed grants programs to fund scientific and engineering research projects of faculty members at Texas institutions of higher education.   Both programs were created to attract and retain the best students and researchers and help provide the knowledge base needed for innovation. 

In 2007, Advanced Research Program will have approximately $16.4 million available. Additionally, funding for the Advanced Technology Program supporting Clean Coal Projects may become available. These projects will be for the development, construction and operation of clean coal projects or generation of electricity using lignite coal or integrated gasification combined cycle technology. If funding becomes available, universities and registered investigators will be alerted by email. 

These programs are administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The THECB requires that proposals submitted to the Advanced Research /Advanced Technology Programs be submitted through a single institutional office.  The Office of the Vice President for Research serves this role for Texas A&M University.  

NEW FOR 2007

• No limit on the number of proposals that may be submitted by each institution
• Maximum award amount = $150,000
• “Bonus” proposals allowed
• Pre-proposals submitted to the THECB
• Assessment of proposal readability included in the evaluation form 

ELIGIBILITY

An investigator may participate in no more than one pre-proposal in this competition.  A “Bonus” proposal may be submitted by an investigator if the proposal is a consortium proposal that includes both:  (1) one or more institutions reporting more and (2) one or more institutions reporting less than $33 million in research and development expenditures during FY 2006. 

A lead institution/principal investigator who will assume management responsibility for a consortium project must be identified.   

The principal investigator of each project must be a faculty member, which is defined as a person who is tenured or in a tenure track position, or a research professional in a permanent position (a person other than a post-doctoral appointee with academic qualifications equivalent to faculty, but without instruction obligations).  

A co-principal investigator from the same institution who meets the same eligibility criteria and shares responsibility for the project may be named.  The co-principal investigator’s name must appear on the cover sheet.   

Pre-proposals from investigators with overdue progress or final reports from previous or current awards will not be reviewed.    

REGISTRATION PROCEDURES FOR PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Investigators intending to submit applications to THECB must be registered with the THECB online system here at  by 5:00 p.m., October 23, 2007.   Investigators previously registered must reconfirm their registration and password by accessing the online system and confirming or updating their information.   

New faculty members should list the Texas A&M University System agency that will process their application on the registration form.. 

2007 COMPETITION INFORMATION 

All pre-proposals and full proposals must be submitted electronically.  

The project summary for pre-proposals cannot exceed 4,000 characters including spaces and HTML code.  No images or links will be allowed.    

One additional PDF page may be uploaded into the pre-proposal. The additional page may be used for a diagram, formula, graph, picture, chart, etc., to illustrate the concept presented in the pre-proposal. A brief caption (maximum of 30 words) may be included. Reviewers have the option of not considering this page. 

Only those pre-proposals selected by reviewers will be invited to submit full proposals.  Investigators invited to submit a full proposal will be announced December 11, 2007 at investigator web pages here.  

All full proposals must be submitted electronically. The full proposal budget cannot exceed the pre-proposal budget.  It is suggested that pre-proposals all request the maximum amount of $150,000. 

Pre-proposals will be required in all areas of research.  Pre-proposals will be prepared and submitted online at THECB web site.  The project summary for pre-proposals cannot exceed 4,000 characters including spaces and HTML code.  No images or links will be allowed.  If invited to submit a full proposal, the budget cannot exceed the amount of the pre-proposal budget.    

After the principal investigator has completed the pre-proposal, it must be sent to the office of university research services (OURS) using the “Send to OSP” button. OURS will review the pre-proposal to ensure it conforms to guidelines and format as required by the Coordinating Board.  If errors are detected, the proposal will be returned to the investigator for correction.  After revisions are made the investigator will need to resend the pre-proposal to OURS for submission to THECB.   

The THECB review panel will review pre-proposals and invite those investigators whose proposals were selected to submit full proposals.  Invitations for full proposals will be announced on December 11, 2007.  Full proposals will be accepted only from those investigators invited to submit a full proposal. 

Approvals by department head and college dean are not required for pre-proposals.

FULL PROPOSALS

All full proposals will be prepared and submitted electronically.  No proposals will be accepted in paper format. 

OURS will pre-review full proposals through January 25, 2008. This pre-review by OURS is not required.  The purpose of the pre-review is to ensure, to the extent possible, that full proposals are not rejected prior to review because they fail to follow the required format, fail to have the appropriate documentation and signatures, or fail to have the budget calculated correctly.   

Proposals that are forwarded to OURS for pre-review will be returned with a checklist highlighting missing or incorrect information.  The investigator will need to make the adjustments and resend the full proposal to OURS with the “Send to OSP” button for submission to THECB.   

BUDGET PREPARATION 

Note:  Consortium proposals require a separate budget for each principal investigator’s institution and a combined budget for the full amount of the proposal. 

Post-Doctoral Trainees and Student Support:  Post-doctoral trainees are considered as a student support category.  Support for graduate and undergraduate students is highly encouraged and should be an integral part of the proposed research.  Please consider, when preparing this section, that only $5,000 can be moved from student support without THECB during the life of the grant. 

Fringe benefits, tuition, and facilities and administration costs: Not allowed 

Equipment:

·        Equipment must be specifically listed on the Capital Equipment List, and must be justified. 

·        Capital equipment will be defined by the grantee institution.

·        Only funds allocated to equipment in the approved budget may be expended for equipment.

·        When components are combined for fabrication of an item of equipment, these costs should appear under equipment.

·        Funds for building renovations are not allowed. 

Travel:

·        Domestic travel includes destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and U.S. possessions.

·        Domestic travel per diem, etc., should be listed under Travel in item C-1.

·        Registration fees for conferences and meetings must be listed in Other Direct Costs in item D-3 of the budget.

·        Funds for foreign travel will not be allowed except where such travel is clearly an integral part of the research.  Attending professional meetings, presentations at conferences and meetings, etc., does not meet this requirement. 

Cost Sharing:

·        Cost sharing is not required for ARP grants. 

·        Any cost sharing will become a condition of the award and will need to be documented.   

COMPLIANCE/PROTOCOL APPROVALS 

Protocols for proposals involving laboratory animals, human subjects, recombinant DNA, or other work requiring compliance review do not need to be submitted until after awards are announced.  However, expenditures will not be allowed until after compliance protocols are approved.

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION 

Texas A&M internal rules require approval of the proposal by the investigator(s), department head, college dean and the vice president for research.   The THECB process currently does not allow for review or approval online by the department head or college dean.   

After preparing the full proposal online print a copy for internal routing, sign the THECB Proposal Cover Sheet and the THECB Proposal Budget Page, and attach a signed copy of the Document Review/Approval Sheet.  The principal investigator, department head and college dean should sign the Document Review/Approval Sheet prior to delivery to Becky Holloway, 201 Williams Administration Building to obtain other required signatures.  After internal approvals have been obtained the full proposal will be submitted to the THECB. 

The Document Review/Approval Sheet is available to be completed online.

DEADLINES

In order to accommodate the large number of proposals expected, please use internal due dates listed below:

Calendar of Events

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

2007 Advanced Research Program Competition

*    To be posted on the THECB website

Contact: 

Office of Office of University Research Services

Becky Holloway; 979-862-3939, or e-mail.