Office of the Vice Provost for

       Research and Sponsored Programs

EPSCoR Eligibility for Tennessee - NSF, DOE and DOD

In April 2006 Tennessee became the first state to begin the process of successfully transitioning out of the NSF EPSCoR program.  NSF is very pleased that research productivity at the universities in Tennessee has improved dramatically and is encouraging us to remain involved with the program.  Tennessee representatives will continue to participate in EPSCoR meetings in order to make connections and learn of opportunities. During the three year transition period, researchers in Tennessee will continue to be eligible for co-funding.  The co-funding program is targeted to new researchers and researchers who have not received NSF funding in recent years.  Through co-funding, many starting faculty at Tennessee institutions have received CAREER awards. Co-funding will continue for three years, until April 2009.  Proposals to NSF are strongly encouraged.

The on-going relationship with the DOE EPSCoR program has been clarified. Tennessee competed successfully for a DOE Laboratory Partnership award in 2006.  DOE has announced that there will not be a competition for Laboratory Partnership awards in 2007 as there are many strong proposals that were held over from the 2006 competition.  An additional award to a Tennessee researcher will be made in 2007 assuming the program is funded at anticipated levels.  Details on the awards from the Laboratory Partnership program are available on the DOE web site http://www.science.doe.gov/EPSCoR/.   Tennessee is not eligible to submit a proposal to the DOE Implementation Program.  Tennessee will not be eligible to submit proposals to the Laboratory Partnership program beyond the proposal that was selected from the 2006 proposals to receive a 2007 award.

For more information on TN EPScOR, please visit http://www.science.doe.gov/EPSCoR/.

DEPSCoR Tennessee Proposal Submission - FY07

This is the official State of Tennessee call for DEPSCoR proposal submission for FY07.  Tennessee DEPSCoR is inviting researchers in Tennessee universities and colleges to submit full proposals for consideration for submission to three U.S. Department of Defense research agencies. The state DEPSCoR committee will be eligible to submit only a limited number (probably five) of proposals when DoD releases its Broad Area Announcement for FY2007. Participating DoD agencies are the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, and the Office of Naval Research. The Tennessee process is different in 2007 than it was in 2005 and 2006 due to delays in receipt of information from DoD regarding the eligibility of Tennessee. To qualify for the DEPSCoR program, proposals must

1. Demonstrate strong technical merit
2. Address a critical need of a DoD agency
3. Build a research infrastructure that may lead to an increase in future federal grant opportunities
4. Be a new research initiative
5. Have the strong endorsement of a program manager from a DoD agency
6. Include a 50-percent match from nonfederal funds.

The due date for the receipt of proposals by the state EPSCoR committee is noon, August 17, 2006. Principal investigators will be notified in early October regarding which proposals will be submitted to DoD by the state committee. This will allow sufficient time for modifications to be made prior to the DoD submission deadline which is anticipated to be late October.  The final proposals must be submitted to DEPSCoR by the State Committee – not by individual PIs or institutions.  Only proposals that are received by August 17 and included in the internal review will be considered.

Penny Morris
EM Program
University of Tennessee Space Institute
B.H. Goethert Parkway
Tullahoma, TN 37388

The hard copy must be postmarked no later than August 17, 2006. For more detailed information, see http://www.epscor.tennessee.edu. For questions, contact David Hercules, state DEPSCoR director, at david.m.hercules@vanderbilt.edu, 615-343-5230, or (fax) 615-343-7262.

The Broad Area Announcement for the FY07 DEPSCoR competition has not yet been issued by DoD.  It will appear sometime in the future; last year it appeared in early September.  However, we have been in contact with the DoD DEPSCoR program manager who has indicated that the mechanics of proposal preparation will be mostly unchanged from the FY06 competition.  So, proposal preparation should follow the guidelines given in the FY06 DEPSCoR document which can be viewed at:  http://www.arl.army.mil/main/main/DownloadedInternetPages/CurrentPages/DoingBusinesswithARL/research/depscor06.pdf

Detailed instructions for proposal preparation can be found in Section IV on pages 5-10.  It is a pdf document and can easily be printed.  There are some items to which PIs should give very careful attention:

1. There is a 25 page limit for the proposal which includes everything except for the cover page and the budget.   
2. The abstract is restricted to one page or less.
3. Any curricula vitae must be included in the 25 page limit.
4. A DoD agency must be identified per the instructions on page 5.
5. The budget for a proposal should be between $350K and $500K not including matching money.  However, be certain to include a budget for the matching money.  It is not necessary to have a university financial officer sign-off on the budget for the August 17 submission.
6. Each state can submit only 5 DEPSCoR proposals to DoD.
7. The amount of money available for DEPSCoR this year is about the same as last year.
8. Read the remaining instructions very carefully.

State of Tennessee DEPSCoR Schedule:

1. August 17, 2006 - Deadline for submission of proposals to the State Committee.  Operational details are included in this note.
   Immediately thereafter the proposals will be sent out for external review.
2. In late September the state committee will consider the review recommendations and make a final decision regarding the proposals to be submitted.
3. Feedback from the review process will be given to the five finalists to help with preparation of the final version of the proposal to be submitted to DoD.
4. Date TBA, in late October - An original and nine copies (paper) of each proposal must be received by the State Committee to be forwarded to DoD.

Details About the August 17 Proposal Submission to the State Committee

1. Proposals are to be sent electronically as e-mail attachments and as MSWord documents.  The e-mail address is: pmorris@utsi.edu.  In addition, one hard copy of the proposal should be sent by surface mail, postmarked no later than August 17.  The address for the hard copy is included above in this notice.
2. Proposals are to be sent as one single document file, exactly in the format required by DoD.  The budget and cover page should be included.  No additional files are to be sent.  Include the last name of the PI in the file name.
3. Proposals must arrive at UTSI by 12:00 Noon CDT on Thursday, August 17, 2006.  This deadline is firm; tearful stories will be listened to with sympathy, but the deadline will be enforced.  A word of advice, don’t wait until the last minute to send the proposal.

State Evaluation Criteria

The following point scoring system will be used for the evaluation and ranking of proposals by the external advisory panel:

1. Scientific Merit based on peer review: 40 points
2. Suitability for DoD Mission and level of contact with agency program officer(s): 30 points
3. Improvement of state infrastructure and relevance to state theme areas: 20 points
4. Reasonableness of budget: 10 points.

Total = 100 points

Other Important Issues

1. Multiple Proposals – This year there will be restrictions on investigators submitting multiple proposals.  First, a given individual may not be listed as a PI or Co-PI on more than one proposal submitted to the state committee.  Second, salary support for a given individual may not be budgeted on more than one proposal.             
2. Matching Money - Last year the State of Tennessee agreed to provide the required 50% match to the DoD funding.  The intention of the State is not clear this year, although it should be clarified sometime in July.  So at this point you should write the proposal with the assumption that the 50% state match will be forthcoming.  PIs will be informed about any decision on this issue.
3. Names of Reviewers - In order to expedite the review process, each PI should provide the names of six possible reviewers.  Reviewers must be from outside the state of Tennessee.  Also, there should be no conflict of interest on the part of the reviewer, so this excludes reviewers such as former Ph.D. or postdoctoral mentors, collaborators, your grandmother, etc.  The information needed about each reviewer will be: name, title, department, institution, phone number, and e-mail address.  This information should be provided when the proposal is submitted on August 17. 
   
   For the State Committee:
   Peter Bridson            
   Arlene Garrison   
   George Garrison   
   David Hercules   
   Gregory Sedrick

To view the archives of TNEPSCoR or Join/Leave the list: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/tnepscor.html

ETSU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Ada Earnest House · P.O. Box 70565 · Johnson City, TN 37614

(423)439-6000 phone · (423)439-6050 fax

research@etsu.edu

Quick Links