TRIADS Seed Grant Program Full Proposals (Invitation Only)

Program Goals

The mission of TRIADS is to support impactful research that leverages the quantitative tools of the computer age to understand important societal problems.

The TRIADS Seed Grant Program aims to create and support focused transdisciplinary teams pursuing research in this domain, helping them to generate the preliminary findings needed to support their successful competition for external funding.

The goal of this initiative is that these seed grants will bring together researchers across Arts & Sciences and beyond to quickly advance existing research teams, develop projects in new transdisciplinary fields of inquiry, build communities of potential collaborators around shared questions, methods, and data, and position teams for successful applications for external funding.

Full Proposal (Invitation Only) Deadline: March 3, 2023 by 5 p.m. (CST)

Eligibility

At least one PI on the team must be a full-time faculty member from Arts & Sciences. Projects that involve scholars from multiple fields are strongly encouraged.

Review Process

All applications will be reviewed internally by a committee comprised of TRIADS leadership, members of the TRIADS Advisory Committee, and the Vice Dean of Research using the Evaluation Criteria outlined below.

As reviewers will be from different disciplines, please define all acronyms in the proposal and keep it understandable to non-domain experts.

The final funding decision will be communicated to the corresponding PI by March 31, 2023.  Feedback on the application will be provided.

Awards

TRIADS will fund small ($2,000-$10,000), medium ($10,000-40,000), and large proposals (greater than $40,000). The maximum award will be $100,000 in direct costs for a one-year period. 

Please keep in mind that TRIADS has a limited (total) amount of funding to allocate. We are excited to fund ambitious research programs, but we aim to spend our budget effectively. Proposals with stronger justifications for spending will be preferred (see the Evaluation Criteria below). 

In addition, the seed grant program is designed to support early-stage research that can be leveraged for successfully pursuing larger-scale external funding opportunities. Seed grants are not intended to fully fund research initiatives.  Think in terms of “proof of concept” rather than “completed research project.” Once that is done, we will help you pursue the larger external grants you need to complete the project.

Allowable costs include (but are not limited to) research materials, laboratory equipment, commercially purchased data, compensation for graduate students and postdocs, fringe benefits, compensation for research participants, collaborative meetings or other convening activities, research assistants, travel for data collection or research, and required software.

Funds for faculty compensation, buying out teaching, and conference travel are not allowable under this program. 

No overhead can be charged to the seed grant.

It is the responsibility of the corresponding PI to disburse the funds to partners outside of the Washington University in St. Louis. Faculty leaving Washington University will lose seed grant funding at the time of their departure.

Additional Resources

Successful seed grant proposals will also receive:

1. Support from the TRIADS software engineering team
2. Access to our new collaborative space located on the 4th floor of Jolley Hall
3. Support from our Research Development Associate to identify external funding opportunities and prepare successful applications
4. Support in accessing the RIS computing cluster and data storage facilities
5. Server support for web applications, databases, or other online content
6. Publication costs for any resulting publications
7. Staff support for organizing conferences, summits, and other events.

These services will be provided at no cost to the research teams, and should not be included in the budget.

Research teams anticipating significant need for data infrastructure, computing resources, and/or software development should set up a consultation with the TRIADS development team in advance of submission to assess what outputs can be provided through these services (at no cost) rather than outside vendors. Budgets should only include requests for development support that cannot be supported with existing TRIADS resources.

Schedule a Consultation

Terms of Award

The corresponding PI will be required to submit to the TRIADS committee an annual progress report describing the results of their work, as well as any related publications, grant proposals, and funding. Acceptance of funds implies a firm commitment to provide this progress report to the committee in a timely manner.

All resulting publications should acknowledge TRIADS at the Washington University in St. Louis.

It is expected that the awardee(s) will completely utilize the full amount of funding awarded during the one-year term (12 months) of the award. All unexpended funds at the end of the term will be returned to TRIADS. However, we can provide flexibility in the timing of expenditures for clearly delineated reasons (e.g., paying a postdoc for the complete academic year). No funds should be spent beyond a two-year period (24 months) of the award notification.

Finally, it is a firm commitment of accepting this grant that the research team will submit at least one proposal for external funding within 24 months of accepting the funds.  Please consult our Research Development Associate, Bhavna Hirani, for assistance in identifying potential funding programs.

Evaluation Criteria

The review committee will use the following criteria to evaluate and select proposals. Applications will be scored by reviewers for each of the criteria on a scale of 1-5 (1 = lowest and 5 = highest). The sum of scores from reviewers will be used in final selection of the proposals.

1. Clearly articulated research goals and planned deliverables
   
   What outputs will be produced by the research and on what timeline?  Outputs can include infrastructure (software, research protocols), written products (pre-prints, conference papers, white papers), datasets, and more.

2. Potential for future external funding
   
   What external funding programs or agencies would be interested in the output of the seed grant?  Will the project lead to the creation of a compelling proposal for external funding? Concrete targets for specific external funding (calls, programs, foundations, etc.) are preferred.  The seed grant should leave enough undone to justify the need for significant external funding.

3. Relevance to the TRIADS mission
   
   Does the proposal fall within the scope of TRIADS’ mission? The TRIADS mission is to “support transdisciplinary research programs that harness advanced computational tools and rich datasets in the service of better understanding our world and addressing urgent social issues.” Research projects using advanced tools to study emerging societal problems (e.g., tackling digital health misinformation) are clearly within scope for the TRIADS missions, while projects with no direct society-facing aspects (e.g., orbital mechanics) fall outside. In between these extremes, there is a great deal of gray area, and we are open to finding creative ways to be inclusive.
   
   Proposals should explicitly state the degree to which their proposal
   (a) uses or advances modern data science/statistical methodologies, and (b) has the potential to help research to address urgent social issues.

4. Quality of the budget justification
   
   Does the requested budget seem well justified? Does the research team need these resources to successfully execute their project? In other words, do not pad your budget just to reach the $100,000 threshold. Ask for what you need to execute the proposed research.

5. Interdisciplinary nature of the project & collaboration strategy
   
   Does the research team involve faculty from more than one discipline? Is the research topic or methodology interdisciplinary?

6. Novel and creative in concept
   
   Does the research described have the potential to advance one or more fields? Projects in novel areas of inquiry on emerging transdisciplinary areas of inquiry are preferred. Projects taking bigger risks in pursuit of bigger returns are also preferred.

7. Feasibility (in time, budget, and resources)
   
   Does the proposed research seem feasible in the given time frame with the requested budget? The proposal should clearly articulate what personnel or physical resources are needed and where they will come from. For example, if a postdoc is requested, how will that postdoc be recruited and from what field?

8. Potential impact of project beyond the lifetime of award in one or more field(s)
   
   Does the proposed research seem like it could have a significant impact on one more field?  This impact can be in terms of substantive findings, publications, datasets, software, methodological innovation, and more. Remember the reviewers may not be from your field, so provide context about how your proposed research plan will advance the state of knowledge in one or more specific field.

9. Promoting diversity in the field of data science for women and under-represented minorities
   
   Does the proposal include women and under-represented minorities?  Both senior personnel and trainees (students and postdocs) will be considered. If students or postdocs are requested in the budget, the proposal should note any steps that will be taken to encourage applications from women and underrepresented groups.

Instructions for Preparation of Proposal

The proposal should be 3.5 pages long, not including the cover page or figures/tables. Please use Times New Roman, 11-point font, single-spaced and 1-inch page margins. All pages, except the cover page should be numbered consecutively throughout the application. The proposal must be sent as a single PDF document to triads@wustl.edu.

Proposal must include the following:

1. Cover page (include the project title, and name, title, department, and e-mail address of each of the PI(s) and Co-I(s); not included in the page limit)
2. Project summary
3. Research plan
   1. Specific objectives
   2. Relevance to the TRIADS mission
   3. Approach and workplan
   4. Outcomes, including planned external funding proposals
   5. Metrics for evaluating success
   6. Potential to contribute to the diversity of the data science field

Other required documents (not included in the page limit):

1. Budget (use this template).  PI(s) should contact their home department grant administrators for support in preparation of proposal. Angela Schultz, grants and accounts specialist at the Weidenbaum Center, is happy to provide additional administrative grant support as needed.
2. Budget justification (include the role/responsibilities/contributions of each PI)
3. Timeline (include milestones) for completing the scope of the work
4. Current CV of each PI and Co-I
5. Works Cited/References
6. List of targeted grants (for each grant include funding agency, anticipated funding request, deadline, link to RFP).  Please consult with Bhavna Hirani in advance of submission for help in identifying relevant programs.
7. A 200-word mentoring and recruitment plan for postdoc (if requested).  This should include indications for where the postdoc will be physically located on campus.
8. A 200-word summary of any staff support (e.g., conference planning/organizing, database management, software development, payroll support, subject recruitment, etc.) that is part of the request but not included in the budget.

At least one PI must be in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.  One PI, termed the corresponding PI, should be designated as having the primary responsibility for annual reporting and communicating with TRIADS. The corresponding PI must be a faculty member at Washington University.

 PI(s) designated by the applicant should have the appropriate level of authority and responsibility to direct the project or program to be supported by the award. The application may designate multiple individuals as PIs who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the project, intellectually and logistically.

Co-investigator(s) (Co-I(s)) does not have overall responsibility or spending authority as the PI.  However, they are expected to contribute significantly to the project.

Reporting Requirements

A final report providing the outcomes of the funded activities will be required. Reports should include the following information:

• Results and achievements of the initiative(s) as defined by the metrics and expected outcomes stated in the proposal
• A posted data repository (if collected and permissible to share)
• A final financial summary including all income and expenses related to the project
• A copy of external grant white paper/proposal(s) submitted (if available)
• A copy of publication(s) or working papers/preprints (if available)

Additional Requests

A reception will be held for all seed grant recipients on (or around) April 20.

Seed grant recipients are also asked to consider attending additional TRIADS events (e.g., speaker series, relevant mini-conferences, annual receptions) to help build the data science community on the Danforth campus.