IMOD Seed Grant Application

Program Description: 

This call is open to non-funded faculty at the IMOD partnering institutions or by invitation to faculty at non-partnering institutions. IMOD Seed Awards are intended to respond to emerging or transformative areas of research, education, workforce development, broadening participation and knowledge transfer aligned with IMOD’s research mission, and to enable IMOD to continually reach out to, and draw from the ideas of a broader community.

Anticipated Type of Award:

IMOD Seed Grants are intended to be collaborative and must include a PI as well as an additional funded co-PI and/or additional unfunded collaborators. The goals of IMOD Seed Grants are to support multidisciplinary teams active in areas complementary to IMOD’s current research and integrative activities profile and to broaden IMOD participation to encompass more members of the participating institutions. The anticipated funding period is twelve months.

External (Non-IMOD) Institutions

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IMOD recognizes external organizations represent an opportunity to bring new capabilities that enable IMOD to achieve its intellectual and broader impacts goals. In order to keep the external seed proposals manageable, the procedure for submitting external seed proposals is as follows:

1. External seed proposals will be considered by invitation only. Only 1-2 external proposals will be considered per cycle. 

2. Invitations will be extended following a down-selection of nominations of external candidates by the management team. Any IMOD member may nominate an external proposer by completing the Nomination of External (Non-IMOD) Institutions for the IMOD Seed Program online form by May 3 (annually). The form is intentionally kept brief and will ask for the following information: The nominators name and institution, nominee’s name and institution, and a short (<100 word) description of how the new participant will significantly advance IMOD’s ability to achieve both its intellectual merit and broader impacts goals in ways that cannot be done within the existing network of currently funded institutions. 

3. All external Seeds will require NSF approval to modify the IMOD contract. If IMOD is unable to secure NSF approval to add a new institution to the contract in a timely fashion, the Seed proposal may be declined. 

Budget Restrictions

​IMOD Seed Awards are intended to primarily support student and postdoctoral researcher salaries and associated benefits, tuition, as well as research materials and supplies and facilities user fees. The following expenses are not allowed: faculty salaries/benefits; computer or equipment purchases; travel; food and entertainment.

Terms and Conditions:

All selected proposals are subject to terms and conditions, including reporting requirements, that will be detailed in the award notification letter. In particular, these include:

• All publications resulting fully or partially from IMOD Seed funding must appropriately acknowledge the IMOD support. (e.g., “This research was supported by the National Science Foundation through the IMOD STC under Grant No. DMR-2019444.”)
• After completion of the project, a final written report will be required. Seed investigators must also provide brief summaries and an NSF “highlight” slide for inclusion in IMOD annual reports, as requested by the Center Director.
• All purchases and HR appointments will be conducted in the home departments of the Seed investigators.
• All external Seeds will require NSF approval to modify the IMOD contract. If IMOD is unable to secure NSF approval to add a new institution to the contract in a timely fashion, the seed proposal may be declined.