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UBC-UCLA Collaborative Research Mobility Awards

This call for proposals, the application portal and budget were updated on 12/19/2019.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities at UCLA and the Office of the Vice-President of Research and Innovation and the Provost & Vice-President Academic at the University of British Columbia (UBC) are partnering to provide pilot funding to catalyze and foster deeper linkages between the two universities through the development of collaborative research opportunities. This pilot fund will support activities to establish or enrich interdisciplinary research between faculty at the two institutions, with preference given to collaborations based in the social sciences, humanities, creative and/or performing arts. Activities funded under this program might include project coordination and grant writing, joint workshops, and research meetings. The expectation is that activities could lead to leveraged funding, joint scholarly/research outputs, and enhanced collaborative training.

Each collaboration team will have one principal investigator (PI) from each campus. 

Deadline

Proposals must be submitted through the UCLA submission portal by 5pm Monday, February 3, 2020

Eligibility

All teams must have two lead PIs, one from UBC and one from UCLA. Eligibility criteria for the lead PI varies by university:  Lead PIs from UBC may be from either Vancouver or Okanagan but must be eligible to hold research grants; lead PIs from UCLA may hold any type of academic appointment (including senate and non-senate faculty, academic administrators, emeriti, research professionals and lecturers) except postdoctoral scholar. Interdisciplinary research is encouraged and priority will be given to teams that involve faculty in the social sciences, humanities, and/or creative and performing arts.

Award Details

The maximum award for each grant is US$15,000/CAD$20,000, with funding being allocated to the campus(es) where the funding is being spent. UCLA has reserved up to US$100,000 to invest in this mechanism.

The funding must be spent within one year of receipt of the award decision. Funds may be used to support travel between UBC and UCLA and events/activities undertaken at UBC and/or UCLA. Direct costs of research, faculty salaries, and overhead are not eligible expenses.

Successful applicants will be required to submit a brief report within 2 months of the end of the 1-year funding term summarizing the work completed, outcomes, and whether the award has led (or will lead) to opportunities including leveraged funding or joint research collaborations.

Proposal Submission Process

Application Portal

All teams will submit proposals through the UCLA submission portal. On the first visit to the portal, plan to create a new user name (affiliated with an email address) and a password.  In planning their workflow, teams should be aware that the application portal allows only one login identity to be affiliated with each application.

Materials to be Submitted

There is an online application form that requests general contact information, information about the collaboration, the amounts being requested from each campus, a project title and 100-word summary.  Teams will also need to upload a 1,000-word proposal and budget.

Proposal Specifications:  The proposal must include:

  • a description of areas of interdisciplinary research activities to be developed or advanced
  • a description of the existing UCLA/UBC team strengths in the proposed research areas
  • a description of team members’ roles in the planned activities, including a specific description of the valued added by team members outside of UBC and UCLA, if applicable
  • a description of how the proposed activities will advance collaborative interdisciplinary research between the two institutions
  • a proposed start date (ideally no later than June 1, 2020)

Budget Specifications:

Using the CRMA UCLA-UBC budget template form, teams must include a description of each proposed expense (travel, facilities, materials, facilitator, etc.) and which campus will pay that particular expense. Teams should exercise due diligence to determine on which campus each expense will be incurred because it is the intention of the organizing offices that no fund transfers will occur between campuses (e.g., UBC faculty should submit travel reimbursements on their own campus rather than seek reimbursement through UCLA).   

Timelines

Proposals must be submitted through the UCLA submission portal by 5pm Monday, February 3, 2020. Successful applicants will be notified in mid-March.

Review Process

An interdisciplinary peer-review panel will review applications and make decisions based on merit and the ability to demonstrate how funding will be used to catalyze future research between the two institutions. Specific assessment criteria include:

  • Ability of the proposed activities to catalyze interdisciplinary research collaborations between the two institutions
  • Excellence of the scholarship of the teams
  • Clarity and feasibility of the work plan
  • Potential for the collaborations to lead to leveraged funding or joint research outputs

Questions?

Please see the FAQs link at left. If your question is not answered there, please contact the appropriate person listed below:

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