Due: January 5, 2007 (Deadline extended)

Motivated by a desire to stimulate interdisciplinary interactions between faculty, fellows, and students at UT Arlington and UT Southwestern, the two institutions are together establishing a program to provide seed funds for high impact, interdisciplinary collaborative research projects. The goal is to stimulate locally more research at the interfaces between biology and biomedical sciences on the one hand and chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, and mathematics on the other. The research that will be funded must meet three criteria. First, it should possess the capacity to have great influence on the relevant science and/or practice of medicine. Second, it should determine the feasibility of its thesis, so that if proven feasible, external funding for additional work should be obtainable from conventional sources. Third, it must be truly collaborative and involve faculty and hopefully also fellows and/or students at both UT Southwestern and UT Arlington.

Awards can be up to $100,000 (total) for one year. Applications must be received by the deadline of January 1, 2007, and will be quickly reviewed following that date by a committee of faculty members from both institutions.

Co-Principal Investigators (one from each institution) must be full-time faculty members. Applications, with the written endorsement of the Principal Investigator's Chair/Center Director, should be submitted in duplicate to:

Office of the Dean
UT Southwestern Medical School
B11
5323 Harry Hines Blvd
Dallas, TX 75390-9003
(214) 648-2509

Office of the Vice President for Research
The University of Texas at Arlington
Dr. Ronald Elsenbaumer
348 Davis Hall, Box 19162
Arlington TX 76019
(817) 272-1021
Electronic copy can be sent to (in place of a CD - UTA only) to: grantadministrator@uta.edu

Each of these two offices should receive a paper copy of the proposal as well as a copy on a CD.

Applications should indicate or include:

1. A statement of the problem to be addressed.
2. Why the research, if successful, would have great influence on the relevant area of science and/or the practice of medicine and what types of follow-on projects and extramural support might result from successful completion of the proposed research.
3. A research plan that includes explanation of how the proposed work either would lead to a determination that the research thesis is not correct, or would demonstrate its feasibility so that it could attract conventional funding for additional development. The essential nature of the interdisciplinary collaboration should also be highlighted.
4. A budget with brief justification. The budget should not include faculty salaries. The budget should be divided into UT Southwestern and UT Arlington components, since funding will be handled locally at each institution.
5. Assurance by the PI that the funded studies would be a high priority for his or her laboratory and would be pursued aggressively, and that funds will only be used for the proposed studies.

Although no specific length is required for the application, brevity is preferred, and it is expected that applications will be just a relatively few pages.

At the end of the project, the investigator will provide a brief (one page) progress report indicating the results obtained, a determination of whether the results supported or refuted the hypothesis, and any plans or progress in obtaining outside funding. If the thesis proves correct and the investigator seeks outside funding, the investigator will provide follow-up information regarding success in obtaining such outside funding and the ongoing results of any funded work.

We anticipate that announcements of additional funding opportunities under this program will be made at later dates.