1. Establishing a Team and Building Credibility for Center Grants
Heather Clark, Professor, Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Bioengineering
Office of Research Development
Karen Drew, Director
Logan Schmidt, Sr. Research Development Officer
Jenna Horan, Research Development Administrator

2. Establishing a Team and Building Credibility for Center Grants Workshop Overview
What is a Center?
Discussion with Professor Heather Clark
Exploring Upcoming Center Grant Opportunities
Center Grant Building Blocks

3. What is a Center? A Center… Addresses a Grand Challenge
Enabled by Team, Research Thrusts, & Cores
It includes: Multiple Research Thrusts/Cores
Enabling Cores: Admin, Outreach, Training, Instrumentation
Overcomes barriers to success & progress
It targets key problems limiting progress on this grand challenge
Vision and mission define what the center will change; what it will tackle/resolve/advance
Addresses a Grand Challenge
It has well-defined Stakeholders & a unique approach

4. Our Presenter: Heather Clark
Professor, Chemistry & Chemical Biology and Bioengineering
Institute Director, Systems Bioanalysis and Chemical Imaging (SBCI)
Faculty Fellow, Barnett Institute
DARPA Young Faculty
Research focuses on the development of nanosensors to measure concentrations of ions and small molecules at the cellular level as well as in vivo.

5. Large Center Grant Opportunities
NSF Science and Technology Center (STC)
NSF Industry-University: IUCRC
NSF RAISE/Convergence
NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation
NSF Materials Science: MRSEC
NSF Expeditions in Computing
NSF Convergence Accelerators
NIH Centers of Excellence in Genomic Research (CEGS, RM1)
NIH Bioengineering Research Partnerships
NIH NIBIB Quantum Program U01
NIH Collaborative Program Grant for Multidisciplinary Teams
DOE Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC)
DOE Bioenergy Research Center
Air Force Centers of Excellence
ARL Collaborative Technology & Research Alliances
DHS University Centers of Excellence
NOAA Cooperative Institutes
NSF PIRE

6. Available at northeastern
Available at northeastern.edu/resdev/resources/funding-resources/large-center-grant-opportunities/

7. Preparing for a Center Grant Resources Available for Aspirant Teams
Assessing readiness and team development
TIER 3 Campus-wide Research Initiatives Program
Convening brainstorming & team building sessions
University resource identification & engagement
Environmental scan & competitive intelligence
Project timelines and production plans
Business plan development
TIER 2 Federally Designated Centers / Major Programs Initiative
Identifying additional building blocks and preliminary grants

8. Center Grant Building Blocks
Conference grants (NSF & NIH R13)
NSF Research Coordination Networks
NSF Convergence Prospectus
NIH P20 Exploratory Grants
TIER 2
Collaboration & impact portfolio
e.g. Joint awards, publications, presentations, metrics of citable collaboration
TIER 1 Pilot/seed grants
Coordinated RFI submissions
Leadership & Team
Research Productivity
Translation / Outreach
Infrastructure
Resources that enable research and training
Instrumentation: NSF MRI, NIH S10, DOD DURIP
Training grants:
NSF NRT, IGE
NIH T32s & 34s
NIH R24 Resource Grants
TIER 3
Engaged stakeholders
NSF I/UCRC Planning Grants
Clinical & Translational Science (CTSI)
NIH Bioengineering Research Partnerships
NSF I-Corps
NSF GOALI or INTERN

9. TIER 1: Pilot Projects, Preliminary Data
Seed grants for multidisciplinary teams to develop new and innovative research directions or to secure proof of concept
Up to $50,000
Due January 22nd
15 month grants
Explicit strategy for achieving external funding must be outlined

10. TIER 2: Federally Designated Centers & Major Proposals
Supports interdisciplinary faculty groups pursuing large, multidisciplinary Federal funding opportunities
Up to $75,000
Rolling deadline
Previous items funded under TIER 2 awards:
proposal preparation or grant-writer hire,
graphic design,
red team reviews,
travel for meetings with collaborators or site review visits, etc.
Note that COE has some of these resources in-house.

11. TIER 3: Campus-wide Research Initiatives Program
Supports development of broad, multidisciplinary research initiatives to position NU as a national leader
Up to $150,000
Rolling deadline
Can be multi-year
Requires an environmental scan, business plan, milestones, deliverables

12. NSF: Building to Major Initiative

13. NSF Industry Engagement Grants - Examples
Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Proposal
Interdisciplinary university-industry teams
Must be submitted to existing FOA; can also be supplemental
DCL: Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students (INTERN) Supplemental Funding Opportunity (NSF )
Funding for internship
$55,000 per student per six months

14. NSF Team Building Grants - Examples
Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) Proposal
Lines of research that promise transformational advances
Up to $1,000,000 over 5 years
Research Coordination Networks (NSF )
To foster open communication and to cross disciplinary or international barriers
Up to $500,000 for up to 5 years

15. NIH: Building to Major Initiative

16. NIH Translation Grants - Examples
Tufts CTSI Pilot Studies Program (NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards)
Funds innovative, high-impact projects to build interdisciplinary, multi- institutional teams
$30,000 - $60,000 for 1 year
Annual deadline, LOI due October 15, 2018
NIH Bioengineering Research Partnership
Drives the development and adoption of tools and technologies to address important biomedical problems with teams of interdisciplinary researchers
$500,000+ direct per year
May and September deadlines

17. NIH Team-Building Grants - Examples
R13 Support for Conferences & Scientific Meetings (PA )
Funds conferences related to missions of NIH I/Cs
April, August, & September deadlines
Can include up to 5 years of support
P20 Feasibility Studies to Build Collaborative Partnerships
Planning grants to establish collaborative relationship between institutions
Only available when FOA is released; funding varies
NCI P20: $275,000 in direct costs, up to 4 years of support

18. DOD: Building to Major Initiative

19. Leveraging Existing NU-DOD Resources
Network Science Institute - ARL Collaborative-Technical Alliance (CTA)
CTA partnership between 17 universities, ARL, and industry partners to perform foundational, cross-cutting research for understanding of network science
NU is a General member; Raytheon BBN is lead
NS CTA awarded in 2009, will wind down in 2019
Kostas Research Institute – ARL Northeast
Army Research Lab’s Northeast Regional hub located on-campus
Monthly Technical Seminars – October’s topic, Quantum Computing
Research network being established : on-site ARO personnel, equipment, data

20. Upcoming Workshops Introduction to DOD & DARPA
Thursday, October 25: 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Succeeding with Graduate Training Grants
Friday, November 2: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Writing NIH Specific Aims
Thursday, November 15: 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
See the full workshop schedule and RSVP at: northeastern.edu/resdev/training

21. Additional Resources Research Development FOAs and Limited Submissions
northeastern.edu/resdev/funding-announcement
Large Center Grant Opportunities
northeastern.edu/resdev/resources/funding-resources