Building the foundation for strong proposals
Developing collaborative, user-driven proposals requires coordination and significant investment in time and resources. Capacity building funding is intended to help ease that resource burden by providing up to $10,000 to enhance a reserve’s capacity to develop competitive proposals for Science Collaborative requests for proposals.
The Science Collaborative has set aside enough funding for each reserve to receive capacity building funds once between 2020 and 2023. Applications will be reviewed internally to ensure plans align with program guidelines, but this is not a competitive, peer review process.
Download the Application Guidance: 2023 Capacity Building Funding Guidance
Timeline
The final deadline to submit an application is April 3, 2023. Applications will be reviewed in April, and funding decisions made in May.
Capacity building activities should occur over a 12-month period.
Supporting a Diversity of Needs
In addition to supporting personnel time, training or needs assessments, these funds may also be used to convene partners and support relationship-building activities. For example, capacity building funds can be used to cover travel expenses for NERRS staff or potential collaborators as long as applicants explain how the capacity building activities will support the development of a collaborative science proposal. Capacity Building funds cannot be used for data collection except for the purposes of a needs assessment. See the capacity building guidance for more details.
Collaborating with Other Reserves
Reserves may opt to pool capacity building resources with other reserves such that the total award amount exceeds $10,000. They may also use portions of their allocation for multiple efforts, but the total for each reserve may not exceed $10,000.
Accessing Funds
Depending on an applicant’s preference, these funds can be dispersed as either a contract or one-time reimbursement after activities are complete. Please note that indirect costs may not be applied to reimbursable funding.
Contact
Questions about this funding opportunity can be directed to:
Email: NERRS-info@umich.edu
Phone: Maeghan Brass (734-763-0727)