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Division of Research - Wayne State University

Office of the Vice President for Research

Announces New 

Grant Leap Funding Program

The WSU Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to announce Grant Leap. This new internal award program has replaced the now-retired Bridge II Mid-Career Scholar Award program.

Grant Leap supports research programs for tenured associate professors at a mid-career stage who may experience interruption of extramural research funding as they continue their career path. At this career stage, investigators may be ineligible for funding programs tailored for younger researchers and may have depleted institutional funds committed to their recruitment. Simultaneously, they may have competing demands on their time as they become more involved in our educational and service mission as academic scholars. While there are several current internal support programs for sustaining and stimulating research projects (e.g., Grant Advance, Faculty Competition for Postdoctoral Fellows), OVPR recognizes there may be additional need for support to sustain selected ongoing research programs.

Award Details

Up to $100,000 will be provided to each selected applicant with a 50% cost-share requirement from the PI's school or college. Evidence of availability and commitment of cost-share funds must be provided at the time of application. Funds cannot be used for salary or travel.

Faculty are only eligible to receive one Grant Leap (or Bridge II) award during their tenure at WSU. Unfunded applicants are encouraged to revise their proposal and reapply.

Proposals for this funding program may be submitted at anytime.

Eligibility

  • Tenured associate professors in all schools and colleges are eligible.
  • Applicant cannot have previously received a Bridge II or Grant Leap award.
  • Success as a PI on two extramurally funded grants, not including extramural funds strictly for salary replacement.
  • Applicant was not successful with a competitive submission, resubmission, or renewal of an extramural grant intended to support an ongoing research program, i.e., the Grant Leap funds can only be used to sustain current research until extramural funding can be secured and cannot be used to begin a new line of inquiry.
  • Current grant funding support will expire within 6 months.
  • Limited sources of support are available through F&A accounts (i.e., PI, school/college/department) or endowments.

Application Requirements

  • CV or biosketch (NSF or NIH format).
  • List of extramural funding awards in the last 5 years (any role).
  • List of scholarly writing (papers, manuscripts, chapters, etc.) in the last 5 years.
  • A list of all support awarded to the applicant through competitive internal funding opportunities at WSU.
  • If available, complete review documents of grants submitted for external funding but not funded, including priority scores, reviewers' comments, and information on the number of revised applications submitted. As policy, some sponsors do not provide written reviews; in this case, please provide written confirmation of this policy.
  • Project proposal (5 pages). See the competition details linked below for more information on proposal requirements.
  • Proposed budget and justification (use provided template).
  • Letters of support from your department chair and from the dean of your the school or college.

Review Criteria

Application reviews are coordinated through OVPR. Selection of awardees will be based on:

  • Record of scholarly research productivity, including mentoring of graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows, successful collaborative projects, primary peer-reviewed publications.
  • Record of grant submission and funding history as principal investigator and co-investigator over the previous 5 years.
  • Strength of research plan and research program in the applicant laboratory.
  • Departmental/center and school/college support.
  • Interdisciplinary nature of the proposal and the potential for broader impacts.
  • Alignment of research proposals with thematically based strategic focus areas for the university.
  • Potential for success with program renewal.

Additional Considerations

The Vice President for Research and the Assistant Vice President for Research Development will finalize the awards after receiving feedback from an ad hoc review committee. Award recipients may not reapply. It is anticipated that individuals receiving this award may have pending grant submissions. If any pending grant(s) are funded, then unspent Grant Leap funds will be returned to OVPR to support researchers.

Recipients of this award will meet quarterly with their department chair and the AVP for Research Development (or their designees) to provide a progress update. Recipients of this award are expected to submit a grant within ideally 1 year (but up to 18 months) of receiving a Grant Leap award. This funding mechanism program will be operational for two years, after which OVPR will assess progress and make a decision regarding continuation of support.

Grant Leap awards will be competitive, and all applications may not be funded.

To submit a proposal, visit the Infoready portal HERE.

Please note that the OVPR Research Development team is available for consultation on proposal development at any time. If you have questions about this funding program, contact rifs@wayne.edu or if you would like to submit a request for additional RD support click HERE. If you have questions about transfer of funds for any of our programs, contact Tanisha Hodges at ft2195@wayne.edu or 313-577-2824.