EPIC Request for Applications

Timeline

  • Request for Applications published February 9, 2022.
  • Applications are due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
  • Decisions will be announced mid-April 2022.
  • Selected groups shall begin work by the end of spring semester 2022.
  • Awarded funds will be available May 1, 2022, and remain available through the end of the team’s proposed project period.
  • Written products will generally be due by December 31, 2022. Exceptions may be requested for products responsive to external deadlines; 12- or 18-month timelines are encouraged for large proposals.

Eligiblity information

  • Any IUB or IUPUI faculty member is eligible to serve as PI for an EPIC working group.
  • Working groups may involve any type of IU-affiliate – faculty, postdocs, research scientists and scholars, undergraduate and graduate students, and staff – as well as collaborators from other academic institutions or community organizations.

Award information

  • Type of award: cooperative agreement
  • Anticipated funding for the 2022 program: $20,000
  • Anticipated number of awards: 3-5 working groups

Selection process and criteria

The number of EPIC teams and size of budget allocations is subject to availability of funds and staff time, and the number and quality of applications received. Applications will be reviewed and selected by ERI leadership.

Excellent applications will include one or more of these features:

  • Product targets a specific opportunity and/or funder.
  • Product has the potential to bring external grant or philanthropic funding to ERI.
  • Product makes the working group more able to compete for external funding.
  • Product elevates IU’s stature as a thought-leader.
  • Working group involves new collaborative relationship(s).
  • Working group involves at least three people and more than one discipline/school/campus.
  • Product can serve as a resource that enables further research, collaboration, or funding.

Funding restrictions and requirements

Proposals that are currently under consideration by other federal agencies or other funding entities or that are closely related to any proposals under consideration elsewhere may still be eligible for funding under EPIC but will require justification (see content item 8 below). Please consult with ERI’s Assistant Director for Research Advancement before preparing your application.

ERI staff support will be available at no charge, by negotiated arrangement. Awarded budget for non-ERI personnel or other expenditures will be available during the project period through an ERI-managed account.
Requests for support should be driven by working group goals, timeline, and scope of work, but applications requesting more than $5,000 and/or more than an average of 5 hours per week of ERI staff support over the project period are less likely to be selected. Requests for support might include, but are not limited to:

  • ERI staff support for project management, proposal development, developmental editing, copyediting, scheduling and zoom/room reservations, file management.
  • Funding for a student research assistant (hourly or as a stipend supplement), costs to convene group retreat/meetings such as space/facility fee, hospitality, mileage, professional facilitation, faculty summer salary.

PIs may request with justification one 6-month extension to the EPIC working group’s product due date; budget not spent by the project end date will be reallocated by ERI for other uses.

In addition to sharing a copy of the final product by the end of the project period, each EPIC working group will be asked to provide a ~1-page summary suitable for including on ERI’s web page about the program.

Application content guidance

Applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, as a single PDF attachment emailed to eri@iu.edu with “EPIC application” in the subject line.

Applications should use single-spaced text, at least 11-point font, and at least ½” margins.

A complete application PDF includes:

  1. Project title
  2. Executive summary (<300 words). Summary of the proposed product, intended audience, expected outcome, and relevance to ERI.
  3. Working group membership (<1 page). Starting with the working group leader (i.e., PI), list the names and affiliations of confirmed participants, including any external partners, with a summary of their roles and responsibilities. Prospective participants not yet recruited may be listed by name and/or role/expertise and should be denoted clearly.
  4. Project narrative (1-2 pages) Format is flexible, but content must include:
    1. Proposed product. A description of the topic and format of the written product to be developed, relevance to ERI’s mission, and an explanation of the intended funder/non-IU audience as well as potential downstream funders.
    2. Work plan. An explanation of how the working group plans to work together (e.g., full-day facilitated workshop, recurring lunch-hour sessions; virtual or in-person, where, etc.), with a timeline that includes specific intermediate milestones. Objectives conducive to marking progress are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
  5. Requested support (follow templates; add rows as necessary – a Word file with tables to cut and paste into your own application file is available for download.)
  6. Explanation of requested support (1-2 pages). Provide effort and/or costing information to justify each requested line item, ensuring that each item is clearly connected to a specific working group activity or objective described in the project narrative.
  7. Biosketch(es) (1-2 pages each). A biographical sketch of the PI is required; biosketches for other key personnel are optional.
  8. Explanation of duplicate submissions (if applicable; <1 page). If this proposal has been submitted to another federal agency or funding entity or is closely related to another proposal under consideration elsewhere, please provide a justification for submission to EPIC and how you plan to differentiate the work plans if both proposals are recommended for funding.

Program contact

Questions about this program and the application process can be submitted to Eva Allen, ERI Assistant Director for Research Advancement.

Although not required, teams are encouraged to discuss their working group plans with ERI’s Assistant Director for Research Advancement to ensure the proposed product aligns with ERI’s mission and the goals of EPIC, and that necessary ERI staff support is in place to ensure the working group’s success.