ACES

ADVANCE OPPORTUNITY GRANTS

Through the generosity and commitment of President Barbara R. Snyder, ACES+, the institutionalized components of the NSF-ADVANCE Award, is now offering Advance Opportunity Grants.

Advance Opportunity Grants provide small amounts of supplemental support of current or proposed projects and activities where funding is difficult to obtain through other sources.

Examples of funding support include:

• Seed funding for unusual research opportunities or training
• Grants to support writing of books
• Travel grants to explore new techniques or attend advanced training courses
• Child care to attend a professional meeting or conduct research at another institution

All faculty members are eligible.

The Opportunity Grant Faculty Oversight Committee selects the recipients. Preference will be given to applicants who have not previously received an Opportunity Grant. Proposals should include a single page statement of objectives, brief statement of project or activity and supporting information if any. A single page budget with justification and current CV (2-4 Page NSF/NIH style biographical sketch).

Proposals are to be written for a general audience and should be submitted to: Sharon Burke via e-mail at sharon.burke@case.edu by December 15, 2009.

ADVANCE OPPORTUNITY GRANTS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. What is the common award amount?
A. These grants are typically small, generally under $5,000. We hope to fund several faculty members per year.

 

Q. When will funds be available?
A. Proposals will be reviewed in January and awarded by February. Funds will normally be available for 1 year.

 

Q. My grant proposal for an ongoing project was not funded. I plan to submit a revised application. Can I apply for an Opportunity Grant to keep the project going in the interim?
A. These grants are not real bridging funds for grants to keep a project going, though they can be used to help get additional results to strengthen a resubmission. In that case, the applicant must submit the reviews from the original submission along with the proposal.

 

Q. What costs will an Opportunity Grant NOT fund?
A. Faculty salary, student tuition, and overhead are not supported by this internal grant.

 

Q. I want to apply for an Opportunity Grant to write a book. Do I need to include additional information besides the project description and budget justification?
A. You should include a publication plan. If it is a paper book, you should include a book contract and explain why you need ACES funds in addition to an advance you may have received. If you do not have a publisher yet, then you should outline your plan to get a publisher. If it is an electronic book, you should outline a dissemination plan.

 

Q. As a new faculty member, can I apply for an Opportunity Grant to stretch my start-up funds?
A. No, though you may apply for funding for unusual costs that start-up funds do not cover. Examples are childcare, partial support for a postdoc to help with teaching duties after the birth of a child, etc.

 

Q. Can I apply for an Opportunity Grant to attend a professional meeting?
A. Yes, if there is no other source of funds. Before submitting a proposal for an Opportunity Grant, you should inquire about funding from your department and school/college and the meeting organizers.

 

Q. Does current CV mean a regular CV like the one that I submit with my faculty activity report?
A. No. In the interest of saving trees, a 2–4 page biographical sketch for an NSF or NIH proposal is preferable. However, all current sources and amounts of funding should be listed, including start-up funds and amounts available for your lab from multi-investigator grants.

 

Q. How will I be notified about the status my proposal?
A. If your proposal is awarded you will receive a Letter of Award, followed by a Letter of Agreement. After you have submitted your signed Letter of Agreement, you will receive a Notice of Award with an explanation of how to access the funds.

 

Testimonials

“...the $20,000 has allowed me to pay a graduate student half a salary, so I could keep the work in the lab going and spend time with my newborn without having to take a break professionally. It has substantially contributed to my ability to publish 2 articles in a timely manner, and 3 others that are in review. I have presented these papers at conferences, which have made possible broader professional exposure”.

“The Opportunity grant had a significant impact. It allowed us to go into a new direction: ...which I would not have been able to do otherwise, ...our research now has broader meaning because of the grant. Two papers have resulted from this research so far, but several more are anticipated.”

“The ACES grant had a big impact on my research because I could hire part time students to help me with my data gathering. This way I was able to involve 12 research sites in my study, making it very robust once it is completed.”

“...the grant made possible an invitation of a distinguished speaker. She came to give a talk at our campus, and we are now collaborating on a paper. Subsequently, I also developed a paper with a colleague in my own department.”

“I used [it] to go to a conference... in Berlin, where I presented a paper and met other faculty who ...followed my research ... I was so happy to find I am not working in a vacuum, and to see that other researchers valued my work. I developed two potential collaborations ... and ...my most recent paper has been accepted for publication in a British journal.”

“The ACES grant ...has allowed me to help organize and attend an important small conference in my field. Because of this conference, I am now an associate editor on a monograph. With this came increased visibility, and when I came up for my tenure review, my taking leadership to organize that conference was looked upon very favorably.”

“The ACES grant support was coming just at a critical moment because funding from NIH was under review and it ... allowed me to continue collecting data, which otherwise would not have been possible. I will have a paper to publish within a few weeks because of it.”

ADVANCE OPPORTUNITY GRANT AWARDS - 2008/2009

 

Eileen Anderson-Fye, Ed.D., Department of Anthropology

Catherine Stein, Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Leila W. Jackson, Ph.D., MPH, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Jiayang Sun, Ph.D., Department of Statistics

Shanna Beth McGee, Department of Theatre and Dance

Kelly M. McMann, Ph.D., Department of Political Science

Debra E. Wood, Ph.D., Department of Biology

Xiong "Bill" Yu, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, Department of Civil Engineering

 

 

 

 

 

Year 5 Grant Awards

Kristian Baker – Center for RNA
Susan Brady-Kalnay – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Susan Case – Organizational Behavior
Susan Hinze – Sociology
Bonnie Lawrence – Psychology
Catherine Patterson – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
Noa Noy - Pharmacology
Meral Oszoyoglu - Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Clare Rimnac - Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Year 4 Grant Awards

Cynthia Beall – Anthropology
Melissa Knothe-Tate – Biomedical Engineering
Anna-Liisa Nieminen – Anatomy
Ica Manas Zloczower – Macromolecular Science & Engineering
M. Cather Simpson – Chemistry
Ramani Pilla – Statistics
Anastasia Dimitropoulos - Psychology
Diana Bergeron – Organizational Behavior
Heather Royer – Economics
Charlotte Ikels – Anthropology
Kristian Baker – Center for RNA
Susan Brady-Kalnay – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Susan Case – Organizational Behavior
Susan Hinze – Sociology
Bonnie Lawrence – Psychology
Noa Noy – Pharmacology
Catherine Patterson – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology

Year 3 Grant Awards

Anne Marie Broome – Biomedical Engineering
Daniella Calvetti – Mathematics
Jennifer Liang – Biology
Ramani Pilla – Statistics
Deborah O’Neil – Organizational Behavior
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
M. Cather Simpson – Chemistry
Caroline Sussman – Physiology & Biophysics
Elisabeth Werner – Mathematics
Charlotte Ikels – Anthropology
Janet McGrath – Anthropology
Emilia McGucken – Sociology

Year 2 Grant Awards

Alexis Abramson - Mechical & Aerospace Engineering
Cynthia Beall - Anthropology
Anne Marie Broome - Physiology & Biophysics
Cheri Deng - Biomedical Engineering
Moren Levesque - Marketing & Policy Studies
Lisa Maillart - Operations
Heidi Martin - Chemical Engineering
Emilia McGucken - Sociology
Monica Montano - Pharmacology
Anna-Liisa Nieminen - Anatomy
Deborah O'Neil - Organizational Behavior
Julie Rennecker - Information Systems
Claire Rimnac - Mechnical & Aerospace Engineering
Helen Salz - Genetics
Beverly Saylor - Geological Sciences
M. Cather Simpson - Chemistry
Amy Wilson-Delfosse - Pharmacology

Year 1 Grant Awards

Kathleen Kash – Physics
Hue Lee Kaung – Anatomy
Heather Morrison – Astronomy
Elizabeth Short – Psychology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
Karen Skubal – Civil Engineering
Caroline Sussman – Physiology &anp; Biophysics
Lee Ann Thompson – Psychology
Elisabeth Werner – Mathematics