WHOI Funding Opportunities - WHOI Arctic Research Initiative

Deadline for Proposal Submission: April 11, 2008
Award Start Date: May 15, 2008
Award Duration: Two years
Amount Available: Approximately $1,300,000
Maximum Award Level: $500,000

We are soliciting proposals for the second year of the Arctic Research Initiative. Members of the Scientific and Senior Technical Staff are invited to submit research proposals which are appropriate for study of the Arctic region. We are particularly interested in Arctic-related research and technology development that address the following key questions:

One goal of the Arctic Research Initiative is to build multi-investigator, interdisciplinary research programs. Thus in addition to proposals from individual investigators, we also encourage PIs to develop collaborations with new or established research programs to the extent possible and practical. One way to accomplish this is to build on the research already funded by this initiative. The first round of awards from the Arctic Research Initiative can be viewed at:

WHOI Arctic Research Initiative Projects

Purpose and Award Criteria
The Arctic Research Initiative will support individual and collaborative research projects. The awards can be used for salary support for Principal Investigators, the development or purchase of equipment, support for sea-going activities (including the cost of ship time), or any other relevant
tasks associated with focused research based in the Arctic region. Awards may be used to provide initial funding for the research of early-career scientists, to support established scientists to explore new directions of research, or review and synthesize research relevant to the initiative focus. We encourage submissions that enhance existing programs, requests for support to initiate new individual projects, and multi-investigator proposals to establish interdisciplinary collaborations.

The awards may be used for “matching funds” linked to other requests for funding through government agencies and other sources of public and private support. However, in order to qualify for the matching funds, the Principal Investigators should identify a specific portion of the larger project that can be accomplished using the WHOI funds even if the larger request for funding is declined. Successful funding in this program will not depend on success at other funding agencies.

Awards will be based on the quality of the proposed research project and its relevance to the WHOI Arctic Research Initiative. One of the goals of this program, and also a major institutional objective, is to build larger, more sustained research initiatives that cut across Ocean Institute and Department lines. The Arctic Research Initiative will provide $10,000,000 over the course of five years to obtain this goal. Thus proposal evaluation will be based in part on the ability to build larger, integrated research programs that will clearly highlight WHOI presence and impact in Arctic research activities.

Review Process:

An ad-hoc committee of Scientific and Senior Technical Staff will review the proposals. The ad hoc committee will be composed of individuals with appropriate expertise, but will not include individuals with proposals in the competition or individuals with other WHOI conflicts of interest. The committee will rate the proposals on the basis of the quality and relevance of the proposed research, with a larger goal of building an integrated, effective and sustained Arctic research program. The ad hoc committee will make recommendations for funding to Bill Curry, who will then make recommendations to the Institute Oversight Committee for final approval. (The Institute Oversight Committee consists of the Department Chairs, Institute Directors, and the VPs for Research, Academic Affairs and External Relations.)

Proposals which are relevant to Ocean Institute research and activities will be jointly considered and, in some cases, may be jointly supported by this initiative and one or more of the Ocean Institutes. The review process will be coordinated with existing Ocean Institute research objectives in the Arctic.

Proposal Submission:
The deadline for submission of the proposals is Friday, April 11, 2008. Address field on routing form (green sheet) should indicate that proposal is to be submitted to Dr. William Curry, MS23, WHOI Arctic Research Initiative. A pdf version of the entire package, including green sheet, should be emailed to Andrew Daly, adaly@whoi.edu by the deadline. Original should be mailed directly to Sandra Botelho-Sherlock, MS39, in Grants and Contract Services. GCS will distribute required copies only (vertebrates, DNA, classified data, etc.) as appropriate. Department(s) should retain desired copies for their files.

Points of Contact:
Questions about this initiative and those of a technical nature should be directed to Bill Curry at ext. 2591 or by email (wcurry@whoi.edu). Questions about the submission process may be directed to Andrew Daly by phone at ext. 2852 and by email (adaly@whoi.edu).

Proposal Guidelines

All proposals must be routed through your department and signed by your Department Chair or Center Director. The proposal should be submitted in pdf format to Andrew Daly (adaly@whoi.edu) by the stated deadline and include the following (in this order):

Final Report
A brief report is required at the end of the award period. This report will be used to keep the donors of the funds that support the Arctic initiative informed of the awards and to express our gratitude by sharing the results of the research. The donors, while not necessarily trained in your field, are knowledgeable about science in general, and curious about what we do. We wish to do everything we can to keep them fully informed of our progress. PIs will be encouraged to work with the Communications group to prepare popular accounts of their Arctic research.