Deadline: Wednesday, November 20, 2019
The Center for Excellence in Sensing Technologies and Analytics (CESTA), with support from MnDRIVE, invites proposals for seed research projects aimed at developing the sensing technologies and sensing data analytics tools. The projects will support new collaborative research teams involving faculty from at least two departments. The proposals must clearly show how different disciplines connect through a common challenge or through collaboration components to a common solution, and they must explain why the proposed work has the potential to grow into a larger project that can attract sponsored funding from government, industry, or foundations. Industry participation and financial support in these seed projects is encouraged, but not required.
The proposed projects must involve technologies for sensing and/or analytics of sensor data for applications across science, engineering, health and medicine, and industry. While all proposals in any area within this scope will be considered, CESTA particularly encourages proposals that address one or more of the following priority research areas:
- Technologies for arrays of miniature sensors
- Reduction of power-per-bit consumption in sensors
- Communication with distributed sensor arrays
- Deployment of large distributed sensor arrays
- Development of analytic tools for sensing arrays
The proposing faculty are expected to participate as (and be listed as) members of CESTA at the time of the proposal submission. While all proposals will be considered, cost-sharing by the proposing team at the level of 25% or higher is strongly encouraged. Collaborations with industry partners as well as industry contributions to the project are also encouraged but not required. The shared contributions (such as industry contributions or contributions from other existing funds) should be explicitly identified in the proposal. Use of funds for equipment, and/or in-kind equipment contributions, are not encouraged but may be considered.
Budget funds may not be used to support faculty salary. CESTA encourages proposers to consider supporting shared positions (postdoctoral researchers or graduate students) who can advance the proposed project while strengthening connections between the faculty proposers, but budgets will be evaluated based on the provided proposal and justification. The maximum award amount is expected to be $65,000, and the projects are expected to last one year starting on February 1, 2020.
The proposal should be limited to 2 pages and detail the following information:
- Innovativeness of the proposed work.
- Scope of proposed research within the framework of CESTA.
- Specific tasks and milestones.
- Explicit description of the shared contributions by the proposing team and/or industrial partners.
- Description of prospects for future growth of the project and for potential sponsored funding from government, foundations, or industry.
In addition to the 2-page proposal, the following is required:
- 1 page of references
- 1-2 page CV(s) of the key personnel (NSF-style biosketches are acceptable)
- 1-page commitment letter from the industrial partner specifying their contributions (if applicable)
- Budget and justification
- A list of current and pending support including internal funding
The successful recipients of these grants will be required to submit a final report and to provide acknowledgment to the supporting donor (MnDRIVE and the potential industrial partner) in any subsequent publication or program publicity that may result from the project. Please submit the above information as a single PDF file (file size <10MB) via email to Vuk Mandic: [email protected].