Final 1/10/14 California State University Agricultural Research Institute And Guidelines FY 2014-15 Call for Proposals September 2013 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. Program Information......................................................................................................3 A. Overview ............................................................................................................3 B. Organization.......................................................................................................3 C. Research Priorities .............................................................................................4 D. Funding Allocation ............................................................................................5 E. Eligibility ...........................................................................................................5 Proposal General Information ........................................................................................6 A. Online Proposal Submission ..............................................................................6 B. Match .................................................................................................................6 C. Indirect Charges .................................................................................................9 D. Confidentiality ...................................................................................................9 E. Insurance Certification .......................................................................................9 Proposal Preparation ....................................................................................................10 A. Proposal Types .................................................................................................10 B. System Pre-Proposals.......................................................................................11 C. Notices of Intent Pre-Proposal Guidelines .....................................................11 D. Full Proposal Guidelines ..................................................................................12 Timelines......................................................................................................................19 A. Submission and Processing ..............................................................................19 B. Project Director Orientation Meetings .............................................................20 C. Project Start Date .............................................................................................20 D. Match Receipt ..................................................................................................20 E. No-Cost Extensions .........................................................................................20 Proposal Review ..........................................................................................................20 A. Proposal Review Process .................................................................................20 B. Proposal Evaluation Criteria ............................................................................21 Reports .........................................................................................................................22 A. General Information .........................................................................................22 B. Annual Reports ................................................................................................23 C. Additional Annual Reports as a Result of a No-Cost Extension .....................23 D. Final Reports ....................................................................................................23 Allocation Process for Campuses ................................................................................23 A. Dean’s Allocation Request and Certification Letter ........................................23 B. Allocation Spreadsheet ....................................................................................23 C. Allocations .......................................................................................................24 D. Insufficient Match ............................................................................................24 ARI Contacts ................................................................................................................25 Glossary .......................................................................................................................26 Appendices – Dean’ Allocation Request and Certification Letter...............................30 Matching Funds Acquisition Policies and Guidelines .................................................33 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 2 The items in GREEN are Cal Poly-specific modifications to the FY 2014-2015 Call for Proposals. Unless otherwise specified, all terms, conditions, policies and procedures from that document will be followed. I. Program Information A. Overview The Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) exemplifies the California State University System (CSU) working for California through university-industry partnerships. ARI provides a diversified, multi-campus applied research program that annually matches $4 million in State General Funds with at least one-to-one external support for research on high-priority issues facing California agriculture. The ARI engages the collective expertise of the CSU’s four colleges of agriculture at CSU, Fresno; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; and CSU, Chico collaboratively with faculty and research scientists from other CSU and University of California (UC) campuses, the USDA, and other State, Regional and Federal organizations. ARI’s research and technology transfer activities complement the basic research conducted by the nation’s land grant universities and aim to improve the economic viability and sustainability of California agriculture. B. Organization A Board of Governors serves as the policy and funding authority for the ARI. It consists of the four CSU Presidents from member campuses, the UC Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and four industry representatives, one for each member campus. A Deans’ Council, consisting of the four Deans of agriculture from member campuses, oversees the respective campus ARI operations, including annual budgets and matching fund certification, and reviews System proposals prior to Board review. Campus Coordinators are responsible for campus daily administration and research project oversight. A Logistics Group consists of Campus Coordinators and research administrators at both the college and university/auxiliary level who provide day-to-day support for the ARI. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Governors and is responsible for the overall performance of the CSU ARI. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 3 Board of Governors Logistics Group Executive Director Deans’ Council Executive Assistant For more information, please visit: ari.calstate.edu or ari.calpoly.edu C. Research Priorities The ARI’s State funding must be annually matched at least one-to-one with industry and/or other non-CSU State General Funds to support high-impact applied agricultural research. Priority is given to research conducted through university-industry and/or collaborative multi-college/university partnerships that demonstrate the potential to improve the economic efficiency, productivity, profitability, and sustainability of California agriculture and its allied industries. Project results dissemination and technology transfer should lead to increased consumer awareness and confidence in our environmentally sound and science-based food and agricultural systems. The ARI primarily focuses on finding immediate and practical solutions for high-priority challenges in the following broad research categories (see website for details): • Agricultural Business • Biodiversity • Biotechnology • Food Science/Safety • Natural Resources • Production and Cultural Practices • Public Policy • Water and Irrigation Technology Based on State, national, and global challenges driven by environmental and regulatory concerns, new technology, and international competitiveness, California agricultural industry representatives, the ARI Board of Governors and the CSU’s Agricultural ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 4 Advisory Committee recommended that an additional priority be given to projects specifically addressing the following research topics in agriculture: • Climate change, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestering • Food safety and security practices and technologies • Water quality, infrastructure, and conveyance technologies • Energy efficiencies and alternative energy/fuel technologies and production • Environmental infrastructure improvement and restoration • Invasive species monitoring, prevention and eradication • Public health and safety priorities D. Funding Allocation ARI funds are intended to encourage CSU system and individual campus excellence in applied agricultural research. Campus research funds are allocated through member campus colleges of agriculture, while System research funds are allocated to campuses hosting the respective Project Director. Research funding opportunities are not exclusive to the colleges of agriculture and may support faculty and research scientist collaborators from many disciplines. Pending passage of the FY 2014-15 State budget with $4M for the ARI, funds will be allocated as follows: $200K for system administration; $340K for campus administration; $800K for System research projects; and $2.66M for Campus research projects. ARI Administration Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo has been charged by the CSU and the Legislature to provide for ARI central administration and is allocated $200,000 annually for this purpose. Campus Administrative Funding Each of the CSU's four colleges of agriculture is allocated $85,000 annually in support of individual campus administration and coordination activities. Each campus is responsible for providing a Campus Coordinator and for working cooperatively with the ARI Executive Director and the ARI administrative office. System Competitive Research Funding The ARI annually allocates $800,000 in support of a multi-campus shared pool of competitive research funding for research of statewide significance. This funding is restricted to public domain projects. Campus Competitive Research Funding The ARI annually allocates $2.66 million to be dispersed by ARI Administration among the four CSU colleges of agriculture in support of individual intra-campus competitive applied agricultural research. Individual campus funding allocations are made specifically for addressing unique local and/or regional project activities. This funding is restricted to public domain projects. E. Eligibility Project Directors for Campus ARI projects must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences or research scientists ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 5 from a member campus. (See additional requirements under III.A. Proposal Types.) For System projects, Project Directors may be faculty or research scientists from member or affiliate campuses (CSU Monterey Bay or Humboldt State). If from an affiliate campus, Project Directors must collaborate with member campus personnel. II. Proposal General Information A. Online Proposal Submission All ARI system and campus pre-proposals and full proposals must be submitted through the ARI Online Project Management (OPM) web-based proposal submission and routing system. The OPM is accessible on the ARI web site at www.ari.calstate.edu. No hardcopy pre-proposal or full proposal submissions will be accepted. The application guidelines included herein and on the web site are designed to assist in the preparation, submission, and management of ARI pre-proposals, full proposals and projects funded in FY 2014-15. Additional assistance is available by first consulting with the appropriate Campus Coordinator(s) CAFES Grants Analyst (6-7241) and/or thereafter by contacting the ARI technical and/or system administrative office at (805) 756-6297. B. Match 1. Requirement Per ARI policy, all campuses must obtain aggregate match for their Campus research funds each year (allocation minus administrative funds). Each System research project is required to individually obtain 1:1 match to ARI funds provided. ARI external match funding goals and objectives are intended to: • Augment and extend CSU research faculty’s capacity to conduct priority applied research, information dissemination, and technology transfer activities • Help identify priority applied agricultural research projects and activities • Facilitate CSU and ARI industry partnerships and community engagement • Provide “real world” student experiential learning and science and technology based workforce development opportunities • Keep ARI State funding actively committed to on-going research activities 2. Definitions Matching funds must be project-related and be fully explained in the respective proposal. Care must be taken to demonstrate the scope of work completed under each form of support (ARI and match) and the relationships between/among these funding sources. Both the narrative and the budget sections must reflect this support. As an example, if support has already been received to perform objectives 1, 2 and 3, please explain that the ARI funding will be used to support additional new objectives 2a, 2b, 2c, 4 and 5. Proposals that do not contain all of the required sections and proper documentation of in-hand matching funds will not be considered (see section II.B.5). Researchers are advised to review the ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 6 “Proposal Rating Sheet” in the website forms page to determine how their respective proposals will be evaluated (OMB A-110 c. 23 guidelines will be followed unless otherwise specified in this document). Cash Match Cash match is defined as any cash, check and/or other negotiable United States currency contribution made by non-CSU State General Fund sources that directly benefits and is specifically pertinent to an ARI or ARI master grant funded project. In-kind Match In-kind match is defined as any contribution, other than cash (see cash definition above), donated or pledged, that originates from the gifting of the value of time, goods, services, equipment or other expendable property of verifiable financial “fair market value” other than that originating from a CSU State General Fund allocation and/or cash and in-kind contributions which have been previously utilized as ARI or ARI master grant match. Fair Market Value The “fair market value” equivalent for non-reimbursed contributions of professional, technical, and/or clerical staff time by other universities, agencies, and/or organizations may be used as in-kind match provided that the respective ARI Dean has verified its authenticity. Fair market value is defined as the generally acceptable commercial value of a donation. For example: the value of consultant and/or staff time will be determined based on what the individuals involved are actually paid by other clients for similar work. Allowability Cash or in-kind match originating from any CSU State General Fund allocation, any other ARI funded program, previously funded ARI projects or other donations which have been previously utilized as match for other projects is specifically prohibited from being used as external match. ARI and ARI master grant funding do not qualify as reciprocating match. CSU Project personnel are not allowed to count their volunteer time on ARI projects as in-kind match. 3. Match Priority The type of match further stratifies projects of equal ranking. Priority will be given to those proposals that document 100% cash match. Proposals with a combination of cash and in-kind match are prioritized in order of highest percentage of cash match relative to the ARI funding request. Campus proposal match is additionally prioritized by source. Proposals with matching funds from industry or commodity groups as the predominant source of match receive higher priority than those without. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 7 4. Match Acquisition Timeframe Project match must be documented and verified between six months prior and six months post either the start of the fiscal year or notification by the ARI Executive Director of ARI fund availability, depending on campus policies and procedures. For match arriving prior to six months before the project start date, only the available balance at the six month’s prior date is allowable as project match. 5. Documentation (see also Appendix 2) Awarded ARI funding will not be released until match is received. Match is considered received if it is documented and verified on an ARI match verification form (see website) which indicates that it is “in-hand”. The Project Director and a campus or auxiliary official must sign the form. Pending match may be submitted with proposals but must be received prior to release of project funds. The only exception is pending in-kind service which needs to be documented as both “committed” at the beginning and periodically, but no later than yearly, as “completed”. 6. Award Reductions and Cancellations a. Partial Project Setup Projects may be set up with partial ARI funds released as soon as minimum match requirements have been met (and the campus is able to open projects). This allows Project Directors the flexibility to start work while still confirming the rest of the project match through the deadline of the match acquisition timeframe. b. Reductions Reductions in award amounts will be proportionate to the reduced received match by the deadline for the funding year, whether original year or subsequent years, for all projects requiring match. Reductions will be pro-rated based on the percentage of the cash requirement met or the percentage of the total match requirement received, whichever is the more limiting factor. Reductions cannot be recovered in subsequent years. c. Project Cancellations Proposals for which no external match can be documented within the approved match acquisition timeframe will be immediately cancelled. Awarded funds will be reallocated to the next year’s funding pool. Project Directors may appeal an ARI campus administrative decision to cancel tentatively approved project funding based on delinquent external match ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 8 funding verification to the ARI Executive Director. Appeals must be dated and accompanied by a written justification within 30 days of a written funding cancellation notice. All appeal notices submitted to the Executive Director must be copied to the respective ARI Campus Coordinator and College Dean. The Executive Director shall have 30 days from receipt of an appeal to render a final decision. C. Indirect Charges Pursuant to ARI policy adopted by the Board of Governors regarding indirect charges, the ARI does not allow the imposition of any indirect charges to ARI State General Fund funded projects, contracts, subcontracts, and/or the transfer of portions of a project budget between colleges, centers, campuses, university systems, or other public or private agencies. D. Confidentiality The ARI receives research proposals in confidence and is responsible for protecting the confidentiality of their submission and contents. Proposals and accompanying attachments made accessible for administrative and review purposes may contain privileged and/or confidential information only for use by the intended recipient(s) for the express purpose of financial, technical, and/or scientific review and evaluation. Recipients of these materials are also charged with maintaining the confidentiality of their contents. If you have received a hardcopy proposal and/or electronic proposal access in error, please immediately notify the appropriate ARI system and/or campus administrator (ARI Executive Director or Campus Coordinator) listed in the contact page of this Call for Proposals (see section VIII). Recipients of a hardcopy proposal and/or electronic proposal access MAY NOT copy, quote, distribute, or otherwise use material from an ARI proposal submission without the expressed written consent of its author(s). E. Insurance Certification Project Directors are responsible for ensuring that the following liability insurance certification statement is incorporated into all agreement(s) with contractor(s) and subcontractor(s) and/or any other recipient(s) of ARI project funds. Certification recognizes the differing requirements of each ARI member campus and by this reference makes each campus’ relevant policies, procedures, and directives a mandatory part of any ARI agreement(s) with contractor(s) and subcontractor(s) and/or any other recipient(s) of ARI project funds from each respective campus. "Contractor shall defend, indemnify, and hold Sponsor (CSU Agricultural Research Institute), its officers, employees, and agents harmless from and against any and all liability, loss, expense (including reasonable attorney fees), or claims for injury or damages arising out of its performance of this Agreement but only in proportion to and to the extent of such liability, loss, expense, attorney's fees, or claims for injury or damages are caused by or result from negligent or intentional acts or omissions of Contractor, its officers, agents or employees.” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 9 III. Proposal Preparation A. Proposal Types For all types of funding, additional information is available in the appropriate section of this document. For Seed and Campus Competitive Funding, please contact your Campus Coordinator for additional requirements, conditions and/or restrictions. System System Competitive Research Funding (Online funding type: System) Length of Award Maximum of 3 years Funding Minimum of $75,000; maximum of $150,000 per year Collaboration Required Number of Awards The number of awards is dependent on available funding each year Available Matching Funding Required Minimum of 100% total with 50% being cash Timeline System – Timelines in Section IV.A. Campus Campus Competitive Research Funding (Online funding type: Campus) Length of Award Maximum of 3 years Funding No minimum; maximum of $150,000 per year Collaboration Not required Number of Awards The number of awards is dependent on available funding each year Available Matching Funding Required Minimum of 110% 100% total with 25% being cash Timeline Campus – Timelines in Section IV.A. New Investigator Research Funding (Online funding type: Campus) Eligibility Project Director must be a first through fourth year tenuretrack faculty member; Project Director is not eligible if he/she has received or concurrently receives a Campus Competitive Award Length of Award Maximum of 2 years Funding No minimum; maximum of $20,000 per year Collaboration Not required Number of Awards Limited to four per year. Available Matching Funding Minimum of 75% total with 20% of that being cash Required Timeline Campus – Timelines in Section IV.A. Seed Funding (Online funding type: Seed) Eligibility Project Director must be a first year tenure-track faculty ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 10 Length of Award Funding Collaboration Number of Awards Available Matching Funding Required Timeline member 1 year (although all options are displayed, you may only enter 1 year) Up to $5,000 at the discretion of the Campus Coordinator Not required Limited to four per year. At the discretion of the Campus Coordinator None Special – see Timelines in Section IV.A. B. System Pre-Proposals Pre-proposals are required for System competitive research funding. Requests for full proposals will be based on a pre-proposal evaluation and ranking by the Deans’ Council and the Executive Director. C. Notices of Intent Pre-Proposal Guidelines COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SECTION FOR CAL POLY A Notice of Intent (NOI) MUST be submitted for New Investigator and Campus Competitive funding. Seed Funding proposals should skip this step and proceed directly to the instructions for Full Proposals. Notices of Intent should be submitted on the form available at: http://ari.calpoly.edu/content/ari-rfp-2014-2015 The narrative part (NOI form item#13) should be no longer than 3 pages. There is no limit to the number of NOI’s that may be submitted in a given funding year; they are used to indicate who may be participating that year. Please submit one electronic copy by 5 pm PDT of the Notice of Intent by the due date listed in section 9 to the CAFES Grants Analyst. In rare circumstances, a late Notice of Intent may be submitted if new matching funds have become available after the published due date and no later than January 10, 2012. Permission for submission is on a case-by-case basis made by the Campus Coordinator. Pre-proposals require completion of the information fields/attachments listed below. A complete definition and/or explanation of the information being requested is provided in each web page subsection. • Project Director • Project Information • Project Personnel [Co-investigator(s), Collaborator(s), and Cooperator(s)] • Funding Request • External Match • Anticipated Outcomes (checkboxes) • Estimated Faculty/Research Staff Release and/or Additional Employment Pay ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 11 • • • Pre-Proposal Narrative • Narratives are limited to five single-spaced pages, not including references • File type: Adobe PDF • Font: Times New Roman • Font Size: 12 point • Margins: One inch – top and bottom, left and right • Headings: Double-spaced and boldface Miscellaneous Supportive Documents Appropriate Campus Signature, if required by individual campuses To start a pre-proposal, the Project Director signs in to the OPM by clicking the “Sign in” button on the ARI website (see screenshot to right). The pre-proposal submission system will walk you through each step of creating and submitting a pre-proposal. Data entry in most information fields is mandatory. Failure to include the required information or the entry of inconsistent information will generate a program prompt requesting an appropriate correction. Pre-proposal development will not be allowed to advance further until the program prompt has been successfully addressed. Once a pre-proposal is complete and ready for submission, a printable version of it will be generated for you to review. Project Directors are highly encouraged, at this time, to carefully review all pre-proposal information, making any necessary modifications, corrections, additions and/or deletions. After a final review, Project Directors should consult with their Campus Coordinator or his/her appointed designee(s) to insure proper completion of campus signature routing prior to completing the OPM submission process. It is highly recommended that Project Directors print and retain a copy of the completed pre-proposal submission for their records. Once a pre-proposal has been submitted and accepted into the OPM system, it cannot be modified. Pre-proposals will be date/time recorded in the system to verify when they are originally submitted. D. Full Proposal Guidelines – System and Campus To start a proposal, sign into the OPM by clicking the “Sign in” button on the ARI website (see screenshot to right). The OPM system will walk you through each step of creating and submitting a complete proposal. Specific instructions regarding completion of each section are provided in the section description. Data entry in most information fields is mandatory. Failure to include the required information or the entry of inconsistent information will generate a program prompt requesting an appropriate correction. Proposal development will not be allowed to advance further until the program prompt has been successfully addressed. Once a proposal is complete ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 12 and ready for submission, a printable version of it will be generated for you to review. Please review the proposal information, making any necessary modifications, corrections, additions and/or deletions prior to completing the submission process. It is highly recommended that you print and retain a copy of your completed proposal for your records. Initial submission and acceptance of a proposal into the OPM system for routing DOES NOT constitute final submission or acceptance of a proposal for peer review or funding consideration. This action only sends your proposal to your Campus Point Person for checking. Proposals will be date and time recorded at this point to verify when they were submitted for routing. Because they automatically go to the Campus Point Person there is no need for that inclusion as a signatory. If all sections are present, complete and internally consistent, the proposal will be forwarded for routing to all signatories. If one or more of the above conditions are not met, the proposal will be electronically returned to the Project Director to be remedied. Once forwarded by the Campus Point Person, the process of electronic routing will automatically begin. However, it remains the Project Director’s responsibility to ensure that all required signatures are obtained and that all signatories have been provided adequate review time prior to the final proposal submission deadline. Signatories who have not been provided adequate review time may reject a proposal solely for this reason. Once all appropriate signatures have been secured and a proposal has been successfully submitted and accepted into the system, it will again be date and time recorded to verify when it was submitted and accepted for peer review and funding consideration. This date and time recording will officially verify a proposal’s final submission and acceptance into the OPM system for review and funding consideration. Proposals may not be modified beyond this submission date. System and campus full proposals require completion of the information fields listed below. A complete definition and/or explanation of the information being requested is provided in each web page subsection description. • Project Director • Project Information • Member Campus • Title • Funding Type • Duration • Primary Focus Area • Secondary Focus Area • Primary Research Category • Secondary Research Category • Abstract/Impact/Statement - Provide a summary (350 words or less, written for a layman to understand) that describes the research, its significance, and its benefit to society and/or the industry that can also be used for promotional purposes. The abstract/impact/summary statement is not part of the narrative. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ FY 2014-15 ARI Call for Proposals 13 • • • • • • • (This pastes as plain text so please do not use symbols, italics or special formatting.) Project Personnel Funding Request - MUST match the budget External Match Anticipated Outcomes (checkboxes) Faculty/Research Staff Release and Additional Employment Pay - MUS