Call for Working Group Proposals

Call for WRC Working Group Proposals (Deadline: Feb.10, 2023)

The ECU Water Resources Center invests resources to support the growth of strategic areas of high research interest among teams of faculty and students at ECU in the form of working groups.  Working groups are a primary mechanism by which the WRC builds capacity to support research and education efforts at ECU.  An example is the recent establishment of the Environmental Sensing and Data Network (ESDN), an ongoing WRC investment in core infrastructure to enable regional environmental monitoring that brings together participants from multiple colleges and departments.  All WRC working groups (i.e., both funded and non-funded) are an important mechanism for building collaboration and lobbying for resources through the WRC.

This call for proposals is to establish one new funded working group within the WRC (note that unfunded working groups may be formed at any time).  The working group should consist of faculty and students that are pursuing an area of work that has a central shared focus, but provides clear opportunities for distinct projects to emerge.  Working groups that build infrastructure resources supporting numerous researchers are particularly encouraged.  A team effort that pursues preliminary work to support a single future project, regardless of scale, is not appropriate as a WRC working group and should be pursued through other seed grant opportunities.  In the long-run, a working group may be viewed as an incubator for the development of future Centers or Institutes at ECU.

The selected working group will receive $20k in seed funding to support the first year of activities.  Additional funding may be received in future years, subject to the availability of funding and productivity of the group.

To qualify as a working group, a team must describe in their proposal how they will:

• address a high priority area for research growth at ECU with opportunities for inclusion of a broad range of disciplines that could not be achieved by a single research group
• include WRC Faculty Affiliates from a minimum of two Colleges and three Departments as key participants (i.e., active leaders contributing effort to the working group)
• have the potential to produce multiple avenues of inquiry or activity that will enable future research funding from multiple distinct sources (e.g., different NSF Directorates, combinations of federal agencies such as NIH, NEH, DoE, and USDA, or state, local or foundation funds)
• leverage existing WRC and ECU resources and/or create new resources to support the efforts of the working group
• demonstrate a commitment to and mechanisms for creating long-term growth in faculty, student, and staff participation and mentorship within the working group – especially for those early in their careers or underrepresented within their respective disciplines

Proposals that include a primary involvement with the social sciences and/or community engaged research are strongly encouraged.

Proposal Format and Submission:

A complete proposal should include the following sections (all sections should use no less then 10pt Arial or 11pt Times New Roman for the font and limits include all figures and tables):

1. Cover Page [max 1 page]: Include the working group name, list of key participants*, and a brief yet informative summary of the working group.
2. Working Group Focus and Goals [max 5 pages]: Describe the focus, goals, and overarching outcomes that will be achieved by the working group. Explain the synthesis that will occur between disciplines and how this effort will support significant growth in research opportunities at ECU.  Specific areas of effort within the working group should be individually documented and described.  Clearly document any infrastructure development that will occur as a product of the working group activities (note: this may include hard infrastructure such as lab, field, or computational resources, or soft infrastructure such as the development of partnerships, networks, training opportunities, and the establishment of new areas of research expertise at ECU).  The description should explicitly address how the working group will integrate students and a diverse set of participants and disciplines from across ECU within the activities of the working group.

• Milestones and Timeline [max 2 pages]: Provide a description of clear and documentable milestones that the working group will pursue within time frames of 1, 2, and 5 years. It is important that the milestones are supported by tangible metrics or outcomes.  Plans for proposal submissions should be included and initiate no later than in the second year of the working group.

1. Management Plan [2-5pages]: The working group management plan should clearly document an initial set of participants and provide a description of the responsibilities of key participants*. Plans should be described to support: a. broad campus participation, b. communication plans, c. specific strategies & activities for successful implementation, and d. tracking of milestones.  Clear mechanisms to support inclusion of diverse participants and enable growth of the working group over time must be addressed.  Activities that leverage and strengthen existing WRC other ECU resources and programs to support the implementation of the management plan are strongly encouraged and should be documented.  Inclusion of effort for any current WRC staff member should be approved by the WRC Director prior to submission of the proposal.  The team selected to lead the working group will be responsible for reporting progress and products to the WRC community and preparation of this report (including proposals and research products) should be included within the plan.
2. Budget [no limit]: The budget should be prepared as a table using typical categories of the National Science Foundation (i.e., eTRACS may be used to assist in budget preparation). Creative budgets are encouraged but may only include items allowable with ECU F&A funds (see Materials Management for guidance). The budget should be for year 1 of operations of the working group, however, it may also include projections for future years if this funding is essential to the success of the working group. Note that inclusion of budget projections for future years (including acquisition of external funds) does not imply that these funds will be made available to the working group, but will be used to evaluate the long-term viability of the working group as a sustainable entity.  Those working groups that have a long-term vision for their sustainability will be considered to be more competitive than those that submit a single year budget.  Cost sharing through direct or in-kind support is acceptable and encouraged, but not required.
3. Budget Justification [no limit]: The budget justification should clearly document the requested budget plan, including any proposed cost-sharing and projections.

• Biosketch: A 2pg biosketch/CV should be included for each primary participant.    

*Primary participants are those with explicitly defined responsibilities within the working group.  A proposal must include a minimum of 3 primary participants composed of faculty from 3 Departments and at least 2 Colleges.

Proposals must be assembled into a single PDF document and emailed to the Director of the WRC (moyseys18@ecu.edu) no later than 11:59pm on February 10, 2023.  Emails time stamped after this date will not be accepted or reviewed.  If the attachment is too large to send via email, a link to the pdf document should be provided via OneDrive or MS Teams.

It is anticipated that proposals will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel of affiliates, who will provide funding recommendations to the WRC Director by the end of February.  Working group activities are expected to commence in March, 2023 with a short interim report of activities provided by Nov.30, 2023 and a full annual report of activities provided by March 30, 2024.

Questions should be directed to Stephen Moysey, WRC Director (moyseys18@ecu.edu).