Zimin Institute for Smart and Sustainable Cities Request for Proposals 2022
The Zimin Institute for Smart and Sustainable Cities at ASU is pleased to announce the 2022 – 2023 funding solicitation. The Institute is seeking proposals for research and development aimed at rapidly advancing innovative solutions toward practical realization and societal impact. Priority themes for proposals include 1) Daily Life & Human Connection/Interaction/Engagement, 2) Sustainable and Healthy Environments & Spaces, 3) Inherent Security, Safety & Public Well-being, and 4) Infrastructure Surety, Resilience, and Integrated Functionality.
If you have any questions or would like more information please contact the Institute Project Manager Lisa Irimata at lirimata@asu.edu
Zimin Institute for Smart & Sustainable Cities Request for Proposals 2022
The Zimin Institute for Smart & Sustainable Cities (the ‘Institute’) at Arizona State University (ASU) is seeking proposals for research and development aimed at rapidly advancing innovative solutions toward practical realization and societal impact in the four priority areas aligned with its Vision and Mission.
Institute VISION
The Zimin Institute for Smart & Sustainable Cities is driving a people-centric vision of future cities. We are creating a world where the rich functionality and power of advanced technologies are seamlessly integrated with the physical spaces where people live, work, learn and play to make them safer and more secure, healthier, more sustainable and resilient, and more personally enriching.
Institute MISSION
The Institute will realize the Vision by initiating, catalyzing, connecting, supporting, leveraging, and growing the smart cities and regions ecosystem. Specifically, we will:
• Identify the needs, challenges, and problems in the people-centric Smart Cities and Regions application space and thus effectively target promising, transformative technology designs and solutions
• Connect researchers across disparate disciplines and application spaces to catalyze new synergistic collaborations within the academy and beyond, including industry, government, and communities
• Fund critical-stage, cutting edge research to break barriers and advance nascent technology solutions
• Leverage ASU / local testbeds and innovative regional initiatives, collaboratives, and funding streams
• Grow the Smart Cities entrepreneurial ecosystem: venture funding à startups à new revolutionary products
• Engage the community and stakeholders to ensure that new integrated solutions realize and deliver genuine and profound social and public value.
The Institute’s Priority Themes are:
1. Daily Life & Human Connection / Interaction / Engagement
2. Sustainable and Healthy Environments & Spaces
3. Inherent Security, Safety & Public Well-being
4. Infrastructure Surety, Resilience, and Integrated Functionality
Funding from the Institute is intended to speed technology development and catalyze a path to practical realization and positive societal impact within communities. Although all proposed projects should be use-inspired and application-driven, they may fall anywhere along the early-stage, midstage, or later-stage innovation value chain. In this context, compelling new concepts and ideas are sought for which conventional federal, state, or industry funding may be inherently difficult to secure. Projects may be of one of the following four types:
• Visioning & Ideation Projects where stakeholders are directly engaged to identify and prioritize their perceived needs and desires, envision compelling candidate solutions and anticipate both positive and negative impacts, as well as imagine unintended consequences of these innovations.
• Proof-of-Concept Projects where novel and high-risk ideas are explored, and innovative concepts are tested and proven in a laboratory environment.
• Technology Demonstrator Development Projects where proofs-of-concept are advanced to the creation of physical prototypes that could be tested in a controlled-laboratory or a field test environment. This Technology Demonstrator could represent the forerunner of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the commercial arena
• Field Test Projects where Technology Demonstrators or prototypes are evaluated in a simulated or an actual field environment.
In this year of funding we will giving equal priority to all themes and especially ideas that cut synergistically across the themes. We anticipate funding 3-5 projects with awards ranging from $50K to $150K. Projects should be proposed for a one-year duration. Regardless of the project type, the offerers’ should outline critical elements of follow-on projects for potential funding by other sources, and in exceptional cases, by the Institute. Testing and demonstration should ideally be oriented not just around the technical specifications of the underlying technology solutions but also the pursuit of positive societal impact.
Funding Priorities and Characteristics of Competitive Proposals
Competitive proposals will have the following inherent strengths and characteristics:
-Tight alignment with the RFP articulated focus theme(s)
-High promise for transformative impact on city inhabitants’ quality of life (healthy, meaningful, joyful, rewarding)
- Well-defined and innovative approaches and methods that embody use-inspired R&D of the highest quality
- Explicit cross- or trans-disciplinary approach and team, with appropriate inclusion of the social sciences, design and other relevant expertise to ensure solutions are explored and developed in a comprehensive societal context
- Identified paths for follow-on funding and transition to real-world application in a time horizon of 3-5 years or less
- Funding level request and budget that is consistent with scope, scale, tasks, and deliverables
Proposal Format & Content
Format: 8.5 x 11 in with 1-inch margins. Single-spaced with Times New Roman 12 pt or Arial 11 pt font.
NABC Narrative: (5 pages maximum in length)
Your proposal narrative should be wholly-focused on four fundamental elements of your Value Proposition. Clearly and convincingly describe an important stakeholder, market or client Need that you will address by a unique Approach, and that will provide compelling and potentially game changing Benefits when compared against the Competition and/or existing alternatives.
The first page should of the narrative should start with the below header shown at the top of the next page.
Project Title
Project Director and team members with affiliations
Project Type
Theme
• Need: What important stakeholders’/customers’/communities’ unmet needs or aspirations are you going to address? What are their “pain points”? What is the potential size or impact of this Smart Cities & Regions opportunity? (Note that the potential impact should be large enough to merit the necessary investment and development time.) Motivate the urgency and timeliness of your project by providing “key insights”: what are the reasons that this need has not been previously addressed, and why is it now possible?
• Approach: What is your compelling solution to the specific need? Bring-it-to-life: provide a sketch, mockup, or story-board to help convey your vision. Be quantitative: how great of an improvement over the current state will your solution provide? Paradigm-shifting approaches should see at least a 10x improvement. How are your Project Leader and your team uniquely qualified to successfully execute the proposed work? Describe your R&D plan with milestones and critical resources required. For multi-phase, multi-year Projects, briefly describe your follow-on path. Note we expect that practical realization and deployment of your proposed solution could be achieved in a 3-5 year time frame. • Benefits: What are the principal benefits of your approach? Although the full suite of benefits can include intangible and unquantifiable dimensions, inarguable success requires that the benefits be quantitative and substantially better - not just different.
• Competition/alternatives: Clearly articulate the competition and alternatives. Why are your envisioned benefits significantly better than the competing alternatives, both existing or proposed? We must be able to tell our sponsor and the community at large why your solution represents the best value. Your answer should be short and memorable, so be sure to identify any competitive advantage “golden nuggets.”
Literature citations and references (not counted against Narrative page limitation)
Budget Section
• Allowable Cost Categories Costs can be requested for all necessary and typically-allowed sponsored program categories, including salary support for faculty, students, post-docs, technicians, core facility user fees, and supplies, as well as for travel that provides direct value to the project. Salaries should include appropriate ERE. Apply 6% F&A on the Total Direct Costs (TDC). Subcontracts for external partners that are integral to project execution are allowed.
• Budget Justification (2 pages maximum)
NABC Quad Chart (template available in the InfoReady portal) that mirrors and highlights critical elements of the Narrative
2022 Timeline and Two-stage Selection Process
December 15, 2021 RFP released
Week of January 3 Proposer’s Meeting, final date and details to follow
March 4, 2022 Proposals are due by 5:00 PM MST via electronic submission through InfoReady. Include both your integrated proposal document (pdf) and your quad chart (ppt or pdf).
March 25, 2022 Finalists notified, with direct constructive feedback provided to the offerors from the Institute’s Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and Director
Week of March 28, 2022 Finalists present to the TAB and Director
Week of April 4, 2022 Funding recommendations made to Institute’s Executive Advisory Board (EAB) for final action
April 16, 2022 Award decisions announced
May 16, 2022 Project start date
Reporting Requirements
Formally, Grantees will be required to participate in three half-day review meetings per year (summer, fall, and spring; the spring meeting will serve as the Annual Review) in which they will report on project progress and immediate and longer-term plans, including any shifts in approach or direction. Some meetings may be conducted in an open NSF-IUCRC style and format, with the audience to include the TAB and interested parties from both within and outside ASU.
A brief written final report will also be required.
Grantees should also expect fairly regular informal communications with the Institute Director and/or Project Manager. ZI-RFP2022 V1.0 We also expect to invite grantees to present at a bi-annual conference in a session focused on the Institute’s projects and achievements.
Additional Notes
• Awardees will be asked to provide a percentage of effort for each of the project participants for purposes of awards and expenditures REC (recognition) reporting.
• Because Foundation sourced-funds do not carry full F&A, IIA and RID will not be provided. • Individuals may participate in more than one proposal, but may serve as PI or Project Director on only one proposal per funding round.
Points of Contact
• Administrative: Lisa Irimata, Insititute Project Manager lisa.irimata@asu.edu
• Technical: Gregory Raupp, Institute Director raupp@asu.edu