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Neuroscience Collaborations Vision Statements Call

Sponsors:
Simons Foundation
Amount:
$12,000,000
External Deadline:
03/08/23
Opportunity Information:

The mission of the Simons Foundation is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences. The goal of the Simons Collaborations is to bring together groups of outstanding scientists to address topics of fundamental scientific importance, focusing on fields in which significant new developments have created novel opportunities for exploration. Each collaboration is funded for ten years to enable bold, creative, and innovative research (with a review at year five).

To that end, the foundation invites vision statements to identify new, emerging breakthrough areas of neuroscience poised for high-impact funding and is interested in bold and cutting-edge, idea-generating research that focuses on basic principles of brain function and may be overlooked or too risky for other funding organizations.

The foundation will prioritize cross-disciplinary collaborations that integrate many levels of analysis, methodologies, ways of thinking, and scientific communities and endeavors to encourage conversations within and across fields while bringing together diverse groups of researchers to investigate important questions about the basic principles of brain function. Investigators in a Simons Collaboration are expected to openly share data, code, analysis pipelines, protocols, and reagents. The foundation expects proposals to include junior investigators and investigators from various academic disciplines, genders, races, and ethnicities.

Vision statements should clearly outline the big idea and hypotheses the proposed neuroscience collaboration will address, including high-level overviews of the methods and approaches used. Why is this work uniquely suited for Simons Collaboration funding? Why should this collaboration be funded now? Why is it difficult to obtain funding to investigate these questions from other funding agencies and foundations? Vision statements should address why and how the support of a large collaborative research project from the Simons Foundation will transform our understanding of how the brain works. Please propose an estimated anticipated yearly cost for investigators who may be included in the collaboration.

Simons Collaborations will be funded for 10 years (with a review in year five), and the total budget for the new Neuroscience Collaborations will be $25 million per year. The foundation anticipates identifying up to three collaborations, with each collaboration's funding level determined by the project's proposed scope and aims. As a guideline, the foundation suggests budgets of between $5 and $12 million per year, inclusive of 20 percent indirect costs.

To be eligible, all investigators must hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent degree and have a faculty position or the equivalent (eligible for receiving grant funding) at a college, university, medical school, or another research facility. In addition, eligible applicants must have independent research space at their institution. Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations; public and private institutions, such as colleges, universities, hospitals, laboratories, and units of state and local government; and eligible agencies of the federal government. There are no citizenship or country requirements.

The Simons Foundation will review vision statements with input from outside reviewers. Between 10 and 20 submissions will be invited to submit a 20-page full proposal, including a finalized list of investigators and a detailed budget. Full proposals will be reviewed, and three to five submissions will be invited to the Simons Foundation for workshops with all investigators involved in the proposed collaboration. The foundation anticipates identifying up to three collaborations, with the funding level of each collaboration being determined by the proposed scope and aims of the project.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Simons Foundation website.

ASU Information:

Submissions to this sponsor/donor are managed by the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations. Please contact your unit-assigned ASUF Director of Development or Research Advancement Specialist at your earliest convenience to ensure ASU's strategic coordination and management of funding applications.

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