Please read all of the application requirements before completing each section. All applications must be submitted in English. If you are selected as a Finalist, portions of your application, including the Proposal Title and Quick Pitch, and may be published on this website; the remainder of your application will only be viewed by prize administrators and judges.
Be sure to "review your application as the judges will see it" through the link on the internal application page, and confirm your changes have been saved. When you have completed all of the requirements, a message will be displayed on the screen. At that point, you can submit your final application. Once you have submitted the application, you will no longer be able to make changes.
You must submit your application no later than Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at 3:00 PM Pacific.
A. Introduction
Proposal Title (20 words)
Please provide a title for your proposal. This title may be displayed on the competition website post-submission so please be descriptive.
Your Quick Pitch (100 words)
Provide a summary of the new model your team is offering that fosters and rewards interdisciplinary research and interactions. The description should read as a short and interesting pitch for your core concept. Focus on delivering a compelling overview so that the Evaluation Panel members assigned to score your application will want to read more. Your description should not require any other context to clearly explain what you are offering. This is your opportunity to make a strong first impression so make every word count.
B. About Your Team
Advances in science and engineering increasingly require the collaboration of scholars and practitioners from various fields, and coordination across sectors and institutions. The following information is required to capture a basic understanding of the leadership, structure, vision, and capabilities of your team. Teams may consist of members from multiple organizations or consist of members that belong to the same organization.
Team Organization (250 words)
Each team member must fulfill a specific purpose in implementing your proposed idea. Let us know how your team is structured. Be sure to identify each team member and their affiliation and role. You may include an organizational chart by inserting an image into the text box. Clearly identify which team members have participated in NAKFI conferences.
Team Management (200 words)
Please name up to three of the managing team members or decision makers, including their specific titles within their affiliated organizations. Provide a short biographical statement for those three team members; focus on their interdisciplinary experience most relevant to your proposal and include a description of their role on your team to oversee implementation of your proposal.
Letter of Support (OPTIONAL)
If your team consists of multiple organizations, you are required to upload a letter of support, which stipulates the relationship between the organizations. Make sure to include all necessary parts by referring to the following guidelines for drafting your Letter of Support. Be sure to include all team members who are critical to the implementation of your proposed idea.
If your team is internal to a single organization, you do not need to complete this section.
C. Your Proposal
Provide the details of your idea. Be sure to emphasize how your proposal aligns with the four traits that will be used to assess each valid application (see Trait Scoring Rubric).
Each proposal must demonstrate a clear understanding of the problem currently holding back interdisciplinary research and the cross-collaboration of scholars from various fields. Your proposal may address structural barriers, interpersonal hurdles, or other types of impediments to effective interdisciplinary collaboration. For example, the goals of the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative are to influence:
- structural change in research funding, both public and private, to provide significantly increased support for interdisciplinary and cross-professional research;
- structural change within research universities to foster more interdisciplinary research;
- changes in the career paths of Futures participants resulting from greater interdisciplinary and cross-professional opportunities; and
- increases in the opportunities for graduate student (PhD-level) research in interdisciplinary and cross-professional areas.
To achieve a deeper understanding of your idea, convince those reviewing your application that you understand the greater context and the local realities of the environment in which you work. Describe the circumstances that hinder interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners and set the stage for why your approach offers meaningful change and opportunities to address complex problems that transcend disciplinary, professional, structural, and other types of boundaries.
The Big Challenge (150 words)
Please provide a broad description of the specific problem that you are committed to addressing through your team’s idea. Offer an explanation of the current resources available to address the problem. Focus on why those resources are insufficient to break-through the current barriers. Explain any previous attempts to solve the problem, if there were any, and why your big challenge persists within your environment.
Local Conditions (150 words)
Build on your description of the big challenge and offer a complementary description of the environment where you plan to implement your approach. Show that you understand the specific intricacies that you must overcome. Explain your understanding of the necessary operations or tactics critical to overcoming any implementation challenges.
Your Tactics (250 words)
Describe your expertise and the specific details of your technical and operational approach. How will your team foster ways to more effectively conduct, facilitate, and understand interdisciplinary research programs and projects and the individuals and institutions who undertake them? Be specific, get creative. Explain your knowledge of what’s required to achieve success while offering insight into the technical aspects of your idea – what makes your approach different and better? Why does your approach matter? Feel free to include a link to conceptual sketch or drawing that represents your ideas.
NOTE: If you include a link to a file, be sure that the appropriate permissions are set so that individuals outside your organization can open it.
Sustainability (150 words)
Describe your plan to support the proposal after implementation. Describe how your proposal will become self-sustaining over time. What are the key implementation details that will ensure a long-lasting change in your organization(s) to support the overarching goals of your proposal?
D. Your Project Plan and Budget
The information provided in the previous sections is intended to reveal team leadership, and strategic and practical plans; we also need to understand the feasibility of your idea.
Your Timeline and Key Milestones (150 words)
In chronological order, identify the milestones and timeline for implementing your idea.
Budget Narrative (150 words)
Please offer an overview for how you would use the grant award of $500,000. This Budget Narrative should complement your project plan. Your budget narrative description should include, in broad terms, total projected needs by category, and you may include any explanations of existing resources that you have secured. Additionally, if you plan to subcontract any of the work of the project, provide a description of what part of the project you will subcontract and who will do the work.
Detailed Budget
Please provide specific line items from your budget narrative (above) in United States Dollars (USD). Award funds can be used to cover direct and indirect expenses necessary for the successful completion of the project. Please make sure that any funds identified in this table reflect your general explanations provided in your budget narrative.
NOTE: Per National Academy of Sciences policy, tuition is an indirect expense and should be included in the “indirect expense” category.
Additional Expected Support (50 words)
In this section, describe any additional capital or support you have secured from other sources. If you do not have additional capital, please enter “NONE.”
Private Benefit (150 words)
Will private interests (such as shareholders, for-profit companies, contractors, consultants, or other individuals) benefit more than incidentally from the solution as compared to the public or charitable benefit? If your solution will trigger any private benefit to one or more individuals, provide an explanation of how the public benefit cannot be achieved without necessarily benefiting those individuals and to what degree any private benefit compares to public benefit.
Risk Management & Mitigation (150 words)
Please describe any threats to your proposed idea and how you plan to address them. While every project plan is different, we expect teams to raise the most important assumptions of risk and how you will manage them.
Other Considerations (150 words)
This is your opportunity to describe outstanding issues that you could not offer in other sections.
The implementation of your idea may require other resources or partnerships; please explain them. You can offer any contingency planning, based on specific issues raised in the risk or budget sections of your proposal.
