| February 13, 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Bill) that is expected to be enacted into law within the next few days provides unprecedented opportunities for the advancement of research and education.
Over the past couple of weeks information about opportunities expected in the final bill have been circulated broadly. However, frequent changes to the bill and lack of specific details about application procedures have created an urgent need for reliable, up-to-date information in order to guide swift, appropriate responses to opportunities relevant to University research priorities.
To assist the University research community with the preparation and submission of proposals responsive to the many opportunities expected with the passage of the Stimulus Bill, the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is taking the following steps to facilitate this effort:
- Create a Web site (http://www.research.umn.edu/stimulus.html) to serve as a resource for the most up-to-date information. The site will provide researchers and administrators a central location to find the most recent information on expected appropriations by agency, specific areas of emphasis, and more detailed application information as it becomes available. The site will be updated whenever new information, gleaned from multiple sources, becomes available. We will provide the Web site URL to your collegiate communicators so they can link to the site from your college home page, and we will make it easily accessible via the OVPR and SPA sites.
- Set up a listserv to provide breaking information and answers to questions about the Stimulus Bill. Faculty, staff or students interested in receiving information can sign up for the listserv. It will include links to agency priorities as well as details about proposal preparation (including agency-specific instructions) as they become available. The listserv will provide an opportunity for broad and rapid distribution of questions and answers. To subscribe to the listserv, send an e-mail to listserv@lists.umn.edu leaving the subject line blank and typing the following in the message body: SUB STIMULUS-RES-INFO JANE DOE (substituting your name for Jane Doe).
- Alert faculty to funding opportunities that may align with their expertise or research interests. This service will initially be broad based but will become better defined and focused as more information on the nature of the funding opportunities becomes available. Faculty can choose to add or remove themselves from e-mail listings.
- Provide special guidance for Stimulus proposal preparation. This will include developing and sharing information and “boilerplate” language that can be used in response to what are expected to be common selection criteria (e.g., “How does this proposal create jobs or add capacity to the economy?”). In addition, information on interpreting proposal solicitations, special training sessions and computer labs to assist departmental staff who are preparing Stimulus proposals, and a Helpdesk for proposal development or submission questions, will be made available.
- Assist in internal coordination or other special issues arising from Stimulus Bill. Some proposals, such as those involving construction or renovations, may be funded through other non-research parts of the Stimulus Bill. While funds for such opportunities are expected to be very limited, these proposals will require separate review and approval by the appropriate University committees or institutional offices. OVPR will help direct such applications to the correct University offices for assistance and processing.
We are also examining what other steps might be taken to expedite proposal routing and submission for Stimulus proposals. Coordinating efforts with the Associate Deans for Research, we will work to help ensure that units and SPA are sufficiently staffed to handle an anticipated dramatic increase in proposal and award workloads in the near future.
We will share additional information as plans are further developed and implemented. In the meantime, if there is any other information that you feel would be helpful to include on the Stimulus Web site or if you have additional suggestions as to how we might be of assistance, please send an e-mail to stimulus-res-info@umn.edu.
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