The IGERT program was developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills. The program is intended to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, to facilitate diversity in student participation and preparation, and contribute to a world-class, broadly inclusive, and globally engaged science and engineering workforce.

The purpose of this IGERT solicitation is to support new models in graduate education in which students are engaged in an environment that supports innovation to learn through hands-on experience how their own research may contribute in new ways to benefit society and to learn the process for the successful implementation of such contributions.

Dates (2012):

• Monday, April 9: E-mail of intent to submit internal pre-proposal to vcrsp@olemiss.edu.
• Friday, April 13:  Internal reviewers and/or development assistants identified by ORSP.
• Monday, April 23: Internal proposals due to vcrsp@olemiss.edu.
• Friday, April 27: ORSP will announce selection of one pre-proposal for development
• Tuesday, May 1: Letter(s) of Intent due to NSF (required).
• Monday, June 25: Budget and all proposal documents due to ORSP.
• Monday July 2, 2011: Full proposals due to NSF by 5 p.m. local time.

Anticipated Funding: 18 new and renewal awards, up to $3.3M each over 5 years.

Cost Sharing: Not required or allowed.

Limitation: UM may submit only 1 proposal.

Funding Details: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12759

Questions on full proposal format, budget, and submission process:
Mickey McLaurin, Director, Sponsored of Programs Administration
x7482, mclaurin@olemiss.edu

Questions on content, internal competition process, or offers to assist:
Jason Hale, Director of Research Resources
259-0544, jghale@olemiss.edu

UM/ORSP Internal Review Criteria for IGERT:

Include the following in internal proposal

• One page letter of intent, exactly as specified in 2012 funding solicitation
• 1-Page Project Summary
• Project Description (Limit 5 Pages) including:
  • List of participants (indicate whether they’ve agreed to participate)
  • Vision, Goals, and Thematic Basis
  • Major Research Efforts
  • Education and Training
  • Recruitment, Mentoring, and Retention
  • Recent (last 5 years) Traineeship Experience
  • International Collaboration (if proposed)
• If this is to be a resubmission of a previously submitted IGERT pre-proposal or full proposal:
  • Rather than writing 5 page project description, applicant may submit the full project description exactly as it was submitted to and reviewed by NSF, along with the 1-page summary.
  • Complete list of NSF reviewer comments from previous attempt
  • One page summary of how reviewer suggestions will be addressed

Potential Internal Review Criteria:

• Intellectual merit
  • Qualifications of team to conduct the project
  • Exploration of creative, original, or transformative concepts
  • Organization and conceptual integrity
  • Importance to advancing knowledge and understanding
• Broader impacts
  • Advancement of discovery & promotion of teaching, training, learning
  • Participation of under-represented groups (gender, ethnicity, disability)
  • Enhancement of infrastructure
  • Data management plan
  • Potential for societal or economic benefit
• Competitiveness
  • If a resubmission, quality of previous review and how team proposes to address reviewer criticisms
  • Team’s previous experience with IGERT or other internal pre-proposals 

UM Limited Submissions Procedurehttp://www.research.olemiss.edu/resources/limitedsubmissions