Call for Proposals - Immediate Innovation for Coronavirus Project (IICP)

March 30, 2020

UAF’s Center for Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship (Center ICE) is soliciting proposals for innovations to help combat COVID-19 or improve life under the new conditions caused by COVID-19. IICP is supported by the Office of Naval Research in an agile effort to efficiently respond to COVID-19. Proposals do not need to go through a pre-award office but rather should be sent directly to mcbillingsley@alaska.edu.

All questions should be directed to Mark Billingsley at mcbillingsley@alaska.edu or 503-705-5170.

• Deadline and Schedule: Rolling submission. However, this is a call for immediate action: applicants should submit proposals as soon as possible. This call for proposals is initially scheduled to expire on April 10th. Proposals will be reviewed immediately upon receipt, and applicants will be notified of whether their proposed project will be funded within 3 working days of submission. Projects must be completed and all expenses submitted by November 30, 2020.
• Number of Awards: TBD
• Budget and Anticipated Funding Amount: Proposals should be accompanied by a budget request. Budgets should fall between $1000 and $50,000, though projects in excess of $50,000 still will be considered and may be funded depending on circumstances. As IICP’s funding is a reallocation of existing grant funds and thus F&A already has been deducted, do not include F&A in your proposal budget.
• Who May Submit a Proposal: All members of the UA community. This includes all members from UAA, UAF, UAS, and all remote and community campuses. This includes all faculty, staff, and students.
• Proposal Requirements: Proposal narratives must not exceed 3 pages of size 12 font; this does not include the budget. Proposal narratives must identify:
              o the problem you propose to solve,
              o how this problem is currently being addressed,
              o your proposed solution and the innovation that you propose to develop,
              o how your innovation is novel relative to existing solutions,
              o a description of the work you would perform,
              o how you propose to measure success for your project,
              o key personnel including a very brief biography of each, and
              o a budget narrative

IICP seeks to fund innovations that would improve the response and adaptation to COVID-19 immediately or in the longer term. In proportion to the timeframe of COVID-19, this call for proposals is designed to support immediate action. All projects must develop an innovative solution to a COVID-19 related challenge or opportunity. Challenges and opportunities may be local, statewide, national, or global. Applicants are encouraged to research the challenges and opportunities that have arisen and consider their expertise and available resources. Applicants may consider immediate needs as well as anticipated future needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges and opportunities may come from the following non-exclusive list of fields: logistics, emergency response, internet access, communications, education technology, remote work, rapid capital deployment for small businesses, information gathering and dissemination, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and manufacturing. In this latter field, for example, challenges have been identified for the local manufacture of personal protective equipment for medical providers. Innovation readiness levels may range from early research all the way through prototype demonstration.

IICP is supported by the Office of Naval Research and is a program of Center ICE.