Limited Submissions
Limited submissions are external sponsored funding opportunities that require an internal selection process because the sponsor limits the number of proposals and/or imposes specific restrictions on applications submitted by Tufts.
Please note that not all limited submissions are announced. Announcements are made with an emphasis on those opportunities of broad interest to the Tufts community, and the list below is not exhaustive. If you are interested in a limited submission that does not appear below, please contact your local research administrator (LRA) and email the Limited Submissions team at limitedsubmissions@tufts.edu.
To members of the Tufts Research Community:
Please see the limited submission opportunities summarized below. For more information on these opportunities, please visit the links to the funding opportunities.
Unless otherwise indicated below, those interested should send an email of intent to the Limited Submissions Team at limitedsubmissions@tufts.edu informing us of an intention to apply. EOIs received after the deadline indicated below will not be considered. The email of intent must include:
- The name of the solicitation,
- The name of the Principal Investigator, and any co-PIs,
- A 2-3 sentence description of the proposed project.
Should the number of interested applicants exceed the number allowed by the funder, an internal selection process will be conducted by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, and candidates will be notified to submit internal application materials. All candidates will be notified of results. NB: Successful applications must include official notification from the Limited Submissions Team in order to submit. For more information, please see http://viceprovost.tufts.edu/resources/funding/limited-submissions/
Email of Intent Deadline: Wednesday, November 15 by noon. Please see underlined and italicized text below for any special EOI instructions.
This week’s limited submission opportunities are:
- Number allowed: 1
- Sponsor Deadlines: Application due February 2
- Purpose: For translational research of cancers affecting women, including but not limited to breast, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, uterine or cancers predominantly affecting women.
- Requirements: Translational research is broadly defined as research that will provide a scientific link between laboratory research and the clinic. Such research would lead to improvement in diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, or treatment of the cancer.
- Eligibility: Principal Investigator must be appointed a full-time assistant professor or higher at the time of application submission and commit a minimum 5% effort. No agency restrictions; please follow Tufts PI eligibility policies.
- Award Information: Grants will be awarded in the amount of $100,000 over a two-year period.
- Further Information: https://marykayashfoundation.org/what-we-do/cancer-research/grant-information/
- Number allowed: 1
- Sponsor Deadlines: Optional draft due: January 10 | Application due February 14
- Purpose: To support a more holistic understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern world through the creation of new humanities research centers on artificial intelligence at eligible institutions. Centers must focus their scholarly activities on exploring the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI.
- Requirements: Successful applicants will examine the humanities implications of AI through two or more related scholarly activities. Centers must be led by scholars in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, but should include scholars from multiple disciplines. Scholars may come from one or more institutions.
- Projects should engage in at least two activities that support research into the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI.
- Appropriate activities may include but are not limited to: collaborative research and writing efforts; workshops or lecture series; education and mentoring; and the creation of digital tools to increase or advance scholarly discourse about AI.
- NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the impacts of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy; safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
- You must propose to create a Center with a specific research focus related to the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI.
- A Center may or may not have a physical location, but as part of your project you should establish a leadership structure, develop a mission statement, and create a strategy to sustain the Center beyond the period of performance.
- Eligibility: No agency restrictions; please follow Tufts PI eligibility policies.
- Award Information: Up to $750,000 ($500,000 in outright funds plus $250,000 in Federal Matching Funds), for up to three years
- Further Information: https://www.neh.gov/program/humanities-research-centers-artificial-intelligence
- Number allowed: 3 concept notes
- Sponsor Deadlines: Registration form submitted: November 30, 2023 | Applications due: 3pm ET February 15, 2024
- Purpose: To support research and/or curricular projects focused on 1) Cultures of US Democracy; 2) Environmental Justice Studies; or 3) Social Justice and Disciplinary Knowledge
- Requirements: Projects must take a humanities approach to research areas within one of the following topics (please see link below for more detail on each category):
- Cultures of US Democracy: Projects that use humanities approaches to consider conditions beyond governmental practices that enable democracy to flourish, specifically cultural functions rather than political matters, and how these can best be achieved nurtured and sustained within the increasingly complex and fractured society that is the United States. Projects from all areas of the humanities are welcomed, particularly those seemingly far removed from questions of political philosophy and democratic theory
- Environmental Justice Studies: Humanities-based environmental justice work, with -projects examining the social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of accelerating environmental degradation. Topics of interest include humanities-grounded projects that focus on specific systems (e.g., food, water, health); ones that engage interrelated systems in a given community/locale; and ones that come at this topic through discrete analytical or disciplinary lenses (e.g., disability studies, literary studies, art-historical approaches). The strongest proposals will have community partners
- Social Justice and Disciplinary Knowledge: Seek projects that exemplify how specific humanities disciplinary or interdisciplinary fields of study are equipped to reckon with issues of social justice. Especially interested in applications grounded in long-standing fields such as art history, classics, history, languages and literatures, musicology, philosophy, and religious studies. Preference will be given to projects that reflect explicitly on the relevant discipline’s or interdiscipline’s particular capacity for social justice analysis, as well as its limits in this regard, and those that propose concrete pedagogical, research, and or community-engaged efforts that have transformative potential
- Eligibility: The Principal Investigator (PI) should be a faculty member or dean in a program or department in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, or the institution’s provost, and should have the support of the institution’s senior academic leadership; please follow Tufts PI eligibility policies.
- Award Information: Up to $500,000 over a funding period of up to 3 years; please note funding restrictions at the link below
- Further Information: https://mellon.app.box.com/s/9x4hl9j1fzvq7w6qzmxmc2attwtm4vvx/file/1333511814515
About Limited Submissions
Limited submissions are external sponsored funding opportunities that require an internal selection process because the sponsor limits the number of proposals and/or imposes specific restrictions on applications submitted by Tufts. This information is often located in the “Eligibility” sections of funding opportunity announcements (FOAs).
The Limited Submissions Team in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) identifies limited submission opportunities and coordinates the university-wide review and nomination of applications for these opportunities to ensure such submission restrictions are met. For those limited submission opportunities from foundations, the OVPR collaborates closely with the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) to facilitate the process. Proposals cannot be submitted outside of the limited submissions process described below.
The process is designed to provide principal investigators and their teams with as much time as possible to prepare submissions to the sponsor while allowing for a fair management of internal competitions.
Tufts Process
Identification
OVPR and CFR identify limited submission funding opportunities through Internet searches, PIVOT alerts, mailings, newsletters, invitations, and previous opportunities.
If a faculty or staff member identifies a limited submission prior to or instead of an OVPR announcement, that individual will notify the Limited Submissions Team immediately to ensure that the team is aware of the opportunity and that no more than the specified numbers of applications are submitted.
Announcement
When a limited opportunity for a broad number of investigators is identified, the OVPR will notify the research community by posting to the limited submissions webpage.
Some limited opportunities are focused on a specific scientific area or are open only to a specific group. In these cases, the Limited Submissions Team may target the opportunity to those who match the sponsor’s eligibility requirements. However, if an investigator is interested in a particular opportunity with a limitation, they should email Limited Submissions immediately to expedite the process.
Email of Intent
For Limited Submissions that have been announced and for those identified by interested investigators, anyone wishing to send a proposal in response should send an e-mail of intent to the Limited Submission Team at limitedsubmissions@tufts.edu and to their LRA with the subject line: Limited Submission (PROGRAM NAME FROM ANNOUNCEMENT) by noon on the Wednesday after the announcement, unless otherwise noted.
The email of intent should include only the following:
- Indication of desire to submit to the limited FOA
- Name and title of principal investigator and any identified team members
- A brief (1-3 sentences) description of the proposed project
- Any other requested information (e.g., confirmation of eligibility, acknowledgement of cost share or reduced indirect cost requirements)
If no more than the maximum number of emails of intent are submitted, the Limited Submissions Team will notify the applicant(s) within 24 hours that their submissions may move forward.
Internal Competition
If the number of emails of intent exceed the maximum number allowed by the sponsor, potential applicants will be notified and asked to prepare an internal application that includes all material explicitly requested in the internal announcement, due by noon on the Wednesday after the email of intent is due unless otherwise noted. These materials will include:
- The name of the program to which you intend to apply
- The name of the Principal Investigator and any additional team members
- The subject or title of the proposed project
- A short NSF, NIH or equivalent style biosketch of the PI
- A description of approximately 500 words outlining the PI’s qualifications and a description of the proposed project, tailored to the requirements of the funding opportunity
- For large equipment grants, include a statement in the project description demonstrating adherence to the Tufts Policy on Purchase or Development of Equipment with Additional Infrastructure Needs
- If cost share, matching, or similar is required by the sponsor, a statement acknowledging responsibility for securing appropriate approvals by the sponsor deadline.
Review, Selection, and Notification
If the number of internal proposals exceeds the institutional limit, OVPR uses the internal selection process described below. Exceptions to this process are made in certain situations. For example, the nominee may be selected by the Vice Provost for Research and/or the Provost when an opportunity reflects a strategic priority or requires significant institutional commitment.
For the standard internal selection process, a review committee composed of at least three individuals with expertise in the topic and/or the sponsor/program will be selected by the Limited Submissions Committee. The Committee will ensure that the reviewers do not have conflicts of interest with any of the applicants. These individuals will review all internal proposals according to the review criteria listed below and the sponsor’s requirements and/or funding priorities.
The OVPR will select the candidate(s) based on the committee’s recommendations. De-identified reviewer feedback will be provided upon request. Information about the faculty review committee and selected candidate(s) is confidential.
All candidates will be notified of the final decisions of the committee via email. The department/school’s Lead Research Administrator and the Director of Pre-Award Research Administration will be cc’d on the official nomination letter, and Corporate & Foundation Relations will be included when relevant.
If a proposal cannot be completed, please contact the Limited Submission Team immediately so another PI may have the opportunity to apply.
Submission to the Sponsor
All proposals indicating a limit on the number of submissions from Tufts must be accompanied by an official letter of nomination from the Limited Submissions Team to be processed, regardless of whether they were announced by the OVPR.
All nominees should work with their assigned research administrator in their department or school to prepare submission to the sponsor.
In addition, for foundation proposals the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) will work with the nominee(s) to review the foundation's latest requirements, goals, previously funded proposals, and the university’s history and internal connections with the foundation. The appropriate CFR representative will be cc’d on the official nomination letter.
Review Criteria
Review criteria are determined based on the criteria employed by the sponsor for each funding program. In general, limited submission internal proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Intellectual Merit: How important is the proposed research to advancing knowledge within its field or across fields? How well qualified is the proposer? To what extent does the project suggest and explore original concepts? How well conceived is the proposed project? What is the likelihood of success?
- Match to Sponsor’s Program and Tufts Goals: How well does the proposed project address the sponsor’s programmatic requirements and goals? Given Tufts’ research goals and strengths, what are the benefits to the relevant campus(es)?
- Other Relevant Factors: Includes such factors relevant to the specific FOA as cultural competency; public outreach efforts; quality of the evaluation design; if applicable, comments from previous submissions to the same program and the current proposal’s responsiveness to those comments.
We encourage researchers to collaborate with other groups at Tufts when possible. This team-based approach adds breadth to the proposal, while supporting the interdisciplinary focus that is increasingly promoted by federal and nonfederal agencies.
Timeline
The Limited Submissions process is designed to offer applicants as much time as possible to develop their submissions to external sponsors. Limited Submission Opportunities will be announced a minimum of one month prior to sponsor deadline. The typical timeline for limited submissions is as follows, with some flexibility provided for the needs of specific sponsors.
Please contact the Limited Submissions Team at limitedsubmissions@tufts.edu for any questions about the limited submissions process.