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SciRIS Program Application and Submission Guidelines

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SciRIS Program Application and Submission Guidelines

Full proposal preparation

Due date: January 16, 2026

If you submitted a LOI and you have been invited to prepare a full proposal to submit to a SciRIS program category, please follow the directions below to prepare and submit your proposal. Failure to follow the guidelines below could result in the proposal being returned without review.

For information about the SciRIS program and the different categories of funding, please see our Research Advancement site.

Pagination

Documents must be formatted with 1-inch margins and 11pt font or larger, with the exception of figure legends (as applicable).

Project Summary

A project summary is required and limited to 1 page. Please include the following.

  1. Project Title
  2. Names and affiliations: Please provide names and affiliations of PI, co-PI and any senior personnel
  3. Short public abstract: Please prepare a short abstract that is appropriate for a general audience. If your SciRIS proposal is funded, the abstract will be used for dissemination.
  4. List of keywords: Please list keywords (up to 5) that describe your project.

Project Narrative

Narrative Page limits

SciRIS Industry Partnership — 4 pages

SciRIS Individual Investigator (SciRIS-ii) — 4 pages

SciRIS Disease Mechanism and Prevention Fund (DMPF) — 4 pages

SciRIS Stage 1 — 4 pages

SciRIS Stage 2 — 6 pages

SciRIS Stage 3 — 8 pages

Narrative Content

The narrative should explicitly address each of the topics below within the page limits allowed.

  1. Intellectual Merit: The proposal should address the originality of the proposed vision and ideas and the transformative potential of the proposed research and/or innovation goals.
  2. Broader Impacts: The proposal should describe how the proposed research will benefit society and promote student success at OSU.
  3. Anticipated Outcomes and Deliverables: The proposal should indicate both short term and long term outcomes and deliverables. Examples of short term deliverables (within 6 months to a year) are manuscript preparation, preliminary results, building collaborative teams. Long term outcomes (one to two years) should include targeting a specific external funding opportunity.
  4. Inclusive Excellence: The proposal should include Inclusive Excellence goals that the research will address.
  5. Roles, Responsibility and Timeline: The proposal should provide roles and responsibilities of all team members on the project, including all funded students and postdoc scholars, and a timeline for the proposed research, outcomes and deliverables
  6. References: The proposal should properly cite relevant references.

The proposal should include the following required supporting documents. These can be uploaded separately as the portal allows up to 10 document uploads.

Supporting documents

Supporting documents are required unless stated otherwise.

  1. Prior COS SciRIS support (1 page limit)
    If applicable
    Include a brief summary of your prior SciRIS proposal(s) Intellectual Merits, Broader Impacts and outcomes and deliverables.
  2. Letters of collaboration(s) (1 page limit for each letter – combine all letters into one pdf)
    If applicable
    If the proposal indicates a collaboration with a unit, agency or individuals that are not part of the proposing team, a letter of collaboration from each unit, agency or individual involved is required. Please request letters on the letterhead of the respective organization of the individual or the unit/agency involved.
  3. Biographical sketch(s) (3 page limit for each biosketch – combine all biosketches into one pdf)
    Required
    For each PI, Co-PI and senior personnel, a biosketch must be included. You may use SciENcv or the Biosketch template on this SciRIS Forms page.
  4. Current & Pending (no page limit – combine all current & pending into one pdf)
    Required
    For each PI, co-PI and senior personnel, a current and pending form listing all active and pending grants, both internal to OSU (e.g. start up funds, RAA, TRSF, etc) and external, must be submitted. Do not list expired awards.
  5. Signed Department Head letter
    If applicable
    If graduate student support and/or course buyout(s) are requested in the proposal budget, a supporting letter from the appropriate department head(s) is required. Please use the Head letter template on this SciRIS Forms page.

Budget and budget justification

The SciRIS program provides seed funding for individual PIs or collaborative teams in the College of Science. External collaborations, from outside Oregon State University, or within the university but outside the college are welcome. However, SciRIS funding can only be allocated to faculty and students within the college of Science.

A budget and budget justification is required to be submitted. Please use this Budget Template for your budget and justification. The template has a column to include the justification.

In your budget justification, please include the following:

  1. Statement on Importance of SciRIS Funding: Please state how SciRIS funds would allow for resources that are not met by all other funding that you/your team currently has, including both internal and external funding (e.g. startup funding, external funding or other sources available). You may refer to your current and pending support in this statement.
  2. Statement on Importance of Student Funding: If you plan to request funding for graduate students (GRA or hourly wages) you must outline in your budget justification how/why the students are important to the project’s success, the specific role assigned to the students and deliverables that are expected from them. Describe how the students’ work will be used in the project and how the research contributes to their MS or PhD thesis. If SciRIS research would be a side project for the student(s) and does not contribute to their MS or PhD thesis, then you should request hourly wages in your budget and tuition and fees would have to be paid from other sources.

Examples of costs supported

  • Undergraduate student funding
  • Graduate research assistant (GRA) funding (see note above, needs approval from unit head)
  • Postdoc funding
  • Course buyout (needs approval from unit head)
  • Travel funding (has to be specific to the project and tied to the outcomes. Travel to generic conferences/workshops is not covered and student travel is not covered)
  • Research equipment
  • Materials and supplies
  • Fees for use of research instrumentation in a core facility
  • Organization of research workshops
  • Proposal writing support for an external funding opportunity (only for SciRIS Stages 2 and 3)

Note: Funds for conference travel are not supported. You may request travel for collaborative research or field research related to the project.

Cost sharing

Cost sharing is not required, but it is encouraged, especially for SciRIS Stage 2 and Stage 3. If cost share is indicated in a proposal, a letter indicating the support must be included. Please note that we do not track cost share; thus, it is incumbent on awardees to negotiate cost share with the units or colleges providing the cost share.

Examples of potential cost sharing include the following:

  • Department support for travel and student stipend
  • Uncommitted 201 and start-up funds
  • Seed funding from other colleges, Division of Research and Innovation or other units at OSU
  • External funding from federal agency or foundation
  • OSU Foundation gift
  • Grant funding from industry

Proposal Submission

Download required and optional forms at beav.es/scirisforms

Prepare your proposal documents as described above. Submit your documents to our COS Internal Research Funding Program Portal, as indicated on this site by the deadline.

Review and selection process

All SciRIS proposals are reviewed by a peer review panel of faculty with appropriate scientific expertise at OSU. Proposals and panel summaries will be shared with the Dean of Science. Final decisions are made by the Dean and Executive Associate Dean.

Proposal review criteria

The SciRIS program supports transformative research that will lead to extramural funding. Such research involves ideas, discoveries, or tools that radically change our understanding of an important existing scientific or educational practice or leads to the creation of a new paradigm or field of science or education.

Proposals submitted to any SciRIS category will be judged on scientific merit, significance of the proposed research, development of new or existing partnerships, potential impact on future funding, creativity in the use of emerging technology and the potential to broaden participation, equity and access. Proposal review criteria include:

  • Originality: How original is the proposed idea? Does the research challenge current understanding? What is the potential of the work to advance knowledge both within a discipline and across disciplines?
  • Transformative Potential: What is the transformative potential of the proposed work? Does the research open pathways to new frontiers of science? What are the benefits to society?
  • Team Effectiveness: Are resources aligned with proposed work and outcomes? Does the team (single PI or collaborative team) collectively have approprate expertise to succeed in the stated goals? What are the tangible outcomes? Are there plans in place for extramural funding?
  • Broadening Participation and Inclusive Excellence: How well does the project promote equity, inclusivity, and access? Does It provide opportunities for broadening participation of under-represented groups?

Funded award timeline

Successful SciRIS awards will start in Spring of the award year.

Acknowledging the grant

If you are awarded a SciRIS award, please acknowledge the SciRIS program on any documents about the project, including but not limited to video productions, press releases, brochures, publications, posters, etc. The acknowledgement should include the web address (short URL: https://beav.es/ihi) on any documents about the project and include the phrase:

“This project has been made possible with support from the College of Science Research & Innovation Seed (SciRIS) funding program, https://beav.es/ihi”

Reporting

Awardee faculty/teams must submit a report describing how the award contributed towards advancing science and concrete outcomes. If the project includes collaborations, please describe how the SciRIS award provided opportunities to advance a collaboration or partnership. Finally, please indicate which external program or solicitation was or is being targeted.

For all funded SciRIS projects, a final report for each award is due within 45 days after the end of the award. An interim financial report may be requested by the Executive Associate Dean six months into the project.

Fill in this form to submit your report: https://beav.es/SciRIS_reporting (requires ONID login).

No cost extensions

We anticipate that some projects may experience challenges that could delay outcomes and deliverables. If your funded project meets this criterion and you would like to request a no cost extension (NCE), you will need to fill out the No Cost Extension Request (this requires ONID login) before the grant end date.

Please note:

  • NCE's received after the end of the grant award will be declined.
  • The NCE request will be reviewed by the College of Science Research Development unit (RDU).
  • NCE's are not guaranteed. The Executive Associate Dean will communicate decisions on NCEs.

Filling out the form does not guarantee that an NCE will be granted. Please contact the COS RDU for questions at [email protected]

What has been funded?

See a full list on the SciRIS Project Page