The University of Washington Innovation Awards - Physical Sciences

For more than 150 years the University of Washington has been a place where the imagination thrives. New discoveries are made every day in laboratories and classrooms across campus, where faculty, staff and students work together to tackle some of the most intractable problems we face. Many of the challenges confronting us today in areas such as climate, biodiversity and livable cities require fundamental discovery-based research that is novel in its approach and has the ability to break open new territory in a field. The University of Washington Innovation Awards will fuel innovative research that addresses problems of humanity.

Innovation Research Awards seeded through existing gift funds from the President’s office, are to support unusually creative early and mid-career faculty in health, natural, social and engineering sciences. Innovative discovery-based individual research or smaller scale collaborative research projects will be supported rather than extensions of large-scale ongoing research programs. The goal is to foster high-payoff work that promises to be transformational but for which other funding sources are limited.

The Innovation Awards will encourage, nurture, bring together, and celebrate creative thinkers in our midst.  A second purpose of the Innovation Awards is to increase public awareness of academic innovation. We hope that the efforts seeded by this program will stimulate philanthropic support of additional innovation awards.

Innovation Research Awards will be made each year in rotating selected areas. For FY 16, separate awards will be available in the physical sciences, the environmental sciences and the engineering sciences. Applications that address biomedical problems or which have clear relevance to human health will not be considered, as this was the selected area of focus for the FY15 innovation awards. Preference for these awards will be given to Assistant and recently promoted Associate Professors. Awards are open to Faculty members from each of the three University of Washington Campuses. Award recipients are expected to publish their results in appropriate journals and give talks on and off campus.

Application Instructions

Selection Process

• Innovation Research award criteria: highly innovative, potentially transformational research proposals. Preference will be given to Assistant and Associate Professors.  Research Faculty are eligible to apply.
• Funding:
  • Innovation Research awards will be up to $250K/yr x 2 years.

• Proposal: a two-step process
  • Step 1: Email the following materials as a single PDF to research@uw.edu:
    • Project Summary (1 page maximum)
    • Project Description(3 page maximum)
      • Overview:  Provide an overview of this field and the need for this project.
      • Relevant Efforts:  Describe past and current efforts that are relevant to this project.
      • Goals and Methodology:  State the major goals of this project and summarize the methodologies and time frame to be used in achieving them.
      • Impact:  Describe the potential impacts of achieving these goals. How will results, resources, or best practices be disseminated?
    • 3-page CV citing up to 10 most relevant publications and list of active grants
    • 1-page description of how your research accomplishments and/ or personal characteristics provide evidence of innovation or creativity.
    • 1-page budget that includes the following budget categories: salaries and wages; benefits; materials and supplies; equipment; travel; contractual services; other services. Indirect costs will not be charged on these awards.
    • 1-page budget justification
    • A letter of Support from Department Chair

• Title: Descriptive of project and accessible to lay audience,
• Abstract:  Provide an executive summary of this project, including overall goal, methodology and significance for a well-educated lay audience. Indicate which of the innovation awards you are applying for.
• Unique Aspects:  Describe unique or distinctive aspects of this project. How will the project break open new territory in your field? How will it lay the foundation for a solution to a real world problem?
• Principal Investigator:  Provide a brief description of expertise.

• Step 2
  • Finalists will be invited for an in-person interview with the selection committee

• Innovation Research Awards selection committee
  • Will include UW members of the National Academies and faculty members with scholarly expertise appropriate to judge applicants.
  • Organized and run by Office of Research; chaired by Carrie Harwood, Associate Vice Provost and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Application deadline and award dates
  • Application deadline: Monday November 2, 2015
  • Decisions by February 1, 2016
  • Funding start target: March 1, 2016

• Follow-up
  • Annual Report due one month after annual renewal date each year
  • Final Report due one month after completion

Questions should be directed to Matt Orefice, Assistant Director, at research@uw.edu.