Incentive Program for Grant Writing

HPS faculty secured $27.3 million in external funding over the last five years. The benefits of an external grant are substantial: support for your research agenda, your summer salary, and your students. Yet, grant writing takes time and effort – its hard work! This program aims to provide resources to fund your efforts and increase your chances of success.

This Incentive Program is independent of whether the grant for which the faculty or staff member applied is ultimately awarded. We wish to reward effort.

The program began on a trial basis in the 2021-22 academic year and will continue based on continuing good results and availability of funds.


PI eligibility:

  • Faculty appointment in HPS. Tenure line, research line, and clinical faculty are eligible.

Incentives available (please choose one):

New proposals:

  • Teaching buyout of one course (email showing approval from your Chair is required with submission).
  • Hiring a grantwriter or other mentoring as appropriate.
  • Travel to Washington DC to meet with a Program Officer.
  • 10 hour per week research assistant for one semester.
  • Monies for subject incentives, data, or biospecimen purchase and/or analysis.
  • Monies for travel to meet with collaborators.

Resubmissions where preliminary data were requested in the review (copy of review required):

  • 10 hour per week research assistant for one semester
  • Monies for subject incentives, data, or biospecimen purchase and/or analysis.

In addition to the above, other incentives will be considered. Talk to the Associate Dean for Research about your needs.


Project eligibility:

  1. Faculty must submit a competitive grant proposal to an off-campus grant/contract agency within one year of the start of the project period. Changes to this timeframe are possible but must be discussed with the Associate Dean for Research. 
    • Not eligible: pre-proposals and letters of intent, non-competitive renewals, and non-competitive contracts and sub-awards.
    • If the sponsor requires approval of a pre-proposal/letter of intent before they allow you to submit the full proposal, the faculty must obtain this approval prior to disbursement of funds.
  2. It must be a project where the primary aim is research.  The aim of this incentive program is to build research resources in our college.
    • This program is funded by TRIP monies. According to Texas law, these must be spent on research. Programmatic, service, or teaching proposals cannot be accepted. 
  3. HPS faculty applicant is lead PI or sole PI on the project.
    • Collaborations with other departments or with other universities are encouraged as appropriate for the project.
  4. Indirects/TRIP eligibility. This program aims to pay for itself, thus we are prioritizing one of the following:
    • Funding agency pays 48.5% indirect costs (sometimes known as facilities and administration costs).
      • Exceptions: US Department of Education. Any other exceptions to this need to be discussed with the Associate Dean for Research.
    • Foundations: Most foundation grants pay little or no indirects. Hence to be eligible for this program, the grant must be TRIP-eligible, e.g. it must pay a minimum of $100,000 in at least one year of the project. If you have questions on whether a grant would be TRIP-eligible, please email UNT Corporate or Foundation Relations to ask.
  5. Grant minimum amount. Our interest is promoting high risk/high reward efforts towards larger and/or multi-year projects. The below amounts are intended to represent midsize to large grants at the agencies shown. 

We anticipate that many projects would be collaborations with partners both inside and outside of UNT. These amounts shown would represent the total grant cost across all years, and include monies spent at UNT and at collaborating institutions (e.g. the monies do not need to be spent entirely at UNT)

  • NSF grants: $300,000+ (directs + indirect cost total)
  • NIH grants: $275,000+ (directs)
  • CDMRP/DOD: $500,000+ (directs)
  • Other federal or state: $300,000+ (directs)
  • Foundations: $100,000+ (directs)
  • Other sources: $100,000+ (directs)

Budget

  • The maximum budget for incentives, data/biospecimen costs, travel to meet with Program Officers cannot exceed $5,000. Monies cannot be used for faculty salaries or conference travel.

Due dates

  • Applications are due April 1st, 2024

Faculty Obligations

  • Faculty will submit the grant to the sponsor within a year of the start of the seed funding period. Any later RFA deadlines should occur in consultation with the Associate Dean for Research.
  • Faculty member(s) whose proposal is not funded by the external sponsor is expected to revise and resubmit the proposal for the sponsor’s next deadline date.  Only one re-submit is required under this program.
  • Faculty member(s) receiving the incentive funds may be invited to serve on in-house review committees to review external grant proposals.
  • If funded, all applicants will be required to present proof of extramural submission.

Evaluation

All feasible projects are encouraged and will be considered, although new projects will be prioritized. Priority will be given to:

  • Applicants whose promotion or tenure would be most advanced by securing an external grant.
  • Larger projects, because those take the greatest faculty time and effort.
  • Projects that support UNT's goal of achieving NRUF status, including career training grants such as NSF Career awards and NIH K grants.

Budgets will be critically reviewed. RFAs that have already been released, rather than forecasted opportunities, are strongly preferred.


Click Here to access the application form

Questions? Email Julia Heck, Associate Dean for Research, HPS