2025 SAFES Seed2Sustain Program

DESCRIPTION

The CIIs serve as the research hubs of the Institute and College, with each of the CIIs in various stages of development. In recognition of these different stages and research development needs, applicants can request funding at three different levels based on the current maturity of the CII. Proposals that integrate research, partnerships & engagement, and education in a synergistic and simultaneous manner to support development and submission of large-scale extramural grant opportunities are encouraged, but not required. Funding will be used to accelerate the maturity of each of the CIIs, moving them through a process we refer to as IDEAL:

Initiate: SAFES provides the right conditions and support for new ideas to be initiated and for new collaborations to start.
Develop: SAFES facilitates development and strengthening of newly formed collaborations, ensuring early successes that can be used to position the team for mid-sized external sources of funding.
Execute: SAFES provides the resources and support for executing/implementing the advanced vision of the CII, positioning them to pursue large external sources of funding.
Amplify: SAFES provides the resources and support for the CII to amplify its successes/impacts as it reaches maturity. 
Leverage: SAFES provides the support to leverage the success of the current CII and evaluate potential future options, which could include “retirement” or “re-envisioning” (i.e., return to the “Initiate” stage).  

We anticipate supporting one to four CIIs at funding Level 1, one or two CIIs at funding Level 2, and two CIIs at funding Level 3.

Eligibility

• For all levels, the PI must be a faculty member in the College of Agricultural Sciences and a member (associate, affiliate, or convener) of one of the SAFES CIIs.
• For all levels, funds must be used to position the CII to pursue large-scale extramural grant opportunities. All proposed projects at Levels 2 and 3 must include multiple associate and affiliate members of the CII and fulfill requirements for an interdisciplinary team.

Proposal Submission
Proposals for each Level of support must include the following:

• A brief summary (200 words maximum) of the current activities in the CII and assessment and which funding Level of support (1, 2 or 3) they are requesting.
• A vision/explanation for how the overall budget requested will position the CII to apply for external funding.
• A description of how the funds requested position the CII to move to the next stage in the IDEAL
• A specific grant, including funding agency and program (required for Levels 2 and 3), that the CII will commit to applying for during the duration of the award period.
• A budget, including justification and brief description of each budgeted item. Budgets can be constructed for a maximum of one year. Funds from this program must be expended within one year of the award date.

The proposal should be no more than 3 pages, including the budget, and submitted as a singled PDF file through InfoReady.

Evaluation

• Proposals will be evaluated by a review panel that includes SAFES and college-level leadership.
• Primary evaluation will be based on the development of a convincing strategy for successful submission of an appropriately-sized (based on the funding level) external grant.
• Evaluation will also consider the effectiveness of the strategy for advancing the CII to the next IDEAL

Reporting

• An interim report will be due six months after the beginning of the awarded performance period.
• A final report will be due one month after the end of the performance period.
• Submit reports through the InfoReady system. Report reminders and guidance will be provided.

LEVEL 1 PROPOSALS: To support CIIs in the Initiate stage to move to the Develop stage; OR CIIs in the Leverage stage looking to Initiate the next opportunity.

Up to $5,000 for one year to seed the development of interdisciplinary team activities amongst the members of the CII. Funds can be used to support team-building activities aiming to establish a novel interdisciplinary research trajectory, refine research goals, bring structure to new interdisciplinary collaborations, and support small research development activities. Examples of the types of activities that can be supported in Level 1 are as follows:

Discretionary/Seed Grant Funds (Up to $5,000):
Provide discretionary funds to incentivize new research activities within the CIIs that accelerates and elevates current research activities. This could be used to support preliminary data collection/analysis, etc.

Travel (Up to $5,000): 
Support travel to conferences/workshops and/or bring targeted external experts who are desired collaborators to campus. A specific goal for how the outcome of the travel would turn into a proposal would be needed for these funds to be given.

SAFES Undergraduate Research Scholar ($2,500 per semester): 
Invite outstanding undergraduate students to help provide research development support on hourly wage payroll, seeding the initial pipeline of research development specialists. Example responsibilities of this Scholar could be to: (i) attend CII meetings and help with notetaking; (ii) help with team facilitation, (iii) conduct literature reviews/background research, and (iv) organize the proposal development process (i.e., set up an organizational structure in Teams to collect proposal files, support documents, etc.).

SAFES Graduate Student Scholar ($3,000 per semester): Mentor/train a pipeline of research development specialists. 
Develop a new graduate-student focused program and invite outstanding graduate students in our college to help provide research development support, which would mentor/train a pipeline of research development specialists. This Scholar could help with the following: (i) strategic intelligence to anticipate and identify funding opportunities; (ii) stay on top of requests for information that appear in the federal bulletin or registrar; (iii) attend CII meetings and help with team facilitation; (iv) conduct literature reviews/background research; and (v) draft proposal text (especially background information, methods, etc.). 

LEVEL 2 PROPOSALS: To support CIIs in the Development stage to move into the Execute stage.

Up to $15,000 for one year to advance the development of interdisciplinary team activities amongst the members of the CII. Funds can be used to support team-building activities aiming to execute an already developed interdisciplinary research project, further refine structure of new interdisciplinary collaborations, and support mid-sized research development activities. A specified funding source appropriate for this funding Level (~$2-5M) should be identified and a full proposal submitted during the award period.  Examples of the types of activities that can be supported in Level 2 are as follows:

Discretionary/Seed Grant Funds (Up to $15,000):
Provide discretionary funds to incentivize new research activities within the CIIs that accelerates and elevates current research activities. This could be used to support preliminary data collection/analysis, etc.

Graduate Student Support ($12,500):
Offer one semester of graduate student support (either tuition or stipend) to a CII Convener/Associate/Affiliate as a reward/incentive for that faculty member to serve as the PI of a large external grant. This could either be offered to a current graduate student or used by the CII as matches for proposals that would benefit from re-allocating those resources to other budget line items. Another potential option would be for additional resources to made available to increase the grade at which the student is recruited (i.e., include funding for Grade 12 in the grant, and then SAFES provides additional funds for the PI to hire a student at a higher Grade, such as Grade 14). This would help the team to attract higher quality students to the project.

Convene Workshops (Up to $10,000):
Host workshops to generate big, innovative, new ideas among CII members and collaborators. Funds could help cover venue and food, consultants, outside speakers, external facilitation services as needed to take the burden off faculty and staff. Additionally, funding could be used to support travel for CII members who are at a Commonwealth Campus, Research & Extension Centers (RECs), or other universities etc., to come to University Park to join these meetings. 

“Red Team” Review (Up to $10,000):
Support for pursuing external proposal development support, such as a “red team review” of a nearly complete proposal draft.

Travel (Up to $5,000):
Support travel to conferences/workshops and/or bring targeted external experts who are desired collaborators to campus. A specific goal for how the outcome of the travel would turn into a proposal would be needed for these funds to be given.

Professional Development Support (Up to $5,000):
Support for pursuing external professional development opportunities. Support could include training for grant writing, team science training, facilitation training, etc.

SAFES Undergraduate Research Scholar ($2,500 per semester):
Invite outstanding undergraduate students to help provide research development support on hourly wage payroll. This could include attending CII meetings to help with notetaking, team facilitation, literature reviews/background research, meeting facilitation, etc.

SAFES Graduate Student Scholar ($3,000 per semester):
Develop a new graduate-student focused program and invite outstanding graduate students in our college to help provide research development support. This position could help with the following: (i) strategic intelligence to anticipate and identify funding opportunities; (ii) stay on top of requests for information that appear in the federal bulletin or registrar; (iii) attend CII meetings and help with team facilitation; (iv) conduct literature reviews/background research; and (v) draft proposal text (especially background information, methods, etc.).

LEVEL 3 PROPOSALS: To support CIIs in the Execute stage to move into the Amplify stage. 

Up to $50,000 for one year to support advanced development of interdisciplinary team-building activities amongst the members and bring the CII to maturity. Funds can be used for a wide range of higher-level research development support, including enhanced amounts of seed funding to support development of new capabilities/acquisition of new equipment, funding for proposal development support personnel, and support for integration of stakeholders to position the team for successful pursuit of large, external sources of funding. A specified funding source appropriate for this funding Level (>$5M) should be identified and a full proposal submitted during the award period. Examples of the types of activities that can be supported in Level 3 are as follows:

SAFES Research Development Project Manager (Up to $30,000):
Provide funds to hire the equivalent of up to ~0.5 FTE post-doc salary (or other staff person) to serve as a research development specialist/project manager for all aspects of putting together a large, interdisciplinary proposal. This could include: (i) attending CII meetings and helping with team facilitation; (ii) conducting literature reviews/background research; and (iii) drafting proposal text and collect necessary information for PI’s (especially background information, COI’s, current and pending support, methods, etc.). Responsibilities could also include mentoring an undergraduate or graduate research scholar on the team.

Graduate Student Support (Up to $25,000 total, or $12,500 per semester):
Offer up to two semesters of graduate student support (either tuition or stipend) to a CII Convener/Associate/Affiliate as a reward/incentive for that faculty member to serve as the PI of a large external grant. This could either be offered to a current graduate student or used by the CII as matches for proposals that would benefit from re-allocating those resources to other budget line items. Another potential option would be for additional resources to made available to increase the grade at which the student is recruited (i.e., include funding for Grade 12 in the grant, and then SAFES provides additional funds for the PI to hire a student at a higher Grade, such as Grade 14). This would help the team to attract higher quality students to the project.

Seed Grant Funds (Up to $20,000):
Provide enhanced “seed grant” funds to further advance research activities within the CIIs that accelerates and elevates current research activities. This could be used to support preliminary data collection/analysis, acquire small instrumentation and/or equipment to better position the team to be competitive for large external funding sources.

Convene “Shared Discovery” Workshops (Up to $15,000):
Host workshops to generate big, innovative, new ideas among CII members and collaborators. Using the unique platform that SAFES provides, identify and invite external partners to engage with researchers around proposal ideas and research themes. This would help frame research questions/methodologies that address priority questions of decision-makers and stakeholders. This could include working collaboratively with stakeholders of governmental agencies to develop a framework or strategy for the research to meet “Broader Impacts” goals of the funding agencies through “shared discovery” and the co-production of new knowledge. These workshops could result in “buy-in” from certain key stakeholders who may be willing to participate in external councils and/or advisory board to support and inform the research, as well as help disseminate the outcomes for broader impact. Funds could help cover venue and food, consultants, outside speakers, external facilitation services as needed to take the burden off faculty and staff. Additionally, funding could be used to support travel for CII members who are at a Commonwealth Campus, Research & Extension Centers (RECs), or other universities etc., to come to University Park to join these meetings. 

Proposal Development and/or “Red Team Review” Support (Up to $15,000):
Support for pursuing external proposal development support. Support could include assistance with project planning, development of a work plan for writing the proposal, development of a proposal outline, editing and review of proposal drafts, advice on proposal strategy, and a “red team review” of a complete or nearly-complete proposal draft.

Travel (Up to $10,000):
Support travel to conferences/workshops and/or bring targeted external experts who are desired collaborators to campus. A specific goal for how the outcome of the travel would turn into a proposal would be needed for these funds to be given.

SAFES Graduate Student Scholar ($3,000 per semester):
Develop a new graduate-student focused program and invite outstanding graduate students in our college to help provide research development support. This position could help with the following: (i) strategic intelligence to anticipate and identify funding opportunities; (ii) stay on top of requests for information that appear in the federal bulletin or registrar; (iii) attend CII meetings and help with team facilitation; (iv) conduct literature reviews / background research; and (v) draft proposal text (especially background information, methods, etc.).

Writing Retreat / Facilitated Proposal Development (Up to $2,500):
Support for short-term, focused time for the CII during initial stages of proposal development. Funding could send the group to a local venue with food accommodations to give them uninterrupted time to engaged in guided facilitation of brainstorming activities, a safe/productive format for idea generation and iterative development of the proposal and protected/distraction-free time to meet critical writing goals driven by proposal submission deadlines.

QUESTIONS

Questions regarding applications of the Seed2Sustain Program should be directed via email to safes@psu.edu.