See maximum funding amount and funding details below
Eligibility:
Academic Council Faculty
Medical Center Line Faculty
Applications closed
Applications closed on February 10, 2023
The Deans of the School of Medicine, the School of Engineering, and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability are pleased to announce a new funding opportunity: “Synthetic Biology for Sustainability”. This opportunity will support research projects that aim to use synthetic biology to make life on Earth more sustainable, broadly defined.
Projects may contribute to sustainability in a number of ways: for example, how one can model nature, make/build/perturb a living system, or measure key parameters related to these areas. We expect all projects to involve synthesis, broadly speaking, in some form. Ideas can be at any scale from molecular, to cellular (and cell-free), organismal, to ecological, to planetary.
“Synthetic Biology for Sustainability” will support multi-disciplinary seed grant projects, including those that may be viewed as high risk/high impact. We envision supporting collaborative work among faculty and their research groups (including but not limited to students/post-docs/staff); alternative partnership structures are also welcome. We expect projects will last 6 months to 2 years. The total funding available for any individual project is up to $200,000 (including 8% IDC).
Priority will be given to proposals involving diverse teams of researchers, with faculty PIs from at least two departments or disparate research areas. We strongly encourage applications that include faculty from different schools within Stanford.
To make a submission, please use the application form to answer the following questions (the Heilmeier Catechism with a few additional questions) as succinctly as possible by February 10th, 2023:
What (350 words)
What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
Impact (150 words)
Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
How (300 words)
What are the risks?
How much will it cost?
How long will it take?
What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success?
Additional questions (200 words)
How will you ensure a diverse team is involved?
If your project will create a platform/technology, please indicate how it could enable a broader community of researchers and create an inflection point to accelerate progress.
This opportunity is open to all PI-eligible faculty lines. Please reach out to Roy Auty (autyr@stanford.edu) with questions related to this opportunity.
Eligibility:
This opportunity is open to all PI-eligible faculty lines. For more information, please consult the research policy handbook. (https://doresearch.stanford.edu/policies/research-policy-handbook/principal-investigatorship/principal-investigator-eligibility-and-criteria-exceptions)
Requirements:
Projects may contribute to sustainability in a number of ways: for example, how one can model nature, make/build/perturb a living system, or measure key parameters related to these areas. We expect all projects to involve synthesis, broadly speaking, in some form. Ideas can be at any scale from molecular, to cellular (and cell-free), organismal, to ecological, to planetary.