University of Michigan – Sao Paulo Research Foundation announce grants program

The University of Michigan has recently signed a Cooperative Agreement with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) through which the two institutions will provide small grants (up to $40,000 over two years) for research projects involving collaboration between U-M faculty members and counterparts at universities and research institutions in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. An important objective of this grants program is to enable the researchers (PIs) to learn about one another’s research in areas of common interest and thereafter to develop funding proposals for larger, more ambitious and on-going collaborative projects.

The Call for Proposals can be found at: http://www.ii.umich.edu/lacs/educationalresources/facultyfundingopportunities and provides a fuller description of this grants program and gives the information necessary to prepare proposals, including proposal characteristics and requirements, submission procedures,  evaluation criteria and procedures. Proposals in all academic disciplines are welcome.  As specified in the Call for Proposals, this includes medicine, the health sciences, humanities, social sciences, the arts, natural resources and the environment.

During her September 2012 trip to Brazil, President Mary Sue Coleman and FAPESP President Celso Lafer signed the agreement for the grant program.

Brazilian scholars who currently have funding from FAPESP are eligible to participate, and a list of these scholars may be found at http://www.bv.fapesp.br/en/ (click Research grants). At U-M, all faculty members and researchers who are assistant, associate or full professors, research professors or research scientists are eligible. Those at U-M who are interested are invited to use the FAPESP website to identity and contact an eligible Brazilian scholar in order to explore the possibility of developing a joint proposal. The Call for Proposals has also been posted on the FAPESP website and interested and eligible Brazilian scholars may initiate contact with U-M faculty members.

Proposals will be reviewed both at U-M and at FAPESP, and the two institutions will together select the successful proposals. A faculty committee will conduct the review at U-M. When necessary, assessments will also be obtained from other U-M faculty members with relevant expertise.

The deadline for submitting proposals in the current round of competition is Feb. 15, 2013. A second competition will be held in the 2013-2014 academic year.

Proposals should be submitted to UM-FAPESP-Proposals@umich.edu no later than February 15th. Questions may be addressed to Kathleen Bauer (kati@umich.edu) in the office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs.