Bridge Funding
Dear colleagues,
I'm pleased to announce that the college has set up a bridge funding program
which will work in conjunction with a similar program now being established by the
University. The Queens College Research Enhancement Committee, established by
the provost, has developed the bridge funding program as a way to help
researchers who have been funded and expect to be funded again but have
encountered a brief gap. The following extract from the committee's minutes
describes the criteria for eligibility and the guidelines established by the
committee:
To be eligible, a research program should have:
*
*
*
The bridge funding could pay for "what it takes to keep it going."
This might include supplies, perhaps salary for a specialized technician or for
postdocs or grad students, although they could be
expected to teach. It would not include summer salary for the PI.
Any bridge funding should be temporary, typically a few months or so.
Requests for bridge funding should go through the department chair and the
appropriate dean to the provost's office and be reviewed by the committee.
Requests should include Study Section or reviewer reports on all recent
proposals.
Renewal proposal should already be submitted.
The bridge funding policy should be open and posted.
Bridge funding could be repaid by the program when it receives regular funding
again, perhaps through diversion of the PI share of indirect costs. This would
replenish the funds available, which are limited.
The University's bridge funding program is just beginning. A quotation from
an email from University Dean of Research Gillian Small announcing the program
is provided below.
Please inform your department of this new opportunity and encourage eligible
faculty to apply for this funding. As indicated above, such requests should go
through you to the appropriate divisional dean.
Thank you,
Evangelos
As discussed at the CAO meeting on Monday, we are
initiating a new funding program through my office. As at any research
University, CUNY faculty who run externally funded research programs may run
into a gap in funding due to a competitive renewal of their grant not being
funded on the first submission so that they are required to re-submit their
proposal. This can often lead to a situation in which the faculty member
may not have sufficient funds to carry over their project or to pay key
personnel such as a Postdoc or research technician
who are vital for the research to continue. In such cases most research
universities have internal funding programs through which faculty can apply for
bridge funds. I know that some of our campuses do have such programs and
others have some funds available for this on a less formal basis, and yet
others offer no funds for this purpose. I believe it is important to
support our faculty in such situations, and would like to encourage and help
you to do so. Thus we will initiate a Bridge Fund Program through
which faculty who are in this position will be able to apply for bridge funds,
through my office, up to a maximum of $25,000 - with a matching requirement
from their home campus. In each case the faculty member must have a
history of external funding, must present the reviews of the grant that has
failed to receive funding along with the time frame for their re-submittal to
that grant agency. They must also have a signed commitment for the
matching funds from their campus. In order to ensure the continuance of
this program, we are requiring that when that faculty member’s
research receives external funding, 50% of the
funding provided by us must be repaid from indirect costs generated from the
newly funded grant. This will allow us to continue this program and
provide funding for as many faculty as possible.
Details of this new program will be posted on our web site shortly (www. cuny.edu/research)
and you will be able to download application forms.