ACCELERATE FOR SUCCESS GRANTS
Award Cycle: Annual
Limit on Proposals per PI: An individual may participate as PI on one AFS per cycle.
Next Due Date: March 26, 2025
Award Period: FY26: July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026
Applications: Accepted through Arizona Cultivate (link will update once competition launches)
Description: The Accelerate for Success program is designed to support team science by creating teams, broadening partnerships, and supporting the development and submission of extramural proposals.
For FY26, RII is seeking opportunities that support one or more of the following:
- Advancement of the Thriving Communities Initiative - Thriving Communities seeks to invest in research, from fundamental to use-inspired to applied, that will have a positive impact on Southern Arizona, the State of Arizona, and the communities we serve as the State of Arizona's Land-Grant, Hispanic Serving Institution, and Flagship Institution.
- New Concepts Aligned with our Institution's Research Strengths - Data, Environment, Health, The Human Experience, National Security, and Space
- Inclusion and Promotion of Equity in Research
In addition to the priorities above, RII supports the excellence of U of A’s mid-career faculty and thus, strongly encourages mid-career faculty with novel research ideas to apply to this program. For this opportunity, mid-career faculty are defined as those at the rank of Associate Professor, or recently promoted to full Professor.
Finally, RII encourages proposing teams to include elements of societal benefit and impact associated with their efforts. Thus, RII encourages teams to partner with colleagues in the social sciences, humanities, arts, and education in order to accomplish their objectives. For additional information on impact measurement, broader impacts plans, or inclusion of undergraduates in research, visit the Office of Societal Impact.
Track 1: Seeding New Research Collaborations: proposals should describe how the investigators will initiate a new research collaboration on campus or with a partner (including academic, industry, or government) in support of proposal development activities led by U of A. Proposals may include partner universities, but funding is limited to activities on U of A campus or with U of A personnel. Potential activities include but are not limited to: (1) extramural proposal development activities, (2) campus colloquium focused on a strategic research goal, or (3) pilot data collection for a new inter- or transdisciplinary team. Teams may request up to $50,000 in well justified cases.
Track 2: Building Research Collaborations & Supporting Center Proposals: proposals should describe support for the development of center level proposals for the facilitation of teams, travel support for investigators (nationally and internationally), and concept development. Track 2 proposals must include multiple universities or partners, such as industry, national labs, and FFRDCs. Identification of the center mechanism must be included. Teams may request up to $100,000 in well justified cases.
Proposal preparation, submission, and processing information is available in the RII Proposal Preparation Guide (PPG) v9, which is downloadable in the Arizona Cultivate competition. The PPG includes requirements for the project narrative and supplemental documents; it is strongly encouraged that interested applicants read the PPG in full as proposals that do not match the PPG will be returned without review.
Please note there is a new budget approval process that utilizes an applicant driven routing step after submission. Applicants will input the email address of their business officer or award/research administrator when prompted at the end of the application prior to submission. The email address should be for the person who has authority to create, review, and approve the budget. The system will send a link for approval via the email listed to the business officer or award/research administrator where they may confirm they reviewed and approved the submitted budget. This approval step is required before an application is accepted for compliance checks and formal review. The deadline for business officer or award/research administrator is March 28, 2025 at 5:00 pm MST, so it is recommended to communicate with this individual about your budget and this process in advance.
Solicitation specific information below supersedes information presented in the PPG.
Solicitation Specific Requirements:
1. Eligibility: In addition to the eligibility described in the PPG, the PI and at least one Co-PI must be from distinct disciplines (and generally from two distinct colleges).
2. Proposal Preparation: Track 2
Supplemental Documents:
a. One-page management plan, that describes the roles and responsibilities of the PI and each co-PI. Indicate why this team is competitive for the targeted opportunity.
b. One-page undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral mentoring plan, that succinctly describes the professional development offered to undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. This supplemental document is only required if undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are included in the budget.
3. Proposal Review: In addition to the criteria described in the PPG, special consideration may be made for proposals that will enable high-risk, high-reward research at UArizona or support the development of mid-career faculty for future center leadership.
Questions: resdev@arizona.edu
Last updated: October 21, 2024