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Dean’s Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Excellence (DICE) Award

Please note: Due to the ongoing fiscal uncertainty triggered by COVID-19, we do not yet know our operating budget for FY22. At this point in time, we have postponed all CCAS internal competitions, and will inform all PIs via the CCAS Research Update when the situation becomes more clear.


Program Description

We are pleased to announce the continuation of the CCAS Dean's Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Excellence (DICE) Awards, which we launched in Spring 2015. This program is intended to stimulate and promote interdisciplinary collaborations within the Columbian College. It is designed to encourage partnerships amongst faculty across Columbian College departments, as well as with other schools within GW. Teams of faculty may apply for grants up to $20,000 designed to underwrite innovative interdisciplinary collaborations that will result in either publications or external funding. A minimum of two faculty members from different departments must present a proposal in order to be eligible for the competition. Eligible faculty will include all regular faculty of any rank who are continuing in service at the university the following academic year. Faculty who are on more than one DICE proposals need to clarify their efforts on those projects, and will not receive redundant support. All projects must commence within a year from start of award. Priority will be given to new collaborations, not existing ones. For those who have other external or internal support, the budget must be worked out carefully so that there is no redundancy. Teams involving members outside of the Columbian College are encouraged to communicate with the participating schools to obtain support for outside members.

In order to make the DICE investment more timely and focused, we will continue with the two changes we made last year.

1.     There will be no deadlines for the applications for DICE. We will review and make funding decisions as the proposals come in.
2.     Each submission should include specific outcomes anticipated by the team with a timeline. This can be a submission of an external proposal with specific information on the sponsor and deadline, or a book project or scholarly publication with information on the publisher or tentative journal.

Call for Proposals for the 2019-20 CCAS Dean's Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Excellence (DICE) Awards. Submission Window: Rolling.

Submission:
Email your application in one pdf file to ccasres@gwu.edu. The file should be named in the format DICE_LastName.pdf, and contains the following materials in the order of (1) - (6):

1.     Description of proposed project, including anticipated outcomes with timeline - 3 page limit.
2.     List of references (including work samples or media files via URL) – no page limit.
3.     Biosketch for each PI / co-PI. Use current NIH/NSF style or similar – 3 page limit.
4.     Budget (1 page limit).
5.     Budget justification (1 page limit).
6.     Information on current and pending support (both internal and external) for all team members - no page limit.


Project Description (3 page maximum):

Applications will be evaluated on the merits and design of the project. The clarity of the written proposal will be important; proposers should address each item below, bearing in mind that the reviewers will likely not have extensive knowledge of the field of inquiry being described. Language appropriate for the educated lay reader is critical to the success of a proposal, regardless of the discipline or the technical nature of the research. Proposals will address:

·         Objectives/Specific Aims/Contribution
·         Background/Significance/Work Plan/Goals
·         Research Plan/Methods/Competencies/Access
·         Results/Outcomes/Final Product/Dissemination
·         Plan and likelihood for using these findings to obtain external funding and/or how the final product will impact the field & bring external recognition to the PIs & University


Review Criteria and Procedures:

Each application package will be evaluated based on the following:

  • Objectives/Specific Aims/Contribution (15%)
  • Background/Significance/Work Plan/Goals (15%)
  • Research Plan/Methods/Competencies/Access (15%)
  • Results/Outcomes/Final Product/Dissemination (25%)
  • Likelihood for external funding and/or impact & external recognition (30%)

Review Process:

The applications will be reviewed by a review committee convened by the Research Dean, with consultation from the CCAS Research Advisory Committee. The Review Committee will review the application packages and then make recommendation to the Dean.


Notification of Decisions:

Dean will notify the funding decisions as soon as the review process is completed.