Block Funding Program Guidelines 1 OUTLINE Pre-Award Whats Block - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Block Funding Program Guidelines 1

OUTLINE Pre-Award • What’s Block funding program • Submission Cycle • Eligibility of Submission • Criteria of Grant Holder • Proposal Evaluation • Submission Workflow Post-Award • Financial Management • Project Management • Reporting Prepared by : Research Administration Department 2

Block Funding Program (BFP) Undergraduate Graduate Research Research Grant Research Grant Grant (RG) (URG) (GRG) ORG FURAP GRSP January December April Submission Cycle 3

ELIGIBILITY OF SUBMISSION • The program will serve the National Research priority areas as well as TRC priority themes. • The researcher is allowed to submit only one proposal per call per program.  The researcher can be a team member in another project  Participation in any program does not restrict the ability to apply to different research programs supported by TRC. • RIs will be competing for funds allocated for a specific program . 4

CRTERIA FOR GRANT HOLDERS • PIs have to hold a minimum qualification of a PhD Research Grant (RG) degree. • Conditions for Employee Graduates Research Grant • Conditions for Post Graduate Students (GRG) • Full-time or part-time undergraduate students can apply for a grant. • The GPA of all team members should not be less than 2.30 or Under Graduate Research Grant (URG) equivalent. • All team members should have completed at least first year courses. 5

PROPOSAL EVALUATION Step # 1 Excellence Criteria (Peer Reviewers 40%) Research Institution Step # 3 Step # 2 Institution-Defined Expected Outcomes Criteria(Institution (Institutional al Internal Internal Evaluation Evaluation Committee 40%) Committee 20 %) 6

Excellence Criteria (Peer Reviewers 40% )  Will be ONLY for Research Grant (RG)  Each proposal should have at least 3 peer reviewers  Can be from Outside Oman or Within Oman but from another institute.  Proposal’s novelty and originality .  Comprehensiveness of the literature review highlighting the current knowledge and providing justification for the proposal.  Clarity in describing the problems being addressed and the approaches proposed;  Significance of anticipated measurable outcome of the proposal.  Research methodology and feasibility of achieving goals and objectives, with a clear definition of data collection techniques and the style of conducting the work.  Qualifications, background knowledge, skills, and track record of the PI and other team members relevant to the proposed topic. 7

Expected Outcomes (Institutional Internal Evaluation Committee 40%)  Number of research assistants.  The scope of each proposal if its falls within priority areas or not.  The relevance to Oman’s socioeconomic development and related public policies.  Involvement of young Omani researchers and support staff undergraduate in the research project.  Collaboration with other local / international Institutions (academic, public or private sectors) involving financial or in-kind contributions with providing official supporting documents.  Number of excepted published paper.  Expected number of Intellectual Properties (IPs). • Institution-Defined Criteria(Institutional Internal Evaluation Committee 20 %) 8

• Ranking of Proposals  The Committee then rank the proposal from highest to lowest based on combined scores. RG,GRG,URG • Funding Decision  TRC Grant Committee (TGC) reviews the ranked proposals submitted by the RI in light of their ranks and KPIs and the available budget. 9

SUBMISSION WORKFLOW 10

ROLE SUMMARY Institutional Internal Evaluation Research Focal Point Committee Receive and scan the proposal Evaluate the proposals Send all proposals to the Institutional Internal Evaluation Committee Assign peer reviewers Check and Approve the application. Follow up the PI/team leader to Rank the proposals submit the progress/final report Follow up the administrative Evaluate the progress\final reports processes of the projects. 11

FINANCIAL MANAGMENT • OMR 1,500 /Project • Max of 1 year URG • N o caps for categories • OMR 3,000 /Project • Max of 1-2 years GRG • No caps for categories • OMR 20,000 / Project • Max. of 1-2 years RG • Caps for specific categories 12

FINANCIAL MANAGMENT Research Grant (RG) 13

 The payment will be as bulk cover the 3 sub-programs and based on institution application  The institutions will receive an overhead costs as an additional fund which is a percentage of the total approved budget of block funding per call to facilitate their research.  TRC will not provide any additional funds beyond the agreed upon amount in the signed Agreement.  Movement between categories is allowable without exceeding the specified caps.  Movement of funds between projects per program per call is allowed without exceeding the cap of the project (e.g. RG cap is OMR 20,000 per project).  Any unused funds must be returned to TRC at the end of the funding cycle. 14

PROJECT MANAGMENT  Replacement of team members including PI and CO-PI is under responsibility of RI and must meet the eligibility criteria for the position.  PI and Co-PI must be from the same institution.  In case of significant changes in the project plan, the Principal Investigator shall notify IRFP.  Changing research institution is not allowed  Time extension is allowable  Any funds remaining in the project must be returned to TRC at the end of the funding cycle.  The extensions will negatively impact the level of the funds allocated to the RI in next calls. 15

REPORTING • Created by PI/Team leader Progress Report • Created by PI/Team leader Final Report • Created by IRFP A Comprehensive Report 16

REPORTING  The progress /final report will be evaluated by Institutional Internal Evaluation Committee.  The progress report is to be submitted at the end of first year if the project period is more than one year.  For the projects with a duration of one year only, PI should submit a final report at the end of the project. • Progress Report Contents:  Any departures from the original objectives of the approved proposal.  List of actual outcomes  Results obtained.  Problems or difficulties encountered.  Expenditures including financial expenditure reporting  A list of all staff involved in the project.  Equipment Purchased.  Publications 17  Any contributions from other parties involved in the project.

• Final Report Contents:  First section  As form of a thesis and provides technical details that conduct from the project. This shall be made available to the public for future use.  Second section  Progress made in achieving the objectives and plans specified in the approved research proposal.  Project actual outcomes and impact.  Project's Purchased Equipment.  Project Contribution to Capacity Building ( human capital and research infrastructures )  Project outreach activities.  Problems or difficulties encountered.  Expenditures including financial expenditure reporting.  Any change from the original objectives of the approved proposal. 18

• A Comprehensive Report  Submitted by IRFP at the end of funding cycle  For all projects per application.  Includes the agreed actual outcome and impact.  Level of expenditure against the agreed amount in the agreement.  This report will affect the level of funding for each institution per call. 19

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