Sam Trickey

Department: QTP (Physics and Chemistry)

Email: trickey@qtp.ufl.edu

Title Of Talk: Lessons from Experience about Competitive Realities at UF for Multi-disciplinary Funding in Computational Sciences

Abstract: Since Summer 1996, I have been heavily involved with roughly a dozen large-scale, multidisciplinary proposals. For all but two, I was the primary writer for the proposal or preproposal. All were exclusively or heavily oriented to computational science, with some component of theory, modeling, and simulation of materials, my specialty. Four succeeded, including the two largest NSF Division of Materials Research Materials Theory grants ever to UF. The three IGERTs and three large Center proposals all failed. One cluster of internal preproposals was in an area that has attracted much funding nationally, but the pre-proposals all were rejected. This talk will summarize some lessons learnt from these experiences about our institutional strengths and weaknesses in competing for such funding. Issues include

• Formation of teams and the relationship of that process to success;
• Differences in familiarity with and preparation for inter-disciplinary work (e.g., the value of an interdisciplinary center such as QTP in these competitions);
• Implications of policy differences (e.g. academic-year buy-out, indirect cost recovery distributions) between and among Colleges and Departments;
• Relative lack of influence in formulating national white papers and program solicitations;
• Institutional indifference to impact of undertaking such intense, multi-disciplinary pursuits;
• Significance of institutional commitments;
• Unpredictability of internal review processes

Last update made Mon May 1 19:14:13 EDT 2006.
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