The University of North Carolina System Research Opportunities Initiative (ROI) provides targeted funding for innovative and potentially game‐changing research initiatives. The Fiscal Year 2024 (so noted due to first year of funding) round of awards will focus on institutional block grants to fund initiatives designed to increase research capacity in one of the eligible research areas. Funded by a recurring annual appropriation from the North Carolina General Assembly, the ROI represents a significant financial investment in the UNC System’s strategic goals.
Priority research areas eligible for ROI funding include advanced manufacturing; marine and coastal science; defense, military, and security; pharmacoengineering; energy; and data science. ROI awards demonstrate North Carolina’s growing appreciation of the role that university research can play in supporting economic development across our state.
The UNC System ROI accepts proposals from any institution in the UNC System. We invite submissions that propose a large‐scale initiative involving multiple strategies designed to deliberately support and increase the research footprint in one of the eligible areas. The initiative should have broad impact and involve multiple researchers and collaborators. Strategies might include start‐up packages for new faculty; graduate and undergraduate student support (tuition excluded); equipment acquisition and up‐ fit; space up‐fit (no capital improvements); travel (no international travel); and conference organization (keeping in mind possible continued interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
The UNC System ROI accepts proposals from any institution in the UNC system. Institutions may only submit ONE proposal each. Proposals will be accepted only from the Chief Research Officer and Chief Academic Officer jointly.
Proposals for the limited submission competition are due by 5 pm on Friday, October 28, 2022.
You will upload a document (PDF or .docx), not to exceed three pages, that describes your proposed project and how it will demonstrate the following elements:
The short- and long-term impact on the state of the ROI funds (e.g., recruiting top faculty, building specialized instrumentation or research expertise, setting up North Carolina as a hub within a given field,
Successful strategies to obtain follow-on funding from other agencies,
lans to advance the successful commercialization of technologies, and
Inter-institutional collaboration.
To ensure compliance, a single proposal from among the applicants to this internal competition will be selected and notifications will be provided to all applicants by November 18, 2022.
The UNCG’s selected proposal will be due to the system office on March 8, 2023.
