Applications for 2020 are now closed. Focus area for 2020: Homeostasis & Resilience
Real breakthroughs in neuroscience will only happen with a united effort across vast disciplinary terrain in biology, chemistry, physics, psychology and engineering. The greatest leaps will happen when science and technology can be combined across disciplines.
Berkeley provides a phenomenal breadth and depth of renowned faculty and inventive students who can create such leaps. The Radical Ideas in Brain Science Challenge is designed to kick-start new multi-disciplinary collaborations that create breakthroughs in understanding the brain and mind in health and disease.
The Radical Ideas program funds high-risk / high-potential proposals at an early stage to enable them to transition new approaches to problems in brain science from the concept stage to the point of proof of concept. The expectation is that, if successful during their 2-years of support, such research projects will demonstrate feasibility, and make it possible to obtain continuing support from established funding mechanisms of federal and foundation grants.
2020 Program Overview:
Award Amount: One team will be selected for an award of $237,000. The award will be provided in annual installments of $118,500, with the second installment pending an annual progress review.
Team Composition
- Given the interest in fostering new cross-disciplinary approaches, we require the following team composition:
- At least one participant should be a faculty member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI).
- At least one additional participant should be a UC Berkeley ladder-rank faculty member who is from a discipline different from that of the HWNI member. This could include additional HWNI members. Teams that include faculty from social sciences and humanities are encouraged to apply.
- External participants from industry, national labs, or peer universities are encouraged, but not mandatory.
Proposals will describe how the support will enable new cross-disciplinary research relationships and areas of new knowledge development, target major gaps in our current knowledge, and describe how the support will enable a clear path from research concept to formal research and development. Faculty salaries should be no more than 10% of total expenditures.
Applications are to be submitted electronically as a single PDF file that includes:
- Title page with proposal title, PI and co-PIs, and their department affiliations
- 1-paragraph lay summary of project
- 3-5 page project description
- 1-page budget and justification
- CVs or biosketches of the PI and co-PIs
The lay summary should be accessible to non-scientists and speak to the goals as well as the potential societal impact of the project. Send applications and/or questions to neuroscience@berkeley.edu. Proposals should not be routed through SPO. Please name the PDF as follows: lead PI “Last name_first name_RadicalIdeas_20XX.pdf”. Include a running header on the top right-hand corner of the PDF with the lead PI’s last name, first name, proposal title, and year.
Selection Committee
The selection committee is composed of the director of HWNI and a panel of faculty selected from the HWNI membership. The selection committee members are asked to rate the proposals based on a rubric created by HWNI. The committee members recommendations are forwarded to the director of HWNI for ultimate determination.
Reporting Requirements
One team will be selected for an award of $237,000. The award will be provided in annual installments of $118,500. The second installment of the award funds will depend on the completion of an annual progress report. A final presentation will be made to the broader neuroscience community at UC Berkeley, with the sponsoring donor invited to participate. Publications arising from award shall acknowledge support from the Institute and the donor.
Timeline
- August 18, 2020 – Program Announcement
- September 25, 2020 – Applications due by 5pm
- October 23, 2020 – Selection notifications to applicants
- January 4, 2021 – Project start date
- January, 2023 – Final presentation