2023 Equipment Competition

Purpose

To continue to modernize our research capabilities, and to assist in replacing aging research equipment, we are holding an equipment competition to facilitate:

• Acquisition of major equipment that will be housed within an institutional research core facility

• Acquisition of shared equipment that has a large user base

• Acquisition of equipment or equipment clusters that will enable novel analysis capabilities

• Replacement of essential pieces of dedicated equipment within individual laboratories or in shared-use equipment facilities

• Acquisition of new equipment essential to individual research program(s)

• Equipment that is being included in an external grant proposal which requires matching institutional support for the equipment budget.

Description

The following rules and guidelines apply to this competition:

• Equipment that costs > $10,000 is eligible.

• Equipment that costs > $100,000 requires matching funds (a minimum of 20% of the total equipment costs, from single or multiple sources).

  • Matching funds for equipment < $100,000, is not required but will improve submission competitiveness.

• Equipment requests can be for dedicated use within an individual laboratory or for shared-use. Shared-use equipment facilitating research of several investigators or that will be available within an institutional core facility will be given higher priority.

  • For dedicated equipment within an individual laboratory, only one piece of equipment may be requested per applicant.

• Equipment maintenance, installation costs, remodeling or renovation requests will not be supported with equipment funds from the OVPR.

• Proposals should be submitted electronically to the OVPR portal (https://ris.uky.edu/pdo/fundingportal/) by April 3, 2023. Notifications will be made June 1, and funds will carry forward to the next fiscal year.

Proposal

The application (up to 3-pages,11-point type, single spaced, assembled into a single PDF document) includes:

• Equipment Description: Brief description of the equipment, location for housing the equipment and indication of support for the location if it is outside of an individual investigator’s laboratory. If a particular manufacturer is required, justification should be provided.

• Justification: Briefly describe the research the proposed equipment will support.

  • Describe the need for the requested equipment, including justification for new versus replacement equipment, and, if applicable, the number of users.

  • For shared equipment, indicate how the equipment will be shared, provision for any required training, and the intended means of supporting the maintenance and usage.

  • Address whether similar equipment is available on campus, and if so, why existing equipment will not serve the needs of the investigator(s).

  • If the request is for matching support within the budget of a grant application, include the proposal submission deadline and agency; this type of request will be given high priority.

• Facilities Description: Provide a brief description of the facilities that will house the proposed equipment and, if appropriate, the plan for allowing other investigators to have access. If renovation is essential, indicate the source of funds.

• Biosketch of the PI (5-page limit) including other support.

• Budget: Indicate total cost of the equipment, the amount requested from the VPR and the amount and source of any matching funds available. For applications with cost-share, include a letter(s) from the unit providing cost-share that indicates the support amount.

• Price Quotation from university’s preferred vendor VWR. If the equipment cannot be obtained through VWR, state this in the proposal and a quote from the appropriate vendor included. If there are shipping costs, this must be included in the quote.

We anticipate that proposal review and outcome notification will occur before June 1, 2023. The Office of Research will prepare the purchasing documents for equipment awarded and all equipment must be delivered by June 30, 2024. 

For questions regarding proposal preparation or aspects of support, please send inquiries to vprgrants@uky.edu.