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Letter of Intent Guidance for FICUS Research with JGI and EMSL, FY2022

This guidance is for authors submitting Letters of Intent to the call for FY2022 FICUS research with JGI and EMSL. 

A Letter of Intent (LOI) is required to allow the user facilities to plan for appropriate reviewers and ensure full proposals will address DOE mission areas and the focus of the Call. LOIs will be reviewed by members of each facility's scientific staff and management. Decisions and invitations for full proposals will be sent to authors by April 5.

LOIs must be submitted electronically through EMSL's User Portal  starting on March 1, 2021 (see below). Details regarding the LOI format, attachments, and submittal process are unique to this joint facility Call. Conforming to these instructions will be strictly enforced, and LOIs that are not consistent with these instructions will not be considered.  

EMSL is upgrading its User Portal on March 1, 2021, and Letters of Intent for this call cannot be created or submitted until that date. Any prior user and project information will be transferred to the new system, but the appearance and some functionality will change.

Participants 

The following participant details will be requested through the online form when you submit the LOI.

  • Principal Investigator. The PI is the individual leading the research project and will serve as the primary point of contact for the project. While anyone can write and submit the proposal on behalf of the research team, students may not serve as primary investigators, in order to maintain a longer-term point of contact for the project lifecycle.
  • Co-Investigator. PIs can designate team members as co-investigators, and co-investigators will be required to link their EMSL User Portal account to an ORCID iD before submitting a proposal (see below).
  • ORCID iD. For submission of the LOI, an ORCID iD is required for the PI and co-PI(s).  For new researchers, you will be asked to link an ORCID iD when you create your User Portal account.  For returning researchers who have not yet linked their ORCID iDs, instructions can be found on the Portal homepage. 

Format of the Letter of Intent

  • Pagination is required 
  • 11 point fonts (or larger for headings). Captions, symbols, and special characters can have a font of less than 11 points.
  • 1 inch margins
  • No more than 5 lines of text within a vertical space of one inch 
  • Single-spaced lines recommended
  • Single-column format for text 
  • Adobe (.pdf) file format 

Project Description

Describe your research plan for using the resources at each facility. A separate abstract will be required as part of the online form when you submit your LOI and should not be repeated in your Project Description. The Project Description in your LOI should be written at a level appropriate for someone familiar with your general area of research who is not necessarily an expert on the specific topic. 

 The Project Description must include the following sections:

  • Title. The project title must be brief, scientifically or technically valid, intelligible to a scientifically or technically literate reader, and suitable for use in the public press.
  • Call Topic. Identify which call topic the proposed research is responding to. 
  • Relevant Categories: Identify one or more of the following categories that are relevant to the proposal:
    • Bacteria/archaea
    • Fluorescence activated cell sorting/microbial single cell
    • Microbial communities
    • Fungi
    • Algae
    • Plant
    • Synthesis
    • Metabolomics
    • Other (describe)
  • Specific Aims (generally 300 words or less). State the specific objectives of the research proposed (e.g., to test a stated hypothesis, create a novel design, solve a specific problem, challenge an existing paradigm or clinical practice, address a critical barrier to progress in the field, or develop new technology), providing concise and unambiguous details.
  • Mission (generally 300 words or less). Clearly describe the relevance of this project to the BER mission areas and its economic or societal importance.
  • Background/Introduction (generally 300 words or less). Briefly describe 1) the scientific question(s) being addressed, 2) the anticipated importance or significance of results to be obtained, especially as related to the user facilities’ missions, and 3) how the data will be used and by which scientific community.
  • Approach (generally 400 words or less). Briefly describe the estimated resource needs for your proposal and how the data produced will be used. Please keep in mind the DOE JGI sequencing, synthesis and metabolomics sample limits under this Call when developing your Letter of Intent, and include any preliminary data, background measurements, or tests completed that validate the approach (include references where relevant). Please address the strategy for preparing and delivering samples to EMSL, JGI, and CSMB (if applicable), providing an approximate timeline. Please refer to the JGI sample preparation requirements for details on quantity and quality of material required for each JGI product type.
  • Regulatory compliance. Please provide a brief description of how you are addressing any requirements that may be imposed by local, national, or international regulation for the use of any genetic resource in your proposal (for example, regulations issued under the Convention on Biological Diversity Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing). This requirement applies whether the use is for non-profit or for-project activities. If there are none, please state, “There are no regulatory requirements imposed on samples used in this research.” 

As part of the proposal package, please include the following information as appendices in the order listed below: 

Appendix 1: Type of Resources Needed

Using the template provided (see Related Documents), please identify high-level list of capabilities that you are considering in your approach. This list allows management and instrument staff to get an idea of the information that would be needed for a full proposal.    

Appendix 2: NEON Letter of Support

If you are proposing to use soils from the NEON Biorepository, a letter of support from NEON is required for the specific samples in your Letter of Intent. Note: The turnaround time for the letter of support is typically two weeks.   

 Appendix 3: CSMB Sample Information 

If you are proposing to use the HFIR BIO-SANS through CSMB, additional sample details are required for a technical feasibility review. Please use the template provided (see Related Documents). 

Appendix 4: Active Collaborator List (required) 

To help avoid conflicts of interest on our Proposal Review Panel, please attach a list of active collaborations (see Related Documents - example below) that the PI and co-PI(s) have had in the past 2 years. In addition to research projects, collaborations might include co-authors with whom you've actively interacted, co-editors, advisors or advisees or financial affiliations with an institution or individual. Participation in very large collaborative efforts with an individual does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest. Identify those who would have a personal interest in this proposal or whose unbiased judgment would be questioned by a reasonable person familiar with your relationship. You may substitute a list from a recent NSF, DOE, or other proposal that meets the spirit of this request and lists in excess of 100 collaborators (per investigator) can be shortened to include only the closest collaborators. Please use your best judgment in these cases. 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST LIST
Name Key Co-Author Collaborator Advisee / Advisor (specify) Other (specify nature)
Agarie, Jeremy X      
Antony, Mark X   Advisor  
Barnes, Jeremy X X    
Blaxter, Johan       Co-owner private comany
Cushman, Joan X X    
Jones, Maurice X X    
Smith, Jane     Advisee  

 

Appendix 5: Suggested Reviewers or Reviewers Not to Include (optional)

Proposers may include a list of suggested reviewers who they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal and who are not recent collaborators/co-authors. Proposers also may designate individuals that they want to exclude from reviewing the proposal and include an explanation. Suggestions for review assignment or exclusion are optional, and the proposer may be contacted for further information. The decision to use the suggestions, however, remains with user facility management.  

Contacts

General LOI or Full Proposal Inquiries

Detailed Research Questions