Research and Innovation

Bridge Funding

Overview

The purpose of the Bridge Funding program in Penn Engineering is to provide up to 12 months of gap funding for research projects to enable the continuation of a basal level of lab activity such that a currently funded project may progress to funding renewal.

This program is intended to extend extramurally funded research projects only. Requests for pilot studies or other unfunded research will not be considered. Only projects administered through SEAS will be eligible for gap funding. Lastly, only those projects with a high likelihood of continued funding by the sponsor will be supported by this program. For example, this program will not support projects that have either received a poor score or that have completed the third review without being funded.

Any approved gap funding will cease upon either the start date of the award or the notification that the final round of funding requests was not awarded.

Eligibility:  All full-time SEAS faculty (tenure and research tracks)

Deadlines

Requests for Bridge Funding will be accepted August 15, April 22, and December 15, however, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) issues a call for Bridge Funding with a hard deadline (typically in March). Due to financial management considerations, OVPR aims to award funds once annually. Review a previous call for funding from OVPR here.

Please submit all requests to:

The Office of the Associate Dean of Research (ADRO)

Greg Green
Director, Sponsored Research and Strategic Initiatives
Email: gregreen@seas.upenn.edu
Dept. email: adro@seas.upenn.edu

You may also contact Greg regarding any operational or process questions.

Review and Selection Process

Requests will be reviewed by a committee consisting of the Senior Associate Dean, Dave Meaney, Associate Dean of Research, Cherie Kagan, and Vice Dean of Finance, Mike Matthews, in consultation with the Dean and department chairs.  Awards will be made based on need, strength of the research program, and availability of funding.

Request Parameters

Requests should be made prior to the termination of existing funding. Justification should be provided if this is not the case.

Projects must have been submitted for renewal to the original funding agency at least once for consideration in advance of the termination deadline and the review must be in hand and provided with the application.

It is expected that the faculty member will have already explored all other possible funding sources with their home department chair. Requests will ideally be considered for individual unfunded projects if no overlap exists with other funded projects. If other funded projects exist, this factor will be considered by the committee and more stringent rules will be applied. In addition, the committee will take into consideration any discretionary funds (special purpose funds, technology transfer funds, unrestricted gifts/endowments, etc.) available to both the department and the PI prior to making a funding decision.

The requestor’s home department chair must determine whether the request has merit and must enthusiastically endorse the request in writing before it can be considered for funding. In the case of requests to support gaps in the funding of sub-projects within program projects (e.g. NIH P01, P50, SCOR etc.), the request must also have the written support of the program project principal investigator.

Recipients of Bridge Funding awards must provide a year-end report documenting progress of the project, expenditures, and further attempts to acquire funding for the research program.

Budget Guidelines

  1. The request for bridge funding will not exceed 1 year.
  2. Funding may include essential project support personnel, services and supplies only.
  3. Equipment, travel and faculty salary should not be requested.
  4. See the attached Budget template for further details.

Click here for the Budget Template.
Click here for a checklist of all required documentation.