CIP
Research Infrastructure for Nevada’s
Growth - Targeting Research with Uniqueness and Excellence III (RING-TRUE III)
NSF EPSCoR
COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING (CIP)
Nevada’s NSF EPSCoR Program “Research Infrastructure for Nevada’s
Growth - Targeting Research with Uniqueness and Excellence III (RING-
TRUE III)” announces opportunities for student entrepreneurial grants as
part of a research and development program in Cognitive Information Pro-
cessing (CIP).
Our goal is to enhance the entrepreneurial climate in Nevada by stimulating
student entrepreneurship and to attract technology businesses and skilled
personnel. To achieve this goal, we will provide initial support to
bring an innovative product or technology from idea to prototype and open
the way to successful commercialization.
Applying Undergraduate and graduate student teams of two to five under the
mentorship of one or more faculty members, preferably in CIP related areas or
in business, from all NSHE institutions.
For this competition, approximately five to ten awards in the range of $1, 000
to $5, 000 will be available. Intellectual Property and Conflict of Interest
Each participant must adhere to and abide by their institutional Intellectual
Property and Conflict of Interest policies and specifically how these policies
relate to any product or outcome of this entrepreneurial competition. For
your institution’s information, please see one of the following websites:
• UNLV http://research.unlv.edu/about/about_policies_unlvip.html
• UNR http://www.unr.edu/research/documents/RESEARCHBestPractices.pdf
• DRI http://www.tto.dri.edu/2.04_Intellectual_Property_Policy.pdf
Dates
Proposals are now due on Feb 15, 2008 by 5:00 p.m. Grants will be
awarded by Feb 29th, 2008. Awardees will submit a final report which should
include a prototype, documentation, and business plan on April 4, 2008. We
expect and encourage awardees to submit their plan to the 2008 Donald. W.
Reynolds Governor’s cup competition.
Application Guidelines
Submission: Combine your application material into ONE pdf docu-
ment and email this document to alice_ward@nshe.nevada.edu. The
subject line on your email must be: ”CIP ENT”. Each student
will need to fill out and include an application form.
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Proposal structure
• Executive Summary - 1 page
• Application Form for each participant is available at: CIP Entrepreneurship Grant Information and Application
• Project/product description and project plan - 2 pages
– What is the product innovation? What is your intellectual
capital? How do you plan to build a prototype? What is the
potential market? Where do you see risks and how do you
plan to address them?
• Financial plan - 2 pages
– Who are the management team? How do you plan to raise
capital to bring the product to market? What are your fi-
nancial assumptions? What is your cash flow? When do you
break even?
• Requested preliminary budget and budget justification - 2 pages.
Note that NSF only allows undergraduate stipends for US citizens
and permanent residents.
• Resumes - 1 page per team member and 1 page per mentor
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Review process and evaluation criteria: A panel of business and en-
gineering faculty will be formed to review proposals. Our evaluation
criteria favors proposals that:
• Demonstrate a high probability of developing innovative products
with realistic commercial promise
• Show market knowledge and evidence of market interest
• Involve balanced, multidisciplinary teams that include students
and mentors from engineering and business
• Involve mentors and students from traditionally underrepresented
groups
• Include a plan and a budget that are reasonable and achievable
• Demonstrate strong team commitment and mentorship
Further Information:
Email sushil@cse.unr.edu or dascalus@cse.unr.edu for more information.
You can also check http://www.cse.unr.edu/cip for updates.
please note:
This solicitation was released originally in December 07. In consideration of
the holidays and end-of-semester exams, we postponed the application
deadline for this competition until FEBRUARY 15, 2008. The full solicitation
will be posted at: http://www.nevada.edu/epscor/.
You may also view the attached pdf document for the full announcement and
details regarding this NSF EPSCoR Cognitive Information Processing funding