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  4. Bridge Funding Guidelines

Bridge Funding Guidelines

PURPOSE

The College of Arts and Science allows fiscal support for grant-related activities when there is an imminent lapse or expiration of externally sponsored research funding. These guidelines outline the eligibility and procedures for said support.

ELIGIBILITY AND PROCEDURES
  • Full-time tenured, tenure-track, and research faculty whose primary appointment is in the College of Arts and Science.
  • Requests must be for specific costs currently supported by externally sponsored research contracts, grants, or sponsored research agreements (SRAs).
  • Initial requests should be made from the Principal Investigator to the college’s Office of Research via this REDCap form.
  • All requests for bridge funding must be submitted at least two months prior to the expiration of the externally sponsored funding.
GUIDELINES

The college’s resources for bridging sponsored research funding are limited and need to be used as strategically as possible. Recent successful bridge funding support requests ranged from $42,000 to $140,000. Below are reasonable examples of funding requests as well as specific supporting documents to include.

College of Arts and Science bridge fund requests are to assist the PI with:

  • Preparing and submitting applications for new externally sponsored funding.
  • Maintaining basic continuity of a research project/program.
  • Minimizing the need to terminate project personnel during a grant lapse.

Requests for bridge funding should include:

  • A proposed budget and estimated timeframe of bridge support.
  • A list of the individual A&S personnel, along with their effort percentages currently charged to the expiring sponsored funding, who will need to be supported by the bridge funds.
  • Describe and justify other categories (for example, supplies) which need to be supported by bridge funds to maintain the basic continuity of the research project/program.
  • If the PI has unrestricted funds available and/or if there are carry-over funds from the grant for which renewal is being sought, these must be declared and the sum of said funds should be subtracted from the proposed budget request.
  • References of active grant proposals and subsequent submissions that affirm the temporary need of central support is required.

Requests for bridge funding should not include:

  • Personnel (faculty, staff, or students) whose home department is not within A&S
  • Capital equipment
  • Sub awards to another institution or organization (such as VUMC) external to Vanderbilt

If your grant proposal is funded during mid-bridge support, we will sunset the approved funding with a one-month transition overlap of support.

If your proposal remains unfunded after the approved bridge amount or timeframe, we ask that the PI reach out to the Dean of Research to schedule a resolution meeting.

 

Effective date: April 1, 2023