Application Instructions for New and Continuing Project Funding
Seed funding for students and preferably student teams wishing to use the TEAM Molecular Prototyping and BioInnovation Laboratory (MPBIL) is available through a two phase mini-grant process. In the first round, teams may request up to $500 to pay for charges accrued in the MPBIL (i.e. reagents, consumables etc.). The expectation is that these funds will be sufficient to generate promising preliminary data and demonstrated commitment of students for further support. Round 1 funds will be available for no longer than 2 academic quarters (summer will count as one academic term) at which point any unused funds will be returned to MPBIL. Round 2 funding, up to $3000 at the director’s discretion, may be sought for projects and student teams showing particular promise after successful completion of Round 1 funding. Funds will generally be available for 1 academic year but may be extended provided sufficient progress is being made. Teams receiving Round 2 funding must agree to participate in one of several on-campus entrepreneurship activities (e.g. a course in entrepreneurship ECH98 offered by Dr. Arzola, the UC Davis BigBang! business plan competition, one of several entrepreneurship academies, etc.) within the first 6 months to be eligible for funding.
To start this process, interested students or student groups must submit a written application via email to Professor Marc Facciotti (mtfacciotti@ucdavis.edu) as a single PDF. The application will be read by Facciotti and at least 2 other advisory board members for suitability and judged on the criteria specified below. We strongly encourage students to seek help in crafting their application from Prof. Facciotti and/or MPBIL staff prior to submission.
Applications should include the following sections:
Round I (up to $500 - lasting no longer than 2 academic quarters)
Application requirements:
Section 1. Cover page with Title and a short (less than 500 characters) project summary
Section 2. Description of the need and the proposed innovation that fills the need (2000 characters maximum)
Section 3. Preliminary design sketches. What do you want to build? (2000 characters maximum)
Section 4. Assessment of possible alternative designs. Why is your design the best possible choice? (2000 characters maximum)
Section 5. Assessment of prior art and competitive landscape. What else is “out there”? (2000 characters maximum)
Section 6. Assessment of market potential. Is there a market for your product? Who are the customers? (2000 characters maximum)
Section 7. Assessment of possible ethical and safety issues. (2000 characters maximum)
Section 8. Describe any potential for environmental or social impact. (2000 characters maximum)
Section 9. Budget and Justification (2000 characters maximum)
Section 10. Timeline (2000 characters maximum)
Section 11. Metrics for assessing progress and success (2000 characters maximum)
Section 12. Proposed work plan (“pseudo-code” for what you will do) (2000 characters maximum).
Applications will be judged on the following merits: (a) the quality of the proposal - do students identify an appropriate technological solution to a real-world problem and has their project been well planned; (b) quality and makeup of student team - do the students inspire confidence of commitment and enthusiasm to carry through; (c) student’s enthusiasm for entrepreneurship - this is evaluated for projects funded by the IMPEL program; (d) feasibility to show progress with the requested funds - can the proposed plan be reasonably expected to show progress with the available funds; and (e) potential for social/environmental impact - this is evaluated for projects funded by the IMPEL program.
Round II (up to $3000 at the discretion of the MPBIL director)
Projects seeking round 2 support must re-apply in a different form containing the following (form will only be provided to Round I award winners):
Section 1. Cover Page with Title and a short (less than 500 characters) project summary
Section 2. A report describing the progress of Phase I work (i.e. what was accomplished? which project goals were met and which were not?) (no page limit)
Section 3. Budget and Justification(1 page maximum)
Section 4. Timeline (1 page maximum)
Section 5. Metrics for assessing progress and success (1 page maximum)
Section 6. Proposed work plan (“pseudo-code” for what you will do) (no page limit).
Section 7. Any updates on content from Round I application sections 4-8.
Section 8. If the mini-grant is funded by the IMPEL program teams must agree to participate in one of several on-campus entrepreneurship activities (e.g. a course in entrepreneurship ECH98, the UC Davis BigBang! business plan competition, one of several entrepreneurship academies, etc.) in exchange for second-round project support. Include the agreement form available separately from Prof. Facciotti.
Strong teams may be expected to pursue E-Team funding from VentureWell. Applications will be reviewed as above.
Intellectual Property
At UC Davis, policies and procedures for disclosing and managing potentially patentable inventions, and for arranging the transfer of research materials between UC Davis and other organizations is detailed in the UC Davis Policy and Procedure Manual, Chapter 250, Intellectual Property (IP), Section 15, Patents and Material Transfers. For projects carried out in the TEAM Molecular Prototyping and BioInnovation Laboratory, undergraduate student-generated IP will remain with the student provided no State or Federal funds* are used in the project and University faculty or staff do not contribute materially to the invention. In cases where the university contributes direct financial assistance or significant intellectual capital (i.e. by a faculty mentor and/or staff) the most likely scenario is for joint-ownership between the students and faculty. In such a case, UC Davis may choose to support patent filing if the student assigns rights to the University. Student-formed companies may then license technologies based on the Office of Technology Transfer’s Operating Guidance 00-05, Licensing Guidelines.