June 17, 2011

Updates on Funding for UC Discovery and UC MRPI

The UC Office of the President has published a notice on the status of funding for current awards and for future solicitations of the UC Discovery and the UC Multicampus Research Programs & Initiatives (MPRI) grant programs. The notice states that with the antipated $500-million reduction in state funding for fiscal year 2011-12, support for many programs previously funded from the Office of the President will be reduced or eliminated.

The notice provides links to specific information on UC Discovery and UC MRPI. Excerpts are published below.

UC Discovery:
The current UC budget for FY 2011-12 assumes that funding for the UC Discovery Grant Program will be eliminated. This means we will not be able to issue a new Discovery RFP or any new matching awards in FY 2011-12 for industry-university cooperative research

...we have been able to reserve money to continue support for the current DSF and DRT grants until their normal termination date.

We have also set aside funds from the FY 2010-11 budget to be able to proceed with the review of applications submitted in response to the RFP...due April 14, 2011...the review is expected to be extremely competitive with a very limited number of new awards issued.
UC MRPI:
...the current UC budget for the next fiscal year assumes that funding for the MRPI Grant Program will be maintained. This means that, barring further budget reductions... current award recipients can anticipate that their project will be funded at its approved budgeted level in FY 2011-12.

...we are unlikely to able to issue a new Call for Applications for MRPI awards prior to FY 2013-14 (for awards beginning in FY 2014-15)...