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����Budgetary Guidance

Unallowable Costs

Proposals for or with the following expenses in the budget are not eligible:

• Projects with a primary focus on curriculum development
• Faculty course or teaching buy-out
• Payment to collaborators from other institutions

Proposals for projects that could be supported with existing funds, such as funding from other internal or external sources, are discouraged.

Allowable Costs

In addition to costs for supplies and materials, the use of core services, etc., some salary support can be requested based on role/campus:

• The CU Anschutz PI may request the equivalent of 0.04 FTE. Salary support for faculty collaborators/co-investigators is not allowed.
• The CU ��«����Ƶ PI may request up to two weeks of summer salary. Salary support for faculty collaborators/co-investigators is not allowed.
• Non-investigators (i.e., postdocs, students) from both campuses may request an amount fitting to the work proposed.
• Special Topic Announcement only: Third party contractor support is permitted if the contractor directly supports the research and is an integral part of the project.

����Review Criteria

Project submitted via both the Exploratory/Broad Announcement and the Special Topics Announcement will be evaluated against the criteria described below. Projects with potential to increase sustained collaboration across the CU Anschutz and CU ��«����Ƶ Campuses will be prioritized, especially those with potential for long-term collaboration.

• Intellectual Merit: Merit and quality of proposed research; potential to contribute value and advance knowledge (particularly factoring in the novel approach to concept(s)).
• Impact: Measurable benefit of basic, translational, clinical or epidemiological approaches to significantly improve human well-being.
• Interdisciplinarity: Demonstration of fully integrated research collaborations and partnerships across disciplines. Of high interest are proposals that indicate a specific plan to grow and expand the team over time.
• Leverage/Sustainability: Long-term potential for growth of the proposed research activity, including identified or prospective support from external funding agencies. Of high interest are proposals that identify specific external opportunities, ideally growing in magnitude or complexity, and a timeline in which the team plans to pursue them.

Consideration of review criteria will acknowledge the distinct definitions of merit, impact and success that exist across various disciplines.

����Terms, Conditions and Other Guidelines

Upon accepting an award, recipients agree to fulfill several requirements. If a recipient fails to fulfill any of these, AB Nexus reserves the right to suspend funds.

• Regulatory Compliance. All approvals from the relevant regulatory compliance governing bodies (IRB, IACUC, EHS, biohazardous materials, etc.) must be granted before work may be initiated.
• Project Reporting. PIs must submit brief progress reports. The progress reporting process will be initiated by AB Nexus program staff and completed through the online InfoReady platform. Exploratory/Broad Announcement projects must submit progress reports at the 18-month mark (project end date) and 12 months after the grant ends. Special Topics Announcement projects must submit progress reports at the 12- and 24-month mark (project end date) and 12 months after the grant ends.
• AB Nexus Reviewer. Serve on the committee that reviews and scores AB Nexus proposals for the following two review cycles. Recipients on sabbatical or family leave during the review period will serve as a reviewer in the subsequent cycle. If a recipient fails to serve as a reviewer during the next cycle, funds may be suspended.
• Pursuit of External Funding. PIs agree to identify and pursue federal funding to achieve sustainability for their project. Research development staff will be available to assist in this activity through funding opportunity searches and proposal development support.

Applicants are not eligible to submit a 2025 AB Nexus proposal in the role of PI if they are the PI of an active AB Nexus project. Current AB Nexus awardees are not eligible to submit a new proposal until their project is completed and the award is closed out. Once all award and reporting requirements have been fulfilled, past awardees are eligible to submit a new proposal. Decisions about additional awards to previously funded applicants will be at the discretion of AB Nexus program staff.

����Submission Instructions

InfoReady Online Portal

Proposals for both the Exploratory/Broad Announcement and the Special Topic Announcement must be submitted via InfoReady by the deadline. All teams will submit through and be asked to identify which mechanism they are applying for. Late submissions will not be accepted for any reason.

Only one submission is required per team. PIs from both campuses may use the portal to submit, but please note that your email domain will dictate how you should log in to the system:

• PIs from CU Anschutz (if your email ends in @cuanschutz.edu) should select “Login for University of Colorado Users” and proceed with their university credentials/single sign-on.
• PIs from CU ��«����Ƶ (if your email ends in @colorado.edu) should select “Login for Other Users” and register for an InfoReady account if you do not have one or log in with your existing account.

Style and Formatting

Proposals should use clear writing appropriate for non-experts and make a strong case for the importance of the project to reviewers outside the discipline(s). Please adhere to the following formatting guidelines for any proposal documents:

• 0.5” margins minimum
• 11 pt Arial type, single spaced
• PDF format, unless template provided.

Teaming

Teaming and developing collaborations are critical to achieve the goals of AB Nexus. To facilitate this process of identifying new potential collaborators, we have created a teaming page where prospective applicants can share their names and ideas while also learning more about other interested parties. Click the link below to discover new potential AB Nexus opportunities and partnerships:��