Request for Proposals: Synthesis Incubators at CWS
Synthesis Incubators at CWS will promote synthetic transdisciplinary science collaboration on actionable water challenges. For the 2022 beta competition, CWS leadership expects to award 2-3 teams at a funding level of up to $20,000-$40,000 for a two year time frame. Preference will be given to incubators that (1) are transdisciplinary in scope; (2) engage students as leaders and/or participants; (3) have UC Davis Senate faculty participation (especially from multiple departments and colleges). External agency, stakeholder, or non-UC Davis faculty participation is encouraged in addition to UCD faculty participation; (4) include PIs/co-PIs from multiple disciplines and leverage some CWS resources (scientists, space etc), and (5) have potential to develop into a large competitive extramural grant proposal.
A project PI can be any Academic Federation scientist, researcher, graduate student, postdoc or Senate faculty member at UC Davis. Interested graduate students are encouraged to work through their advisor to develop the proposal. Deliverables for funded incubators must include a project website, at least 1 blog/year for California Waterblog, and a 2-3 page white paper for posting on the CWS website.
A full application package consists of a 2 page project description (not including citations) along with a 1-page budget showing how funds will be spent. Complete proposals are due by 8/15/2022 to rypel@ucdavis.edu and will be evaluated by CWS leadership. Selected projects can have funds available during fall 2022 for a period of 1-2 years.
The following list includes some potential priority water topics that might be suitable for a synthesis incubator. This list is not exhaustive and candidate teams are encouraged to develop and submit their original ideas.
- Drought adaptation and management
- Recommended change in land and water management of the Central Valley
- Advancing understanding and management of thermal regimes
- Synthetic review of the role of wetlands/floodplains (broadly defined) in the ecology and management of California water
- Understanding emerging socioecological impacts from SGMA
- Long-term synthesis of physicochemical and ecological dynamics in California estuarine habitats
- Science towards smarter California water laws
- Synthesis of existing and/or emerging genomics data for better natural resource management
- Quantifying long-term baseline conditions in the Klamath River prior to dam removal
- Synthesis of fish otolith microchemistry data: potential for improved decision making
- Quantifying climate change risk of endemic aquatic species in California
- Synchrony of thermal and hydrologic environments in California
- Broad lessons learned from multiple studies utilizing particle flow models
- The role of alpine lakes in California water