MnDRIVE Exploratory Grants—Robotics, Sensors, and Advanced Manufacturing

Applications are not currently being accepted

Apply now for several MnDRIVE Robotics, Sensors, and Advanced Manufacturing grants. These grants will primarily serve to seed the development of teams and initial results for the submission of large proposals for external funding, and/or projects with committed Minnesota industry partnerships in the Robotics, Sensors, and Advanced Manufacturing areas of coverage.

Interdisciplinary collaborations that leverage support from other MnDRIVE initiatives are also of interest. The maximum award will be at the level of $100,000 for large teams. There will also be seed support for innovative ideas at a preliminary stage up to $20,000, and for medium level support up to $50,000 for smaller team projects.

The objective is to support transformative ideas that span multiple disciplines where robotics, sensing, and manufacturing can play pivotal roles. Example applications of interest include precision and sustainable agriculture, medicine, and manufacturing.

Equipment proposals are not encouraged unless there is a 100 percent  match from other sources. Faculty salaries are not allowed.

How to submit a proposal:

Please submit the following required information:

  • Exploratory Grant cover page (download .doc file and complete),
  • a two-page proposal (proposed work, novelty, fit to the MnDRIVE, tasks, and plans to seek external funding, and/or committed industrial partnership),
  • up to one page of references,
  • industry/NGO partnership commitment letters,
  • two-page CVs in NSF or NIH style of the key personnel,
  • budget and 150 words budget justification,
  • and a list of current and pending support including internal funding.

Please submit the above information as a single PDF file (file size of no more than 3 MB) to psiho002@umn.edu with the subject line "Exploratory."

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