Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution – Request for Applications 2027: How to Apply

• Applicant Details & Personal Data: Complete all required fields, including academic rank, position/title and ORCID iD. This information should be completed in the user’s profile. The applicant may use the Edit Profile button to update their information as needed.
• Degrees: Click the Add/Modify Degrees(s) button to provide this information.
• Application Details: Enter a title.
• Proposal: The following information must be provided:
  • LOI Narrative: Upload using the template provided in SAM. The template includes further instructions, including page limits. The main components are:
    • Vision Statement Narrative: This must clearly outline the big idea and hypotheses that the proposed collaboration will address.
    • List of PIs with Summaries of Expertise, beginning with the Spokesperson PI.
• Number of PIs: Enter the number of PIs included in this LOI, including the Spokesperson
  • Note that all PIs other than the Spokesperson PI must be listed in the Project Personnel section of the Contacts & Personnel tab, as described below.
  • This number must match the number of PIs for whom summaries of expertise are included in part C of the vision statement narrative.
• Biosketch: The Spokesperson PI must upload a SciENcv or fillable PDF NIH- or NSF-style biosketch. Biosketches are not requested from the other PIs at this stage.
• Indicate the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop your proposal.
• Budget: Please input the estimated yearly cost of the collaboration.

• Institution Administrative Contacts: Institution contacts are not required at the vision statement stage. However, if you would like to grant an institutional official or administrator access to assist in the completion of the submission, please add them to this section.
• Project Personnel: List all PIs other than the Spokesperson PI in the role of Principal Investigator (Collaboration).
  • It is not necessary to include other personnel, such as collaborators, consultants and postdoctoral research associates, at this stage.
  • This list is not binding and may change at the full application stage, if your vision statement is approved to proceed to a full proposal.

• Abstract: Include a one-paragraph abstract of your project proposal.
• Impact: Include one to two sentences that answer the question: ‘If your project is successful, how will it impact the field(s) of ecology and/or evolution?’

Click the Check Application Progress button to check for any missing required information or files. All missing required information will be listed at the top of the screen and must be corrected before the vision statement (LOI) can be submitted.

When the vision statement (LOI) is complete, please click on the Submit Application button. A confirmation page will appear once the vision statement is successfully submitted. It will appear in the Submitted tab of the Applications in Progress table. Please note that you will not be able to submit a vision statement if the deadline has passed.

A submitted vision statement will appear in the Submitted queue of the Applications in Progress table on your SAM home page. If a vision statement is approved, the status will change to In Progress. Click on the record to gain access to the full proposal application. For all key personnel who were added as a Principal Investigator (Collaboration) in the vision statement, a full proposal application will have been created. All Principal Investigator (Collaboration) proposals must be submitted first to the Spokesperson PI application for submission to the foundation. The Spokesperson PI can add or remove PIs during the full proposal application stage. Please see the instructions below under the Contacts & Personnel section.

This section gives a summary of all collaboration applications. For the Spokesperson PI only, before submitting to the foundation, please confirm that the total collaboration budget is correct.

• Applicant Details: Complete all required fields for the applicants/PIs, including academic rank, position/title and ORCID iD. This information should be completed in the applicant’s profile. The applicant may use the Edit Profile button to update their information as needed.
• Academic Degrees: Enter degrees
• Application Details:
  • Title: The title of the Spokesperson/director full proposal application will be the same as in the vision statement. If appropriate, the Spokesperson PI can update the title for the full proposal application, as long as the title is substantially similar to the vision statement title. The title must follow this nomenclature: Simons Collaboration on [Insert subject matter].
    • All PI application titles should match the title the director has specified.
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Proposal: On the Spokesperson PI application only, upload the collaboration’s proposal. Please clearly label each section and maintain the section order noted below. Use single-spaced, size 11 Times New Roman text, 0.5-inch margins.
    • 12-page Scientific narrative (including figures; references will be placed below): Provide a summary of the scientific questions and research goals of the collaboration, including an outline of relevant previous work of each PI and others involved, as well as a description of the planned research, including preliminary results (if relevant).
    • 1-page Collaboration and leadership plan: Describe the leadership plan, and PI roles and responsibilities. How will decisions about scientific priorities be made? Who will make them? Describe the communication structure and any project management tools that will be used to provide optimal communication to the collaboration members.
    • 1-page Data storage, computation and sharing plan: Describe the types and amounts of data and/or renewable reagents likely to be generated, where they will be stored for the long and short terms, who will have access and the timeline for providing access, and how access will be managed. How and when will analysis pipelines be shared? What computational facilities will be required and where will they come from? Who will take responsibility for data management for the collaboration? Please reference the foundation’s Policy on Data and Renewable Reagent Sharing.
    • Individual Contributions: Provide a description of each PI’s role in the collaboration and how the goals of the collaboration align with their current and planned research. Include a description of each PI’s expertise as relevant to the collaboration’s overall goals. Limit descriptions to 250 or fewer words per PI.
    • 1-page Budget narrative: Provide a broad overview of the budget and how it will be allocated to each PI and/or shared resources. In general, what will each of the allocations be used for? Do you plan to modify the distribution of funding over the course of the collaboration to facilitate the scientific goals?
  • Biosketches: For each PI, including the Spokesperson PI, upload a SciENcv or fillable PDF NIH- or NSF-style biosketch.
    • Use the naming convention ‘Last Name_First Name_Biosketch’ for all biosketch file names.
    • All biosketch files will be uploaded under the Spokesperson PI’s application.
  • Indicate the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop the proposal.

• Institution contacts are required at the full application stage. You must add at least one Institution Signing Official and Financial Officer to the Institution Administrative Contacts section before you will be able to submit.
• Collaboration PIs:
  • All PIs who will receive their own award (that is, they will be paid via a separate grant directly from the foundation) must be added to the Contacts of the Spokesperson PI’s application in the role of Principal Investigator (Collaboration). This will create a connected application within SAM where they will submit their own budget and obtain their own institution’s sign-off.
    • On the Spokesperson PI’s application, select ‘Yes’ under the “Will there be multiple sites” field, and then add the PI name(s) under the Multi-Site or Collaboration Personnel field in the role Principal Investigator (Collaboration).
  • All PIs who will receive funding via a subcontract from the Spokesperson PI’s grant must be added to the Contacts of the Spokesperson PI’s application in the role of Subcontract Lead: Additional Principal Investigator.
    • On the Spokesperson PI’s application, select ‘Yes’ under the ‘Will there be a subcontract?’ field and then add the PI name(s) under the Subcontract Project Personnel field.
    • Subcontract contacts may be added ‘with’ or ‘without’ access. Subcontract contacts with access have access to the entire application, including the Spokesperson PI’s budget, not just the subcontract budget.
  • If there are multiple PIs at the same institution, they may be listed jointly (one collaboration sub-application or one subcontract budget) or separately (each PI would receive their own award or subcontract).
  • Please see the Multi-Site/Collaboration Applications and Subcontract Budgets section of the SAM FAQs page for further details. If you require assistance with this setup, please reach out to [email protected] well in advance of the deadline.
• Project Personnel: Please refer to the instructions provided in SAM. Project personnel (including co-Is, collaborators, consultants, postdoctoral research associates and others) include individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they request salaries or compensation. Please note that the Simons Foundation does not use the role type co-PI.
  • The project personnel on the Spokesperson PI’s application should reflect only those project personnel specific to the Spokesperson PI’s project and not that of any PI in the Principal Investigator (Collaboration) role.
  • The project personnel of any PI in the Principal Investigator (Collaboration) role must be listed under the contacts section of that sub-application.
  • The project personnel of any PI in the Subcontract Lead — Additional Principal Investigator role must be listed under Subcontract Personnel.

Click the Edit/Modify button to add a detailed budget. Please provide appropriate justification for all line items using the Justification text boxes within the budget itself. There is not a separate template or upload field for the budget justification.

• Abstract: On the Spokesperson PI application only, include a one-paragraph abstract of your project proposal.
• Impact: On the Spokesperson PI application only, include one to two sentences that answer the question: ‘If your project is successful, how will it impact the field(s) of ecology and/or evolution?’

• Other Support: For each PI, including the Spokesperson PI, upload a list of other support using the NSF, NIH or SciENcv template. Please include an indication of overlap for each award. If there is no overlap, please write ‘no overlap.’
  • Use the naming convention ”Last Name_First Name_Other Support’ for all other support file names.
  • All other support files will be uploaded under the Spokesperson PI’s application.

On each application, indicate if the application requires organizational assurances (IRB and/or IACUC).

Click the Check Application Progress button to check for any missing required information or files. All missing required information will be listed at the top of the screen and must be corrected before the application can be submitted.

When each application is complete, each PI in the Principal Investigator (Collaboration) role, including the Spokesperson PI, must click on the Send for sign-off button on their own application to send to their institution’s signing official for signature. The signing official will sign and then click submit. For the Spokesperson PI, this will move their application to a status of Signed — Pending Submission. For a Collaboration PI, this will submit their sub-application to the Spokesperson PI’s application and move it to a status of Submitted to Spokesperson PI.  Subcontracts do not require the subcontract institution’s signature within SAM.

• For PIs in the Principal Investigator (Collaboration) role: After the full proposal application is completed and signed by their signing official, a confirmation page will appear noting it has been successfully submitted to the Spokesperson PI by the signing official.
• For the Spokesperson PI: After the full proposal application is completed and signed by their signing official, a confirmation page will appear noting it has been successfully signed by the signing official. When the Spokesperson PI’s application has a status of Signed — Pending Submission and all of the PI applications are completed, signed and have a status of Submitted to Spokesperson PI, the Spokesperson PI must click on the Submit Application Package button to submit to the foundation. Please note that the Spokesperson PI’s institutional official cannot submit the collaboration package to the foundation — this must be done by the Spokesperson PI. A confirmation page will appear once the collaboration package is successfully submitted, and the application will appear in the Submitted tab of the Applications in Progress table.
• Please note that you will not be able to submit any collaboration application if the deadline has passed.