Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences

The deadline to submit letters of intent is October 31, 2024, at 12 p.m. (noon) EDT. Late applications will not be accepted. Applications must be submitted via the Simons Award Manager (SAM), https://sam.simonsfoundation.org/. Please click on the Funding Opportunities icon. Applications should be started and submitted under the applicant’s own account in the Simons Award Manager (SAM). For the Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and Physical Sciences application, please click on Create Application, then Begin Application.

Informational videos on submitting applications in SAM can be found here.

Important Note: The collaboration director (referred to in SAM as the ‘Spokesperson PI’) must submit the letter of intent (LOI) via their own institution. If the LOI is approved, a full proposal application will be created for each PI designated at the LOI stage and must be submitted to the Spokesperson PI’s application for submission to the foundation. The director is the designated contact for the collaboration and will be responsible for coordinating the submission of PI applications and the project narrative, as outlined below. If the collaboration proposal is awarded, each PI in the ‘Principal Investigator (Collaboration)’ role and the director will receive their own award and their institution will be paid separately. Multiple PIs at the same institution can either receive individual awards or reside on one award via one proposal budget. This is entirely at the discretion of the director.

LOI and proposal attachments should be single spaced and in a common typeface and font size no smaller than 10 points. Margins must be at least half an inch in all directions.

Please note that in the event of budgetary or other considerations, The Simons Foundation, Inc. reserves the right to refer an application to The Simons Foundation International, Ltd. (SFI) for consideration and funding, in which case SFI’s grant policies would apply.

Please complete the application as follows:

LOI:

1. Proposal Tab:
   1. Applicant Details & Personal Data: Complete all required fields, including academic rank, demographic data, 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.
   2. Academic Degrees: Enter degrees (optional).
   3. Application Details: Enter the title of the LOI application. The title must follow this nomenclature: Simons Collaboration on [Insert subject matter].
   4. Proposal – Upload required files as follows:
      1. Letter of Intent Narrative (three-page limit, plus up to one page for references and figures, which can be embedded within the text): The narrative must outline the topic and scientific approach, explain the logistics of the collaboration and any relevant preliminary results.
      2. Personnel Biosketches: Upload a SciENcv or fillable PDF NIH- or NSF-style biosketch for each PI and co-Investigator (co-I), including the director. Please name each PDF as Last Name_First Name_Biosketch.
   5. Indicate the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop your proposal.
2. Contacts & Personnel Tab: Please refer to the instructions provided in SAM. Under Project Personnel, indicate all PIs and co-Is, other than the spokesperson PI/director. It is not necessary to include other personnel, such as collaborators, consultants and postdoctoral research associates at the LOI stage. Designated PIs and co-Is are 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. All PIs who will receive their own award must be added in the role of Principal Investigator (Collaboration). Other PIs or co-Is must be added in the role of Project Personnel – With or Without Application Access; then, in Add More Details, select either Non-Contact Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator. If the LOI is approved, for all key personnel added as Principal Investigator (Collaboration), a full application proposal will be created.
3. Publications & Other Support Tab:
   1. Publications: Provide a list of up to 10 relevant publications for the director only via their SAM profile or PDF upload.
   2. Other Support: Please follow instructions for providing current and pending support for the director only via PDF upload or via SAM profile:
      • Provide all current and pending external PI or co-PI support, which includes all financial resources, whether federal or nonfederal, available in direct support the director and their research. It is not necessary to include internal funding or this current application.
      • If providing via SAM profile, please select Yes. Then select the Select Other Support from Profile option. Click the Assign Other Support for This Proposal button to add other support to this application. This will display all other support related to the applicant that was previously added to their SAM profile. Reporting overlap is required to submit an application. While overlap is not a consideration for funding in this program, please click on the Report Overlap button for each entry and select Yes or No as appropriate.
      • If using PDF upload, NSF format is sufficient and should at least provide the award number, source of funding, title of award, dates of project and total costs for each support item listed. Please name the PDF as Last Name_First Name_Support.
4. Check Application Progress: 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.
5. Submit Application: When the LOI application is complete, please click on the Submit Application button to submit to the foundation. Please note that you will not be able to submit an application if the deadline has passed.

LOI Approval:
A submitted LOI will appear in the Submitted queue of the Applications in Progress table on your SAM home page. If an LOI is approved, the status changes 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 LOI proposal, a full proposal application will have been created. All Principal Investigator (Collaboration) proposals must be submitted first to the Spokesperson PI (Director) application for submission to the foundation. A spokesperson/director can add more Principal Investigator (Collaboration) key personnel during the full proposal application stage. Please see the instructions below under the Contacts & Personnel section.

Full Proposal:

1. Principal Investigators Tab: This section gives a summary of all collaboration applications. For the Collaboration Director only, before submitting to the foundation, please confirm that the total collaboration budget does not exceed $8M over four years.
2. Proposal Tab:
   1. Applicant Details & Personal Data: Complete all required fields for the applicant/PI, including academic rank, demographic data, 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.
   2. Academic Degrees: Enter degrees (optional).
   3. Application Details:
      1. The title of the spokesperson/director full proposal application will be the same as in the LOI proposal. If appropriate, the director of the collaboration can update the title for the full proposal application, as long as the title is substantially similar to the LOI 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.
      2. The collaboration start and end dates will be pre-populated on both the director and PI applications. These dates are fixed.
   4. Proposal – Upload required files as follows:
      • Proposal Narrative: Director application only (12-page limit, plus up to two pages for references and figures, which can be embedded within the text): Please 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) and an explanation of how the research of the different PIs will be coordinated.
      • Personnel Biosketches: Upload a SciENcv or fillable PDF NIH- or NSF-style biosketch for each PI and co-I on each collaboration application. Please name each PDF as Last Name_First Name_Biosketch.
   5. Indicate the extent to which, if any, generative AI technology was used and how it was used to develop your proposal.
3. Contacts & Personnel Tab: Please refer to the instructions provided in SAM. Under Project Personnel, indicate all project personnel on each collaboration application, including additional PIs, co-Is, collaborators, consultants, postdoctoral research associates and others. Project personnel 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.
   
   Other PIs or co-Is who are on Principal Investigator (Collaboration) applications must be added in the role of Project Personnel – With or Without Application Access; then, in Add More Details, select either Non-Contact Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator. For the director application only, additional collaboration PIs who will receive their own award must be added as a Principal Investigator (Collaboration) to be able to access their own full proposal application. The other project personnel on the director’s application should reflect only those project personnel specific to the director’s project and not that of any PI in the Principal Investigator (Collaboration) role.
   
   Note: Demographic Data is required for all project personnel with the role of Additional Principal Investigator or Subcontract Lead – Additional Principal Investigator. For each individual in these roles, within their SAM profile, a response must be provide for all required fields; however, “Prefer not to disclose” is an available option for each required question.
4. Budget Tab: Click the Edit/Modify button to add a detailed, four-year budget. Please refer to the allowable expenses outlined in the RFA.
   1. Each PI and director budget must be entered only in their own applications.
   2. Please enter each PI on each proposal in the Personnel Costs section of that proposal budget even if not requesting salary.
   3. For PIs and co-Is requesting summer salary, please only select Academic (referring to 9 or 10 months) for the Appt Type (which refers to the individual’s institutional appointment) and the base salary corresponding to this appointment type. The percent effort should then be adjusted accordingly.
   4. For PIs and co-Is requesting summer salary at non-U.S. institutions and/or those receiving 12 months of salary, the program allows them to request up to 1/12 of their calendar year salary as a contribution to research time on the project, provided that the summer salary request is not in violation of their institution’s policies of more than 100% effort per year. Please only select Annual for the Appt Type (which refers to the individual’s institutional appointment) and the base salary corresponding to this appointment type. The percent effort should then be adjusted accordingly.
   5. Important: In order for known project personnel to display in the Personnel column drop-down list, you must add them as Project Personnel in the Contacts & Personnel tab of the application as well as add an application role to each personnel using the Add More Details button. You will need to close and reopen the budget for the changes to populate.
   6. Do not select TBD in the Personnel drop-down list if the personnel is known. They must be first entered in the Project Personnel section as outlined above.
   7. Do not combine personnel on one budget line (e.g., multiple postdocs must be itemized individually).
   8. Provide justification for each budget line item entered, including all Personnel Costs requested. Please note that the budget justification should be detailed and appropriate for the funds being requested. An insufficient budget justification will result in the proposal not being considered further.
   9. The addition of subcontract budgets is handled via the Project Personnel section in the Contacts & Personnel tab. Please click on the ‘Add/modify project personnel’ button in that section for additional instructions.
   10. Within each budget period, you have the ability to copy the budget and justification from the previous period and then make edits as needed.
5. Publications & Other Support Tab:
   1. Publications: Provide a list of up to 10 relevant publications for each PI and co-I for each application via PDF upload or SAM profiles. Please name each PDF as Last Name_First Name_Publications.
   2. Other Support: Please follow instructions for providing current and pending support for each PI and co-I for each application via PDF upload or via SAM profiles. If providing via SAM profile, reporting overlap is required to submit an application. While overlap is not a consideration for funding in this program, please click on the Report Overlap button for each entry and select Yes or No as appropriate. If using PDF upload, NSF or other format is sufficient and should at least provide the award number, source of funding, title of award, dates of project and total costs for each support item listed. Please name each PDF as Last Name_First Name_Support.
6. Check Application Progress: 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.
7. Send for Sign-Off: When the application is complete, the PI must click on the ‘Send for sign-off’ button to send to the institution’s signing official for signature. The PI will receive a notification when the application is signed.
8. Submit Application: When the full proposal application is complete and signed, the director/spokesperson must click on the Submit Application button — Please note that the institutional official cannot submit to the foundation. A confirmation page will appear once the application is successfully submitted. For PIs, this will submit to the director’s application. For the director, this will submit the full collaboration application to the foundation — please be sure all PI applications are approved and submitted before submitting the collaboration proposal. Once the entire collaboration application is submitted, it will appear in the Submitted tab of the Applications in Progress table. Please note that you will not be able to submit an application if the deadline has passed.