The Water-Energy-Food Nexus - Colombia-USA Alliance
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The Water-Energy-Food Nexus
Colombia-USA Alliance
Request for Proposals
2022 – 2023
WEF-Nexus Colombia-USA Program provides support for faculty-driven, interdisciplinary projects
to build long‐term collaborative partnerships in Colombia. This program is supported with funds
from the founding partners of the Colombia – USA WEF Nexus Alliance. The 2022 Colombia – USA
WEF Nexus Alliance member organizations include: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Penn
State (both considered international institutions); Fundación Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo
Lozano (UTADEO), Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
(considered Colombian academic institutions).
The program supports activities of collaborative interdisciplinary teams to develop WEF Nexus
projects for Colombia in pursuit of external grant opportunities. Only projects that include faculty
teams from three or more partner institutions including Penn State and/or SEI and minimum of two
Colombian academic institutions partners of the Alliance will be supported. Each team must include
one principal investigator (PI) from Penn State and/or SEI and one PI from each Colombian
academic institution, members of the WEF Nexus Colombia Alliance. PIs from each institution must
be at a faculty level or equivalent and have an appointment allowing for management of financial
resources. An individual can be a lead PI for their institution on one proposal only. An individual
may participate as a co-PI on multiple proposals and there is no limit of the number of co-PIs or
institutions participating in the proposal. Co-PIs could be included from different colleges and
departments from all participating institutions. Eligible interdisciplinary teams should be able to
demonstrate clear research goals, adequate partnerships and participants roles, and strong
competitiveness for large-scale extramural grants. Funding could be used to collect preliminary
data as part of proposal/s for significant extramural funding or for other activities aimed at
submitting a proposal for significant extramural funding by the end of the seed-grant term. Grants
will be awarded to 3 to 5 teams. Submissions for this internal competition do not require the budget
to be created through the Grants and Contracts Office of the Lead Investigator’s unit.
1Proposal Submission Timeline
1. Only one full collaborative proposal per project must be submitted by email as a PDF by 5:00 pm
Colombia (6:00 pm EDT) on September 30, 2022 to the Office of the Vice Rector for Research of the
Universidad Nacional de Colombia (wefnexus_nal@unal.edu.co).
2. Awards will be announced by November 15, 2022.
3. Implementation and completion of all projects by December 15, 2023.
Full Proposal Form (due on Sept 30, 2022)
1. Project Narrative – not to exceed 7 pages including the list of the team members.
Project Title
Name
Title
Lead (Colombia 1) Faculty
Designate one faculty who will Email
serve as the primary contact for Telephone for WhatsApp
the project.
Name
Lead (Colombia 2) Title
Designate one faculty who will Faculty
serve as the primary contact for Email
the project.* Telephone for WhatsApp
Name
Lead (Penn State) Title
Designate one faculty from Penn College and Department
State who will serve as the primary Email
contact for the project. Telephone for WhatsApp
Name
Lead (SEI) Title
Designate one faculty from Penn College and Department
State who will serve as the primary Email
contact for the project. Telephone for WhatsApp
Summary (400 words)
Summarize the collaborative
project, the potential impact,
proposed activities, and proposed
plan to develop and submit a
proposal for large-scale extramural
2funding.
Significance of the research with
particular attention on how the
research is transformative and
addresses critical research and
development needs.
Current (seed grant) and
future overall research goals
of the project and the team.
WEF-Nexus Approach
Describe the Nexus approach that
will integrate the water, energy,
and food components of the
project into a systems-level
framework to maximize
sustainability.
Proposed specific activities
for the one-year period of this
grant.
Potential impacts of the short
and long-term project goals on the
local communities and the
institutions involved.
Sustainability plan for
collaborative research with
benchmarks beyond the seed
grant funding period.
Plan and a target program for
external funding. Include
information on appropriate
funding agency (ies) and
submission deadline(s). Indicate
why the project is competitive
for large-scale extramural
funding.
3Contingency Plan
Describe a contingency plan if
the extramural funding is not
secured.
Name
List of all additional team Title
members (Colombia 1) Email
Roles and Responsibilities in the project
Name
List of all additional team Title
members (Colombia 2) Email
Roles and Responsibilities in the project
Name
List of all additional Title
international team members College and Department
(PSU and/or SEI) Email
Roles and Responsibilities in the project
Name
List of all team members from Title
academic institutions outside Email
of the Alliance * Roles and Responsibilities in the project
Name
List of all other team Title
members from non-academic Institution
institutions * Email
Roles and Responsibilities in the project
*Add more rows for additional Alliance and external collaborators as needed.
2. Project timeline and benchmarks identifying the progress of the project.
3. Budget and Justification
a. Include project funding distribution for up to $10,000 USD (Penn State) or 40 million pesos
(SEI and Colombian partners) per institution requested from the WEF-Nexus Alliance for
Colombia Fund. Proposed budgets cannot exceed the allowable amount for each of the
Alliance partners. Additional funding could be provided by non-Alliance academic and non-
academic partners. Actual award distribution is conditional on all participating Alliance
partners fulfilling their financial commitments to the projects.
4UNAL Javeriana
Penn State SEI UTADEO TOTAL amount
Up to Up to
Category Up to Up to Up to Other in each
40 million 40 million
$10k USD 40 million pesos 40 million pesos category
pesos pesos
Personnel:
Students only
(For Penn State
include fringe)
Travel: Airfare
international
(roundtrip to
PSU)
Travel:
International
per diem at
PSU
Travel: Airfare
international
(round trip to
Colombia)
Travel:
International
per diem in
Colombia
Travel:
Airfare in
Colombia
Travel: per
diem in
Colombia
Workshops and
meetings
supplies
Research
materials and
supplies
Purchased
services (i.e. AV
for
conferences,
analysis of
samples,
surveys etc.)
Sample
Shipping
Publication
fees
Other*
Total Project
Amount
5*All other project costs typically allowed by US federal extramural sponsors, SEI and the
Colombian institutions are allowed in this program.
b. Include a detailed budget justification. Budgets could be constructed for maximum of 1
years and needs to be used by Dec. 2023!! Plan your activities accordingly.
i. Budget requested to support Penn State faculty and student activities.
ii. Budget requested to support SEI activities.
iii. Budget requested to support Colombian Institutions faculty and student
activities.
c. Funds cannot be used for:
• Faculty salaries (including supplemental) or standing appointment salaries.
• Travel to professional meetings and professional memberships.
• General equipment expenses (laptops, tablets, printers, etc.).
• Equipment over $5,000 USD
4. Letters of support
a. Commitment for additional support by the partnering institutions. Commitments for
additional funding are not necessary but will be considered in favor of the proposal.
b. Commitments from participating faculty and institutions to support the contingency
plan.
Proposal Review Process
• Proposals will be evaluated by independent review panel including external
international WEF Nexus experts and administrators from the Alliance.
• Evaluation Criteria: Proposals must include innovative research ideas, provide strong
evidence of the importance of the proposed research, and demonstrate that WEF
Nexus seed funding will contribute to the preparation of the teams in pursuit of large-
scale external funding from government, corporate, and foundation partners.
o Intellectual Merit
▪ Evidence that the proposal addresses a critical research need and
opportunity
▪ Innovative approach
▪ Soundness of the proposed plan, activities, and timeline
▪ Relevance to WEF Nexus and Colombia within the local context
o Collaboration Plan
▪ Commitment of all team members (research and external)
▪ Potential for developing new and productive collaborations among
participants or strengthening existing ones between Penn State and
Colombia.
o Program Sustainability Plan
▪ Plan for building/organizing a core of strength in WEF Nexus at Penn State
and in Colombia.
▪ Plan for additional or continuing activities to stimulate long-lasting impact.
▪ Strategy to leverage this seed grant support for longer-term funding.
▪ Specific funding programs identified.
6Reporting
• Interim reports will be due at three and nine-month after the project starting date
(March 31, 2023; September 30, 2023;).
• A final project report will be due on December 1, 2023.
• Submit all reports as a PDF to the Office of Vice Rector for Research
from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Report templates will be
provided.
With questions: Please contact Chris Scott (cascott@psu.edu) or Julian Prieto
(jjp6534@psu.edu)
PIs and Co-PIs CV (2-page)
1. Name
2. Current Position
3. Academic Qualifications
4. Research Interests and expertise
5. Up to five publications relevant to the project
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