Eligibility

Invited to apply are all PI-eligible UChicago faculty members affiliated with PSD, BSD, and/or PME, as well as PI-eligible researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory.

Selection Criteria

Excellent, important science is necessary for a successful proposal, but it is not the only criterion. The committee will also consider such factors as:

• The strengths and levels of complementarity between the collaborating partner laboratories
• The likelihood of a high reward relative to the amount of funding requested
• The extent to which the collaboration promotes the circulation of researchers—particularly students, postdocs, and junior faculty—between the two labs.
• The potential for continued collaboration in the medium and longer term

The FACCTS program seeks to help foster a broad range of networks and productive partnerships between Chicago-based researchers and France-based colleagues and institutions.  For this reason, when choosing between similarly ranked projects, the review committee may use “past FACCTS funding” as a secondary criterion, giving preference to first-time applicants and to individuals whose initiatives have not recently (within the last 2 years) received FACCTS support.

ANL Pre-proposal Requirement

Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory who wish to apply for FACCTS support must submit a preproposal by November 22, 2023. Those who submit preproposals will learn on or before December 8, 2023, whether they are invited to submit a full FACCTS proposal. (There is no pre-proposal process for UChicago- and Fermilab-based researchers.)

Deadlines and Key Dates

• October 2, 2023: FACCTS Application begins accepting applications
• November 22, 2023: Deadline for pre-proposals (ANL Researchers only)
• December 8, 2023: Notification given for all ANL pre-proposal applicants
• February 5, 2024: Deadline for FACCTS proposals from UChicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fermilab applicants
• May 14, 2024: Notification given to all applicants
• July 1, 2024: Funds become available

One Program, Three Pools

FACCTS applications from researchers affiliated with the University of Chicago constitute one pool of applicants. Proposals from this pool will be competing for seed grants from a fund totally approximately $300,000.

Applications submitted by researchers from Argonne and Fermilab will constitute (respectively) the second and third pools. These applications will be evaluated by the FACCTS committee against applications in their respective pools, and ratings and recommendations will be forwarded to the offices of the directors of the respective national  laboratory, which will be responsible for final award decisions. Successful national laboratory FACCTS proposals will be funded internally at different levels: $20,000/year for up to two years for the Argonne FACCTS recipient, and up to a total of $25,000 for the Fermilab FACCTS recipient.

Funding Parameters

Funding parameters for ANL and Fermilab researchers are described in the previous section. In the UChicago pool, most one-year awards are in amounts between $10,000 and $15,000. Most two-year awards are in the $15,000 to $30,000 range. While these funding levels are relatively modest when compared to those offered by most state and federal agencies, FACCTS funds are significantly more flexible, and may be used for nearly any purpose that the University’s (or national laboratory’s) accounting system allows. We discourage the use of FACCTS funds to support travel to France by senior Chicago faculty members. However, bringing researchers from France to Chicago, and supporting travel by students, and junior faculty members/researchers in either direction is considered a particularly appropriate use of FACCTS funding.