In preparation for their merge that will be finalized by October 1, 2014, the Molecular Foundry and the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) have combined their user proposal submission and review processes for their next Call for Proposals. Proposals can be submitted here and will be accepted through March 31, 2014.
The new coordinated proposal submission and review process is designed to combine the best aspects of the Foundry and NCEM, resulting in a more efficient and effective system. Users will benefit from a streamlined submission process, as well as expanded guidance and transparency on the website. The review criteria and scoring of proposals has been redesigned to better identify potential user projects that feature outstanding scientific ideas that will most benefit from the resources of the Foundry.
This cycle will also include the creation of a Proposal Review Board (PRB) for each facility that will review and rank all proposals. As part of this process, an in-person meeting will be held at the Foundry so that PRB members can discuss their scores and benefit from the board’s diverse range of expertise when establishing final rankings. This approach is similar to NCEM’s current system and will replace the Foundry’s two-part system built around remote Proposal Study Panel (PSP) reviewers and the Proposal Review Council (PRC).
Additional information on all of these changes is available on the Foundry’s website in the users section. In addition, Foundry and NCEM scientific staff welcome the opportunity to discuss potential projects with users, while our User Office is available to respond to questions or concerns about the submission process. Contact information can be found here. NCEM staff can be found here.
