(CLOSED) Simons Investigators in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems (MMLS)

Sponsor Name: 
Simons Foundation
Amount: 
$660,000.00
Description of the Award: 
  • Nomination Procedure: The foundation asks each university to submit up to two nominations to the Investigators in MMLS program.

Rationale and Scope: New approaches in mathematically based modeling are making increasingly important contributions to the life sciences. The MMLS program aims to support theoretical approaches making important contributions to the life sciences and, thus, to foster a scientific culture of theory-experiment collaborations similar to that prevailing in physics. To encourage researchers to pursue this endeavor, the MMLS program will provide a long-term, stable base of support, enabling a focus on model-based approaches to important issues in the life sciences.

A broad spectrum of research areas within the life sciences will be considered, ranging from cellular-level issues of organization, regulation, signaling and morphogenic dynamics to the properties of organisms and ecology, as well as neuroscience and evolution; however, preference will be given to areas in which modeling approaches are less established and, for this reason, bioinformatics- and genomics-related proposals fall outside the scope of the program. In all cases, preference will be given to work developing deep theoretical ideas relevant to experiments, suggesting new questions and new classes of experiments, introducing important, new concepts, and explaining data.

Theory must connect with experiment, and candidates should articulate their own views about the nature of this connection, rather than accepting conventional wisdom; theory is more than data analysis.

The program explicitly does not support translational or specifically human disease–related research.

Basis for Awards: The intent of the Simons Investigators in MMLS program is to help the research careers of outstanding scientists working on mathematical and theoretical approaches to topics in the life sciences. Nominations will be evaluated on the basis of nominees’ potential for scientific accomplishment in these areas.

Level and Duration of Funding: A Simons Investigator in MMLS is appointed for a period of five years. An Investigator in MMLS receives research support of $100,000 per year. An additional $10,000 per year is provided to the Investigator’s department. The Investigator’s institution receives an additional 20 percent in indirect costs.

Allowable Expenses: The funding provided to the Investigator in MMLS may be used at the Investigator’s discretion to support research expenses, including salary support for postdoctoral, graduate or undergraduate research assistants, domestic or international travel, short or long-term visitors and research equipment.

Funding provided for the Investigator’s department is used at the discretion of the department chair to provide support for seminars, visitors, refreshments and related expenditures that benefit the research activities of the department.

Eligibility: To be eligible to be nominated for an Investigator in MMLS award, a scientist must be engaged in research related to the MMLS program and must not previously have been a Simons Investigator. He/she must have a primary appointment as a faculty member (tenured or non-tenured) at an educational institution in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland, on a campus within these countries, and the primary department affiliation must have a Ph.D. program. At the time of the appointment start date, an Investigator should be in the early stages of an academic career and must be within ten years of the start of his/her first faculty position.

The foundation reserves the right to determine eligibility, but, generally, a ‘primary appointment’ is defined as one where the Investigator is a full-time employee of an academic institution with a teaching load that is comparable to that of other faculty members in the same department. Investigators may transfer their awards to new educational institutions within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland, subject to approval from the foundation and the old and new institutions. The award will be interrupted or terminated, at the foundation’s discretion, if an Investigator takes up a primary long-term position (i) at a research institute, national laboratory or other institution outside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland or another campus of their current institution, which falls outside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland or (ii) at a for-profit organization; or (iii) accepts a major administrative responsibility that significantly reduces the time available for research.

Investigators are not eligible to hold a Simons Fellowship or another Simons Investigator award for the duration of the Investigator award.

Investigators are expected to attend the MPS annual meeting, held at the Simons Foundation in October of each year, to discuss their activities. Costs associated with attending these meetings will be covered by the foundation.

Limit (Number of applicants permitted per institution): 
2
Sponsor Final Deadline: 
Oct 31, 2018
OSVPR Application or NOI Instructions: 

Nominator must upload one PDF file (File name: Nominee's Last Name_Simons MMLS_2019.pdf) containing the following items in order no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:

Title Page:

  • Nominee's First and Last Name
  • Nominee's Ph.D. year
  • Nominee's title of research statement
  • Nominator's name, role, email, position/title, department

Nomination Letter (two-page limit):

  • Written by the nominator (a relevant university official, for example, a department chair or dean), explaining the distinctive scientific contributions of the nominee, focusing on scientific accomplishments of the past five years and including discussion of a few important papers.

Letter of Support (two-page limit for each):

  • Letters from two senior scientists who could be the nominee’s Ph.D. and postdoc advisors or other scientists familiar with the nominee’s recent work and research goals. The letters should indicate the nominee’s most significant research accomplishments and provide insight into the nominee’s research program and likely future scientific trajectory.

Nominee's Curriculum Vitae:

  • The nominee's CV, including Ph.D. year, institution, advisor, postdoctoral institutions and advisors, positions held subsequent to award of doctorate and the nominee's up-to-date publication list.

Postdoc and Student List:

  • A list of postdoctoral fellows and Ph.D. students supervised by or currently under supervision by the nominee.

Research Statement (two-page limit, plus up to one additional page for references and figures):

  • Prepared by the nominee and outlines the nominee’s research vision and plans.

Formatting Guidelines and Page Limit:

  • Font/size: Times New Roman (10 pt.)
  • Document margins: 0.5” (top, bottom, left and right)
  • Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)

Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.

To be considered as a Penn State institutional nominee, please submit a notice of intent by the date provided directly below.
This limited submission is in downselect: 
Penn State may only submit a specific number of proposals to this funding opportunity. The number of NOIs received require that an internal competition take place, thus, a downselect process has commenced. No Penn State researchers may apply to this opportunity outside of this downselect process. To apply for this limited submission, please use this link:
OSVPR Downselect Deadline: 
Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - 4:00pm
Notes: 
No applicants