Call for Proposals: RAS Initiatives 2008

As a result of a new IEEE policy, the Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) anticipates being able to use some of its 2008

budget to fund a modest number of initiatives that would benefit society members in general. We expect approximately

US$90,000 to be available to support initiatives. We hope to be able to fund several initiatives in the range of US$5000 to

US$24,900. Although we cannot make a firm call for proposals at this time because IEEE will not approve our 2008 budget

until mid-November, we are making a tentative preliminary call now because the time for proposal preparation after IEEE

approves the 2008 budget will be too short. We do expect our budget to be approved. When it is, a final call for proposals will

be issued to confirm what is contained herein.

Members are invited to submit proposals for initiative to the RAS administrator Rosalyn Snyder at E-mail:

r.g.snyder@ieee.org.

In accordance with our business plan, proposals will be reviewed by the following major Boards of the Society, which,

except for EPSB, will be chaired by their respective vice presidents in 2008:

u Conference Activities Board VP: John Hollerbach

u Industrial Activities Board VP: Alex Zelinsky

u Member Activities Board VP: Alicia Casals

u Publications Activities Board VP: Peter Luh

u Technical Activities Board VP: Ken Goldberg

u EPSB Chair (not formally a VP): Stefano Stramigioli

The boards will prioritize the requests and send them to the Financial Activities Board, which will review them and for-

ward them to the AdCom, which will make the ultimate funding decisions.

Timeline:

u January 31, 2008—Deadline for proposal submission

u March 15, 2008—Funding decisions disseminated

u November 30, 2008—Final report due

u November 30, 2008—Deadline for invoice

Submission of Proposals:

Proposals must be submitted as an attached PDF with a two-page limit. Proposals must include, in the same order, the

following:

u Most relevant RAS Board (Membership,

Industry, . . . ) for the proposalu Proposed title of new initiative

u List of principal investigators (PIs) with contact info

u Short description of idea and impact on members

u Short plan for sustainability beyond initial seed

funding

u Total funding requested in U.S. dollars

u Sources of matching funds (if any)

u Proposed use of funds*

u Proposed timeline for project (funds must be spent in

time for invoices to reach the society treasurer by

November 30, 2008!)

u Short plan for administration of funds by proposers

*Several Issues to Consider:

u IEEE is a volunteer organization and funding cannot

be used to pay members fees or salaries

u Funds must be processed through the PI’s institution

u No more than 10% overhead can be charged

u There can be no upfront funds. Invoices must be sub-

mitted after expenditure of funds

All proposals and related questions should be directed to

Rosalyn Graham Snyder

Administrator

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society

http://www.ieee-ras.org

rgsnyder@nc.rr.com

Tel:þ1 919 851 3603

Fax:þ1 919 882 9734

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/M-RA.2007.908994

Evaluation of Proposals:

Priorities on which proposals will be preferred for funding will be conducted according to the following criteria:

Essential characteristics:

u the proposed activity must benefit the RAS society

as a whole or a substantial subset of its members

u the proposed activity must not be for individual or

group research projects

u proposed funding must be less than or equal to

US$24,900

u proposed funding must be greater than or equal to

US$5,000 (smaller items should work their way

through the boards in their normal budget cycle)High-priority characteristics:

u those that use innovative approaches to implement

a strong vision for the future

u those that directly impact a large number of RAS

members

u those that have a high impact to cost ratio

u those with cost sharing

u those that seed self-sustaining activities

u those that leverage volunteer efforts

u those that provide travel or meeting support in a

program area

u programs providing student support

u workshops in emerging areas

u potential to increase membership or involvement in

RAS activities

u those that develop RAS activities in emerging

regions or technical areas

u those providing service to the robotics and automa-

tion community

u those that clearly identify one of the boards to

administer and develop and evaluate the programLow-priority characteristics:

u those whose activities are of peripheral interest to

society

u those that fund individuals

u those restricted to a geographic region, especially

not an emerging region

u those that fund technical research

u those containing extensive funding of staff salaries

u long-term activities

u those with low impact to cost ratio

u those particularly complex to execute