… and we’ve got money to support them!  Yes, that’s right, it’s time for our next ground of Science Mini Grants!

The TL;DR:

• Initial Funding Concepts (IFCs) due August 22nd 2018, 5pm Eastern UPDATED: deadline extended to Friday, August 24th, 5pm Eastern
• Full proposals due September 14 2018, 5pm Eastern.
• Grant-funded projects or activities should take place between November 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019.
• Grant awards will range from $3,000 – $10,000 USD.
• Apply here: https://mozilla.fluxx.io/apply/awards

Check out this blogpost about past successful awardees.  We’d love to see your name there next time!

Read on for how to apply…

2018 Science Mini Grants Request for Proposals

Organizational Overview

Mozilla exists to protect and promote the Internet as a global public resource, open and accessible to all. As a critical part of this mission, Mozilla invests in the innovators at the frontlines of working to make the Internet more open, inclusive, decentralized, and secure. Through fellowships and awards, we support these leaders and amplify their important work on issues impacting the health of the internet.

Awards at Mozilla are designed to support diverse approaches to addressing the most pressing threats to Internet health. Awards celebrate a variety of targeted solutions, not a one-size-fits-all silver bullet. They spotlight the technologies, events, art, and other work being done by leaders across the globe in order to amplify these promising approaches and to help make the Internet healthier for all.

About this Awards Track:

Through the Open Science Mini-Grants awards track, Mozilla seeks to identify, support, and develop a community of leaders in the network with the aim to transform research and the culture around science to make it more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.  Through our support for open science and open research, we specifically focus on making publicly funded research more open, collaborative, and beneficial by maximizing access and contribution to manuscripts, data, code, and other research materials. We work to remove barriers such as, lack of familiarity with tools, skills gaps, and isolation to make it easier for individuals and communities to make the leap to open practice.

Bridging the gap between early adopters of open science and the many scientists who value, but don’t have time to invest in learning about open is key to moving from science to open science. This year’s mini-grant program invites applicants to submit project ideas that foster innovation and ultimately lead to more robust prototypes and products by expanding and enhancing the community of scientists who are working open in biomedical subject areas.  Supported projects will focus on one or more of the following:

• Prototyping – Building tools or documentation collaboratively with others. This can be open source code, documentation, tools and technologies used in data-driven science, scientific software, discovery tools (e.g., ways of searching code, hosting services, etc.)
• Community Building – These might include mentorship programs, workshops, meet-ups or other events that promote community engagement.
• Curriculum – Materials might include text, visuals, and video for online or in-person training.

Internet Health Issue Area

Open science crosses over into all issues areas of Internet Health.  For the purpose of this grant, all projects should specifically reflect priorities that enhance our broader community efforts toward open innovation, particularly as it pertains to efficiency in regards to practicing open science (lower barriers, ease of use & integration, etc), and reproducibility (transparent research methods & results) in biomedicine (including, but not limited to, molecular biology, biochemistry, toxicology, genetics, biological engineering, immunology, etc).

Award Amounts

Grant awards will range from $3,000 – $10,000 USD.

Final award amounts are at the discretion of award reviewers and Mozilla staff.

Award Eligibility Criteria

• Open to all individuals regardless of geographic location or institutional affiliation, except where legally prohibited. (Grants can be paid directly to individuals or their institutions, provided they follow criteria below.)
• All materials must be open source, shared under a Creative Commons license of CC-0 or CC-BY or equivalent, when licensing is required.
• Proposals must address one of three key areas: Prototyping, Community Building, or Curriculum. The brief application will require that they reflect an understanding of the work we are currently doing and articulate their own efforts within the needs of the broader community.
• Proposals must reflect​ ​priorities​ ​toward​ ​open​ ​innovation,​ ​efficiency​ ​of practice​,​ ​and​ ​reproducibility​ ​in​ ​biomedical​ ​subject​ ​areas.
• Applications may be submitted for projects lasting up to 8 months.
• Grant funds can NOT be used for indirect costs. (Indirect costs are those costs not readily identified with a specific project/activity but incurred for the joint benefit of multiple projects/activities. Indirect costs are usually grouped into common pools and charged to benefiting objectives through an allocation process/indirect cost rate. Indirect costs include expenses frequently referred to as overhead (rent , utilities, general and administrative expenses, etc.)
• Proposed projects must comply with all applicable laws, including privacy laws and data protection laws, and must be appropriate for funding, without undue legal risk and as determined in Mozilla’s sole discretion, under the laws applicable to Mozilla and its status as a U.S. charitable organization.
• Proposed projects must not discriminate with regard to race, sex, education, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, ability/disability, sexual orientation, gender self-identification, age, country of origin, first language, marital status, or citizenship.

Rules for Purchase of Equipment

If grant funds will be used to purchase equipment in excess of $5,000 USD, at the end of the project the grantee agrees they must donate any equipment and materials purchased with grant funds to either (1) an organization that is both exempt from tax under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and an organization described in IRC section 509(a)(1), (2) or (3); or (2) a nonprofit organization organized under the laws of another country and complying substantially with the laws governing organizations exempt under 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1), (2) or (3) of the IRC.

Should the grantee wish to retain the equipment and materials beyond the grant term, the grantee must get prior approval from Mozilla, which will typically be given only if the grantee commits to using such equipment and materials exclusively for work substantially similar to the Open Science Mini Grant-funded project, or otherwise demonstrates that Mozilla has only paid for the portion of the equipment costs reasonably allocable to the equipment’s use in the Open Science Mini Grant-funded project. Grantee must also provide any additional reporting on the use of the equipment requested by Mozilla.

Not funded

Mozilla mini-grants cannot be used to support:

• Political campaigns and lobbying activities.
• Religious proselytizing
• Promotion of violence, terrorism, related training, or any activities of terrorist-linked groups or groups subjected to sanctions administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control or other analogous bodies of other relevant jurisdictions.
• Fundraising activities
• Scholarships or tuition assistance.
• Institutional overhead or general management costs.

Review and Selection

Awardees are selected based on review of their applications by a review committee looking at project goals and design, openness, impact, collaboration & inclusivity, evaluation methods, and cost efficiency of the budget.  Committee members include Mozilla staff, current and alumni Mozilla Fellows, and – as available – outside experts. Only those projects meeting the award criteria for this awards track will be reviewed. All proposed award decisions are subject to a  legal review to confirm applicant’s eligibility and that Mozilla’s funding the proposed project is consistent with Mozilla’s obligations and not unduly risky.

Reporting Requirements

All awardees will be required to submit their project on M​ozilla Pulse​ and to complete a brief final report in Fluxx focusing on the impacts of their work.  They will also be required to give a final interview resulting in a public post based on that interview telling the story of their project, the challenges, and the successes so that others may learn from their experiences.  Additional reporting may be required of non-501(c)(3) awardees to demonstrate appropriate charitable use of all awards.

Key Dates & Deadlines

• Applications open August 13th, 2018 at https://mozilla.fluxx.io/apply/awards.
• Initial concept submissions (required for all applicants) due August 22nd 2018, 5pm Eastern
• Invitations to submit full application sent out by September 1st, 2018.
• Final full applications due September 14 2018, 5pm Eastern.
• Award notification will be made by October 14th, 2018.
• Public awards announcement will be made the week of the Mozilla Festival October 23-28th, 2018.
• Grant-funded projects or activities should take place between November 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019.
• Final reports will be due July 15 2019, 5pm Eastern.

Application instructions & Contact Information

All award applications are submitted via Fluxx at ​https://mozilla.fluxx.io/apply/awards.​

An application guide for filling out the form can be found here.

Important​ ​Notes:

• All registrations and submissions must be in English.
• No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, illegible, incorrect, inaccurate or misdirected registrations or submissions; or for any error, human, technical or otherwise, that may occur in the processing of submissions.
• With applicant permission, submitted applications may be shared with other projects within Mozilla, other foundations, and partner organizations.
• Awardees are responsible to pay their own taxes on the awards.  Mozilla reserves the right to withhold taxes as it believes necessary under applicable laws, and to reduce the net award provided to the awardee accordingly.  For non-U.S. awardees, travel to the U.S. while conducting the Mozilla Science Mini-Grant-funded project may increase the amount of U.S. taxes withheld by Mozilla or due to be paid by the awardees.

For questions specific to the Open Science Mini-Grant awards track, please contact stephanie@mozillafoundation.org or leadopen@mozillafoundation.org.

For questions about the Fluxx application platform, please contact ​grants@mozillafoundation.org​.

These grants are made possible through the generous support of the Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; awardees should provide acknowledgement of the support of Mozilla and of the Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in any events or materials produced using grant funds.