Stanford Community of Shared Advanced Research Platforms
c-ShARP Community of Shared Advanced Research Platforms .

C-ShaRP Shared Resource Instrumentation & Enhancement Program

C-ShaRP welcomes proposals for acquisitions, programs, or other enhancements to Shared Facilities that benefit the user community at large. Shared Facilities span SOM, SOE, H&S, and SDSS and are an essential community for researchers; they include nanofabrication and characterization (SNF, SNSF), mass spectrometry (SUMS), NMR, imaging (BioX, c-EMc, CNI, CSIF, Lucas Center, Wu Tsai Neuro), life sciences/medicine (ChEM-H, FACS, Functional Genomics, BSL-3), and sustainability (SDSS facilities), among others on campus, as well as shared facilities at SLAC.

C-ShaRP manages three internal funding programs: the Experiential Learning program, the C-ShaRP Voucher program, and the C-ShaRP Shared Resource Instrumentation and Enhancement Program.

Now in its fourth year, the C-ShaRP Shared Resource Instrumentation and Enhancement Program has received over 80 proposals requesting $70.8M in funding. Thanks to funding from the VPDoR, Deans and the Provost, nearly half of the submitted proposals have been funded. 

We are excited to announce the proposal call for FY25 c-ShaRP  Instrumentation and Enhancement Program. We welcome proposals across all disciplines and all shared facilities. 

Timeline

December 1, 2023: call for proposals released
January 31, 2024: proposals due at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time
June 1, 2024: decisions sent to awardees by the VPDoR Director of Shared Facilities
September 1, 2024: funds made available

Eligibility
All Stanford faculty and shared facility staff are eligible to apply as the primary applicant. There must be at least one co-applicant who represents the shared facility where the proposed activities will be performed, unless the primary applicant is the representative. See Proposal Format section for details.

Budget
The total budget request per proposal should not exceed $2M. We will consider a higher request of up to $4M for exceptional cases. Proposals requesting over $2M should provide thorough justifications in the narrative, clearly state what will be compromised if the portion above $2M is unavailable and explain what can be done if only $2M is awarded. In those cases, we strongly encourage proposers to contact the Program Director prior to proposal submission.

Cost Sharing
Cost sharing is not required. However, proposers are encouraged to seek financial support from outside of c-ShARP. Such support should be documented in the form of a letter of support and will be reviewed favorably. Support may include matching funds or instrumentation grants; financial support for installation, maintenance, and operation; and other contributions from departments, schools, shared facilities, and Principal Investigators (PIs).

Supported Activities:

  • Acquisition of new capabilities
  • Upgrading or replacing aging equipment
  • Expanding instrumentation capacity 
  • Enhancing user experience
  • Salary for staff to support new instruments 
  • Other activities that lead to enhancement of shared facilities (contact the Program Director for details)
     

Non-Supported Activities:

  • Requests that support a single PI laboratory or facilities that are not open-access
  • Graduate student or postdoctoral scholar stipends
  • Payment of shared facility services (proposers should apply to the c-ShARP Voucher Program)
  • Experiential learning activities for students (proposers should apply to the c-ShARP Experiential Learning Program)

Letters of Support
All applications should include at least one letter of support from University faculty and/or leadership describing the impact to their programs or users in their community. If serving multiple schools, at least one letter is required from each school. Proposals requesting over $600K should have a minimum of 3 letters of support.

Application Portal
Applications are accepted on Stanford’s Seed Funding site.