RISE Internal Research Grant

• RISE Internal Research Grant applications will be solicited twice during a financial year: (1) in the last week of May and (2) in the last week of November. Decisions on the applications will be made within three weeks, and the grant will be available from the 1st of July or the 1st of January of the respective calls.
• A Call for Proposal for the RISE Internal Research Grant shall be published on the BUET website and circulated among the faculty members of BUET through email.

• RISE Internal Research Grant applicants must be full-time faculty members of BUET and must have a PhD.
• The RISE Director, Associate Directors, Senior Fellows, Fellows and Associate Fellows are not eligible to apply for the RISE Internal Research Grant during their tenure.
• In a particular Call for Proposal, an applicant can submit only one proposal as the Principal Investigator (PI) or as the Co-PI.
• Funding can be requested for projects requiring a completion period of up to 3 years. A maximum of BDT 20 lac per year can be requested as the research grant. This maximum grant amount will be reviewed every 5 years by the BoGs.
• An applicant cannot apply for a new research grant while he/she is PI in an on-going research project funded by the RISE Internal Research Grant.
• An applicant can apply for a maximum of one new research grant as a Co-PI while he/she is PI in an on-going research project funded by the RISE Internal Research Grant.
• Eligible faculty members can apply for funding individually or in a group. For group projects, there will be one PI and one Co-PI.
• Proposals shall be forwarded by the concerned Head/Director of the Department/Institute/Centre to RISE.
• RISE will develop an online portal for the management of the RISE Internal Research Grant. The submission, review, notification and management of submitted proposals will be made through this portal.
• If the PI of a project takes leave from BUET before the completion of the project, the BoGs will decide on the future of the project.

• The number of proposals to be funded will be contingent upon the availability of funds.
• The grant applications will be initially screened for eligibility by the Research Committee (defined in Section 1.5).
• The Research Committee will select appropriate reviewers for each eligible grant application.
• Each project will be reviewed by 3 independent reviewers selected by the Research Committee, of which at least 1 reviewer must be from outside BUET and from Academia/Industry/a Research Organization.
• The reviewers will receive an honorarium for reviewing RISE Internal Research Grant proposals. The amount will be decided by the BoGs.

• The proposal must be submitted in the prescribed template provided by RISE.
• Design and feasibility of the study or project proposal:
  • The proposal is written so that a person with no prior knowledge of the subject may make an informed judgment as to the scientific or scholarly merit of the proposed study/project.
  • The proposal clearly describes what is intended by the PI, how the PI intends to reach the objectives, and the anticipated implications of the study/project's findings.
  • The proposed study/project clearly exhibits the application of sound investigative methodology.
  • When the research requires statistical analyses, models/procedures are specified and demonstrably linked to the research questions/hypotheses being investigated.
  • Work packages, deliverables and milestones are properly specified, realistic within the project duration, and aligned with the project objectives.
• Significance of expected results and identification of expected products:
  • Whether for basic or applied research, the proposal demonstrates evident value and has the potential for producing a quality scholarly product or publication.
  • The study/project enhances the PI's ability to obtain external funding or elevates the institutional image.
  • The proposal indicates the extent to which new ideas may be generated or established concepts may be re-examined.
  • The proposal is supported by relevant scholarly literature.
• Approval from the appropriate Review Board (IRB or IACUC), if applicable:
  • All proposals using human subjects or experimental animals must have appropriate Review Board approval. Approval forms may be submitted concurrently with the grant application.
  • Grant funding will not be released until RISE receives appropriate Review Board approval.
  • Proposals requiring the use of animals must clearly describe how animals will be handled during and at the conclusion of the study. If animals are purchased with RISE funds and sold at the end of the project, sales proceeds will be returned to RISE. For animals not sold, the responsible department/institute/directorate must be stated.
• Principal Investigator and other personnel:
  • Specific attention will be given to the PI's performance with respect to prior RISE Internal Research Grant awards, if applicable, and to the quality of resulting reports and research products.
  • The research and publication record of the PI will be considered.
  • Whenever applicable, the PI is expected to submit results from one RISE project for publication or presentation before requesting funds for a new project.
  • Special consideration will be given to new faculty engaged in their initial research effort and to established faculty who wish to change their research focus or begin new research efforts.
• External Support:
  • PIs are expected to apply for external funding to support on-going research.
  • Initial ideas with an enhanced probability of obtaining External Research Funding in the future will generally be favoured for the RISE Internal Research Grant.
• Fund releasing strategy: The fund of awarded projects whose duration is more than one year will be released in two instalments, contingent upon achieving the milestones and producing the deliverables. The details will be decided by the BoGs.

• A PI can request a maximum of 6 times his/her basic salary as honorarium per year from the research grant. However, the honorarium for a year will only be disbursed if at least one article for that year is published in a Clarivate Analytics-indexed journal from the research project.
• A maximum of one Co-PI per research project can request a maximum of 3 times his/her basic salary as honorarium per year from the research grant, subject to the same publication condition.
• Research projects can request RA salary for the project duration from the RISE Internal Research Grant. The appointment procedure, qualifications, duties and compensation package for RAs are given in Appendix C.
• All financial transactions will be made by RISE financial personnel at the request of the PI and upon approval of the RISE Director.
• Travel expenses will follow RISE guidelines and can only be requested for research data collection and fieldwork, not for attending scholarly meetings or conferences.
• The PI should first attempt to provide for equipment through the department or institute, or by other means, rather than as a budgetary request within the proposal.
• Any equipment purchased with the grant shall become the property of BUET and normally part of the PI's departmental/institutional inventory. RISE reserves the right to determine the disposition of equipment. University rules apply for purchasing equipment.
• Project funding commitments from all sources (if the project is partially funded from other sources) must be documented, as appropriate.
• Tax/VAT deduction will be made as per government rule, if applicable.
• The PI must submit a Project Completion Report (PCR) within 3 months of project completion in the RISE-prescribed template.
• Project completion reports will be evaluated with letter grades (A: excellent, B: good, C: average, D: not satisfactory) and considered when granting the next research grant.
• The project proposal evaluation template will be formulated by the RISE Research Committee and approved by the BoGs.

All IPR issues shall be dealt with according to the BUET IP policy approved by the BUET Syndicate.