Seed Funds Leverage External Awards for Research in Natural Resources and Agricultural Systems
by
John M. Davis 1,*
, Pamela S. Soltis 2, Damian C. Adams 1, Sherry L. Larkin 1 and Robert A. Gilbert 1
John M. Davis 1,*, Pamela S. Soltis 2, Damian C. Adams 1, Sherry L. Larkin 1 and Robert A. Gilbert 1
1
UF/IFAS Dean for Research Office, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
2
Florida Museum of Natural History, and UF Biodiversity Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Forests 2020, 11(1), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11010076
Received: 19 November 2019 / Revised: 10 December 2019 / Accepted: 2 January 2020 / Published: 8 January 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Forest Economics and Human Dimensions)
In the United States, “seed fund” programs in biomedical fields have been reported to enhance faculty success in securing federal awards. Seed funds are relatively small internal grants that are allocated by universities to their faculty to invigorate research, in anticipation that they will lead to larger benefits—these benefits could be the creation of stronger teams that lead to larger external grants and/or more impactful publications. We hypothesized that a seed funding approach for research on natural resources and agricultural systems, including forest systems, may have similar benefits. Here, we report that seed funding supported faculty development in numerous ways, including leveraging to generate external competitive awards. For each dollar of institutional investment in each of the three seed funding programs, faculty acquired $6, >$50, and $4.50, respectively, in external funding that was leveraged within three years of the seed fund award date. Notably, the majority of the leveraged funding was from federal granting agencies through competitive programs. Federal competitive awards are important elements of tenure and promotion dossiers, as they reflect success in acquiring grants that are difficult to obtain, thus providing evidence of research excellence. We speculate that the seed fund proposal review process prepared faculty for competitive awards. Finally, we suggest best management practices for the implementation of seed funding to support teams of faculty.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
start-up funds; seed funds; strategic investment; team science
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Davis, J.M.; Soltis, P.S.; Adams, D.C.; Larkin, S.L.; Gilbert, R.A. Seed Funds Leverage External Awards for Research in Natural Resources and Agricultural Systems. Forests 2020, 11, 76.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
