Taplin Equipment Grant Fund

Now Open: Accepting applications until November 6, 2023 (11:59PM)

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Taplin Equipment Fund is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Taplin Family. This program provides funding for instrumentation expenses that may be difficult to fund through other mechanisms. Applications will be accepted for equipment purchases and other research-enabling tools and technologies, including investment in shared technologies (e.g., shared data sets and technology access fees) and related implementation and maintenance expenses (e.g., cost of technical training, equipment maintenance, and technical consulting fees). Download the full RFA here.

Applications will be accepted across two award categories:

  1. Equipment Awards up to $50K: To support the purchase or upgrade/add-on of a single specialized, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system.
  2. Research-Enabling Awards up to $15K: To support a variety of equipment-related expenditures. Some examples of projects that would be of particular interest in this category include but are not limited to:
      • Implementation of data access and sharing program
      • Acquisition of data sets that would be shared by multiple faculty
      • Purchase of a software program(s)
      • Salary support or consultation for a data or equipment technician
      • Equipment maintenance during gaps in grant support
      • Support for grad students/postdocs to receive equipment, data, or software-related training

For both award categories, we encourage faculty members to collaborate within and across departments to develop proposals for shared equipment, facilities, and data access and leverage additional funding opportunities whenever possible. Although departmental matching funds are not required, we encourage interested faculty to contact their Department Chairs to discuss their proposal and any departmental resources that may be leveraged to support the award.

AWARD AMOUNT

Awards will be made for up to $50,000 (direct cost) for Equipment Awards and up to $15,000 (direct cost) for Research-Enabling Awards; Award amounts and the number of awards given will be based on availability of funds and the needs of the proposed work. All proposed equipment purchases should be made within six months of the award date. Other types of support should be completed within a one-year project period. Requests for no-cost extensions will not be granted.

ELIGIBILITY

Primary Harvard Chan School faculty whose research operation is based at the Harvard Chan School are eligible to apply. Non-faculty appointment types are eligible to apply as a co-PI when partnered with a primary faculty member. If you have any questions regarding your eligibility to apply for this award, please contact Allison Lever at alever@hsph.harvard.edu.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Proposals are to be submitted through the Harvard University Funding Portal (HUFP). If you are using the application portal for the first time, you must complete a short registration process (see below). Please note, you can search for awards without logging in but you must be registered and logged in with your Harvard Key to submit an application. There is an option to assign a proxy for proposal submission but your grant manager cannot use your Harvard Key to submit your application. Please see below for more information on registering for an account and assigning a proxy.

Apply on HUFP