The Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC) is focused on fundamental and applied research for the benefit of its industrial partners.
Core support comes from the State of North Carolina and NCRC membership dues.
NCRC funds research programs at North Carolina State University as well as other participating universities. Proposals are selected and reviewed every year in the Spring Industrial Advisory Board meeting, and successful projects will start at the beginning of the Fall semester normally in mid August. The duration of each project is either two years for a Masters student or three years for a Doctoral student. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to NCRC for consideration for funding, please refer to the guidelines below for eligibility and the dates for the formats necessary.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
NONWOVEN MATERIALS RESEARCH
Deadline: All proposals must be received by March 13, 2008.
Format: All proposals must be submitted in MS Word format.
The Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center’s mission is to provide fundamental and applied research to support the growing nonwovens industry. Our research budget is about $1,500,000 per year. Every year, between 5 to 10 new programs are started.
Although a significant number of research projects are based in the NCSU College of Textiles, the Center’s current activities include research at University of Loughborogh, University of Georgia and University of Tennessee. A team project approach and inter-university proposals are encouraged. Research proposals are ranked for funding by the Industrial Advisory Board; projects with top ranking are screened by the Industrial Advisory Board Executive Committee, and funded as the budget permits.
Proposals from institutions other than NC State must provide evidence of 50% matching funds for the project to be considered.
The Center is requesting proposals for new projects to begin next Fall. These proposals must be submitted by the date shown above. The Center’s Industrial Advisory Board has established five technology areas of primary interest and formed Project Focus Groups to select and guide programs in each area. Current Focus areas are:
• Materials science and engineering
• Process technology and process modeling
• Properties and performance measurement & modeling
Discussions with the appropriate NCRC industrial members will be helpful in generating proposals that are industrially relevant.
Each year, NCRC member companies develop a list of topics that are of particular interest to them. The current list is in the document at the link below. We strongly recommend that you review this list.
Download Core Research Areas of Interest
Submitted proposals shall consist of three parts:
A cover letter including the names, institutions, addresses, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses for each Principal Investigator.Part A: A one-page summary of the proposal, without citations. This is basically the “selling” tool that will be provided to the Industrial Advisory Board Members prior to the Annual Meeting in May. It may be the only thing they read before voting. This summary consists of 5 parts:
Part B: A conventional proposal no longer than fifteen pages in length, in the format contained in the link below. The last page must contain your budget estimate of this program. Use the spreadsheet in the sample proposal for this budget estimate. Adjustments to the budget may be negotiated depending on the Center’s financial capabilities.
Proposals should be submitted in electronic form, by the date indicated above to:
Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center
The Nonwovens Institute
North Carolina State University
PO Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
nonwovens@ncsu.edu
A typical budget will be about $40,000 to $50,000 per year for two or three years. Please review the template above and follow this template for preparing your budget.
These funds are provided for the support of a Masters student (2 yeas) or a PhD student (3 years). The work must lead to a thesis or disseration on the topic proposed. NCRC does not fund research associates and does not fund contract research.
The projects are reviewed twice per year by the industrial advisory board and failure to make sufficient progress or failure to meet the deadlines for project report submission will result in the termination of the project.
Projects confirming to the standard format in the sample proposal above are usually more favorably received by the industrial membership.
