Expanding Global Access to Bioimaging

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) seeks to support three-year grants to increase bioimaging capabilities in select regions, including Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and former Soviet countries. In recent years, imaging science has emerged into a mature set of concepts, technologies, and algorithms, and is attaining an exponentially important role in biomedical research. However, expertise and access to imaging technologies has been limited in many countries because of historical and ongoing socio-economic, educational, and technological challenges. Increasing access to bioimaging in these regions will help advance biomedical research and help improve global public health outcomes over time.

Supported Categories

Applications can be submitted in any of the categories below. More than one category can be included in an application as long as the budget limit is not exceeded.

• Building capacity to help biomedical researchers understand how imaging can advance their studies. Funding includes support for:
  • Organizing educational events (workshops, trainings); and 
  • Visiting scholarships to invite imaging scientists from other countries to share their expertise, and/or to help to establish a new imaging method or image analysis algorithm.
• Fellowships for postdoctoral scientists and graduate students in bioimaging science working at or supporting an imaging core (up to two per grantee) to expand the pool of imaging experts in target regions and drive adoption of imaging techniques and image analysis algorithms, and to develop new imaging technologies.
• Community development to bring together imaging scientists in selected regions to share expertise, methods, and protocols; coordinate shared use of resources in the region; and facilitate collaborations to collectively find solutions to challenges hindering advancement and adoption of imaging. Funding includes support for:
  • Salary support for project coordinators in network organizations (applicants must be network organizations only);
  • Developing online educational and resource sharing tools;
  • Events bringing imaging scientists together (such as regional meetings and conferences) and helping them to stay up-to-date on quickly evolving imaging technologies and image analysis tools; and
  • Travel awards covering travel and lodging for biomedical scientists to use imaging technologies in their program region (e.g. traveling to use technology not available in their institution or in their country). For the purpose of this RFA, program region refers to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and former Soviet countries as shown in the table below in the Eligibility section.

Desired Outcomes 

Successful outcomes for this RFA program could include:

• An increased number of biomedical researchers using imaging technologies in their work;
• An increased number of external users of an imaging core;
• Advances in regional collaboration through better utilization of regional imaging infrastructure;
• Development of resources (such as core management systems) that increase the efficiency of regional imaging core use;
• An increased number of biomedical publications based on imaging systems in an imaging core; and
• Regional network organizations engaging in collaboration with their counterparts globally.

Please note: applicant organizations may only be based in the countries listed below.

• Applications may be submitted by nonprofit organizations; public and private institutions, such as colleges, universities, hospitals, laboratories; units of state and local government; and eligible agencies of the federal government on behalf of imaging cores and network organizations. Network organizations may also directly submit applications. Grants are not permitted to individuals, only to organizations.
  • Imaging Cores: facilities providing public access to bioimaging expertise and technology (both software and hardware) to local and regional communities of biomedical researchers.
    • An imaging core can submit only one application, but different imaging cores from a single institution may submit separate applications.
    • Imaging cores should serve a broad community of scientists at their institutions, not just a small number of labs. Imaging cores providing support to biomedical scientists from other countries in their region are particularly encouraged to apply.
  • Network Organizations: nonprofit organizations that bring together imaging scientists to network and collaborate; share resources, experience, and expertise; and build capacity regionally. Organizations that have just started the process of registration (for legal status of a nonprofit organization) are welcome to apply, but registration must be completed by the start date of the grant (listed below).

• Each application should designate one Principal Investigator (PI) as the Coordinating Principal Investigator (Coordinating PI). The Coordinating PI will act as the administrative contact between CZI and all PIs on the grant (Co-PIs). The Coordinating PI must submit the application on behalf of all PIs. The Coordinating PI must be affiliated with the institution submitting the application, and grant funds will be awarded to that institution, which will take responsibility for distributing funds to any other institutions. 
• A Coordinating PI may submit separate applications for an imaging core and a network organization. 
• Each application should have a minimum of one PI, but may designate up to three total PIs (one Coordinating PI and up to two Co-PIs).
• PIs may only serve as the Coordinating PI on one application of each type (Imaging Core and Network Organization), but may serve as a Co-PI on applications different from those they submitted.
• Co-PIs may serve as a Co-PI on multiple applications.
• PIs/Co-PIs on one application may be employed at the same or at different institutions.
• Organizations (both for Coordinating and Co-PIs) may only be based in the following countries:

AFRICA

• Algeria
• Angola
• Benin
• Botswana
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Comoros
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of the Congo
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Eswatini
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Ivory Coast
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Libya
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Rwanda
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Tanzania
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

AMERICAS

The Caribbean

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada
• Haiti

Central America

• Belize
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Nicaragua
• Panama

North America

• Mexico

South America

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Guyana
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Suriname
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

FORMER SOVIET COUNTRIES

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Estonia
• Georgia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Moldova
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Ukraine
• Uzbekistan

• Prior to award, all grant applications will be reviewed for compliance with the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions program, the United States Department of Commerce’s export administration regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), any other applicable U.S. laws and regulations, and any corresponding laws and regulations in the country where the applicant is based. All grant agreements will also require the grantee to comply with these laws and regulations. For additional information please refer to: the U.S. Treasury Department’s resources, the International Trade Administration’s website on US Export Controls, and the Department of Justice’s website on the FCPA.
• CZI encourages applications from people from underrepresented populations, women, and early-career scientists.
• Facebook employees, including employees of any subsidiary Facebook entities, as well as employees of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC, are not permitted to apply.
• CZI reserves the sole right to decide if an applicant and applicant organization meet the eligibility requirements. 
• CZI reserves the right to request budget changes upon award.

CZI suggests that you consult your home institution to determine eligibility to apply for this grant and your institutional policy on indirect costs. For questions about eligibility for this award or the application process, please contact us in advance of the proposal deadline at sciencegrants@chanzuckerberg.com. Deadline extensions will not be granted.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative uses SurveyMonkey Apply (SMApply) as its grants management portal. All applications must be submitted through this portal (https://apply.chanzuckerberg.com). SMApply is configured to work best using the Google Chrome browser. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with this portal well in advance of any deadlines. Deadline extensions will not be granted.

• Application Specifics:
  • Eligibility: Please refer to the above Eligibility section of the RFA announcement.
  • Award Period: Awards will be three years (36 months) in duration with a start date of no earlier than December 1, 2021. Actual start date may vary.
  • Award amount: $200,000 USD total costs (inclusive of 15 percent indirect costs) for three years for applications from imaging cores; $300,000 USD total costs (inclusive of 15 percent indirect costs) for three years for network organizations. Budgets will be evaluated for appropriateness relative to the scope of work proposed. Indirect costs cannot exceed 15 percent of direct costs. 
  • Number of Principal Investigators (PI and Co-PIs): Each application should have a minimum of one PI, but may designate up to three total PIs (one Coordinating Principal Investigator and up to two Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs)).
  • Institutional sign-off is required.

The application consists of the following sections (called tasks in the grants portal): Coordinating PI Details, Equal Opportunity & Diversity, Organization Details for Coordinating PI, Project Details, Imaging Core / Network Organization Details, Project Proposal, Budget Description, CVs for Coordinating PI and Co-PIs, and Letters of Commitment.

• Coordinating PI Details: Complete all fields in this task; all fields are required. The information entered should be for the Coordinating Principal Investigator (Coordinating PI), who will be the person submitting the application on behalf of the team. The Coordinating PI will be responsible for carrying out the project either by themselves or by managing the group collaboration; they will also serve as the administrative point of contact for CZI and any partners. Information about the Co-Principal Investigator(s) on the proposal should be entered where requested in the Project Details part of the application.
  • Name and email (auto-filled): To edit your name or email, please do so in your account information by clicking your name in the upper right corner and clicking My Account in the dropdown menu. 
  • Degrees.
  • Organization, Title/Position, Department or equivalent.
  • Career status: Select early-career (faculty 0 to 6 years), mid-career (faculty 6+ to 10 years), or neither. Note: Early- or mid- career status is not required to be eligible for this RFA.
    • Early-Career Definition: In the context of this RFA, an early-career investigator is someone who has been in an independent faculty position (or equivalent) for zero to six years at the time of application, i.e. started their first independent position between July 20, 2015 and July 20, 2021. 
    • Mid-Career Definition: In the context of this RFA, a mid-career investigator is someone who has been in an independent faculty position (or equivalent) for more than six to 10 years at the time of application, i.e. started their first independent position between July 20, 2011 and July 20, 2015. 
  • Short narrative biography of the Coordinating PI (maximum of 100 words).
  • ORCID iD: Enter in format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. ORCID iDs are unique, digital identifiers that distinguish individual scientists and unambiguously connect their contributions to science over time and across changes of name, location, and institutional affiliation. ORCID iDs will be used to streamline reporting in our applications and grant reports to reduce the burden on grantees. For more information, please visit https://orcid.org/register. (Please contact us at sciencegrants@chanzuckerberg.com if you wish to opt out).

• Equal Opportunity & Diversity: CZI Science supports the science and technology that will make it possible to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century. Everyone is affected by disease, yet different communities are affected by or experience disease in different ways. Moreover, due to systemic barriers, the scientific enterprise itself is not a place where all voices and talents thrive. We believe the strongest scientific teams — encompassing ourselves, our grantees, and our partners — incorporate a wide range of lived experiences and perspectives that guide them to the most important unsolved problems. To enable our work, we incorporate diverse perspectives into our strategy and processes, and we also seek to empower community partners to engage in science.

We track demographic information associated with applications submitted to CZI in response to our open calls. Based on our learnings, we take steps to broaden or adjust our strategies to improve our reach and to help ensure members of underrepresented or marginalized groups in science are aware of CZI opportunities and able to apply. Please note that answering all questions below is voluntary, and demographic information will not be used to make final grant funding decisions. All responses will be shared only with limited personnel, who will use that information only for the purposes described in this paragraph. 

If you have any additional questions about why we ask this, what we do with the data, or to share suggestions for improvement, please reach out to sciencegrants@chanzuckerberg.com.

The information below may be entered for the Coordinating PI, who will be submitting the application on behalf of the team. Please note that completing the below is voluntary, and demographic information will not be used to make final grant funding decisions.

• What is your race/ethnicity? (optional)
• What is the year of your last academic degree? (optional)
• What is your gender? (optional)
• Are you transgender? (optional)
• Are you a member of the LGBTQ community? (optional)
• Do you have one or more disabilities? (optional)

The information below may be entered for the Co-Principal Investigators listed (if any) in the Project Details section. Please note that completing the below is voluntary, and demographic information will not be used to make final grant funding decisions. Please also let your Co-Principal Investigators know if you choose to enter the below in case they object to your providing that information to CZI.

• Do any of the Co-Principal Investigators self-identify as one of the following? Woman, Man, Non-binary/Third gender, Prefer not to state, Prefer to describe (optional)
  • If yes, how many of the listed Co-Principal Investigators self-identify as one of the above gender identities? Please do not include requested information on a per person basis; we are looking for aggregated information (optional)
• Do any of the Co-Principal Investigators self-identify as one of the following? Two or More Races, Black and/or African American, Asian, White, Hispanic or Latinx, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska Native, Prefer not to state, Prefer to describe (optional)
  • If yes, how many of the listed Co-Principal Investigators self-identify as one of the above race/ethnicities? Please do not include requested information on a per person basis; we are looking for aggregated information (optional)

• Organization Details for Coordinating PI: Complete all fields in this task; all fields are required. The information entered should be for the organization of the Coordinating Principal Investigator (Coordinating PI), who will be the person submitting the application on behalf of the team. The Coordinating PI must be affiliated with the organization listed, and grant funds will be awarded to this organization, which will take responsibility for distributing funds to the institutions of the other team members.
  • Organization name/Street address/City/State/Country/Region/Website.
  • Type of organization (academic/non-profit, government, other).
  • Organizational/Administrative Contact: List the name and contact information for the administrative contact to discuss additional information needed, if selected for award.
    • First name, Last name, Title/Position, Email.
  • Signing Official: List the name and contact information for the person authorized to sign on behalf of your organization.
    • First name, Last name, Title/Position, Email.
  • Press Contact / Public Relations Official: List the name and contact information for the person to discuss press releases and media.
    • First name, Last name, Title/Position, Email.
  • Institutional Approval Form: Upload as a single PDF. This form should be reviewed and signed by a person authorized to sign on behalf of your organization agreeing to the stated institutional and investigator requirements and commitments on data, resource sharing, and publication policies, as well as endorsing/verifying your application materials and confirming their ability to receive funding for the proposal. In the event of an award, all funds will be awarded to the Coordinating PI institution as the prime institution, and the Coordinating PI institution will be responsible for ensuring compliance of all of the terms, including compliance of all partners/subcontract institutions. These policies are non-negotiable. This form should only be signed if the organization is able to comply with the terms as stated. While CZI does not require sign-off by all of your partner institutions, please refer to what your institution requires. Note: digital signatures are permitted as long as the document is not encrypted or password-protected.

• Project Details: Complete all fields in this task; all fields are required. 
  • Project Title: Project title is limited to 75 characters, including spaces. If you need to edit your proposal title, navigate to your application summary page, click on the three dots to the right of the application title (next to the Preview link) and select Rename from the dropdown menu.
  • Project Purpose: Summarize your research project; limited to one sentence (maximum of 200 characters including spaces). Please use a third-person voice.
    • Example: To develop a series of workshops to increase utilization of microscopy in biomedical research in the region.
  • Abstract/Project Summary: Describe your project in brief (maximum of 250 words). Please use a third-person voice (example). 
  • Milestones: Summarize the main milestones for your project (list format, maximum of 250 words). 
  • Type of Project: Designate if the project is for: Building capacity, Fellowships, or Community building. Check all that apply. Definitions can be found in the Opportunity section of the RFA announcement.
  • Amount Requested: Enter the amount requested per year (including indirect costs), as well the total budget requested for all years in USD (this number should be no more than $200K for imaging cores and $300K for network organizations), including indirect costs; these numbers should match those described in the Budget Description. Enter whole numbers only (no dollar signs, commas, or cents). 
  • Co-Principal Investigators: Indicate the number of Co-Principal Investigators, not including the Coordinating PI. Complete the table with the following information for each Co-PI (maximum of two). Do not include the Coordinating PI in this section. You may need to use the scroll bar at the bottom of the table to scroll right to view and to complete all fields. Alternatively, you can tab to move through and complete the fields. For each Co-PI, please provide:
    • Co-PI name, Title/Position, Degrees, ORCID iD (format: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX), Email, Career status 
      • In the context of this RFA, an early-career investigator is someone who has been in an independent faculty position (or equivalent) for zero to six years at the time of application, i.e. started their first independent position between July 20, 2015 and July 20, 2021, and mid-career as someone who has been in an independent faculty role (or equivalent) for more than six to 10 years at the time of application, i.e. started their first independent position between July 20, 2011 and July 20, 2015. 
    • Organization Name, Country, Website.
    • Type of organization (drop down menu: academic/nonprofit, government, other).

• Imaging Core / Network Organization Details: Complete all fields in this task as indicated. For the tabular questions, you may need to use the scroll bar at the bottom of the table to scroll right to view and to complete all fields. Alternatively, you can tab to move through and complete the fields. To add another row in a table, click the box at the end of the row. 
  • Are you applying as an Imaging Core or Network Organization? 
  • If Imaging Core:
    • Core Type: 
      • Select one: Service Provider, Research Center, Both, Other (please specify). 
      • Does your core have the status of a National Facility (applicable in some countries in Latin America)? Yes/no/non-applicable
      • Does your core facility primarily concern (check all that apply): Optical microscopy; Electron microscopy; Medical imaging; Other (please specify)? 
    • Core Users: 
      • Enter the number of users for each category for 2019 and 2020: 
        • number of labs using the core
        • number of individual core users
        • number of active individual users (who have used the facility for 20 hours or more throughout the year) 
      • Enter the percentage of users (out of total users) for each category for 2019 and 2020:
        • external (outside your organization) vs internal users
        • foreign users vs domestic users
    • Major Imaging Systems: Enter the following (for up to 25). Modality (e.g. confocal), Model (e.g. LSM 980), Vendor (e.g. Zeiss), Quantity, Relative usage: “a few hours per week”, “a few hours per day”, “many hours per day”, “nonstop”. Enter N/A in all fields, if not applicable. 
    • Image Processing and Data Analysis Capacity:
      • Does your imaging core have a dedicated image analyst?
      • Does your core provide support in image processing and data analysis?
      • List the names of the major image analysis software you offer to your core users.
    • Personnel: Enter the number of people working in the core: Employees (not including postdoctoral scientists and grad students), Postdoctoral scientists, and Graduate students, and whether they are full-time or part-time. Enter 0 if there are none in a category.
    • Outreach Activities: List any outreach activities your core has organized or participated in to train and educate users outside your organization on the role of bioimaging in advancing biomedical science. Such activities may include workshops and conferences. 
    • Overall Imaging Core Budget: Enter the following for the overall Imaging Core budget for 2019 and 2020: 1) total budget expenses (in USD); 2) the percent for personnel; 3) the percent for equipment maintenance. 
  • If Network Organization: 
    • Region: Which regions does this organization represent? 
    • Website: Please provide your network organization’s website address.
    • Partnerships: Is your organization a member of Global Bioimaging or another global community organization?
    • Members: How many members does your organization have?
    • Organization Age: What year was your organization established? Enter 0 if you are in the process of registering. 
    • Founders: List the founders of your network organization (up to 5): 1) Name, 2) Country of residence, 3) Position in the country of residence
    • Community Activities: List the major community fostering activities your network organization has done in the past: Workshops, Member meetings, Standards development, Other (please specify). Enter N/A if not applicable.
  • For both Imaging Cores and Network Organizations:
    • Financial Support: Please enter N/A if any of the following funding categories do not apply. “Current year” refers to funding for the 2021 calendar year.
      • Active Grant Support: Enter (up to 15): 1) Funding agency, 2) Grant number, 3) Funding start date (format as mm/dd/yy), 4) Funding end date (format as mm/dd/yy), 5) Funding for current year (in USD), 6) Total funding (in USD). 
      • Pending Grant Support (grants applied for and awaiting decisions): Enter (up to 15): 1) Funding agency, 2) Funding start date (format as mm/dd/yy), 3) Funding end date (format as mm/dd/yy), 4) Funding for first year (in USD), 5) Total funding (in USD). 
      • Institutional Support: Enter (up to 15): 1) Source, 2) Funding start date (format as mm/dd/yy), 3) Funding end date (format as mm/dd/yy), 4) Funding for current year (in USD). 
      • Other: Enter (up to 15): 1) Source, 2) Funding start date (format as mm/dd/yy), 3) Funding end date (format as mm/dd/yy), 4) Funding for current year (in USD). 
      • For Imaging Cores only: Recharge/Users Fees: Enter the amount collected in 2019 and 2020 (in USD). Enter “0” if there are none.

• Project Proposal: Upload your project proposal as a single PDF. U.S. letter-sized is required with Arial 11 points or larger font and margins at least one-half inch (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages. Include the following sections:
  • Proposal Body: (maximum of 2,500 words, which includes 250 words for the Abstract)
    • Abstract: Copy your Abstract/Project Summary entered in the Project Details section here. 
    • Background: Describe the state of imaging in your country/region, main challenges in helping the advancement of biomedical sciences through expanded access to imaging expertise and instrumentation in your region, and outline the challenge/s you aim to address in this proposal. 
    • Project Goals: Detail the goals of the project. 
    • Significance: Describe how your proposal will help expand access to bioimaging expertise and instrumentation for biomedical scientists in your local area and region, and promote the role of imaging science in advancing biomedical sciences.
    • Project Plan: Describe clearly the strategy to be employed, main milestones, expected outcomes, deliverables, and associated timeline.
  • Figures (optional): Limited to two pages, inclusive of legends. Figure legends do not count towards the word count.
  • References Cited in your Proposal: No word/page limit; include complete source references.

• Budget Description: Upload your project proposal as a single PDF. U.S. letter-sized is required with Arial 11 points or larger font and margins at least one-half inch (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages; no page limit. Provide a detailed description of the costs to be funded by this grant at a high level and in tabular form, outlining costs for personnel (including names, if known), travel, meetings/hackathons/sprints, subcontracts, other costs, and up to 15 percent indirect costs (excluding equipment and subcontracts). 
  • Indirect costs are limited to up to 15 percent of direct costs. Indirect costs may not be assessed on capital equipment or subcontracts, but subcontractors may include up to 15 percent indirect costs of their direct costs.
  • Budget should be requested in U.S. dollars. 
  • Grant funds must be used exclusively for activities conducted outside the United States of America. Travel expenses to the United States (including round-trip tickets) will not be covered by this grant and should not be included in the proposed budget. Any attendance at CZI meetings in the U.S. will be covered by CZI outside of requested grant funds.
  • Application budgets must reflect the actual needs of the proposal. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will work closely with successful applicants to arrive at a mutually acceptable budget after review.

• CVs for Coordinating PI and Co-PIs: Upload the CVs in PDF format for the Coordinating PI and for each of the Co-PIs. CVs should be uploaded as one PDF per Co-PI; maximum of three pages per CV. U.S. letter-sized is required with Arial 11 points or larger font and margins at least one-half inch (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages. Do not include a CV for any additional collaborators beyond the Coordinating PI and Co-PIs, as listed. Required fields are: 1) Name, 2) Current Position Title, 3) Education/Training (Institution and Location, Degree, Completion Date, Field of Study), 4) Positions and Scientific Appointments (Date, Title, Organization), 5) Publications (please provide the total number (integer format) and a selected list of 10 citations), 6) How many years have you been managing imaging cores (if applicable)? 
• Letters of Commitment: Upload a signed letter from each Co-PI briefly describing the role and contribution of the Co-PI to the overall team and project; do not include a letter from the Coordinating PI. Letters should be in PDF format (U.S. letter-sized) and can be uploaded in a combined single PDF or one PDF for each Co-PI. A letter is not needed from the Coordinating PI, but since this section is required, please upload a blank sheet if there are no Co-PIs in order to complete this section and submit your application. Note: digital signatures are permitted as long as the document is not encrypted or password-protected.

The formatting and component requirements, including word and page limits indicated above, will be enforced by the review team. Any submitted materials that exceed the word and page limits or do not follow the requirements will not be considered during the application review process.

QUESTIONS?

For administrative and programmatic inquiries pertaining to this RFA, please contact sciencegrants@chanzuckerberg.com. For technical assistance with SMApply, please contact support@smapply.io or while logged into SMApply, click on the information “i” link in the upper right corner and submit a help request ticket.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s core values center around people, technology, collaboration, and open science. We adhere to those values in both proposal selection and evaluation of progress.

CZI will evaluate all applications for scientific merit through independent expert review. Final decisions will be made by CZI staff in consultation with our scientific advisors. There is no expectation of any specific number of awards, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative reserves the sole right to not recommend the funding of any applications. CZI does not provide feedback on decisions for unfunded proposals.

Selection of awardees will be based on:

• The quality of the proposal, and the expertise and capacity of the group for addressing the proposed project;
• Significance and potential impact of the project; and
• Potential of the awardee to contribute to an increased adoption of imaging in biomedical sciences in their region.

• Funds from this award are intended to support research activities. Grants are made to organizations to support the work of the named Principal Investigator, and reasonable flexibility on how these funds are utilized is allowed, provided that funds are used to support research activities related to the project. A detailed budget is required at the time of application.
• For awarded projects, financial statements and progress reports will be due at the conclusion of each grant year, and occasionally more frequently. Specific deliverable requirements will be outlined in the award notification. Grantees of funded projects will be required to participate in regular meetings, including annual scientist meetings (which may be in person or virtual). Travel support for these meetings will be provided by CZI separately from the requested grant funds. 
• Grantees may obtain funds for their research from other funding sources, provided that there is no conflict with meeting the terms of the CZI award.
• Unused research funds may be carried over to the following year, and requests for no-cost extensions will be considered at the end of the overall project period and upon receipt of an annual report. 
• Indirect costs cannot exceed 15 percent of direct costs. Indirect costs may not be assessed on capital equipment or subcontracts, but subcontractors may include up to 15 percent indirect costs of their direct costs.
• Grantees must use all grant funds exclusively for activities conducted outside the United States of America. Travel expenses to the United States must not be covered from the requested grant funds. 
• Ethical conduct: CZI advocates the highest standards for the ethical conduct of research. In addition to requirements of their own countries, grantees must adopt procedures for the use of animals in research and for the ethical treatment of human subjects and tissue donors, including obtaining their or their appropriate proxy’s written informed consent. CZI regards the policies of the National Institutes of Health as a strong model for such procedures.
• Data, publication, and dissemination policies:​ To accelerate scientific discovery and collaboration, CZI supports a consent, sharing, and publication policy for open and rapid dissemination of proposal results, including methods, data, and reagents, and a policy for software development that maximizes accessibility, reuse, and shared development. Under rare circumstances, exceptions to the above may be considered where there are specific situations that make meeting these goals impossible or counterproductive to the project. 
  • Software code: CZI requires sharing of software code developed by its grantees generally to be made publicly available on GitHub (or a similar public service). All new code must be released under a permissive open source license (MIT, BSD 2-Clause, BSD 3-Clause, or Apache v2.0). All pre-existing and derivative code must be licensed under the most permissive license possible, given the licensing terms of the pre-existing code. All analysis packages must be released through the appropriate language-specific package manager (e.g., PyPi for Python, Bioconductor and CRAN for R) with documentation, example data, and interactive demos (e.g., Jupyter notebooks), and the use of Docker or similar container technologies to ensure portability and reproducibility. Software code supported by CZI should be archived for long-term digital preservation and citability, when applicable.
  • Content and data sharing: ​CZI is committed to developing and using platforms that disseminate data openly and freely. Any datasets either curated or generated through the proposal must be made as publicly available and easily accessible through an appropriate data repository as legally permissible, when applicable, under an Open Definition conformant license. Ideally, data sets would not include personally identifiable information, but if they do, consent to sharing the data must be obtained. Metadata, documentation, and intended use cases, as appropriate, must be made available under an Open Definition conformant license, preferably CC0 or CC BY/CC BY SA for content that requires explicit attribution. 
  • Publications:​ To encourage rapid dissemination of results, any publications related to this funded work must be submitted to a preprint server (such as bioRxiv, medRxiv, arXiv, or any appropriate preprint repository), at or before the first submission to a journal. Experimental protocols must be made publicly available through a protocol sharing service, such as protocols.io. Scientific publications, preprints, and presentations that result from this award should acknowledge support from this funding.
  • Reagent sharing: Resources and reagents developed with this funding support must be available for rapid dissemination to the community, where possible in an accessible community repository, such as Addgene (for plasmids/DNA reagents/viruses) and Jackson Labs (for model systems lines), etc. This requirement applies to cell lines, transgenic organisms, plasmids/clones, antibodies, and other reagents. 
  • Consent: All human tissues must be adequately and fully consented to permit full sharing of the resulting data and any resulting tools, in accordance with laws and regulations, or requirements. Any desired exceptions to this policy must be identified at the time of application, and such requests may affect the application’s chance of success. We are aware that there may be circumstances where broad consent may be challenging, and in some cases consent may be subject to revocation; we encourage investigators to discuss these cases with CZI scientific staff. 
  • Intellectual property rights: CZI does not require assignment of ownership to any data, published results, or any other intellectual property that results from the work funded by these grants but will have the same rights generally granted to others. CZI supports and promotes policies that enable results and technologies to have the broadest reach and impact. To this end, all newly developed software must be made available through permissive open source licenses as described more fully above. Other technology and intellectual property rights (such as patents) must be made freely available for all academic and non-commercial use, and where intellectual property rights are commercialized, they must generally be subject to non-exclusive commercial licenses that enable broad availability and dissemination. 

• Applications selected through this process will either be funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation (CZIF) or recommended for funding through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Donor-Advised Fund (CZI DAF) at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF).

All submitted applications will be kept confidential, except (1) as necessary for our evaluation or to comply with any applicable laws; and (2) to the extent that the application is made public or available to others without a duty of confidentiality through no fault of CZI. Notwithstanding, successfully funded proposals may be made publicly available and/or shared with other grantees or collaborators. Unfunded proposals will remain confidential as provided herein; however, information, including brief summaries of the proposed projects, project metrics, and the types of organizations that have applied for funding, may be made publicly available in aggregate form. Application materials will not be returned to applicants.