Call 6: Tornado Ready Research and Data Publication

Overview

Proposal Q&A Session

Learn more about this funding opportunity by watching the recorded Q&A session here.

The Natural Hazards Center is now accepting proposals for Tornado Ready Research and Data Publication in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Each year, an estimated 1,200 tornadoes touch down in the United States. Despite progress in communicating risk to the public, these storms can turn deadly quickly and often lead to widespread property damage, social disruption, and injuries. This call for proposals will fund a cadre of researchers who are interested in advancing research focused on improving outcomes for at-risk and socially marginalized groups in the context of tornados.

Topic Areas

This call will prioritize proposals for tornado research focused on settings that serve or house socially marginalized populations, such as:

Schools or Childcare Centers
Hospitals
Nursing Homes or Other Eldercare Facilities
Faith-Based Organizations
Correctional Facilities
Mobile and Manufactured Homes

These settings—and the people who work and live in these spaces—play an integral role in the safety of some of society’s most at-risk populations. Therefore, the goal of this call is to fund research that improves mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery for these places and populations. Research questions of interest include, but are not limited to:

How do decision-makers receive and process tornado information and ultimately decide what protective actions to recommend for socially marginalized populations?
Are decision-makers using tornado forecast information before tornado events and if so, how?
Who helps decision makers, staff, and diverse groups act in the face of impending tornado threats?
What adaptive sheltering options are available for socially marginalized populations?
How do socially marginalized populations understand tornado information and apply it during preparedness, emergency response, or recovery?

If you are unsure of whether your topic of interest is aligned with this call for proposals, please reach out to us at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu.

This call, which is part of the Weather Ready Research Award Program, was made possible with the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory in partnership with the NOAA Weather Program Office, National Weather Service, and the National Science Foundation.

Funding Tracks

Applicants from the social, behavioral, and economic sciences can apply for one or more of the following tracks, specifically focused on settings that serve or house potentially vulnerable populations. Proposed research should be culturally relevant, ethically informed, and scientifically rigorous.

Track 1: Provides up to $15,000 for research that focuses on activities, perceptions, or decisions made before a tornado occurs (e.g., forecasting, risk perception, institutional decision making, preparedness, mitigation).
Track 2: Provides up to $15,000 for research that focuses on a specific tornado event (e.g., how forecasts and warnings were received and understood, sheltering or evacuation behavior, tornado impacts, displacement, rebuilding, or recovery). For this track, the tornado event to be studied must have occurred on or after January 1, 2023.
Track 3: Provides awards of either $1,250 or $2,500 for tornado research instrument and/or data publication on DesignSafe, the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure platform that provides data management and storage solutions for extreme events research. The $1,250 awards will support publication of one or more research protocols or instruments, such as surveys, interviews, focus group guides, or observation protocols. The $2,500 awards will be reserved for those who publish a dataset and associated instruments and protocols for a single tornado-related project.

Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. MDT on Friday, August 9, 2024

Award Details in Brief

All prospective applicants are encouraged to attend the Proposal Q&A Session on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. MST.
Proposals for Track 1 and 2 should be five single-spaced pages and must include a separate appendix with a reference list, budget, and budget justification statement. Final reports are due within six months of award activation.
- Available funds will support up to four Track 1 or Track 2 awards in the amount of up to $15,000 each.
Proposals for Track 3 require the completion of a data publication checklist and publication template. Data publication checklists and templates are due within three months of award activation.
- Available funds will support up to ten Track 3 awards in the amount of $1,250 or $2,500 each.
Applicants can apply for more than one track of activity, but a separate proposal should be submitted for each track.
All proposals, regardless of the track or the funding range, must be led by a researcher in the social, behavioral, or economic sciences who works at an academic institution based in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation. Practitioners or additional research collaborators from other disciplines and those outside the United States are welcome to join research teams.
Proposals for all tracks are due by 5:00 p.m. MST on Friday, August 9, 2024.

Proposal Requirements and Post-Award Deliverables

Please click on the links below to review detailed guidelines about proposal requirements and post-award deliverables, and learn how to submit a proposal for each track.

Funding Agreement

Award recipients must carefully read and agree to the following funding criteria:

The lead investigator designated in the proposal must be from an academic institution based in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation. Co-leads, project assistants, or local collaborators are not subject to this requirement—these individuals cannot, however, serve as the project lead and primary award recipient.
The lead investigator must have training and experience in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Those from other disciplines are welcome to serve as collaborators.
Award payments can be distributed to up to three team members as designated by the lead investigator (for example, 50% of the award sent to the lead, 25% to the co-lead, and 25% to a local collaborator).
Payments will be sent directly to the award recipients designated in the budget to cover project-related expenses or time dedicated to data collection, analysis efforts, or the dissemination of results.
This award funding cannot be sent directly to a university or other institutions, and overhead or indirect costs associated with these funds are not allowed.
Expenses may need to be paid out of pocket if research begins before payment is received. Due dates will not be extended due to delays in payment processing.
Per tax compliance requirements, the University of Colorado Boulder will report payments to taxing jurisdictions when required. Individual payees will be issued any applicable tax forms directly from the University. Payees are responsible for any and all tax consequences related to payments they have received.
Individual recipients of these awards will be solely responsible for all tax reporting and ramifications. The Natural Hazards Center cannot provide tax advice. Awardees are allowed to include estimated taxes in their budget justification.
If you or one of your team members are a University of Colorado employee, please reach out to Katie Murphy at Katherine.Murphy-1@Colorado.edu prior to submitting a proposal, as the funding distribution has different requirements, including additional fringe and payroll tax considerations.
For award recipients who are not U.S. citizens, the payment process may take longer and will require additional paperwork. All payments made to visa holders are submitted through the International Tax Office at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Once the award has been activated and the award agreement, tax forms, and IRB approval have been submitted to the Natural Hazards Center, researchers can begin fieldwork.

Questions?

Please contact the Natural Hazards Center at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu.

Acknowledgements

The Weather Ready Research Award program is based on work supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory through supplemental funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593). Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations produced by this program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, NSF, or the Natural Hazards Center.