$4 Million Toyota Research Institute Call for Proposals

Call for pre-proposals sent on behalf of the U-M Business Engagement Center

Pre-proposals are due by September 30, 2016, by 5:00 pm to TRI2016Preproposals@umich.edu

Submit Pre-Proposal to TRI2016Preproposals@umich.edu by
Friday, September 30, 2016
at 5:00 p.m.

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) applies artificial intelligence to tasks in mobility, safety, and materials discovery. The current focus is on four thrusts:

Self-Driving Cars
Enhanced Driving Safety
Indoor Mobility/Home Robotics
Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery

TRI seeks proposals from the University of Michigan (U-M) that will advance TRI’s efforts in these thrusts.

TRI plans to provide up to $16 million dollars to the University for research in areas of interest to TRI over a period of four years starting in January 2017. Funded projects may have durations ranging from one year to up to four years. Separately, TRI also plans to provide up to $10 million per year for research in the U.S. in the materials design and discovery thrust starting in February 2017. U-M proposers are strongly encouraged to review active TRI funded projects at Stanford (http://aicenter.stanford.edu) and M.I.T. (http://toyota.csail.mit.edu) in order to avoid proposing overlapping projects.

Pre-proposal Requirements:

Submission Deadline: Submit a brief pre-proposal* by September 30, 2016, by 5:00 pm to TRI2016Preproposals@umich.edu using the following file naming convention: PI first name_PI last name_date
(e.g., Jane_Smith_072116).

Award Amount: $4,000,000 in total will be awarded in this application cycle for U-M projects with durations ranging from one to four years.
Eligibility: U-M faculty and researchers
*Pre-proposals should be no more than two pages and a template is available for download at http://bec.umich.edu/about/for-faculty/toyota-research-institute-tri-2016-call-for-proposals/

TRI Focus Areas:

TRI invites pre-proposals in four broad topic areas;

Self-Driving Cars
Enhanced Driving Safety
Indoor Mobility and Home Robotics
Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery

More details on topics are available at http://bec.umich.edu/about/for-faculty/toyota-research-institute-tri-2016-call-for-proposals/

Evaluation Criteria:

Innovation - Extent that concept is ambitious, novel, transformational, and interdisciplinary
Impact - Significant potential for future impact in the areas of interest to TRI
Approach - Likelihood of success of the proposed work plan and the proposed team, and possible engagement with TRI

Proposal Process and Timeline:

August 10 - September 30, 2016: Pre-proposals submission
October 14, 2016: Select applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal
November 11, 2016: Full proposals due
November 30, 2016: Awards announced
January 2017: Projects start