Propose a Research Collaboration

1. Who may propose a collaboration

The Institute may consider inquiries from individuals or organizations with relevant expertise, resources, data, facilities, community relationships, implementation capacity, or research questions.

• universities, colleges, schools, and research institutes;
• independent researchers and scholarly teams;
• government agencies and public institutions;
• hospitals, healthcare systems, and human-service organizations;
• companies, laboratories, and technology developers;
• foundations, charities, and community organizations;
• archives, museums, libraries, and historical organizations;
• tribal, regional, municipal, and community partners;
• property owners or operators offering potential field or pilot sites.

2. Types of collaboration

3. What makes a strong institutional fit

Strong proposals should connect clearly to the Institute’s mission and research priorities.

• The problem is significant and sufficiently defined.
• The proposed work addresses a genuine evidence or implementation gap.
• The collaborators bring relevant expertise, access, or capacity.
• The methods can be explained and independently reviewed.
• Ethics, safety, privacy, security, and community effects are considered.
• Roles, responsibilities, ownership, and decision authority can be documented.
• The expected outputs and public benefit are realistic.
• The proposal has a credible path to resources or phased development.

4. What to include in an initial inquiry

An initial proposal does not need to be a complete grant application or research protocol. It should provide enough information for preliminary assessment.

• the proposed title or subject;
• a concise description of the problem or opportunity;
• the research question or intended objective;
• the people, institutions, or communities affected;
• existing evidence, prior work, or related projects;
• the proposed collaborators and their roles;
• available data, facilities, equipment, sites, or expertise;
• anticipated methods or project phases;
• known ethical, legal, privacy, safety, or security concerns;
• the expected outputs, timeline, and resource needs;
• the proposed contribution requested from the Institute.

5. Preliminary review process

The Institute may decline, defer, redirect, narrow, or recommend another organization for a proposal without conducting a full review.

6. Requirements before work begins

A positive preliminary discussion does not authorize research activity. Depending on the project, the following may be required:

• a written collaboration or sponsored-research agreement;
• defined leadership, responsibilities, milestones, and reporting;
• research ethics or human-participant review;
• animal-care, biosafety, laboratory-safety, or environmental review;
• data-use, privacy, cybersecurity, or confidentiality agreements;
• intellectual-property and publication terms;
• conflict-of-interest disclosure and management;
• export-control or international-collaboration review;
• insurance, facility access, training, or credentialing;
• approved funding, budget, procurement, and financial controls.

7. Confidentiality and sensitive information

Initial submissions should not contain trade secrets, protected health information, identifiable participant records, security-sensitive details, export-controlled information, or other confidential material unless the Institute has approved a secure submission method.

The Institute is not obligated to treat an unsolicited proposal as confidential merely because it is labeled confidential.

8. Intellectual property, authorship, and publication

Formal collaborations should address ownership and use of background intellectual property, inventions, software, data, methods, publications, trademarks, archival records, and other project outputs.

Authorship and contributor credit should reflect actual scholarly contributions. Funding or institutional status alone should not determine authorship.

The Institute should preserve academic and research integrity, including the ability to report accurate findings, corrections, limitations, and conflicts.

9. Funding and resources

Collaboration inquiries may identify potential grants, sponsorship, in-kind support, shared personnel, equipment, facilities, data, or phased development strategies.

Submission of a proposal does not imply that the Institute will provide funding, reimburse costs, donate services, acquire equipment, employ proposed personnel, or assume responsibility for project expenses.

Sponsored work should be governed by the Institute’s grant, financial stewardship, procurement, conflict-of-interest, and research-integrity frameworks.

10. Submit an initial collaboration inquiry

Until a dedicated proposal portal is activated, collaboration inquiries may be submitted through the Institute’s Contact page.

Use the subject line or inquiry category Research Collaboration Proposal.