Startup Grant

After your Dean’s approval, you will be contacted by Edith, Director of Technology. The first practical step would be to meet with Edith. This meeting will cover the following topics:

How the Academic Absorption Committee works: Our committee works with Faculty Deans – your link to the Academic Absorption Committee. After you finish formulating the application, it will be passed on through the Dean to the Deputy Senior Vice President. The committee will determine the amount of your equipment budget, after reviewing all the materials and discussing it at a dedicated meeting. Once a full request is submitted to the Deputy Senior Vice President, it takes approximately two weeks before a reply is received. Reply means a letter summarizing the amount of funding for your equipment budget and the amount of the funding designated for personnel employment.

The research proposal, your research vision and the request for equipment budget: The purpose of the equipment budget is to provide you with the means necessary for you to succeed in research in the early years, until you bring in independent grants. To this end, we will assist you in the preparation of your equipment budget request. In order for us to be able to help you, it is important that you formulate and present your research vision: How do you envision your laboratory at the Technion? What are the main research questions you want to focus on? What technological specifications do you need to reach your vision?

Equipment budget request, structure and detail: If you have a draft, great, we will review it together and make improvements wherever necessary. If not, we’ll use the initial meeting to come up with a template and set a follow-up meeting. Together, we will list the categories of equipment for which you can request funding in your budget application such as basic laboratory equipment, dedicated laboratory equipment, computation, funding for the use of research infrastructures, consumables, funding for manpower, etc. As you work on your budget request, you can request similar proposals from your Faculty Dean, talk to directors of research infrastructure centers, consult new and experienced faculty members, and other relevant contacts. Preparing your equipment request and detailing the equipment you need is the first cornerstone of your laboratory building process. A detailed request will clarify what is required for your laboratory and serve as the basis for managing your absorption processes and writing grants.

The main categories of equipment for which you can request funding in the equipment budget application are:

1. Basic laboratory equipment.
2. Dedicated laboratory equipment.
3. Computing and software.
4. Funding for the use of research infrastructure technologies.
5. Miscellaneous/consumables.
6. Funding for the employment of personnel.

• Basic and dedicated laboratory equipment depends on the type of laboratory. Edith will farther clarify at your first meeting.
• Computing and software: This category includes the computing you and your students need:  software, (subsidized software on the Technion website), other software license, means for high-performance computing (local workstations, Technion HPC runs, servers for Technion HPC, external cloud computation), storage. To clarify this issue and as part of the application preparation process that will be made together with Edith, we will also schedule for you a meeting with the Vice President for Information Systems and Computing.
• Research Infrastructures at the Technion: The Technion has a variety of research infrastructures. Your equipment budget request can include funding for the use of research infrastructures and technologies available at the Technion. Therefore, it is important that you familiarize yourself with the existing Technion research infrastructures, using the following link. This site lists all the research infrastructures, technologies, experts, as well as relevant professional and academic managers. If you didn’t find what you were looking for or if you have a question, please send us email.
• Budget for employing research staff: This is a one-time fixed amount provided to each new faculty in the amount of $150,000. The amount is updated periodically and is granted in addition to the equipment budget. It should be noted that the recruitment of personnel is done in coordination with your Faculty and with the Human Resource Division at the Technion or the Technion Research and Development Foundation. For details of all types of activities that can be funded from the personnel budget, please see the academic absorption procedure.
• Development of courses and teaching: The amount of this budget is also fixed. Each faculty member is given a one-time grant that currently stands at NIS 40,000. This is in addition to the equipment budget and the personnel budget. This budget component can be used at the Center for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching. For more information, it is recommended to contact the head of the center, Olga Chutanov. The center offers a variety of activities, including teaching development workshops, personal mentoring and support for course development. The Center has a large and diverse staff who will be happy to help you develop your teaching skills and courses. The Center has state-of-the-art recording rooms that are available for you.

After the first meeting with Edith, an update will be sent to your Dean. In most cases, another meeting will be held so we can make sure that your application is optimally prepared, includes everything required and is clearly written. We are prepared to assist you in collecting quotes from the purchasing department that will be attached to the request. Upon completion of the application, it should be sent to your Dean for submission to the Deputy Senior Vice President.

• Research statement.
• Curriculum Vitae.
• An Excel file with the laboratory equipment you need by category.
• Price quotes. Quotes are only required for significant items valued at over $70,000 per item.
• A one-page explanation detailing the connection between the research questions and the requested equipment.
• Accompanying letter from the Dean.

Academic absorption grants for new faculty members are evaluated and approved by the Academic Absorption Committee that includes the Senior Vice President (Chairman), Deputy Senior Vice President, Executive vice President for Research, Executive Vice President and Director General, Deputy Director General for Operations, and the managers and coordinators of the relevant fields. Prior to the meeting, the request will be sent to Technion reviewers and to the intended participants for review, so they can share their input at the meeting. The material for the committee is prepared by the Deputy Senior Vice President who presents each request to the committee. The Dean is invited to take part in the discussion of the applications submitted by their prospective faculty. The Dean will explain to the Committee the importance of your research, your contribution to the faculty, and the importance of the equipment required.

The Deputy Senior Vice President shares the committee’s decisions, as well as a letter approving the equipment grant, with the Faculty Dean and all other Technion entities that handle your academic absorption, e.g. the construction, budgets, human resources divisions and other. Thus, all the participants are informed about your absorption process and will be able to assist when you contact them. It is important to emphasize that decisions will be made only after you complete the academic process and receive the letter of appointment. If you’re still in the middle of the process, we’ll wait until it’s finished.

Equipment budgets are usually approved within two weeks after the full request is submitted by the Dean to the Deputy Senior Vice President (via email). If, for some reason, it is very important for you to get the approval faster, you can contact the Dean. In such cases, defined as very urgent, we will speed up the process. It is important to emphasize that final decisions will be made only after you complete the academic process and receive the letter of appointment. If you’re still in the middle of the process, we will wait until it is finished.

There is no obligation to do so and there is no deadline. However, most new faculty and candidates prefer to complete the submission before their arrival. In such cases, the equipment budget will be active on the day you arrive at the Technion. If it is necessary to order equipment even before the appointment takes effect, for example, for equipment pieces with particularly long ETA’s, please contact the Dean. In these exceptional cases, the Dean will submit your request to the Deputy Senior Vice President, who will try to address the need. Faculty members who did not submit the request prior to their arrival complete it by the end of their first year at the Technion and usually earlier. Once you have formulated your research vision and know how to structure the request, there is no point in waiting.

Our experience shows almost no requests that required further discussion. This is due to the fact that our working mechanism during the first application process allows us to understand your research needs and approve a grant amount sufficient to meet your needs and enable you to start your research career at the Technion on the right foot.

All new faculty members in Israel are asked to apply for ISF grants for both personal research and equipment. Recipients of an ISF grant for personal research can also be awarded an ISF equipment grant. In order to accelerate and promote your academic absorption, the Technion allocates an equipment budget even before the results of your ISF application are known (since we are confident you will win the competitive grant). As the Technion equipment grant precedes the ISF application, you can only apply to the ISF for funding to purchase equipment items included in your equipment budget application. Once the ISF grant is received, 20% of the amount will be transferred to your budget in addition to the Academic Absorption grant you have already received. 80% of the grant will be returned to the faculty absorption budget. This is a leverage process, common to all universities in the country.

Who is important to know in the process of preparing an ISF equipment grant application for new faculty member?

1. Shelly Otmazgin, Office Coordinator of the Senior Vice President Deputy, mail DSVP.
2. Robi Gutman, Information Coordinator, Technion Research Authority.
3. Orli Witzman, Budget Division.