Vice President for Research

The VPR Office has created an “intent-to-apply” internal competition for the ARPA-H Performance and Reliability Evaluation for Continuous Modifications and Usability of Artificial Intelligence (PRECISE-AI) funding opportunity. Here is the link to the competition: https://utah.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1953530.

This internal competition will function slightly different than a traditional LSO. The University of Utah will run an "intent-to-apply" competition for PRECISE-AI that is currently based off the draft solicitation. Interested individuals will be asked to submit a brief internal application prior to applying to the full solicitation (when published). This is to ensure central research administration can support investigators applying to this opportunity, have awareness of exactly which applications/topic areas are being submitted to ARPA-H, and that any submission from the University of Utah does not neglect the Topic Area requirements. Please review this notification carefully if considering an application to PRECISE-AI.

While there is currently no hard limit on the number of applications an organization can submit to this opportunity, there are restrictions on how many applications can address specific topic areas.  Please note the restrictions below for more details:

• Each proposal responsive to this Solicitation can address a TA among TA1, TA2, TA3, TA4 and TA5, or a combination of TA1, TA2, and TA3.
• Proposals that address TA4 or TA5 cannot address any of the other TAs.
• An organization may act as a primary performer on one TA and a sub-performer on a separate proposal addressing the same TA.
• An organization may act as a sub-performer on multiple proposals addressing the same TA.
• If a proposal selects “other” for the clinical track, it must either address both TA1 and TA2, or neither.
• An organization or individual who is awarded for TA5 will not be awarded for any other TAs.
• An individual may submit no more than one proposal as PI.
• The same rules apply to summary solutions and full proposals.

The internal deadline for this competition is Thursday, 11:59pm on October 31, 2024. This internal deadline may be extended if the final solicitation/program details have not been posted by 10/31/2024. Although the sponsor is not traditionally limiting submissions, the VPR office is running this internal competition with an internal deadline well ahead of the sponsor’s expected deadline. The VPR Office will contact each applicant after submission to ensure all Topic Area restrictions are followed and to communicate any next steps for the process.

Information in the internal competition comes from the draft description and draft solicitation found here: https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-funding/programs/precise-ai. The details of this program (including but not limited to exact funder deadline, program details, eligibility guidelines, etc.) have not been finalized by ARPA-H. The details of this internal competition are based on the draft solicitation and are subject to change with publication of finalized solicitation from ARPA-H. The internal competition deadline is tentatively placed at 10/31/2024, two weeks after Proposers Day on October 17, 2024 (register for Proposers Day here).

The University of Utah is conducting an internal town hall on this funding opportunity on October 17^th from 3:00pm-4:00pm (virtual). You can register for the UofU PRECISE-AI Town Hall here.

Please share this link with any interested applicants in your colleges. Note that any University of Utah affiliate has access to and can submit to this internal competition. If multiple submissions are received for the same topic area, a decision-process may be implemented by the Vice President for Research Office. The VPR Office reserves the responsibility of choosing the most meritorious abstract to proceed with the application to the sponsor.

Please review carefully and respond to this email if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the internal competition deadlines, application requirements, or review process.

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