Research Notes

From the Office of the Vice President for Research

Published from the November 18, 2009 Issue of FYI

 

Heads Up: NSF Proposals for Postdoc Support Require a Separate Mentoring Plan.

If you are submitting a new National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal and requesting funding for a postdoctoral researcher, NSF now requires a specific plan for mentoring the postdoc. The January 2009 requirement was to include this plan in the project description. This was revised in April 2009 to include that plan as a 1-page Supplemental Document.

The revised NSF Grant Preparation Guide says: Postdoctoral Researcher Mentoring Plan: Each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a supplementary document, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. In no more than one page, the mentoring plan must describe the mentoring that will be provided to all postdoctoral researchers supported by the project, irrespective of whether they reside at the submitting organization, any sub-awardee organization, or at any organization participating in a simultaneously submitted collaborative project.

For suggestions on best practices in postdoctoral mentoring, search for NSF postdoc mentoring online.

 

From the Office of the Vice President for Research

Published from the October 21, 2009 Issue of FYI

 

Support and Funding Available for Writing Large Group Grants

Support and funding is now available for large groups of researchers (five or more) who would like to submit grants for large collaborative projects (resulting in direct costs of over $1 million per year). Collaboration on and off campus, collaboration with industry, collaborations between colleges, etc. are encouraged. Two new grant writers/project coordinators will soon be hired in the Office of Sponsored Projects specifically to assist teams in the development of these large proposals. Additional funding, up to $50 thousand per project, is available through the Vice President for Research Office for additional expenses such as travel for collaborative proposal development; buying out of courses to enable proposal development; funding for post docs, etc. to assist in the proposal preparation; and similar expenses incurred to prepare the proposal. There are no specific funding deadlines, and funding will be evaluated and provided on a case-by-case basis. For more information, see the Collaborative Research Support Program, contact Cynthia Furse, associate vice president for research, or call (801) 581-7236.

U of U Faculty Win 95 NIH Stimulus Grant Awards

Throughout the spring and early summer, U faculty, staff and students worked to respond to the new research funding opportunities of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly called the “stimulus bill.” Hundreds of requests for stimulus grants were submitted by U faculty through the Office of Sponsored Projects to the National Institutes of Health, the University’s largest source of extramural research funding. The results of that first round of stimulus grants are now known and the news is very good for the U of U. U faculty received 95 of the 114 NIH stimulus grants awarded in the state of Utah and those 95 awards will bring in about $28 million in new research funding. The U ranks 27th among U.S. universities in the amount of funding received through NIH stimulus program wards to date. While most of the stimulus awards and funds will come as supplements to currently-funded NIH research grants, U faculty also did very well in the NIH’s new programs, the Challenge (RC1) and Grand Opportunities (RC2) grants. U faculty submitted 122 Challenge Grant applications, along with about 21,000 other U.S. scientists. The NIH awarded 846 Challenge Grants nationally, including 9 to faculty at the U. Two U of U faculty members also received RC2 grants. The PIs and project titles for the U’s RC1 and RC2 awards are listed below. Congratulations to all of the faculty, staff, and students responsible for these successes.

RC1 (Challenge Grants)

Roy Bloebaum: Mobile porous subdermal barrier to maintain the skin of seal of percutaneous devices

Randy Burt: Characterizing the molecular signatures of rare inherited colon cancer syndromes

Tatjana Piotrowski and Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado: Analysis of hair cell regeneration in zebrafish

Carl Thummel: Drosophila model for genetic studies of metabolism

Guy Zimmerman: New pathways in thrombosis and inflammation mediated by semaphorin-plexin signaling

John Kestle: Hydrocephalus clinical research network: A consortium for pediatric hydrocephalus

John White and Karen Wilcox: Calcium signaling in astrocytes

Raminder Nirula: Decompressive craniotomy versus medical therapy for refractory intracranial hypertension

Julie Korenberg and Tolga Tasdizen: A computational framework or mapping long-range genetic circuits

RC2 (Grand Opportunities Grants)

Martin Reese and Mark Yandell: Tool for annotation and analysis of human whole-genome sequence variation data

Scott Narus: Development of a statewide master person index

 

From the Office of the Vice President for Research

Published from the October 7, 2009 Issue of FYI

 

Writing Assistance for Faculty - It's a Go!

The University Writing Center (UWC) and the Vice President for Research are proud to offer, for the first time, convenient editing for faculty in all disciplines and at all stages of drafting, writing, and research. UWC Writing Fellow Britta Ameel’s background as a writer and copyeditor for various magazines and online and academic projects makes her a unique resource for faculty looking to bolster a proposal or publication or simply strengthen a sentence or two. She is currently pursuing medical school with a focus on clinical research and can be of particular use to medical faculty’s research endeavors.

This service is offered on a first-come, first-served basis, so please plan ahead, especially near common grant and publication deadlines. At this time, Britta is available ten hours a week for face-to-face or online appointments. She and the UWC request that faculty email her with specific requests with an understanding that more detailed projects may not be quickly accommodated, should she already be booked with other faculty members.

Individual appointments at the UWC in the Marriot Library may be scheduled with Britta through this link (select “make an appointment” from the sidebar listing). Alternatively, writing projects may be e-mailed to Britta or the UWC.

The UWC also offers 30- to 60- minute appointments for writing assistance free of charge to students, staff, and faculty. More information is at UWC.

We encourage all faculty members to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

UWC
Marriott Library, Second Floor
email: UWC@utah.edu
Tel: (801) 587.9122

Contacts:
Sundy Watanabe, UWC Director
Jonathan Balzotti, UWC Associate Director

 

From the Office of the Vice President for Research

Published from the September 23, 2009 Issue of FYI

 

EPSCoR Update: A Leg Up For Your Federal Proposals

From Rom Pugmire
Associate Vice President for Research

Epscor is a program from the Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) (http://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/epscor/about.jsp) to “strengthen research and education in science and engineering throughout the United States and to avoid undue concentration of such research and education.” Utah has now been designated as an EPSCoR-eligible state for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Other federal agencies have EPSCoR programs (NIH, DOD, NASA, DOE, EPA) that rely on EPSCoR designation by NSF. Any proposal to these agencies will be automatically flagged as coming from an EPSCoR state and thus will be eligible for a chance to get co-funding from the agency’s EPSCoR programs. Such funding will usually follow from a case where the proposal review just missed the pay line and EPSCoR funding might be used to augment existing funding and fund the proposal.

In addition, EPSCoR states qualify for major infrastructure funding. The U is now preparing proposals to NSF for cyber infrastructure and cyber inter- and intra-campus connectivity that will impact all of the institutions of higher education in Utah (the RII-Track 2 and TrackC2 proposals). The RII Track-1 proposal contains elements of environmental modeling and energy plus STEM education.

 

TRACKING AND ACCESS TO YOUR PROPOSALS

From Brent Brown
Director, Office of Sponsored Projects

Research Portal is being developed as the one-stop-shop activity management tool for U researchers submitting grant proposals. Key features of the current Research Portal include:

  • Queries for generating proposal and award activity reports
  • Access to real-time status of proposals and awards
  • Various filters for sorting data by college, department, principal investigator (PI), and sponsor
  • Facilitation of collaboration opportunities
  • Online submission of limited competition pre-proposals (the only way pre-proposals are now accepted)

The latest upgrade provides information on awards by PI, department, or college. The amounts, dates, updates, and status of every proposal can be viewed quickly and easily.

Research Portal is accessed through the Campus Information System (https://gate.acs.utah.edu/psp/plpr/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/h/?tab=PAPP_GUEST) Once you have logged in, scroll down to the  “Research Administration” section on the left sidebar and select the link titled “Research Portal” to launch the application.

OSP will continue to enhance Research Portal and its current features. Coming soon are executive summary reports for administrators of large data collections, and new proposal development and collaboration assistance tools. Over the next few years, upgrades are planned to provide progressively more help for researchers including electronic signature collection and help with budgeting post-award accounting.

OSP will host demonstrations of Research Portal across campus as needed. Times, locations, and registration information is online (https://education.research.utah.edu/special_events.jsp). The demonstration is titled “Research Portal Demonstration.” For more information, contact OSP (osp-research@umail.utah.edu).