Monthly Archives: February 2018

Limited Submission Opportunity – NSF Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM)

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Internal Limited Submission Deadline to the Office of Research Administration: Friday, March 2, 2018 at 5pm.

NSF Deadline: April 17, 2018

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify (1) factors that are effective in the formation of ethical STEM researchers and (2) approaches to developing those factors in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes responsible conduct for research (RCR), and which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?’ Factors one might consider include: honor codes, professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements, curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress responsible conduct for research, institutions that serve under-represented groups, institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels, institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade. Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity’? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?

Successful proposals typically have a comparative dimension, either between or within institutional settings that differ along these or among other factors, and they specify plans for developing interventions that promote the effectiveness of identified factors.

CCE STEM research projects will use basic research to produce knowledge about what constitutes or promotes responsible or irresponsible conduct of research, and how to best instill students with this knowledge. In some cases, projects will include the development of interventions to ensure responsible research conduct.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1

Only one proposal may be submitted by an eligible organization, as defined above, in which a member of their organization serves as the PI

For full program details visit NSF’s CCE STEM webpage.

For details regarding The University of Akron’s limited submission process, visit the ORA Limited Submission webpage.

New NSF Opportunities

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New NSF funding opportunities in social, behavioral, economic and biological sciences.

  1. Resource Implementations for Data Intensive Research in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (RIDIR) NSF 18-517
    1. Due 2/28/18
    2. Program webpage – RIDIR
    3. Synopsis: As part of NSF’s Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR), the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) seeks to develop user-friendly large-scale next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research in SBE areas of study. Successful proposals will, within the financial resources provided by the award, construct such databases and/or relevant analytic techniques and produce a finished product that will enable new types of data-intensive research. The databases or techniques should have significant impacts, either across multiple fields or within broad disciplinary areas, by enabling new types of data-intensive research in the SBE sciences.
  2. SOCIOLOGY PROGRAM – Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (Soc-DDRI) NSF 14-604
    1. Due 2/28/18
    2. Program webpage – Soc-DDRI
    3. Synopsis: The Sociology Program supports basic research on all forms of human social organization — societies, institutions, groups and demography — and processes of individual and institutional change. The Program encourages theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social processes. Included is research on organizations and organizational behavior, population dynamics, social movements, social groups, labor force participation, stratification and mobility, family, social networks, socialization, gender roles, and the sociology of science and technology. The Program supports both original data collections and secondary data analysis that use the full range of quantitative and qualitative methodological tools. Theoretically grounded projects that offer methodological innovations and improvements for data collection and analysis are also welcomed…
  3. Dimensions of Biodiversity FY2018 NSF 18-512
    1. Due 2/28/18
    2. Program webpage – Dimensions of Biodiversity
    3. Synopsis: Despite centuries of discovery, most of our planet’s biodiversity remains unknown. The scale of the unknown diversity on Earth is especially troubling given the rapid and permanent loss of biodiversity across the globe. The goal of the Dimensions of Biodiversity campaign is to transform, by 2020, how we describe and understand the scope and role of life on Earth.  This campaign promotes novel integrative approaches to fill the most substantial gaps in our understanding of the diversity of life on Earth. It takes a broad view of biodiversity, and focuses on the intersection of genetic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions of biodiversity. Successful proposals must integrate these three dimensions to understand interactions and feedbacks among them. While this focus complements several core programs in BIO, it differs by requiring that multiple dimensions of biodiversity be addressed simultaneously, in novel ways, to understand their synergistic roles in critical ecological and evolutionary processes, especially pertaining to the mechanisms driving the origin, maintenance, and functional roles of biodiversity.

Ohio Federal Research Network: Industry Sponsored Research/RFI Opportunity Profile

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Contact Katie Watkins for OFRN application materials:  kwatkin@uakron.edu

From: David E Crain [mailto:d.crain@csuohio.edu]   Sent: Friday, February 02, 2018 2:47 PM         To: David E Crain
Cc: Aaron Bates (apbates1@gmail.com); Dennis Andersh; Jack N Kraszewski; James Gates – UTC; Mark Hartel (mark_hartel@yahoo.com); Martin P. Kress (kress.83@osu.edu); Paul Jackson – WSU; Stan Prybyla (stan.prybyla@breakthrough-technology.com); Dave Nestic (dave@neztechcorp.com)
Subject: OFRN Research Opportunity – Multimodal Neuroimaging  Importance: High

I’m pleased to send you a new Industry Research opportunity, this time from Dayton  area company Santa Fe Neurosciences.  Sante Fe is interested in more accurately portraying the effectiveness of transcranial electrical stimulation via multimodal neuroimaging and ultralow field MRI.  Details are attached in the OFRN Opportunity Profile.

We are considering this opportunity an RFI given the lack of a stated budget. However, Sante Fe has indicated a high level of interest in this project and we feel there is a good chance of funded research and/or a development partnership coming out of this if a mutual fit is found.

If this opportunity is of interest to you, please:

  1. Reply to this E-mail to let me know your intent to respond;
  2. Complete the attached response template and return to me no later than 2/16/18 so we may respond to Sante Fe in a timely manner. Please contact me directly if you intend to respond, but need more time;

If you have any questions, comments or feedback on either this opportunity or our overall process, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your time and I hope you find this of interest.

Dave Crain, Director – Innovation Development, Ohio Federal Research Network–C&WD Support, Cleveland State Universitgy, 216-687-5198; 330-620-3855 (c) d.crain@csuohio.edu 

Industry Sponsored Research/RFI Opportunity Profile    Describe your research need and the technology specialties involved. How critical is this project to your company? What level of privacy/secrecy is required? May we include your company name in our outreach within the Ohio Research University network?
OVERVIEW: Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) is used to influence brain activity to enhance cognition, accelerate recovery of function after injury, and treat psychiatric disease. Across the field of noninvasive electrical brain stimulation there is heated debate about the amount and effectiveness of electricity passed through the scalp and into the brain during tES.

EXPECTED OUTCOME: The desired product would combine ultralow field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to collect brain anatomy, electrical field distribution (using magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography [MREIT]), and positron emission tomography (PET) to quantify brain metabolism. The combination of anatomy from MRI, electric field distribution from MRIET, and metabolic activity from PET will allow us to understand the where the electric field intersect with changes to brain metabolism. The locations where the electric field and metabolic changes overlap represent locations where the tES can be said to have primary effects on the activity of the brain tissue. In regions where there are changes to brain activity but no overlap with the electric field, the effects of tES will be considered secondary. A multimodal imaging method, like that proposed, is critical to understand how and where tES affects brain activity and how tES might be targeted for maximum effectiveness in enhancing cognition, recovery of function, and treatments for psychiatric disease.

PROJECT: This project would be a collaboration between Santa Fe Neurosciences, experts in tES, and FMI Dayton, experts in PET. We seek expertise in multimodal neuroimaging and ultralow field MRI. This combination of technologies would provide not only unprecedented insights to the workings of tES in the brain but also has numerous other applications. The combination of simultaneous quantitative ultralow field MRI and PET would dramatically simplify co-registration of the MRI and PET data and would have immediate applications in tumor identification. At present there are no commercial ultralow field MRI devices. The development of a device would be a giant leap forward in multimodal neuroimaging where a single co-registered anatomical and metabolic dataset could be collected during a single exam with a single device. This device could be commercialized through Santa Fe Neurosciences, FMI Dayton, or a spin off company.

What are your goals and objectives for the project? What deliverables do you envision? Please be specific.  Our goal is to obtain an ultralow field MRI device that could be integrated with PET and tES to gather a combined anatomical and metabolic data set of brain and other tissues in a single exam using a single device.

What date do you need the research successfully completed by?
12/31/20

What is your budget for this project? If RFI, indicated anticipated budget, if known.

To be determined.

Describe any in-kind support you envision being made available. Examples in-kind support include contribution of goods, services or facilities such as raw materials, unique testing, analysis, and/or processing equipment, use of specialized (i.e. environmental, structural, electrical, etc.) test facilities, or use of research/engineering personnel.

Santa Fe Neurosciences can provide tES equipment and expertise for testing in combination with ultralow field MRI. FMI Dayton can provide MRI-compatible PET equipment, isotopes, and expertise for testing the viability of an integrated PET-ultralow field MRI system.

Industry Research Opportunity Response Template

Please describe your technical expertise and proficiencies critical to the client’s problem statement via researcher/SME CVs, publications, relevant experience, etc.  Also, please provide information on “hands on” personnel (graduate students, researchers, and post-docs) you would anticipate being directly involved with the proposed effort.

 

Successful completion of these projects, on time and on budget, are critical success factors for our industrial partners.  Please document your approach to completing this project within client parameters.

 

Please provide a budgetary estimate, with narrative, you feel is required to complete this project.  At a minimum, indicate the total financial investment required, along with support subcategory totals (personnel, materials, computing, overhead, etc.).

 

How realistic are the client’s technical goals/objectives within their stated timeframe?  What timeframe or deliverable changes, if any, do you feel are necessary to be successful?  Please be specific.

 

Describe the equipment and facilities you would anticipate using in this research and how they will support a successful project. If the client has indicated that they will offer “in kind” support in the way of manpower, test facilities, etc, please detail how you would integrate them into the proposed project.

 

Would you anticipate involving any other universities or external partners (including businesses other than the client) on this project?  If so, please identify them with a short description of the role you would see them playing, including % of effort.

 

 

Please provide additional information you feel will strengthen your response.

 

 

 

Having Challenges Tracking Down Students and Postdocs at the Time of the RPPR? Here is a Tip to Make It Easier…

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Having challenges tracking down students and postdocs at the time of reporting? Establishing a process where you have students and postdocs establish an eRA Commons account at the time they start working on an NIH grant award can save you a lot of time and energy trying to track down people who may no longer be at your institution at the time of your Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) submission. You may even want to have them create an ORCID ID as well! (In case you missed it, read the November 2017 Open Mike blog post to learn more about eRA Commons and ORCID integration.) (From NIH ExtramuralNexus, 1/30/2018)

The NIH and Other PHS Agency Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) Instruction Guide states that information must be provided or updated for all PIs/PDs and each person who has worked at least one person month per year on the project during the reporting period, including graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students (p.82-83).

Additional information about ORCID can be found in a NIH ExtramuralNexus post from November 15, 2017 titled “Teaming with ORCID to Reduce Burden and Improve Transparency.”

To register individuals in the NIH eRA Commons, please contact your Sr. Grant Coordinator in the Office of Research Administration with the individual’s name and UA email address.

Recent Changes to NSF Budget Justification – Senior Personnel Salary Support

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As a general policy, NSF limits the salary compensation requested in the proposal budget for senior personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year. (See Exhibit II-7 for the definitions of Senior Personnel.) It is the organization’s responsibility to define and consistently apply the term “year”, and to specify this definition in the budget justification. This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants. (NSF 18-1)

To comply with this requirement, the following language should be included in all NSF budget justifications:  “The PIs are cognizant of the NSF policy that restricts NSF support to two months in any year.  For purposes of this restriction, The University of Akron defines a year as January-December.”

Information about all recent NSF changes to proposals can be found in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG, publication number NSF 18-1) or in the ORA document outlining the most significant NSF Changes-Effective Jan. 29 2018-rev.020218.