Vol. 7, No. 10; January 11, 2008
Published
by the Office of the Vice President for Research
Editor: Amy Danielson
Research News Online provides information
about news, policies, procedures, funding opportunities, and events
of interest to our University of Minnesota research community. It
is sent twice a month to faculty, staff, and other interested parties.
To submit an article, see the Research News Online
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| 1.
Sponsored Projects Symposium
The Sponsored Projects Symposium will bring together the research administration community at the University of Minnesota. The symposium, co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Grants Management User Network, and the Certified Approvers Program, will be held on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 from
8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the McNamara Alumni Center on the
Twin Cities campus.
Three plenary sessions and twelve breakout sessions will focus on a broad range of pre-award and post-award topics targeted toward departmental and central research administrators. Vice President for Research Tim Mulcahy will kick off the event by sharing information on efforts to help the University become a top three public research university. Some of the other planned topics include:
- Understanding the legal aspects of being a departmental research administrator;
- Distinguishing among gifts, grants, and external sales;
- Avoiding “dirty deeds” (compliance issues and audit finds from our colleagues at other institutions);
- Understanding career options and training available for professional development; and
- Learning how to "decode" RFPs, RFAs, and PAs.
The Symposium is free thanks to funding provided by the Vice President for Research, Sponsored Projects Administration, and the Office of Oversight, Analysis and Reporting.
Pre-registration is required; registration details will be released within the next week. If you have questions, e-mail Pamela Webb at pwebb@umn.edu, or Sarah Waldemar at s-wolg@umn.edu.
2.
New AHC Research Computing Services
A new shared resource, AHC Research Computing Services (AHC-RCS), established with support from Assistant Vice President for Research Mark Paller, and Vice President and CIO Steve Cawley, complements research IT services provided by AHC-IS and the Supercomputing Institute. AHC-RCS offers schools, colleges, departments, and centers a central cost- and space-effective alternative to housing and maintaining their own secured hardware systems. IT directors and departments with substantial data management and informatics requirements are encouraged to explore the benefits of AHC-RCS server and data hosting services, and to discuss their IT planning with AHC-RCS staff. State-of-the-art hardware systems are integrated with local and University networked storage. More information is available at http://computing.ahc.umn.edu.
3. Levels and Trends: FY 2007 Awards and Proposal Data
Levels and Trends is an annual report of research, training, and public service work performed by the University of Minnesota and funded by external sponsors. The Fiscal Year 2007 institutional proposal and award data is available at http://www.oar.umn.edu/trends/index.cfm. For more information or questions, contact Mary Bendtsen at mbendtse@umn.edu or 612.624.0583.
4.
Controlled Substance Training
The Office of Regulatory Affairs is offering controlled substance training for anyone new to using controlled substances for research. The training session is scheduled on January 14, 2008. For full details and to pre-register, go to https://onestop2.umn.edu/training/
courseDetail.jsp?course=RA0001. For more information, contact Cathy Marquardt at marqu005@umn.edu or 612.625.9624.
5.
AAHRPP Annual Conference
The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) is holding its annual conference in Minneapolis. According to AAHRPP, “Institutional officials, IRB professionals and chairs, compliance professionals, researchers, sponsors, and patient group leaders should attend.”
The program provides an excellent opportunity to learn from leaders in the field of human research. Attendance also fulfills the
Responsible Conduct of Research
continuing education Awareness and Discussion requirement.
The University of Minnesota is proud to hold full AAHRPP accreditation. Program and Registration information is available at http://aahrpp.org/www.aspx?PageID=201.
6.
Documentation of Clinical Trials in the Medical Record
Although it has always been a best practice, until now there has not been a formal requirement to document in the medical record a patient’s participation in a clinical trial. A new Fairview policy (see http://www.fairview.org/inc/downloads/c_438147.doc) requires that all clinical research subjects at Fairview facilities have an entry in their medical record (eg, FCIS or Allscripts) that includes the Institutional Review Board (IRB) number; Principal Investigator’s phone & pager number; study coordinator’s phone and pager number (if applicable); and date of patient enrollment in the study and expected length of participation. Information about when to document and how to document research participation is provided in the policy. Templated research notes are available within FCIS and Allscripts. The policy requirements represent a minimal level of documentation and investigators are encouraged to include more information about a subject's participation when appropriate for their clinical care.
7.
Electronic Grant Application Updates
- NIH Grants.gov form filler software updates
NIH announced on December 18, 2007 that it is on schedule to complete testing of the Adobe forms and plans to release a few funding opportunities in Spring 2008. The standing submission dates for February and March 2008 will use the PureEdge form filler software.
- PureEdge update
Users who have downloaded the PureEdge ICS viewer to access, complete, and/or submit applications with the PureEdge package need to update their version of PureEdge. To upgrade the PureEdge Viewer, go to http://www.grants.gov/PEViewer/PureEdgeUpgradeSetup.exe.
- Grants.gov form filler software training at the Duluth and Morris campuses
Grants.gov form filler software training will be available at the Duluth campus on February 5. Sessions are available at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Contact the SPA office at 218.726.7582 to register. Training at the Morris campus is scheduled for January 29. To register for the afternoon session contact Rita Bolluyt at 320.589.6465.
- Modifications to the 2590 and 398 form set
NIH announced revisions to some of their paper form sets on January 4. EGMS Proposal Prep will be updated to reflect the changes.
8.
NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts
The NIH Guide is
the official publication for NIH medical and behavioral research
grant policies, guidelines and funding opportunities for the National
Institutes of Health. To subscribe to the Guide’s
weekly listserv or to read it online, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/.
The following institute(s)/center(s) have grant opportunities in
the current Guide: NCI, NICHD. Other information includes:
Notice Regarding the Applicability of the Federal Information Security Management Act to NIH Grantees.
9.
Funding Opportunities and Program Announcements
- The Graduate School's Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship program promotes the scholarly and artistic activities of the faculty and their graduate students and fosters academic excellence within the University. For details, go to
http://www.grad.umn.edu/faculty-staff/funding/dean/gia/index.html.
Deadline: February 4, 2008
- NSF's
Emerging Models and Technologies for Computation (EMT) program seeks
to enable radical innovations in the software, hardware and architecture of computing and communication systems through the support of projects that capitalize upon research opportunities at the intersection of computing and biological systems, nanoscale science and engineering, quantum information science, and other promising areas of science and technology. For details, go to http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08517/nsf08517.htm.
Deadline:
March 13, 2008
- The Digital Technology Center is seeking proposals from University of Minnesota faculty members for projects in many areas of digital technology. For details, go to http://www.dtc.umn.edu/programs/call_proposals.shtml.
Deadline:
March 31, 2008
- RCR Continuing Education Awareness/Discussion Small Grants Program
The OVPR has an intramural funding opportunity for the development of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) continuing education activities. Small grants of up to $3500 are available to encourage active engagement of research/professional ethics topics. Proposals should fulfill the criteria for Awareness and Discussion activities required of University of Minnesota faculty and PIs every three years. For details go to http://www.research.umn.edu/opportunities/intramural/RCR_grantsprogram.html.
Deadlines: January 30, 2008; and April 30, 2008
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