Vol. 8, No. 19; May 8, 2009
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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guidelines. To send comments or questions about the publication,
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1. Stimulus Bill Proposals and Awards at the U
Since February, the University has submitted 556 proposals for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding to federal agencies, primarily to NIH. More proposals are expected to be submitted this spring and summer to compete for Stimulus Bill support. The total ARRA funding requested to date exceeds $371 million. For NIH’s popular Challenge Grant program, the University submitted 224 proposals requesting $185 million in support. Minnesota’s proposals are competing with 15,000 other Challenge Grant proposals submitted nationwide. NIH has indicated their intent to fund approximately 200 Challenge proposals through their Office of the Director, and additional meritorious proposals through their institutes and centers. Awards for the Challenge Grant program will be made by September 30, 2009.
The University has received 3 Stimulus Bill awards to date, with a cumulative value of approximately $1,000,000. Updates on Stimulus activity will be provided in future editions of Research News Online.
2. NIH Issues New Guidance about Documenting Changes in Project Scope
In advance of award, NIH Program Officers may contact principal investigators to discuss changes in the project summary/abstract, specific aims, or public health relevance sections of their proposal. This is particularly likely to occur for previously-submitted proposals that NIH wishes to consider for ARRA funding, as project scopes are reduced or compressed into a two-year performance period. On May 5, NIH issued NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-09-088 requiring that all such changes now be submitted via e-mail attachment, using a Word or PDF document in a prescribed format, and countersigned by SPA. The Guide Notice includes links to templates that may be used to prepare such requests.
3. NIH Enforcing Public Access Policy Requirements
In the last few months, Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) has been receiving an increasing number of e-mails from NIH program officers asking principal investigators to show evidence of compliance with NIH Public Access requirements (specifically for their PubMed Central ID (PMC) number in their citations on NIH progress reports and applications). SPA is now starting to see some awards being delayed until this requirement is met.
PIs are encouraged to review their application and their non-competing progress reports to ensure that they have included the PMC or NIH Manuscript Submission reference number when citing applicable articles that arise from their NIH-funded research. If the journal is submitting the article on behalf of the author, an indication to this effect should be included in the proposal/progress report since this lets NIH know that the PI plans to meet the requirement.
For more guidance, visit http://www.lib.umn.edu/scholcom/NIHaccess.phtml and the NIH Public Access Policy at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html.
4. Case Studies in Publishing: Your Choices in Journal Contracts
In this one-hour workshop, designated by OVPR to satisfy the Awareness/Discussion component of the
Responsible Conduct of Research continuing education requirement, participants will work through two common decision points raised by journal article contracts. Relevant context will be provided on academic publishing issues such as copyright and author's rights, cultural and economic norms, and promotion and tenure implications. Practical strategies and helpful tools will be discussed. The workshops will be offered on May 13 at 3:30 p.m. in
Walter Library, First Floor;
and May 26 at 9:00 a.m.
in the Bio-Medical Library, Room 555.
Register at http://bit.ly/yEqjQ.
5. H1N1 Flu Considerations for Researchers
As preparations for a potential H1N1 flu pandemic move into a new phase of planning, researchers in all disciplines should think about steps they will
need to take if a pandemic is ultimately declared, causing the University to
close facilities and/or restrict access to essential personnel.
Preparing now for this possibility will help avoid damage to ongoing
research projects and help ensure an effective response, particularly if the
situation changes over time.
For details about what to consider in the event of a pandemic, read the e-mail that was sent to researchers on May 6: http://tinyurl.com/ph2we6.
6. eRA Commons Submission System Upgrade and Unavailability
NIH is planning a major infrastructure update to the eRA Commons eSubmission systems from May 22 to May 26. All eRA Commons and eSubmission systems will be unavailable during this period. The system upgrade will not affect the submissions to Grants.gov, however, grant applicants will not be able to see their application images, view errors or warnings, or access other features of the Commons. Users who submit during this period will be able to follow through with their applications after the systems are up and running on May 27.
More information about this update is available at http://nexus.od.nih.gov/nexus/nexus.aspx?ID=252&Month=5&Year=2009.
7. Homecoming Student Research Expo
The first University of Minnesota Homecoming Student Research Expo will be held in the new TCF Bank Stadium on Wednesday, October 7.
Undergraduate and Graduate Students: Register by June 1 to present your research at the Expo. Current students and 2009 graduates are both welcome to present a poster of recent research. More information, including the registration form, is available at http://www.academic.umn.edu/provost/osa/expo2009.html.
8.
Funding Opportunities and Program Announcements
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The Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) has released the Prostate Cancer Pathology Resource Network Awards program announcement. This award mechanism seeks applications from institutions with resources (such as sufficient equipment for biorepository functions, pathology and histochemistry infrastructure, informatics and information infrastructure to support connectivity between the Coordinating Center and Pathology Resource Network Sites for data transfer) in place to support the development of a biorepository. For details, visit http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/pcrp.htm.
Pre-Application Deadline: July 15, 2009
Proposal Deadline: August 5, 2009
- The Department of Defense Gulf War Illness Research Program (GWIRP) has released three program announcements which may interest independent investigators at all academic levels.
The goal of the program is to fund innovative research to identify effective treatments for the complex of symptoms known as Gulf War Illness, improve its diagnosis, and better understand its pathobiology.
For details, visit http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/gwirp.htm.
Pre-Application Deadline: June 17, 2009
Proposal Deadline: September 9, 2009
- The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), a new organization within the Department of Energy (DOE) was created specifically to foster R&D of transformational energy-related technologies. ARPA-E will provide funding to take an immature technology that promises to make a large impact on the ARPA-E Mission Areas and develop it beyond the valley of death that prevents many transformational new technologies from becoming a market reality. More information and a link to the Funding Opportunity Announcement is available in the Energy section of the table on the OVPR Stimulus Funding Web page at http://www.research.umn.edu/stimulus.html#DoE.
Deadline:
June 2, 2009
- Minnesota Futures Symposium Grant is a call to propose an interdisciplinary symposium around a topic of current research significance identified by the investigator(s). The symposium should involve scholars from diverse disciplines. The design and format of the symposium should encourage broad participation, communication, and discussion that formulates new research questions or promotes new ways to address existing research questions with the potential to achieve external funding. Funding will be available in FY10, so the project start date should be after July 2009. For details, visit http://cflegacy.research.umn.edu/opportunities/intramural/MNFuturesSymposium.htm.
Deadline: May 29, 2009
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