Category: Research Administration

08/14/12

Free Webinars

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is offering several free Webinars:

Monday, August 20, 2012

*2:10-3:00pm – NSF Science of Broadening Participation: This session will provide details and strategies for developing proposals using cognitive, social and economic approaches and strengthening U.S. STEM capabilities.

*3:15-4:10pm – NIH Support for Non-Research Intensive Institutions: Supporting small scale faculty projects involving undergraduate and graduate students.

*4:15-5:10pm – NEA: Research Grants and Interdisciplinary Work: This session will involve health and economics, and include an update on NEA-led Arts and Human Development Task Force.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

*1:00-1:50pm – NSF Discovery Research K-12: This session will provide a program update and give details on framing competitive proposals to solve STEM education challenges.

*2:00-2:50pm – HRSA’s Grants Technical Outreach Program: Writing a strong proposal, understand the review process and overview of the new resource.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

*10:00-11:00am – NSF Undergraduate Education Funding: Provide advice for members preparing proposals for any of the division’s three dozen competitions.

**Each webinar will take place in the ORSP conference room, 530 French Hall

05/24/12

Tips for Successful Applications to External Funding Sources

When submitting grants, each proposal needs a Primary Research Administrator and a Primary Post-Award Contact, which are assigned roles for representatives of the Flint Office of Research. These roles are assigned in the Proposal Approval Form (PAF), immediately following the Administrative Personnel section. It is important to assign these roles to representatives in the Office of Research for Pre-Award and Post-Award Administration. This establishes a single point of contact on our campus, and enhances communication with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs in Ann Arbor. The assigned representatives in the Flint Office of Research will keep the PI and Unit Administrator fully informed of all Pre-Award and Post-Award operations.

Keep in mind, the PI and Unit Administrator, as well the representatives from the Office of Research, should all be given ‘Edit’ access in the PAF. This allows for interactivity between the Office of Research and PI and Unit Administrator, and it allows for timely additions and corrections, decreasing the likelihood of last-minute proposal submission errors. Also, this facilitates all Pre-and-Post-Award Administration operations.

09/28/11

IRB Reaccreditation

From the desk of Dr. Vahid Lotfi, Associate Provost and Dean of Graduate Programs:

The University of Michigan-Flint Institutional Review Board (IRB) is pleased to announce that the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) has granted the University of Michigan reaccreditation status, valid through March, 2016. Site visitors were particularly impressed by UM-Flint’s research partnerships with the greater Flint community. We are deeply appreciative of the expertise and ethical conduct of all faculty, students and staff who conduct human subjects research on our campus.

Special kudos go out to Psychology professor Dr. Marianne McGrath (IRB Chair), Mary Mandeville (Research Compliance Specialist, Sr.), and the entire IRB for your hard work during this reaccreditation process!

12/21/10

Application Submission Changes for NSF

Effective for all new applications submitted to NSF on and after January 18th, 2011:

Data Management Plan: The PAPPG contains a clarification of NSF’s long standing data policy. All proposals must describe plans for data management and sharing of the products of research, or assert the absence of the need for such plans. FastLane will not permit submission of a proposal that is missing a Data Management Plan. The Data Management Plan will be reviewed as part of the intellectual merit or broader impacts of the proposal, or both, as appropriate. Links to data management requirements and plans relevant to specific Directorates, Offices, Divisions, Programs, or other NSF units are available on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp. See Chapter II.C.2.j of the GPG for further information about the implementation of this requirement.

Cost Sharing has been revised to implement the National Science Board’s recommendations regarding cost sharing. Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited, Awardees are informed, however, that they remain subject to the OMB A-21 Clarification memo regarding committing and tracking faculty effort (see footnote 22). In order to assess the scope of the project, all organizational resources necessary for the project must be described in the Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources section (II.C.2.i). The description should be narrative in nature and must not include any quantifiable financial information. Mandatory cost sharing will only be required when explicitly authorized by the NSF Director.

10/26/10

Changes in NSF Proposal and Award Policies & Procedures

NSF has instituted significant changes to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide, including a requirement for Special Information and Supplementary Documentation.  NSF 11-1 January 2011 is effective for proposals submitted on or after January 18, 2011.  Some of these changes are listed below in Item # 15.   Proposals due before this date should follow the guidelines in NSF 10-1  http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf101

10/26/10

Promoting Innovation in the Social Sciences

The Office of the Vice President for Research and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies is pleased to announce a request for proposals for a new program, the Social Sciences Annual Institute:  A Five-Year Experiment in Promoting Innovation in the Social Sciences.

The program is intended to support innovative proposals for new directions in the social sciences. The RFP can be viewed and downloaded from http://research.umich.edu/social-sciences-initiative/

Two-page pre-proposals are due November 12. Those who are invited to submit full proposals should plan to do so by December 10. Questions can be directed to Toni C. Antonucci at [email protected] or Marvin Parnes at [email protected]

12/15/09

Initiative from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

The Obama Administration is seeking public input on policies concerning access to publicly funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles. Currently, the National Institutes of Health require that research funded by its grants be made available to the public online at no charge within 12 months of publication. The Administration is seeking views as to whether this policy should be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be implemented.
 
The Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and the White House Open Government Initiative is launching a “Public Access Policy Forum” to invite public participation in thinking through what the Federal government’s policy should be with regard to public access to published federally funded research results. To that end, OSTP will conduct an interactive, online discussion beginning Thursday, December 10. The discussion will focus on three major areas of interest:
 
• Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities, etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and public release?

• Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information, and to make it easy  for others to link to it? Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change?

• Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback?
 
Each of these topics will form the basis of a blog posting that will appear at www.whitehouse.gov/open and will be open for comment on the OSTP blog at http://blog.ostp.gov.

12/1/09

Federal Outreach Materials Available

The University of Missouri hosted a national webinar on federal FY 10 research priorities and budgets on November 10, 2009. The PowerPoint presentations delivered by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Office of Naval Research have been posted and are available for download. Agency presenters gave details on FY 10 budget requests, updates on FY 09 expenditures (including American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards), and award processes and recipient reporting.

09/21/09

Research Interests Database

From the desk of Sue Koehler, Senior Secretary:

To support faculty efforts to secure external funding for research and creative activities, the Office of Research has created a database of faculty interests. This information is only used internally, to help us know what to keep watch for, and to forward funding opportunities as we become aware of them. We invite you to add your interests to the database.

We currently have nearly 100 faculty members’ keywords in our database. To add you keywords, or update them, just reply to this e-mail with the five keywords appropriate to your research interests. We take care of the rest.

Be sure to watch for our Weekly Funding Opportunities Announcement, usually appearing in your in-box on Monday. The previous editions are also archived on our Blackboard organization site: Office of Research External Funding Resources.

We hope this will be of service to you, and look forward to working with you in your research endeavors.