UCR Research and Economic
Development Newsletter: Oct 13, 2013
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research
and Economic Development
Back Issues of Newsletter: http://research.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx
Grant Opportunity Search: http://pivot.cos.com
·
UCOP Research Opportunity Fund
·
Venture
Capital: Grayhawk Capital, Nov 12 12:10PM
·
Foundation
Funds: Kress History of Art & McKnight Technological
Innovations in Neuroscience
·
BD2K: NIH Big
Data to Knowledge
·
NIH
BRAIN Update
·
Research
on Aging
·
Distinguished
Speaker: Larry Smarr, Oct 18, Cyberinfrastructure for Research
·
Grants,
Proposals, and the
Government Shutdown
·
Birds:
Introduced Species
UCOP Research
Opportunity Fund Deadline
Research Opportunity Funds are available to
help pilot or seed new
projects that can
demonstrate a strong systemwide
benefit to UC research and
enhance UC’s ability to compete for funding, advance research discoveries,
support innovative graduate student research, inform public policy or otherwise
impact the lives of Californians. Projects must have strong campus
support and a clear path for development into long-term, self-sustaining
programs. Funding is open to all fields, and may be used for workshops or
meetings, proposal development, public or industry outreach, or other projects
that can demonstrate system-wide benefit to UC research.
Funding requests are accepted throughout
the year, and are reviewed and awarded on a quarterly basis. We encourage
you to submit requests as early as possible, particularly if you have questions or want to determine whether your project is
appropriate for systemwide research funding.
For more information, please refer to the
updated OVERVIEW, FAQS and examples of RECENTLY FUNDED PROJECTS located at http://www.ucop.edu/research-graduate-studies/_files/research/documents/research_opp_fund.pdf.
The deadline for submitting Research
Opportunity Fund requests to be reviewed in the spring quarter is Friday, November 8,
2013.
Venture
Capital: Grayhawk Capital, Nov 12 12:10PM
In the last newsletter,
I announced the appointment of Gunnar Hurtig as Director of New Ventures.
Continuing toward the goal of supporting faculty and students in forming high
tech companies, I’m pleased to announce that Brian Burns from Grayhawk capital
will give a talk on venture investment on Nov 12 at 12:10PM in The Academic
Senate Large Conference Room (Room #220 University Office Building).
Brian will cover
1.
Current
Venture Capital Trends
2.
Intro
to Grayhawk Capital
a. Brief History/Past Investments
b. Grayhawk Investment Targets
c. Grayhawk Process
3.
Q&A
Brian N. Burns
co-founded Grayhawk Capital in 1999. Grayhawk Capital recently raised its third
venture capital fund, Grayhawk Venture Fund II, LP. Mr. Burns has more than 20
years of private equity and venture capital experience. Prior to co-founding
Grayhawk Capital, Mr. Burns served as Vice-President and Chief Financial
Officer of the investment subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., a $3
billion NYSE company, from 1998 to 2000. He has also served as Vice President
of two other venture capital firms, SunVen Capital and Anderson & Wells,
from 1989 to 1998. He has spent a total of 16 years managing SBIC’s. Mr. Burns
began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co., working there from 1981 to 1989,
becoming a Senior Manager in the Audit Division. Mr. Burns has served on the
board of 14 privately held companies and is a member of ASU’s W.P. Carey Alumni
Board of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Arizona
State University and has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1984.
Foundation Funds: Kress
History of Art & McKnight Technological
Innovations in Neuroscience
If you are
looking for something to do while waiting for the federal government to open,
consider a foundation grant. Pivot (http://pivot.cos.com) can search for
foundation grant opportunities as well as federal. Some examples include
Kress History of Art:
Institutional Fellowships. Advanced
training in European art history requires direct exposure to the object of
study, prolonged access to key information resources such as libraries and
photographic archives, the development of professional relationships with
colleagues abroad, and sustained immersion in European
cultures. These related needs are often best satisfied by extended
engagement with a European art research center. The Kress History of Art:
Institutional Fellowships are intended to provide promising young art
historians with the opportunity to experience just this kind of immersion.
http://www.kressfoundation.org/fellowships/default.aspx?id=42
Deadline: Nov 30, 2013
McKnight
Technological Innovations in Neuroscience: The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience supports
innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases
of the brain can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. To this end,
the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience invites letters of intent for the
2014 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards. These awards
encourage and support scientists working on the development of novel and
creative approaches to understanding brain function. The Endowment Fund is
especially interested in how a new technology may be used or adapted to
monitor, manipulate, analyze, or model brain function at any level, from the
molecular to the entire organism. The program seeks to advance and enlarge
the range of technologies available to the neurosciences, and research based
primarily on existing techniques will not be considered.
Deadline: December 2, 2013
While I can’t list every opportunity
in this newsletter for every department, Pivot can. Give it a try.
BD2K: NIH Big Data to Knowledge
Recent National
Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and National Library of Medicine (NLM)
advisory council meetings have included
updates on several aspects of the NIH BD2K Initiative, which aims to address
challenges related to the use of biomedical Big Data by supporting research and
training in data science. Below is an overview of the latest activities
related to each of the four primary components of the BD2K Initiative: Centers
of Excellence, Facilitating Broad Use of Data, Analysis Methods and Software, and
Enhancing Training.
Centers of Excellence: NIH’s goal is to establish Centers of
Excellence for Biomedical Big Data, including investigator-initiated and
NIH-specified Centers. The Centers program will incorporate research
relevant to the three other focus areas of the BD2K Initiative.
·
The
FOA for investigator-initiated Centers of Excellence for Biomedical Big Data
was released on July 22, 2013 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-13-009.html).
Letters of Intent are currently due on October
20, 2013, and applications are due on November 20, 2013.
·
An
Applicant Information Webinar was hosted by NIH on September 12, 2013.
NIH intends to make presentation slides and an archived version of the webinar
available on the BD2K website (http://bd2k.nih.gov).
·
NIH will continue
to update the “FAQs for the BD2K Center RFA” section of the BD2K website (http://bd2k.nih.gov/faqs.html#sthash.ImQPJZ3F.dpbs).
You may also submit additional questions by emailing NIH directly at BD2KCenterRFA@mail.nih.gov.
Facilitating Broad Use of
Data: NIH’s goal is to better
enable the broad use of biomedical data by encouraging data and software
sharing, cataloging research datasets to facilitate data location and citation,
and engaging with the community to develop data standards.
·
A
workshop on Enabling Research Use of Clinical Data took place on September
11-12, 2013. The need for policy changes, tools, methods, and
infrastructure was discussed. An archived webcast of the workshop is
available at http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=13122
and http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=13124.
·
A
BD2K Data Catalog FOA is expected in FY 2014
·
A
BD2K FOA on Frameworks for Community-Based Development of Data and Metadata
Standards is expected in FY 2014.
Analysis Methods and
Software: NIH’s goal is to
support the development and dissemination of analysis methods and software to
meet the needs of the biomedical research community.
·
Responses
to NIH’s recent RFI on the Development of Analysis Methods and Software for Big
Data (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HG-13-014.html)
will be used to inform a workshop on the topic tentatively planned for Spring 2014.
·
A
workshop on Data Integration is also tentatively planned for Spring
2014.
Enhancing Training: NIH’s goal is to enhance training for biomedical
Big Data by increasing the availability of training grants that foster the
development of computationally skilled experts in the biomedical sciences and
identifying ways in which training grant mechanisms can be used to strengthen
the quantitative skills of all biomedical researchers.
·
NIH
received approximately 100 responses to its RFI on Training Needs in Response
to BD2K (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HG-13-003.html),
and the comments were used to inform a workshop on Enhancing Training for
Biomedical Big Data that took place on July 29-30, 2013. An archived
webcast of the workshop is available at http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=12972
and http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=12974.
Workshop participants agreed that training should foster the broad development
and use of Big Data, the ability to manage data, and the ability to work in
integrated teams. A report on the workshop is currently being drafted by
NIH.
Additional
information about the BD2K Initiative, including updates on relevant notices,
funding opportunities, FAQs, webinars, and workshops, is available on the BD2K
website at http://bd2k.nih.gov, where you
can also sign up for the BD2K Listserv.
NIH BRAIN Update
NIH has issued a report on high-priority research areas for Brain Research
through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies in FY 2014. See http://www.nih.gov/science/brain/ACD_BRAIN_interimreport_executivesummary.htm
for details. Below is a summary.
1.
Generate a census of cell types. Characterize all cell
types in the nervous system and develop tools to record, mark, and manipulate
neurons in vivo; priority given to methods applicable to many animal
species including humans.
2.
Create structural maps of the brain. Map connected neurons in
local circuits and distributed brain systems to link structure and function;
faster, cheaper, scalable technologies for anatomic reconstruction of neural
circuits.
3.
Develop new large-scale network recording capabilities. Record dynamic neuronal
activity from complete neural networks over long periods in all brain areas.
4.
Develop a suite of tools for circuit manipulation. Develop tools for
optogenetics, pharmacogenetics, and biochemical and electromagnetic modulation;
emphasis on achieving modulation of circuits in patterns that mimic natural
activity.
5.
Link neuronal activity to behavior. Understand how neuronal
activity underlies cognition and behavior; develop technologies to quantify and
interpret animal behavior at high temporal and spatial resolution.
6.
Integrate theory, modeling, statistics, and computation with
experimentation. Foster collaborations between experimentalists and scientists from
statistics, physics, mathematics, engineering, and computer science.
7.
Delineate mechanisms underlying human imaging technologies. More effective use of
clinical tools for diagnosis and treatments of brain disorders by improving
spatial resolution and temporal sampling of human brain imaging techniques.
8.
Create mechanisms to enable collection of human data. Integrate research teams
of clinicians, engineers, and scientists to maximize collection of data from
humans undergoing brain monitoring or receiving neurotechnology.
9. Disseminate knowledge and training. Provide training for newly developed
methods and their application (i.e. courses in imaging, electrophysiology,
optogenetics, statistics, and computational neuroscience.
Distinguished
Speaker: Larry Smarr, Oct 18, Cyberinfrastructure for Research
If
you would like to meet with Dr. Smarr after his talk, please contact Toni
Grahams (Toni.graham@ucr.edu)
High Performance Cyberinfrastructure for
Data-Intensive Research
Larry Smarr
Harry E. Gruber Professor, Computer Science and
Engineering, UC San Diego
Director, California Institute for Telecommunications
and Information Technology
Friday, October 18, 9:10AM
Genomics Building Auditorium
With the increasing number of
digital scientific instruments and sensornets available to university
researchers, the need for a high performance cyberinfrastructure (HPCI),
separate from the shared Internet, is becoming necessary. The backbone of
such an HPCI are dedicated wavelengths of light on optical fiber, typically
with speeds of 10Gbps or 10,000 megabits/sec, roughly 1000x the speed of the
shared Internet. We are fortunate in California to have one of the most
advanced optical state networks, the CENIC research and education network.
I will describe future extensions of the CENIC backbone to enable a wide
range of disciplinary Big Data research. One extension involves building
optical fiber "Big Data Freeways" on UC campuses, similar to the
NSF-funded PRISM network now being deployed on the UCSD campus, to feed the
coming 100Gbps CENIC campus connections. These Freeways connect on-campus
end users, compute and storage resources, and data-generating devices, such as
scientific instruments, with remote Big Data facilities. I will describe uses
of PRISM ranging from particle physics to biomedical data to climate research.
The second type of extension is high performance wireless networks to cover the
rural regions of our counties, similar to the NSF-funded High Performance
Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) currently deployed in San
Diego and Imperial counties. HPWREN has enabled data-intensive astronomy
observations, wildfire detection, first responder
connectivity, Internet access to Native American reservations, seismic
networks, and nature observatories.
Bio
Larry Smarr became
founding director in 2000 of the California Institute for Telecommunications
and Information Technology (Calit2), a University of California San Diego/UC
Irvine partnership. He holds the Harry E. Gruber professorship in the Jacobs
School’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UCSD. For the
previous 15 years as founding director of both the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications and the National Computational Science Alliance,
Smarr helped drive major developments in the planetary information
infrastructure: the Internet, the Web, scientific visualization, virtual
reality, collaboratories, and global telepresence. His views have been quoted
in Science, Nature, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek,
Wired, Fortune, Business Week, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, and the
Australian Broadcasting Company. He gives frequent keynote addresses (www.calit2.net/newsroom/presentations/lsmarr/index.php) at professional conferences and to popular audiences.
Smarr serves as PI on the NSF’s OptIPuter and the Moore
Foundation’s CAMERA microbial metagenomics projects, as well as co-PI on the
NSF GreenLight Project. Smarr was a member of President Clinton’s Information
Technology Advisory Committee and served until 2005 on the Advisory Committee
to the Director of the National Institutes of Health and the NASA Advisory
Council. He served on Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Taskforce
in 2007.
Smarr received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in
1975 and conducted observational, theoretical, and computational based
astrophysical sciences research for the next 20 years. He is a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Physical Society
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1990 he received the Franklin
Institute's Delmer S. Fahrney Gold Medal for Leadership in Science or
Technology. In 2006 he received two Lifetime Achievement awards: the IEEE
Computer Society Tsutomu Kanai Award in distributed computing systems, and the
ESRI Award.
Research on Aging
A meeting to bring together
researchers on aging from a variety of fields and perspectives. The
goal is to form interdisciplinary connections to make contributions to aging
research or to seek external funding for research. If you’d like to
attend, fill out the doodle poll below.
http://doodle.com/339hum9feqkng3rf
Attendees will be asked to
make very brief presentations on their research. The goal is to identify learn
more about others research at UCR to initiate
collaborations for joint publications and/or funding.
Grants,
Proposals, and the Government Shutdown
General Guidance – You should submit
proposals by the due date and time unless otherwise informed. You may
continue work on existing awards unless notified otherwise. Below is Specific Guidance for NSF, NIH and DOD (MURI).
National Science
Foundation
·
Fastlane
and Research.gov are not accessible during the shutdown.
·
Once
normal operations resume, NSF will issue guidance regarding any funding
opportunities that have a deadline or target date that occurs during the
government shutdown. It is not necessary to circumvent Fastlane and
submit NSF proposals via Grants.gov by the original deadline.
·
Do
not use the delay as an excuse to postpone completing a proposal.
Proposals with deadlines in late October will not have deadlines extended if
the shutdown ends. Proposals with deadlines while the government is
closed may have deadlines a couple of days after the government re-open.
·
See
http://www.nsf.gov/outage.html for
details
·
The
NSF Grants Conference scheduled in Denver, CO, on October 21-22, 2013 has been
cancelled.
National Institutes of
Health:
·
The
eRA Commons is not accessible during the funding lapse.
·
For
the duration of the funding lapse, applicants are strongly encouraged by NIH not
to submit paper or electronic grant applications to NIH during the period
of the lapse.
·
SPA
will submit your proposal if you wish to ignore NIH's recommendation.
·
Do
not use the delay as an excuse to postpone completing a proposal.
Proposals with deadlines in late October will not have deadlines extended if
the shutdown ends. Proposals with deadlines while the government is
closed may have deadlines a couple of days after the government re-opens.
·
See
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-126.html
for details
DOD :
·
DOD
grants submissions are run by contractors and appears to be operating
normally. DOD officials are reported to be communicating with PIs
normally about proposals and awards.
·
DOD
Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative
(MURI): White Papers are due no later than 4:00 P.M. (Eastern Time) on
Tuesday, 15 October 2013. NOTE: The White Papers are
submitted by PIs via email and the due date and time is unchanged. Please cc your contract and grant officer
on your white paper submission.
Birds: Introduced Species
In the last newsletter, I had
a photo of an Orange Bishop, a species introduced by man to southern
California. This week, I feature two such birds. The
first is the pin-tailed whydah. A week or so ago, Marie Bronoel from the
UCR libraries emailed me and some other birders about an unusual bird first
spotted by Lizbeth Langston near Andulka Park in Riverside, She gave a great
description of pin-tailed whydah which I had observed in South Africa and in
Huntington Beach. Here’s a photo of the one from Andulka Park (from the
trees behind the tennis courts near the fence that separates the park from
private property). There were several female whydah’s
in the area so it appears to be a breeding colony.
(click
to enlarge)
The second introduced species
is a bird from Southeast Asia, the nutmeg mannikin. It is becoming more
common in the US and was been added to California's official state list by the
California Bird Records Committee. It is also in Andulka Park, but the photo
below is from when several visited my house in Riverside a few weeks ago.
(click to enlarge)
The fall migration is
underway in southern California, and I’ll return to native birds in future
newsletters.
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research
and Economic Development
Professor,
Computer Science & Engineering
University of California,
Riverside
200 University Office
Building
Riverside, CA 92521
Assistant: Toni Graham