UCR Research and Economic Development
Newsletter: June 6, 2015
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
·
USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Workshop
– 6/19, 1:30-3:30
·
Searle Scholars Program from the
Kinship Foundation: July 9, 2015
·
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – Letter
of Intent, June 15
·
Stupid Faculty Tricks
USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Workshop –
6/19, 1:30-3:30
UCR and TriTech will host a workshop on how to get funding through the USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program on Friday, June 19 from 1:30p-3:30p in the Genomics Auditorium. It will feature talks by Scott Dockum, USDA SBIR program coordinator, and Agenor Mafra-Neto, a local entrepreneur who has received multiple SBIR awards.
Scott Dockum manages the day to day operations of the USDA SBIR Program. He supports the USDA SBIR portfolio of applied research and development projects supported by the program. Scott also leads SBIR outreach and commercialization activities within the program and coordinates SBIR activities, reporting and administrative
requirements as required by legislation and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Agenor Mafra-Neto is a chemical ecology researcher and entrepreneur in the entomological field of insect chemical ecology. He is the CEO of ISCA Technologies, a company specializing in the development of semiochemical solutions for pest management, robotic smart traps and nanosensors. Dr. Mafra-Neto is the CEO and Director of Research and Development at ISCA Technologies, Inc. which he founded in 1996 in Riverside, California. ISCA Tecnologias, Ltda was founded in Brazil in 1997.
To encourage participation in commercialization, UCR waives overhead on SBIR and STTR Phase I grants (when permitted by the agency). See http://research.ucr.edu/About/News.aspx?K=323.
UCR and TritTch also provide advice on incorporation and accounting so that you are not featured in the next edition of Stupid Faculty Tricks.
Searle Scholars Program from the
Kinship Foundation: July 9, 2015
UCR has been invited
to select one candidate for the Searle Scholars Program from the Kinship
Foundation. The award, given to 15 new recipients annually, is $300,000 for a
three-year term with $100,000 payable each year of the grant. UCR’s limited
submission process can be found at http://research.ucr.edu/ord/limitedsubmissions.aspx. The internal
deadline is July 9, 2015
Foundation
submissions are not open to individuals who have not been selected by their
institution to participate in the competition. Applicants for awards will
be expected to be pursuing independent research careers in biochemistry, cell
biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in
chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences. Candidates should have begun
their appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor
level on or after July 1, 2014. The appointment must be their first
tenure-track position (or its nearest equivalent).
The Searle Scholars
Program does not ordinarily support purely clinical research but has supported
research programs that include both clinical and basic components. Potential
applicants who are unsure if their research is appropriate for the program are
encouraged to examine the research interests of present and former Searle
Scholars on their website.
Final nominee is required to submit a statement from their department chair, and three letters of support (one from their doctoral mentor, post-doctoral mentor and a third one of their choice).
Submission for final application is between September 1 – September 30, 2015.
Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation June 15
UCR can nominate up to three candidates for the Sloan Research
Fellowships. These fellowships, $50,000 for a two-year period, seek to
stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists usually below the
rank of associate professor. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in
chemistry, computational or evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics,
mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field.
To
indicate your interest in being nominated, please send a letter of intent to limited@ucr.edu by June 15
The Foundation welcomes nominations of all candidates their standards and
requirements, but also strongly encourages the participation of women and
members of underrepresented minority groups.
Nominations
for the 2016 Sloan Research Fellowships will open in Summer
2015, with final applications due September 15.
Stupid Faculty Tricks
The following are
verbatim from NSF’s most recent Inspector general report: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/oig15002/oig15002.pdf I have added
bold to some of the sanction imposed. (I have indented an added italics
to indicate it is quotation from the cited source).
PI Fabricated IRB Approval Document Submitted
to NSF
A PI at a Pennsylvania university fabricated
a document showing his project’s required IRB approval, and submitted the
fabricated document to NSF. The PI admitted he had fabricated the IRB
approval and the university has initiated an investigation. In response
to our recommendation, NSF suspended the award — with $1,619,844 unexpended
— pending conclusion of our investigation.
Proactive Review Identifies Plagiarism in
Multiple Proposals
As part of a proactive review, we analyzed
over 8,000 proposals awarded by NSF in FY 2011 for evidence of
plagiarism. We processed these proposals using commercial plagiarism
software, and ranked them by the amount of apparently-copied text. We
determined that many proposals contained some amount of copied text, but opened
cases only on the more apparently serious violations that might constitute
research misconduct.
We opened 34 plagiarism investigations, ten
of which have resulted in NSF making findings of research misconduct.
From these cases we have recovered $357,602 in federal funds to date. We
issued questionable research practice letters in six cases in which the copying
was considered plagiarism, but did not rise to the level of research
misconduct. Ten cases are still pending. One of the pending
plagiarism investigations uncovered significant financial issues, and is being
pursued for possible civil/criminal prosecution.
Texas Professor Claims Wrong Version of
Proposal Submitted to NSF
Our investigation determined that a Texas PI
plagiarized in two NSF proposals. The PI told us he mistakenly submitted
a version of the proposal in which he used placeholders for copied text, and
that proper citations and references were present in a “final” version.
The “final” version that he provided showed changes only to the text which we
had originally identified, suggesting that the final version was created after
we contacted the PI. The PI’s university determined that plagiarism also
existed in a proposal submitted by the PI to another agency. Because the
proposals were used as support in his tenure package, the university
dismissed the professor.
Full Professor Claims Ignorance of Quotation
Marks
A full professor at a Michigan university who
plagiarized text into an NSF proposal asserted that he was unaware of the need
for quotation marks, stating, “I really didn’t know actually when you copy, you
need to put quotation.” The university rejected this excuse after finding
the professor attributed text properly in 22 of his other papers, also noting
the professor had already completed RCR training. They imposed three
years of certifications and assurances, and required him to attend in-person
remedial training at his own expense.
The NSF program officer determined that the
plagiarized text would have been material to the funding decision. We
concluded that the professor knowingly plagiarized and recommended that NSF
terminate the award early, recover funds already spent, impose two years of
certifications and assurances, and impose a ban of the same length on serving
as an NSF reviewer, consultant, or advisor.
University Repays NSF for Unallocable
International Travel Charges
A California university repaid $5,787
for international travel expenses a PI and his spouse charged to an NSF
award. Our investigation determined that the travel charges for the PI
and his spouse, who was also a faculty member, were not allocable to the award
for which they were charged. In addition to repaying the funds to NSF,
the university agreed to examine its conflict-of-interests policies governing
the management of co-workers who are related to one another.
University Agrees to Repay $497,000 for
Alleged Duplicate Funding
A California university agreed to repay
$497,000 to settle allegations that a PI failed to disclose overlapping
funding and submitted duplicate reports for NSF and Department of Energy (DOE)
awards — NSF will receive $111,500 of that amount.
The settlement agreement resulted from mediation
among the Department of Justice, DOE, NSF, and the university. The
university agreed to institute a three-year compliance program to train
employees on the proper administration of federal awards. In addition,
for three years, the PI cannot serve as an NSF reviewer and is required to have
her NSF proposals and progress reports internally reviewed and certified prior
to submission to NSF.
Panelist Violated Confidentiality of NSF
Review Process
We concurred with a Pennsylvania university’s
conclusion that one of its faculty members (the reviewer) violated the
confidentiality of NSF’s merit review process. NSF asked the reviewer to review
ten proposals; he then asked two of his staff to assist him and provided them
with access to the proposals to facilitate their reviews. During the
university’s inquiry, the reviewer admitted what he had done. Because the
reviewer subsequently retired, the university took no action. We
recommended that NSF send a letter of reprimand to the subject notifying him
that NSF has made a finding that he violated NSF’s confidentiality rules for
panelists, and prohibit him from serving as a reviewer for one year.
South Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Theft of
NSF SBIR Award Funds
A PI, who previously was indicted for false
claims, false statements and theft, pled guilty to theft in relation to false
effort information he provided in official project reports submitted to NSF to
obtain grant payments. He was sentenced to three years of probation and
fined $5,000.
Company Agrees to Civil Settlement for
Misrepresenting Its Accounting and Timekeeping Systems
NSF STTR awards involve a small business
awardee that works in partnership with a non-profit research institution subawardee. We previously reported that a university
repaid $54,076 related to unauthorized equipment purchases on an STTR subaward. During this reporting period, the company that
received the STTR award repaid $170,923 in response to allegations that it
misrepresented to NSF that its accounting system would separately track the
expenditure of grant funds and that time records would be maintained for
employees working on the grant.
PI Returns over $46,000 for Violating Small
Business Program Rule
Our investigation into SBIR and STTR awards
made to a Florida small business determined the PI violated the requirement
that he must be primarily employed by the company throughout the period of the
awards. However, because the violations occurred outside of the
applicable statute of limitations, and due to conflicting and missing records
of his primary employer, the STTR subawardee, we
pursued this matter administratively. We notified the PI of the
violations and he returned $46,397 (the amount of salary he was paid
from the grants during the time when he was primarily employed by his
university) to NSF.
I was at Prado Regional Park last weekend and came across three baby barn swallows perched on a branch, waiting for a parent to fly by and feed them.
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: Linda Bejenaru
Email: VCREDadmin@ucr.edu
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: Linda Bejenaru
Email: VCREDadmin@ucr.edu