UCR Research and Economic Development Newsletter: June 3, 2016
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
·
Funding Opportunity: NEA Releases
New Research Labs Program
·
Funding
Opportunity: NSF Releases Solicitation for Next Generation Networks for
Neuroscience (NeuroNex) Program
·
UCR Export Control Awareness Day (June 3rd, 2016) <- Today @ noon (or
1)
· Rosibel Ochoa – Associate Vice Chancellor, Technology Partnerships
Funding
Opportunity: NEA Releases New Research Labs Program
The National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA) has released a new program entitled “National Endowment for the
Arts Research Labs” (NEA Research Labs). Through this program, NEA seeks
to “support a series of transdisciplinary research partnerships, grounded in
the social and behavioral sciences, to produce and report empirical insights
about the arts for the benefit of arts and non-arts sectors alike.”
This new opportunity builds
upon NEA’s prior efforts to measure and understand the value, benefits, and
impacts of the arts. Unlike most NEA funding opportunities which support
the development of artistic projects, this
solicitation is research focused. NEA is looking to fund applications
that examine a theory-based research question.
NEA has identified three
areas of special interest. Each NEA Research Lab should focus on one of
the following topic areas:
1. The Arts, Health, and
Social/Emotional Well-Being
2. The Arts, Creativity,
Cognition, and Learning
3. The Arts,
Entrepreneurship, and Innovation
Due Date: Proposals are due July 12.
Total Funding and Award
Size: This program will fund cooperative
agreements for a duration of up to two years. NEA expects to award
$150,000 to successful proposals. Each NEA Research Lab must provide a
one-to-one match from non-federal sources. NEA has not indicated how many
awards it expects to issue.
Eligibility and
Limitations: Eligible applicants
include institutions of higher education and nonprofit research organizations.
Sources and Additional
Background:
·
The
solicitation is available at https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/nea-research-labs-program-solicitation.pdf.
·
Additional
information can be found at https://www.arts.gov/program-solicitation-national-endowment-for-the-arts-research-labs/.
Funding Opportunity: NSF Releases Solicitation for Next
Generation Networks for Neuroscience (NeuroNex)
Program
On June 1, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) released
a solicitation for the Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience (NeuroNex)
program focused on the “development of innovative, accessible, and shared
capabilities and resources towards the
establishment of a coherent national infrastructure
for neuroscience research.” The NSF Directorate for the Biological Sciences (BIO)
is leading this program with additional participation by the Directorates for Mathematical
and
Physical Sciences (MPS),
Social,
Behavioral, and
Economic Sciences
(SBE), and Engineering (ENG). NeuroNex is part of the agency’s
cross-cutting Understanding the Brain initiative to better understand cognitive functions, including
efforts to respond to the Administration’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies
(BRAIN) initiative.
The
primary objective of
this
program is to increase the development and dissemination of innovative research resources, neurotechnologies, and theoretical
frameworks to transform the ability
of researchers to understand linkages between neural activity and cognition and behavior across systems,
environments, and species. NSF requests that proposals focus on one of the following: neurotechnology hubs that will develop and disseminate new and innovative technologies to the neuroscience community for
use in studying brain structure and function in
diverse species; or theory teams, which will foster theoretical approaches to understanding neural underpinnings
of behavior and cognition across organizational
levels, scales
of analysis, and/or a
range of species, including humans.
Successful proposals will
have a rationale
that justifies a team approach and large scale investment
beyond the
contributions of
individual investigators as part of the objective is to build and grow networks
and the community connectivity.
In
addition, as BIO is leading this effort, it is
recommended
that proposals, while including interdisciplinary approaches, focus on resources, technologies, or theoretical frameworks with relevance to the communities
that BIO supports.
This
opportunity is one of several cross-cutting efforts by NSF to support
brain
research in addition to
numerous core programs
that support neurotechnologies
and neurotheory
development. The
NeuroNex solicitation specifically notes that the
program will not fund research
that would be funded by other
programs at NSF. None of the programs that fall under the Understanding the Brain umbrella are NSF-wide and thus it is important to take note of the divisions listed within
a solicitation to determine
which program is the best fit
for
a given team or project proposal. As previously reported, the Directorate for
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is also expected
to
release its own solicitation related
to
the formation of a National
Brain Observatory according to two previous Dear Colleague Letters (DCL) released
earlier this year.
Letters of Intent:
Applicants are required to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) by 5 p.m. on September 2, 2016.
Application Deadline: Full proposals are due by 5 p.m. on October 21, 2016
Total Funding and Award Size: NSF expects up to $30 million to be available
for this
program,
with
individual awards ranging from $500,000 to $2 million annually for 3-5 years. NSF
anticipates awarding
between 10-15 grants for FY 2017.
Eligibility: Eligible
applicants include institutions of higher education and non-profit research
organizations.
Sources and Additional Information:
·
The program page, which has updated program contacts and will eventually have information on awardees as well as any new information added
about the program, is available at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505281.
·
The full solicitation is available at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16569/nsf16569.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click
·
The National Brain Observatory DCL is available at
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16076/nsf16076.jsp
·
The full
list of opportunities
available as part of the Understanding the Brain initiative
is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/brain/funding/
UCR Export Control Awareness Day
(June 3rd, 2016) TODAY (Plus free lunch)
Export Control comprises the U.S.
laws and regulations that govern the electronic transfer or shipment overseas
(or to foreign nationals within the United States) of certain information,
technologies, and commodities. The federal government has enacted export
control laws in order to protect the U.S. economy, promote trade goals, and
restrict the export of technology and goods that could militarily aid U.S.
adversaries.
On Friday, June 3rd,
Research and Economic Development, Office of International Affairs and the
Campus Ethics and Compliance Office will host concurrent seminars across campus
to raise institutional and individual awareness of Export Control regulations
and how to avoid civil and criminal penalties. If you have international
collaborations, travel abroad or conduct research in the fields of biomedical
sciences, computer sciences, space sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry,
or anthropology…this one hour seminar is for you!
Two 1-hour sessions (same
material) will be offered for Faculty and Researchers at 12:00 p.m. and again
at 1:00 p.m. UCOP’s Elizabeth Boyd,
Ph.D., Executive Director of Research Compliance & Export Control Officer
will address specific export control areas of interest for faculty and
researchers.
·
Both
sessions will be located at: Winston Chung Hall, Room 443
·
Lunch
will be provided at both sessions, but it will be warmer at the first.
·
To
reserve a seat, please send an email to Robert.Chan@ucr.edu or register online at: https://research.ucr.edu/about/calendar.
See Why the Professor Went to Prison http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-01/why-the-professor-went-to-prison for more info on why you should attend.
Rosibel Ochoa – Associate Vice Chancellor, Technology Partnerships
Please
join me in welcoming Dr. Rosibel Ochoa to UCR as Associate Vice Chancellor,
Technology Partnerships.
Rosibel
Ochoa, Ph.D. has joined UC Riverside as associate vice chancellor for
technology partnerships in the Office of Research and Economic Development.
In the position, she will focus on increasing UCR’s momentum in research
advancement and the commercialization of faculty and student discoveries.
Ochoa
comes to the position with experience that includes service at universities, in
industry, and in entrepreneurship.
For
the past decade, she worked at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San
Diego, where she was executive director of the von Liebig Entrepreneurism
Center, senior executive director of entrepreneurism and leadership programs,
and since 2013, program director of the UC San Diego NSF-funded I-Corps site,
In
her work at UC San Diego, Ochoa created and implemented regional and
international programs aimed at providing a commercialization platform to
accelerate the transfer of university discoveries from the laboratory to the
private sector. She also developed innovation training programs for
international partners in Asia and Latin America.
In
2011, Ochoa co-founded My Startup XX, a business accelerator funded by the
National Collegiate Inventors and Innovator Alliance, now Venture Well, to
foster female scientist and engineer participation in entrepreneurship. The
program has received two national awards from the Small Business Administration
and Athena’s San Diego Pinnacle Award for best organization in 2014.
In
2006, she founded TekDome, LLC, a
consulting company that provided expert advice on strategies for intellectual
property development, commercialization and licensing support. TekDome delivered consulting services to the Research Triangle
Institute (North Carolina), the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University
of Louisville and several faculty-led startup companies.
Prior
to TekDome, Ochoa was associate director of the
Office of Technology Licensing and manager of the Industry Contracts Group,
Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, she served as licensing
manager for Motorola’s Energy Systems Group.
Ochoa
holds a master’s and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the
University of Louisville.
UCR
may nominate two people to apply for the NEH summer Stipend program, Apply by June 30 at
http://research.ucr.edu/ord/limitedsubmissions.aspx
|
NEH Summer Stipends program |
Here
are some worst practices to avoid (taken verbatim from NSF OIG Semiannual
Report to Congress - March 2016. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/oig16002/oig16002.pdf
Fabricated IRB Approval
Leads to $1.66 Million Available for Better Use
We
previously reported that a PI at a Pennsylvania university fabricated a
document showing his project’s required IRB approval, and submitted the
fabricated document to NSF as part of his research proposal, which was
subsequently awarded. 6 The university returned about $44,000 that
had been expended and voluntarily relinquished the award, making an additional
$1.6 million available for better use. Our investigation is ongoing.
University
Repays $260,000 for Professor’s Mischarges to NSF and DOE Awards
Our
investigation revealed that a professor at a Florida university was paying her
husband (who had no science background) for “helpful suggestions” on her
publications resulting from research funded by two NSF awards as well as two
Department of Energy (DOE) awards. She claimed that her NSF program officers
gave her permission to hire her husband for this purpose, which was not true.
We also found that she significantly mischarged student and postdoc salaries on
NSF awards. She defended these actions by stating that all her research fit
under one “umbrella.”
We
presented evidence to the university, which agreed with our findings and
returned over $165,000 for mischarged funds related to student salary. The
university also repaid over $40,000 to NSF and $50,000 to DOE for award funds
used for the professor’s husband’s salary. In addition, the university issued a
reprimand, made the professor ineligible for promotions or salary increases for
three years, required her to complete training on federal effort reporting, and
will heavily monitor all aspects of her reporting related to sponsored projects
for three years. The professor resigned her position as department chair.
University’s Lack of
Candor Results in Nearly $300,000 Put to Better Use
In
response to our recommendation, NSF terminated a Texas university’s award,
which resulted in $300,000 of funds put to better use. Previously, NSF had
suspended the award because the university failed to notify NSF of the PI’s
absence for nine of the first twelve months’ of the award and his resignation
from the university.17 Immediately prior to the leave of absence, the
university determined that the PI had misused funds from an earlier NSF award,
violated university conflict of interest policies, and failed to obtain the
requisite approval for outside employment.
Although
the PI gave seven months’ notice before he resigned, the university did not
inform NSF of the pending resignation until nine months later. The university
failed to provide oversight of the PI’s graduate students during the PI’s
absence. One month before the PI’s final day, the university requested that a co-PI be added to the award, but did not inform NSF that
the PI was going to resign. The NSF program officer indicated that had he known
of the PI’s pending absence, he would not have approved the addition of a co-PI.
There are still seats
available for the following faculty networking lunches:
·
Bio-based
Materials: 6/20/16 at 11:30 (please note earlier time!) Please register
here: https://biobased-materials.eventbrite.com
·
Health
Disparities: 6/27/16. Please register here: https://health-disparities.eventbrite.com
Here’s
a photo of a baby burrowing owl. I think the best place to see burrowing
owls in Southern California is near the Salton Sea. They have burrows along
Walker Road in Brawley, CA. We went last weekend in hopes of seeing baby
owls and we found this one. They are one of the few owls that is visible
during the day, although due to the heat they are out most in the morning and
late afternoon.
(Click to
enlarge)
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development
Professor, Computer Science & Engineering
University of California, Riverside
200 University Office Building
Assistant: Linda Bejenaru
Email: VCREDadmin@ucr.edu