UCR Research and Economic
Development Newsletter: December 2, 2012
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research
and Economic Development
·
Research and
Economic Development Update
·
US
Department of Education GAANN workshop: Dec 8, 2012
·
NSF
INSPIRE program supports interdisciplinary collaboration
·
NSF: Changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
·
NIH
Warning: Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting
Requirements
·
Principle
Investigators or Principal Investigators?
·
Hooded Mergansers
Research and Economic
Development Update
A few months back, the Office
of Research (OR) was renamed to be the Research and Economic (RED) Office.
While we are still designing a new web site, we have named the URL to be http://research.ucr.edu. (The old URL
still works too). Some recent additions to the web site include
· PowerPoint from talk by NSF Division Director Jane Silverthorne: Grand Challenges in Organismal Biology: http://research.ucr.edu/OrApps/VCR/Talks/20121102-Silverthorne.aspx
· New Faculty Guide to Research Funding: ((also appropriate for existing faculty)
In other developments with
RED, Two licensing officers have recently joined the Office of Technology
Commercialization. Please welcome them to UCR.
Christopher Del Vecchio has
extensive experience involving intellectual property and patent matters
including patent prosecution and patent analysis. He has worked as a
patent analyst evaluating the patentability of international patent
applications on behalf of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in
Washington, D.C., in the fields of mechanical engineering, biomedical
engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, chemical engineering,
pharmaceutical drugs, and biotechnology, among others. He has conduct
patentability searches and analysis regarding patents filed by Fortune 500
companies, such as Black & Decker, Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, among
others. He holds a B.S. in biology from Virginia Tech, a M.S. in
biotechnology from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from Roger Williams
University School of Law. He studied international patent law at the Max
Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich, Germany where he attended
seminars at the European Patent Office and German Patent Office. He is
admitted to the California Bar and is a member of the California Bar
Association, Intellectual Property Division. Chris’s focus and support
will be in the engineering areas at UCR.”
Richard Tun comes to UCR with
a background in science and law. He received his BSc (Biochemistry) and
Ph.D. (Immunology) from King’s College London, U.K., and held post-doctoral
positions at UC Irvine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and University of Southern
California. He went on to receive his law degree from Loyola Law School
Los Angeles and passed the California State Bar and US Patent Bar.
Richard subsequently worked as a Patent Attorney in several law firms
representing clients, such as the University of California, both on US and
International patent matters. Now as a Senior Licensing Officer at
UCR Richard will use his experience to facilitate the transfer of research work
to the commercial marketplace for public use via any patent and licensing means
available to the University. Richard’s focus and support will be in the life
sciences areas at UCR.”
US
Department of Education GAANN workshop: Dec 8, 2012
Soon, the U.S. Department of
Education is expected to release its next (Graduate Assistance in Areas of
National Need solicitation. Last year it was Dec. 15, with a proposal
deadline in mid January. It pays to start now to prepare a proposal that
provides up to $600,000 in funds for Ph.D. fellowships. Every UCR PhD-granting
program in an “area of national need” is eligible.
To prepare campus to respond,
Research and Economic Development in coordination with the Graduate Division
has scheduled a workshop for 3 p.m. December 11 in Science Library 240
for PIs and administrators in departments and programs that envision
submitting GAANN proposals this time around. If your program is in
Engineering you will have received a similar invitation.
Background: Who is
eligible? Every GAANN solicitation includes designated “areas of national
need” that change slightly for each competition.
In 2011 the GAANN
solicitation included these areas:
·
Area Studies
·
Biological Sciences/Life Sciences
·
Chemistry
·
Computer and Information Sciences
·
Engineering (All Fields)
·
Foreign Languages and Literatures
·
Mathematics
·
Nursing
·
Physics
·
Educational Evaluation, Research, and Statistics
Every GAANN to date has
included Life Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Computer Science, Math, and
Physics. Other areas, including Earth sciences, sometimes are included,
sometimes not.
If the rules don’t change,
each department or degree program will be eligible to submit one proposal. A
department that already has an active GAANN award can submit a proposal to
support graduate students in a different area.
GAANN proposals include a
great deal of pro forma material, including the Evaluation section, letters of
support and cost sharing, and budgets, which Research and Economic Development
will supply to each applicant.
The challenge of the GAANN is
to maximize points in every section and receive a score as close as possible to
100. Typically, one needs a score of 96 or higher to be funded. Last year,
proposals with higher scores (>97) received more fellowships than those that
just made the pay line.
The purpose of the workshop
will be to identify what we can do to make our proposals as successful as
possible. Last year, the three people holding the workshop
supported the submission of 13 successful GAANN proposals (at UCI, UCR and
Rutgers).
We hope to see you at the
GAANN workshop at 3 p.m. December 11 in Science Library 240.
Randy Black,
RED Mitch Boretz,
BCOE Mike Mueller, CNAS
NSF INSPIRE
program supports interdisciplinary collaboration
National Science Foundation
(NSF) announced a solicitation for
Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education
(INSPIRE). INSPIRE was launched in November 2011 with the pilot program CREATIV:
Creative Research Awards for Transformative Interdisciplinary Ventures.
INSPIRE is open to interdisciplinary
research in all areas supported by NSF. As was the case for the CREATIV
pilot, proposals may only be submitted by invitation. Unlike CREATIV
where proposals were invited following discussions with relevant program
officers, this INSPIRE solicitation requires the submission of letters of
intent. (I still recommend speaking with program directors).
For this solicitation, NSF
will support projects that fall under three tracks:
· Track 1: A continuation of the previous CREATIV mechanism; see the Dear Colleague Letter for more information, available at http://nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12011/nsf12011.jsp. Proposals will be assessed through NSF internal merit review, and must involve at least two distinct NSF programs or divisions. Projects will be funded for up to $1 million over five years.
· Track 2: To support mid-scale projects (larger than Track 1) with funding of up to $3 million per project for up to five years. Proposals will be assessed be through a combination of internal and external merit review. Projects must involve at least three distinct NSF programs or divisions.
· Director’s INSPIRE Awards: Prestigious awards to individual investigators to support interdisciplinary research with the potential to be highly transformative. There is no direct submission process for these awards; proposals must be submitted to Track 1 and the relevant program officers may nominate the project for Director's INSPIRE Award consideration. Awards of up to $1.5 million over five years will be supported. Projects will be assessed be through a combination of internal and external merit review, and projects under consideration for this award will also remain eligible for funding through Track 1.
Given the novelty of the
INSPIRE program, it is strongly recommend that applicants fully read the review
criteria. In addition to the two standard review criteria of intellectual merit and broader impacts, proposals will be assessed on:
· Interdisciplinary: How the project will lead to integration of multiple disciplines. In addition Track 2 projects, that involve three or more research areas, must describe how links will be built between communities. Projects considered for the Director’s INSPIRE awards will have large potential for making exciting transformative progress.
· Broader Impacts: Proposal should describe how the research will benefit society. Track 2 projects are expected to have significantly greater impacts that Track 1.
· Suitability: The proposal must explain why the project is suited for INSPIRE.
Letters of Intent: Letters of intent are required for this
solicitation. The deadlines for Track 1 and Track 2 are outlined
below. Submission of a letter of intent to Track 1 is required to be considered
for the Director’s INSPIRE Awards.
· Track 1: December 10, 2012 - March 29, 2013; invitations to submit a full proposal will be issued on April 29, 2013.
· Track 2: December 10, 2012 - February 20, 2013; invitations to submit a full proposal will be issued on March 29, 2013.
· Director’s INSPIRE Awards: Same as Track 1: December 10, 2012 - March 29, 2013.
Due Dates: Full proposals are due on the following dates:
· Track 1: May 29, 2013
· Track 2: May 13 2013
· Director’s INSPIRE Awards: May 29, 2013
Total Funding and Award
Size:
Total funding of up to $63
million is available to support INSPIRE. It is estimated that 45 to 50
INSPIRE awards will be made, divided as follows:
· Track 1: 30 to 40 awards; maximum award size of $1 million over five years.
· Track 2: 10 to 15 awards; maximum award size of $3 million over five years.
· Director’s INSPIRE Awards: three to seven awards; maximum award size of $1 million (Track 1 base level), plus $500,000 (additional funding from the Director’s INSPIRE Award) over five years.
Additional Resources:
· The complete solicitation is available at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13518/nsf13518.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click.
· The CREATIV Dear Colleague Letter is available at http://nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12011/nsf12011.jsp
A list of projects funded
through the CREATIV program is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124898.
NSF: Changes to
Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
NSF announced last month
changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures
Guide for proposal due January 14, 2013, and later. http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13001
One change is that NSF no longer
allows universities to request a lower indirect cost (F&A rate) than the
negotiated rate. (except as noted in the GPG sections on participant support
and international travel grants, or as specified in an NSF program
solicitation).
Mitch Boretz summarizes other
changes
As far as PIs are
concerned, there are really only four significant changes to proposals:
1. The summary now must
have three sections: Overview, Intellectual Merit, and Broader Impacts. These
three sections are limited to a combined total of 4,600 characters, including
spaces. NSF prefers that summaries be plain text, but it can easily accommodate
summaries with special characters.
2. The Project Description
section must contain a section on Broader Impacts inside the 15-page limit.
Also in the Project Description, Results from Prior Support must address the
intellectual merit and broader impacts of your past or ongoing NSF-supported
work and results.
3. The Biographical Sketch
now calls for a list of Products rather than Publications. You still are
limited to five most relevant and five other significant products. These items
can include not only publications, but also data sets, software, patents, and
copyrights. Unacceptable products are unpublished documents not yet submitted for
publication, invited lectures, and additional lists of products.
4. The
Facilities/Equipment/Other Resources section is now a narrative; the boxes for
each type of resource will disappear. If a person is going to work on the
project but not be paid, that person’s name should not appear in the budget;
rather, that person’s role in the project should be identified here (without
quantifying the value of the effort).
If you are submitting an
NSF proposal before January 14, use the old guidelines.
NIH Warning:
Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements
Starting with Spring, 2013,
NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if
publications arising from that award are not in compliance with the NIH public
access policy. The award will not be processed until recipients have demonstrated
compliance.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-12-160.html
Principle
Investigators or Principal Investigators?
A Principal Investigator (PI)
is the primary investigator on an award. It is commonly misspelled as
“principle investigator” (which is someone who investigates principles).
According to Google, the phrase “principle investigator” is used on NSF’s web
site 1,340 times while the correct version is used 51,800 times for an error
rate of 12.4%. NIH fares much better with an error rate of 1.9%.
Military web sites have an error rate of 5.8%. ONR’s Guidance for Preparing
White Papers and Proposals http://www.docstoc.com/docs/4361249/Guidance-for-Preparing-White-Papers-and-Proposals-Undersea-Weapons
contains the advice “... a well prepared document reflects well upon the principle
investigator and his organization.”
The UCR web site contains 128
instances of “principle investigator” and has an error rate of 5.9%.
Before sending me an e-mail quoting one of my numerous typos and grammar
errors, please keep in mind I type with two fingers, write the newsletter in
early morning, and rarely can find my reading glasses.
Hooded Mergansers
The
hooded merganser is one of the birds that got me interested in bird
watching. It migrates from Canada and the northern US each fall to find
unfrozen bodies of water. During the final stages of my interview,
Rollanda O'Connor mentioned that while walking to campus she encountered them
in the winter. Well, that sealed the deal for me. This
photo of two male hooded mergansers is from the AgOps area of UCR.
(click to enlarge)
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: Gloria
Gallego
951-827-4800