UCR Research and Economic
Development Newsletter: Feb 3, 2013
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research
and Economic Development
Back Issues of Newsletter: http://or.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx
·
Submitting
a Winning NSF Proposal: Overview
·
Agriculture
and Food Research Initiative - Childhood Obesity Prevention
·
NIH Funding
Opportunities and How to Navigate the NIH System for Grants and Fellowships,
Feb 20
·
NSF Inspire Program:
$1.5M per page
·
Reports.gov: The
Times They Are a-Changin’
·
Reminder: Tech
Coast Angels: Feb 11 4:00PM
·
Surf
Scooters
Submitting
a Winning NSF Proposal: Overview
On February 1
a workshop was held in which UCR faculty discussed strategies for writing a
successful NSF proposal. The slides from their presentations are
available at http://research.ucr.edu/vcr/talks.aspx
Below is my brief summary of some points made by each speaker:
·
Julia
Bailey-Serres, Professor of Genetics:
o
Use
of bold, italics, numbered sections corresponding to objectives/hypotheses can
make main points stand out. Reviewers and panel members benefit from
obviousness.
o
A
picture is worth many words (small effective figures – one per page help).
·
Donna
Hoffman, Professor of Marketing, Co-Director, Sloan Center of Internet
Retailing
o
Don’t
Guess What Winners Look Like; Learn
o
Sizzle
is Great, But Don’t Forget the Steak
·
Cindy
Larive, Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry
o
Build
Credibility: Publications area key predictor of success,
o
Be a
reviewers, submit thorough well-considered reviews on time
o
Choose
broader impacted that you are committed to and feel will have real value
·
Michael
Pazzani, Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development
o
Novel,
Important, Coherent and Achievable ideas get funded
o
Make
the novelty and importance stand out in first paragraph
·
Victor
Rodgers, Professor and Chair, Department of Bioengineering
o
Talk
to program officer before you begin writing
o
Get
Involved in Broader Impacts early so you have a track record
·
Jan
Stets, Professor of Sociology and former NSF Program Director, mentions some
common problems:
o
Merit
criteria are not met
o
Not
theoretically grounded or methodologically sound
o
Not
making a contribution (it’s already been done) or the contribution is
incremental with no breakthrough
o
Disconnected
– proposed research does not follow from
o
the
original idea
o
Trust
me – lacks sufficient detail about proposed approach
o
Overly
ambitious – impractically large project
o
Unreasonable
budget – budget items don’t follow from the research plan
I recently came across a
presentation that included two additional tips:
·
Proposals
that include figures or graphs on at least 30% of the pages are more likely to
be funded
·
Teams
that start two months before the request for proposals is issued are more
likely to be funded
A phone call with an ONR program
officer revealed this insight: Don’t just send a proposal full of good ideas,
send a proposal that relates the good ideas to the objectives in the call for
proposals.
Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative - Childhood Obesity Prevention
In the spirit of starting
early and learning what has been funded in the past, USDA/AFRI is about to
issue a new request for applications on its childhood obesity
program. Here is more info and a list of some of the grants
that funded last year.
This Challenge Area Focuses
on the societal challenge to end obesity among children, the number one
nutrition-related problem in the US. Food is an integral part of the
process that leads to obesity and USDA has a unique responsibility for the food
system in the United States. This program is designed to achieve the long-term
outcome of reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and
adolescents 2-19 years. Details are available at http://nifa.usda.gov/fo/childhoodobesityafri.cfm.
Past awards included
·
Prevention
Of Late Adolescent Obesity In The College Environment: An Optimal Default
Paradigm, Loeb, K. L., Fairleigh Dickinson University
·
Fighting
Obesity Among Low-Income 9-14 Year Olds: A Home-Based Intervention Using Mobile
Phones To Deliver Customized Nutrition Outreach, Clarke, P. Univ Of Southern
California
·
Smarter
Lunchrooms: Does Changing Environments Really Give More Nutritional Bang For
The Buck?, Wansink, B. C., Cornell University
·
Measuring
Parenting: Current Status And Consensus Reports Baranowski, T., Baylor College
Of Medicine
·
Ninos
Sanos, Familia Sana (Healthy Children, Healthy Family): A Multi-Intervention
Program To Prevent Childhood Obesity In Mexican-Heritage Children In Rural
California, De La Torre, A., University Of California, Davis
·
Parental
Feeding Practices, Core Nutrition Messages, And The Prevention Of Obesity Among
Preschool Children, Grutzmacher, S. K., Univ Of Maryland
·
Homestyles:
Shaping Home Environments And Lifestyle Practices To Prevent Childhood Obesity:
A Randomized Control Trial, Byrd-Bredbenner, C., Rutgers University
NIH Funding
Opportunities and How to Navigate the NIH System for Grants and Fellowships,
Feb 20
GGB, CMDB, and
Microbiology are jointly sponsoring a seminar featuring Dr. Glen McGugan from
NIH (Parasite Biology Program Officer in the Division of Microbiology and
Infectious Disease for NIAID). He will talk on “NIH Funding Opportunities
and How to Navigate the NIH System for Grants and Fellowships, Feb 20” The
talk will be at 2PM in Genomics Building Auditorium 1102A
NSF Inspire Program:
$1.5M per page
Integrated NSF Support
Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) “support
bold interdisciplinary projects in all NSF-supported areas of science,
engineering, and education research” The goals of this program are to
·
Create
new interdisciplinary opportunities that are not perceived to exist presently.
·
Attract
unusually creative high-risk / high-reward interdisciplinary proposals.
·
Provide
sufficient funding to pursue the novel idea beyond the exploratory stage.
·
Recognize
and encourage innovative interdisciplinary research by unusually creative
individual investigators, especially at early- to mid-career stages.
Proposals must be of interest
to multiple divisions at NSF and may be up to 5 years. A letter of intent
(about 2 pages) is due
o
Feb
20, for up to $3M for large team awards
o
March
29, for up to $1M individual or small team awards
More details, including a
webcast from NSF on the program, area area available at
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504852
Note that NSF discourages
these types of proposals for INSPIRE
·
Projects
in which the scientific advances lie primarily within the scope of one program
or discipline, such that substantial co-funding from another distinct program
or discipline is unlikely.
·
Projects
that, in the judgment of cognizant program directors, can be expected to
receive an appropriate evaluation through external review in regular programs.
·
Projects
that continue well-established lines of research, in accordance with expected
progress in their fields.
Previous awards include
·
Dankowicz,
Harry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Asynchronous communication,
self-organization, and differentiation in human and insect networks
·
Iskarous,
Khalil, University of Southern California, Dynamical Principles of Animal
Movement
·
Kaiser,
Hartmut, Louisiana State University, STAR: Scalable toolkit for Transformative
Astrophysics Research
·
Minai,
Ali, University of Cincinnati, The Hunting of the Spark: A Systematic Study of
Natural Creativity in Human Networks
·
Misra,
Satyajayant, New Mexico State University, Towards Ubiquitous Adoption of
Wireless Sensor Networks in Experimental Biology Research
·
Omenetto,
Fiorenzo, Tufts University, Resorbable Electronics--Materials, Manufacturing,
and Modeling
·
Onuchic,
Jose, Rice University, Molecular Underpinnings of Bacterial Decision-Making
·
Paerl,
Hans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, An Ecologically-Driven
Strategy for Ensuring Sustainability of Anthropogenically and Climatically
Impacted Lakes
·
Peccoud,
Jean, Virginia Tech, Modeling and optimization of DNA manufacturing processes
·
Weiss,
Jeffrey, University of Colorado, Boulder, Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
of Natural Climate Variability: Sea-Surface Temperature and Ocean Heat Content
·
Woodbury,
Neal, Arizona State University, Mimicking the Functional Complexity of Biology
with Man-Made Systems
Reports.gov: The Times
They Are a-Changin’
National Science
Foundation (NSF) has moved its annual, final, and interim project reporting
from FastLane to Research.gov. PIs and co-PIs must stop submitting new project
reports in FastLane starting on February 1, 2013. On March 18, 2013, NSF will transfer
its current project reporting service from FastLane to Research.gov. To assist
the research community with this transition, the dates have been extended for
all project reports originally scheduled to become overdue between January 31
and April 30, 2013. Starting March 18, 2013, you can use Research.gov to submit
project reports. For more information about the transition of annual,
final, and interim project reporting to Research.gov, please visit the Project
Report Informational Page
Unfortunately, PIs and
program officers in the NSF trial of research.gov experienced frustrations in
this transition. If research.gov is frustrating you, the song Nettie
Moore from Bob Dylan's recent album may be relevant to you. It contains
the lyrics
"Well, the world
of research has gone berserk; Too much paperwork"
Reminder: Tech Coast Angels: Feb 11 4:00PM
One way for UCR faculty or
students to obtain funding to form a company is from angel investors.
Angels are high-wealth individuals who provide funds in exchange for equity
(i.e., stock) in a private business (Occasionally funds are provided as loan,
typically converted in equity at a later date). Angel investors also
typically provide advice on entrepreneurship and business. The Tech Coast
Angels (TCA) are the largest angel investment organization in the U.S. with
over 300 that have invested over $120 million in over 200 companies.
Investors affiliated with TCA funded a company I founded in 1999 (together with
investors from a Silicon Valley group).
TCA will be hosting a meeting
in the Alumni & Visitor center in which companies pitch for funding on Feb
11 from 4:00-6:00PM. The goal of UCR hosting this event is not for
students or faculty to pitch at this event but rather to watch the process and
learn what interests investors and how to ask for funding.
Those attending will have the opportunity to apply for funding at a later date.
If
you would like to attend, please inform Rebeccah
Goldware (goldware@ucr.edu) by Feb 4.
Surf Scooters
Here’s
a photo of two Surf Scooters from Coyote Point, Near SFO.
(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