UCR Research and Economic
Development Newsletter: May 25, 2013
Michael Pazzani
Vice Chancellor for Research
and Economic Development
Back Issues of Newsletter: http://or.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx
·
Collaboration
Seed Grant Program
·
Proof
of Concept Funds for Technology Commercialization Program
·
Limited
Funding Announcement: DoD Equipment
·
More
Stupid Faculty Tricks
·
Survey
for Industry Sponsored Research
·
Tufted
Coquette
Collaboration Seed Grant
Program
Research and Economic Development and
Economic Development is pleased to announce the creation of a new collaboration
seed grant program. The program provides funds to enable teams of UCR
faculty to collaborate and publish before grant submission, making UCR more
competitive for multi-investigator grants from external agencies.
By serving as a catalyst for
UCR faculty to develop new multi-investigator, and/or multi-disciplinary teams,
the program is intended to make UCR more competitive for center, program
project grants, or similar large, multi-investigator research grants.
Projects up to $75,000 for projects lasting up to one year will be
considered. The ideal collaborative project will either
·
Enable
a team of two or more UCR faculty to obtain initial results or data that will
make them more competitive for any existing federal agency research center
program (e.g., NIH program project grants, NSF Science and Technology Centers,
NSF Engineering Research Centers, DOE Manufacturing centers, NEH Summer
Institutes, USDA/NIFA Policy Research Centers, etc.
·
Create
a new multi-disciplinary team of two or more UCR faculty in an area that is a
new federal research funding priority, e.g., Brain Research through Advancing
Innovative Neurotechnologies, Big Data, Digital Humanities, etc.
In selecting projects to be
funded emphasis will be placed on projects that create new synergies across
schools, departments or centers. Key considerations will include whether the
project can be leveraged toward new externally funded research, and the extent
to which the project cannot be otherwise initiated using regular department or
school funding resources. An ideal project would apply for external
funding 6-10 months after receiving the seed funding. Although $75,000 is
the maximum award, smaller and more focused proposals are encouraged, with an
anticipated median award size of $40,000. More details are available on
our website at: http://or.ucr.edu/ord/funding/opportunities/collaborative-seed-grant-program.aspx
Proof of Concept Funds for
Technology Commercialization Program
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and
Economic Development announces the FY2013-2014 Proof of Concept for Technology
Commercialization (POC) Award Program. The POC award provides UCR investigators
up to $35,000 to further develop a commercializable invention based upon UCR
intellectual property not yet licensed. The effort should address a
critical issue, such as creating a prototype, scaling up a process, or
obtaining additional data to support a commercialization effort by making the
invention more attractive to licensees or investors. The award shall be
used only for technical salaries and benefits, supplies, vivarium or other
facilities fees and contracted services directly related to the project.
Funding Criteria
- An invention disclosure must be
submitted to the Office of Technology. Commercialization on the key
invention by the date of the application and the University must have
clear rights to commercialize the intellectual property.
- The intellectual property and
prospective product must address a need in the marketplace and have a
competitive advantage over existing products.
- The proposed work will start on
August 1, 2013 and be accomplished by June 30, 2014.
- The proposed work should
undertake commercial-type prototype development or testing to generate
evidence that an existing invention meets a market need, not the creation
of new inventions or basic research.
- Preference will be given to
projects that can be completed within six months.
6.
Although
the maximum award is $35,000, smaller focused projects are encouraged and the
anticipated median award size is $20,000.
Proposals will be reviewed by UCR faculty and outside
entrepreneurs who have signed a nondisclosure agreement. Anonymous
reviews will be returned for all proposals.
Applications should be submitted by June 27,
2013. For more details, see http://research.ucr.edu/ord/funding/opportunities/proof-of-concept-fund.aspx
Limited Funding
Announcement: DoD Equipment
The Department of Defense has
released W911NF-13-R-0008, Research and Education Program for Historically
Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI)
Equipment/Instrumentation. UCR will be eligible to submit up to two proposals.
The program makes awards of $50,000 to $500,000 for instrumentation that
supports the research mission of at least one branch of the armed services.
Cost sharing is not required. The internal deadline is June 15, 2013 and
can be found at: http://or.ucr.edu/ord/SearchOr.aspx?k=2126965621&ae=A
Since most HSI’s do not have a research component, proposals that will impact undergraduate education, e.g., senior design have been funded in the past. The DoD often provides equipment funds to faculty that have other DoD research funds, so the ideal proposal would involve of a PI of a DoD grant who will obtain equipment for both teaching and research.
See the full solicitation, at
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=8
or http://www.arl.army.mil/www/pages/8/22May2013_HBCUMI.pdf.
More
Stupid Faculty Tricks
Last
week, I highlighted some problems with NSF awards. This time, it’s NEH.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has withdrawn its name
from a fellowship for a professor facing accusations of research fraud over his
book about the history of gun ownership in America. Chicago's Newberry Library
"was in error when it awarded an NEH-supported fellowship" to Emory
University history professor Michael Bellesiles, NEH Deputy Chairman Lynne
Munson wrote Monday in a letter to Newberry officials.
The library, Miss Munson wrote, awarded the fellowship in February
2001 despite "serious challenges to Professor Bellesiles' research"
in his 2000 book, "Arming America," which claimed that gun ownership
was rare in early America…. Published to critical acclaim in October 2000,
"Arming America" won the prestigious Bancroft Award and was embraced
by advocates of gun control, who said his research contradicted the view that
the Second Amendment was intended to protect private ownership of firearms.
But the book has come under increasing
criticism from scholars who say that Mr. Bellesiles misrepresented or even
fabricated historical records to support his contention that gun ownership was
rare in the United States before the Civil War. Among several inaccuracies
cited by critics, Mr. Bellesiles asserted he had accessed California court
records that experts say were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and
fire of 1906.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/may/22/20020522-025220-5849r/?page=all#pagebreak
As criticism grew and charges of scholarly misconduct were made,
Emory University conducted an internal inquiry into Bellesiles's integrity,
appointing an independent investigative committee composed of three leading
academic historians from outside Emory.[18] Bellesiles failed
to provide investigators with his research notes, claiming the notes were
destroyed in a flood.[19]
The scholarly investigation confirmed that Bellesiles's work had
serious flaws, calling into question both its quality and veracity. …
Bellesiles disputed these findings, claiming to have followed all
scholarly standards and to have corrected all errors of fact known to him.
Nevertheless, … Bellesiles issued a statement … announcing the resignation of
his professorship at Emory
[…] the trustees of Columbia University rescinded Arming America's
Bancroft Prize, the
first such action in the history of the prize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_America
Survey for Industry
Sponsored Research
University of California and
most universities have by policy or practice been taking the position that
intellectual property developed in the course of a project funded by industry
is owned by the university. Industry sponsored research agreements then
contain a clause giving the company the first right to negotiate a license to
the technology.
A few universities, such as
Penn State, University of Minnesota and University of Iowa have recently been
introducing an additional option in some fields that allows the sponsoring
company to have exclusive rights to the technology sponsored by the company
according to some predefined terms. See http://www.research.umn.edu/techcomm/industry-sponsor.html
for example.
I am participating in a UC
committee exploring whether there are problems with the “first right to
negotiate” approach and opportunities with having an option for a predefined
approach. Can I ask you to fill out a short survey on this to understand
better UCR faculty experiences and preferences? The short survey is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Qx5wRcJKM0LYFQOWWlp_veN0yAMV9LyM0i7X9mIsadg/viewform
I repeat the survey below,
but encourage you to fill out anonymously at the website above
Have you experienced
problems reaching agreement on intellectual property when engaging in industry
sponsored research when university insists upon "first right to negotiate
a license"
Check
all that apply.
[ ]
No, There is no industry support for my
type of research
[ ]
No, Companies and I easily agree on
"first right to negotiate a license"
[ ]
Yes, It takes too long to come to an
agreement when the intellectual property isn't important anyway
[ ]
Yes, I have experienced situations in which
an agreement I wanted to pursue was never reached due to intellectual property
[ ]
Other:
Should the university have
an additional option available where any new intellectual property discovered
in an industry sponsored research project is automatically assigned to the
sponsored according to some predefined terms?
Mark
only one oval.
( )
No, Not in any field
( )
Not in my field, but it is appropriate for
some fields or some faculty
( )
Yes in my field, but not in all fields
( )
Yes, in all fields
( )
Other:
Tufted Coquette
From Asa Wright Nature
Centre, Trinidad
(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: Jennifer
Vazquez
951-827-4800