UCR Research and Economic Development Newsletter:  July 19, 2015

Michael Pazzani

Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development

http://research.ucr.edu

Back Issues of Newsletter: http://research.ucr.edu/vcr/newsletters.aspx

Grant Opportunity Search: http://pivot.cos.com

 


·         Federal Priorities for 2017

·         UCR Research Funding for FY2015

·         Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and Human Subjects Protection Webinar: July 30

·         New Sponsored Projects in FY2015

·         Vermillion Flycatcher


Federal Research Priorities for FY2017

                                                             

Each year, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy sends a memo to the heads of federal research funding agencies indicating priorities for the next budget cycle.   Below are several excerpts from the memo that can be found at  https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2015/m-15-16.pdf

 

Multi-Agency R&D priorities

 

Global climate change. … prioritize activities that foster the development and use of actionable data, information, and related tools needed to prepare for and reduce climate-related risks and should prioritize investments that support technical assistance for community climate-preparedness efforts.

 

-Clean energy.  ..  promoting American leadership in renewable energy (including manufacturing for these technologies and a modernized electric grid); unlocking innovation in other key clean energy technologies; building a clean and efficient 21 st century transportation sector; and cutting energy waste in homes, businesses, and factories.  … agencies might consider technology development that leverages renewable energy to power water desalination or purification- reducing the GHG footprint of drinking water and bolstering the resilience of communities in drought-prone areas.

 

Earth observations.   Earth-observation  data are instrumental to services that protect human life, property, the economy, and national security, and advance understanding  the Earth as a

system.  Federal agencies should advance the goals of the 2014 National Plan for Civil Earth

Observations.  

 

Advanced manufacturing and industries of the future.  … Agencies should also prioritize investments in enabling technologies that benefit multiple sectors of the economy, such as nanotechnology, robotics, the Materials Genome Initiative, and cyber-physical systems and their application to smart cities.

 

Innovation in life sciences, biology, and neuroscience.  Agencies should give priority to programs that support fundamental biological discovery research that could generate unexpected, high-impact scientific and technological advances in health, energy, and food security, particularly in the President 's BRAIN Initiative, the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic Resistance, and the National Strategy for Biosurveillance (e.g., infectious-disease forecasting capabilities).  Priority should also be placed on research that seeks fundamental principles that cut across habitats and biological systems, such as those that govern the behaviors of microbiomes in diverse environments.   …  Agencies should support investments on improving interoperability of health records, addressing privacy concerns, and launching research that will enable discoveries derived from Big Data.

 

National and homeland security.  … Priority should be given to investments to develop capabilities in countering weapons of mass destruction, addressing the immediate risks to our national security posed by climate change, handling large data sets for national security mission requirements, advancing hypersonics, and developing accelerated training techniques.

 

 

Information technology and high-performance computing.  Agencies should prioritize research guided by the Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for Cybersecurity  R&D Programs to develop technologies that can protect U.S. systems against cyber-attacks.   Agencies should …  promote innovation in high­ performance computing; modeling and simulation; and advanced hardware technology to support national security, scientific discovery, and economic competitiveness.   Agencies should also give priority to investments that address the challenges and opportunities afforded by the expansion of Big Data to advance agency missions and further scientific discovery and innovation while providing appropriate privacy protections for personal data.

 

R&D for informed policy-making and management.  A diverse range of agency missions (e.g. natural resource management protecting health and the environment; global health security needs to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging infectious diseases) benefit from R&D that strengthens the scientific basis for decision-making.   In order to maximize the societal benefits of R&D investments, research planning and design should be guided by stakeholder and user engagement.  Both mission-centered agencies and R&D agencies should focus on creating user­ driven information and tools that enable the translation of scientific observations to decision­making frameworks.

 

 

STEM Education Guidance

 

Investments in STEM education should be guided by the priorities outlined in the Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan developed by the Committee on STEM Education under the National Science and Technology Council, and should continue to pursue the goals of enhancing program effectiveness and reducing program fragmentation.   Priority should be given to programs that use evidence to guide program design and implementation or that build evidence about what works in STEM education, using appropriate metrics and improving the measurement of outcomes. Agencies should give priority to policies and actions identified by research as having the greatest potential to increase inclusion and diversity in STEM education, research, and careers such as changes in STEM instruction; changing the image of STEM education and careers; and reducing explicit, implicit, and structural biases against girls, women, and members of underrepresented minority groups

 

 

(Top)


UCR Research Funding for FY2015

In FY2015 which ended June 30, 2015, UCR received $124,468,269 for research and sponsored projects, up from $113,859,766 in FY2014, an increase of 9.3%.  Federal grants totaled $79,129,629, up 13.8% from last year.  UCR faculty supported by UCR staff are to be congratulated for being increasingly successful in a competitive funding environment.

 

cid:image006.png@01D0C251.4F350A40

 

 

(Top)


Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and Human Subjects Protection Webinar: July 30

 

You are cordially invited to a free webinar on the topic of patient-centered outcomes research and human subjects protection scheduled for 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, July 30, in Room G650 of the School of Medicine Education Building.

 

Jointly sponsored by the Office of Research and Economic Development and the School of Medicine, the webinar is presented by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. Additional information, including names and positions of the presenters, appears below.

 

Patient Centered Outcomes Research

 

The rapidly growing funding for patient-centered outcomes research is affecting many organizations and IRBs. Research projects comparing outcomes of various clinical practices, including both observational and randomized studies yield valuable evidence in a learning health care system. This type of research also poses some new considerations for IRBs as they proceed to efficiently review comparative effectiveness research without compromising protections. This webinar will address the ethical issues that have been raised to date in this type of research, and offer guidelines for training IRB members to review outcomes research.  Also, some attention will be given to all activities conducted along the boundary between research and practice.

 

Presenters
Susan Huang, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute
University of California Irvine Health School of Medicine

Megan Morash, R.N., B.S.N., M.Ed.
Chair, Partners Human Research Committee
Partners HealthCare

(Top)

 


New Sponsored Projects in FY2015

 

In the FY2015, 242 UCR faculty received funding for 442 new sponsored projects.  Below is a list of all new awards.

 

 

(Top)


Vermillion Flycatcher

 

The vermilion flycatcher is one of my favorite birds to photograph.  It’s colorful, it’s not very shy, and it likes perching on open branches.   Prado Regional Park in Chino is the most reliable place to find them, often in the trees by the Frisbee golf course.

 

cid:image003.png@01D0C251.4BF87CE0

 

 

(click to enlarge)

 

(Top)

 

 

 

Michael Pazzani

Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development

Professor,  Computer Science & Engineering

University of California, Riverside

200 University Office Building

Riverside, CA 92521

pazzani@ucr.edu

 

Assistant:  Linda Bejenaru

VCREDadmin@ucr.edu

951-827-4800