UCR Research and Economic Development Newsletter
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Gillian Wilson
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development
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- Federal Budget Update
- Reproducibility and Replicability in Science
- Early CAREER Submissions Reminder
- NSF EFRI Research Meeting
- DARPA Discover DSO Day (D3)
- Food, Energy, and Water Systems ReACt Workshop
- Limited: 2020 Searle Scholars Program
- Limited: Mallinckrodt Grants
- Limited: NEH Summer Stipend
- What is the Hubble Space Telescope looking at?
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FY 2020 Agriculture Appropriations Bill
On June 4, 2019 the full House Appropriations Committee met to markup the FY 2020 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The bill includes $24.310 billion in discretionary funding, a $1 billion increase over the FY19 enacted level and $5.1 billion increase over the President's FY20 budget request. During the markup, the Committee approved a manager's amendment that includes an additional $15 million for AFRI, $5 million for the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, and $3 million for Agricultural Research Service salaries. The Committee voted 29-21 to approve the legislation.
The bill supports the work of Land-grant Universities with increases across all six of APLU's priorities, totaling $80.380 million:
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SCRI Matching Funds
: The bill also includes language that would allow the Secretary to waive the matching funds requirement for SCRI:
SEC. 762. The Secretary of Agriculture may waive the matching funds requirement under Section 412(g) of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7632(g)).
(Note: This waiver provision would be effective upon date of enactment of the FY 2020 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Given the likely expected date of enactment of the bill, this waiver provision would not apply to FY 2019 SCRI awards.)
Next Steps:
The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is currently scheduled to meet on June 11 to approve their version of the FY 2020 Agriculture Appropriations Bill.
Helpful Links:
BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
Congress continues to work on FY 2020 budget and appropriations bills. As of June 4, the House Appropriations Committee passed eight of the 12 appropriations bills with two others passed out of subcommittee, including bills of importance to UC. According to
Politico
, the House Committee on Appropriations will likely vote on its first ‘minibus’ appropriations package as early as next week. The ‘minibus’ package is reported to include funding bills for Defense, Energy and Water Development, Health and Human Services-Education, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations.
Timeline:
June 10:
The deadline for the House Appropriations Committee to submit its last annual appropriation bill to committees.
June 15:
The deadline for Congress to adopt “
reconciliation legislation
” if such measures are required by the budget resolution approved in April.
Oct. 1
: The new fiscal year begins with, or without, a budget. If a budget has not been adopted, Congress passes a continuing resolution (CR) to ensure federal agencies have the money to operate or it allows the government to “shut down,” meaning all non-essential programs close and workers are furloughed.
Helpful Links:
Thank you to Kathy Eiler, UCR's Director of Federal Relations, for providing the FY 2020 federal budget summary above.
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Reproducibility and Replicability in Science
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While computational reproducibility in scientific research is generally expected when the original data and code are available, lack of ability to replicate a previous study -- or obtain consistent results looking at the same scientific question but with different data -- is more nuanced and occasionally can aid in the process of scientific discover. A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science recommends ways that researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders should help strengthen rigor and transparency in order to improve the reproducibility and replicability of scientific research.
The report recommends a range of steps that stakeholders in the research enterprise should take to improve reproducibility and replicability, including:
- All researchers should include a clear, specific, and complete description of how the reported results were reached. Reports should include details appropriate for the type of research, such as a clear description of all methods, instruments, materials, procedures, measurements, and other variables involved in the study; a clear description of the analysis of data and decisions for exclusion of some data or inclusion of other; and discussion of the uncertainty of the measurements, results, and inferences.
- Funding agencies and organizations should consider investing in research and development of open-source, usable tools and infrastructure that support reproducibility for a broad range of studies across different domains in a seamless fashion. Concurrently, investments would be helpful in outreach to inform and train researchers on best practices and how to use these tools.
- Journals should consider ways to ensure computational reproducibility for publications that make claims based on computations, to the extent ethically and legally possible.
- The National Science Foundation should take steps to facilitate the transparent sharing and availability of digital artifacts, such as data and code, for NSF-funded studies – including developing a set of criteria for trusted open repositories to be used by the scientific community for objects of the scholarly record, and endorsing or considering the creation of code and data repositories for long-term archiving and preservation of digital artifacts that support claims made in the scholarly record based on NSF-funded research, among other actions.
You can download a free copy of the full report here
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Early CAREER Submissions Reminder
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As incentive for finishing early, RED will support your research/travel with:
- $500 for first time submission
- $250 for resubmission if you include the reviews of your prior submission and a summary of how you HAVE already modified the proposal
If you have reviewed for the NSF program and would like to serve as reviewer on the CAREER panel,, send email to
vcredadmin@ucr.edu
, Panelists will review 5-8 CAREER proposals, get a free lunch, and $1000 in a research fund.
Here are some UCR specific resources for CAREER
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NSF EFRI Research Meeting
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The NSF has announced the two topics selected for the
FY 2020
Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) opportunity. The full solicitation is expected later this summer.
The Office of Research and Economic Development will host a meeting to help faculty learn more about this opportunity and start to catalyze ideas.
The meeting will take place on June 26th at 2pm in University Office Building, conference room 210.
More information about the solicitation and is provided below:
Distributed Chemical Manufacturing
Investment in distributed chemical manufacturing research aims to revolutionize the chemical process industries by enabling the development of modular process plants that can take advantage of distributed resources and/or address distributed environmental remediation needs.
The potential for dramatic transformation of the chemical process industries stems from the recent, rapid development of process intensification, a concept that can potentially yield substantial economic and environmental benefits in combination with advanced manufacturing concepts that enable a significant reduction in the size of chemical process plants.
Advances in distributed chemical manufacturing research will lead to numerous new process technologies that can stimulate the nation’s economy and strengthen its global leadership.
These systems will be energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly, will reduce risks associated with high capital investments, and could be deployed in remote areas to take advantage of stranded resources, such as natural gas and waste biomass.
This EFRI topic will promote a convergent research approach that combines fundamental research on chemical and physical transformations of matter (e.g., related to catalysis, electrochemical engineering, molecular thermodynamics, reaction engineering, and separations) with multiple other approaches required to engineer functional modular plants:
- Modeling and simulation at multiple scales (from atomistic to enterprise levels), real-time optimization and control algorithms, heterogeneous data fusion.
- Successful outcomes of these EFRI-funded projects will also require integration of research addressing sensor networks and advanced manufacturing.
- Environmental risk assessment and socioeconomic analyses will be essential to determine optimal deployment of modular process plants.
Engineering the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics
Investment in Engineering for the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics will create a scientific foundation for viable interdisciplinary solutions for the capture, management, and elimination of end-of-use plastics, which pose an urgent global environmental problem.
Plastics are an integral component of modern life, permeating the food and health industries and enhancing consumer safety, wellness, and convenience. However, they can also represent an environmental hazard. Their inherent durability leads to ever-increasing accumulation in landfills and the environment, where they eventually fragment into microplastics that contaminate waterways, wildlife, and human bodies.
The term "plastic" describes a wide array of polymeric materials with diverse compositions and properties. These polymers, or plastics, are sometimes combined with additives to obtain desirable physical, chemical, or mechanical properties. When plastic materials are dispersed into the environment, weathering can further alter the chemical and physical structure. The heterogeneity of end-of-life plastic materials, both in size and structure, presents significant challenges to lifecycle management and remediation efforts.
Effective management of such diverse end-of-life plastic waste will require transformative strategies for capture and sorting, efficient chemical and/or biological degradation and valorization, and integration of new approaches within existing plastics manufacturing and recycling frameworks.
To achieve this requires:
- robust physical systems and materials for plastic lifecycle management, including sensors for detection and characterization of composition, and mass separating agents for capture of microplastics;
- development of novel catalysts, biotechnology, and reaction pathways, either chemical or biological, enabling complete depolymerization and/or valorization of plastic waste; and
- systems-level integration of new plastic remediation and valorization technologies into manufacturing infrastructures, including improving the efficiency and economic viability of existing recycling, remediation, and valorization technologies.
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DARPA Discover DSO Day (D3)
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring the Discover DSO Day (D3) event to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of an anticipated DSO Office-wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) expected to be released in June 2019.
The event will be held on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, at the DARPA Conference Center (675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA 22203). It will be webcast for those who would like to participate remotely. Advance registration is required for both the physical meeting and the webcast. For more details and to register visit:
http://go.usa.gov/xmwg6
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Food, Energy, and Water Systems ReACt Workshop at New Mexico State University
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Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and New Mexico State University (NMSU) are pleased to announce that the next topical workshop for the Regional Academic Collaboration (ReACt) will be hosted at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM on August 13-14th of 2019.
The primary thrust area of the workshop is Food, Energy, Water Systems (FEWS)
There will be a number of discussion topics within the thrust area and a facilitator from both Los Alamos National Laboratory and a ReACt University in each topical workshop.
On August 13
th
the Topical Workshops will include
1. Food, Energy, Water, Urban Infrastructure Resources Management.
2. Machine Learning and Data Science Applications in Securing FEWS.
3. Environmental Monitoring, Prediction, Early Detection, and Warning in FEWS.
4. Advanced Materials and Technologies for FEWS.
On August 14
th
the Topical Workshop will last a half day and coalesce the previous topics into a discussion on
5. Societal Impact of Dwindling Natural Resources and the Security Threat.
The co-hosts of the workshop will be Vimal Chaitanya, Director of NMSU’s Manufacturing & Systems Research Programs, and Sara Del Valle, Deputy Group Leader of LANL’s Information Systems and Modeling Group.
Take the opportunity to meet with researchers from LANL, NMSU, and other regional universities who are engaged in research affecting Food, Energy, and Water Systems.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
There is no fee to attend any of the workshops.
Please go to the website to register
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Limited: 2020 Searle Scholars Program
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Internal Deadline: 7/9/2019
SPA Deadline: 9/25/2019
Agency Deadline: 9/27/2019
Number of Submissions Allowed: 1
Application Instructions: https://research.ucr.edu/ord/limitedsubmissions.aspx
Nomination for the 2020 competition will be open to participating institutions on or after June 1, 2019. The application will be available online to selected individuals once nomination has been placed and the submission deadline will be September 27, 2019. Submissions are restricted to selected candidates from Participating Institutions only. Individuals who have not been nominated by a participating institution cannot apply. Access to the online application will only be shared with nominated applicants.
Selection-
Applications will be screened by a scientific advisory board comprised of experts in the fields of interest to the Program. All applicants will be advised of competition results by mid-March of the award year.
Eligibility Criteria -
The Searle Scholars Program Scientific Advisory Board is primarily interested in the potential of applicants to make innovative and high-impact contributions to research over an extended period of time.
Applicants for the 2020 competition (awards which will be activated on July 1, 2020) are expected to be pursuing independent research careers in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences.
Applicants should have begun their appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor level on or after July 1, 2018. The appointment must be their first tenure-track position (or its nearest equivalent) at an invited institution.
The Searle Scholars Program does not ordinarily support purely clinical research but has supported research programs that include both clinical and basic components. Potential applicants who are unsure if their research is appropriate for our Program are encouraged to examine the research interests of present and former Searle Scholars on the website.
Applicants who were nominated for awards in the previous competition year but were not awarded may still meet the eligibility criteria for the current competition. Institutions should consult with the scientific director of the Program regarding renomination of such individuals.
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Limited: Mallinckrodt Grants
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Internal Deadline: 6/25/2019
SPA Deadline: 7/30/2019
Agency Deadline: 8/1/2019
Number of Submissions Allowed: 1
Application Instructions: https://research.ucr.edu/ord/limitedsubmissions.aspx
The mission of the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation is to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis or treatment of disease.
Mallinckrodt Grants are designed to provide faculty members who hold M.D. and/or Ph.D. degrees, and who are in the first to fourth year of a tenure-track position, with support to move the project forward to the point where R01 or other independent funding can be obtained. Applicants with current R01 funding should not apply.
The grant provides $60,000 per year for three years. The Foundation will not fund overhead / indirect costs.
Institutions may submit one proposal annually. Between six to eight grantees are chosen each cycle.
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Limited: NEH Summer Stipend
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Internal Deadline: 7/23/2019
SPA Deadline: 9/23/2019
Agency Deadline: 9/25/2019
Number of Submissions Allowed: 2
Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.
Eligible projects usually result in articles, monographs, books, digital materials and publications, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources.
Summer Stipends support continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months.
Summer Stipends support projects at any stage of development. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research.
In the last five competitions the Summer Stipends program received an average of 834 applications per year. The program made an average of 77 awards per year, for a funding ratio of 9 percent.
The number of applications to an NEH grant program can vary widely from year to year, as can the funding ratio. Information about the average number of applications and awards in recent competitions is meant only to provide historical context for the current competition. Information on the number of applications and awards in individual competitions is available from stipends@neh.gov.
Program Description
Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities
scholars, general audiences, or both.
Eligible projects usually result in:
articles, monographs, books, digital materials
and publications, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources.
NEH encourages submission of Summer Stipends applications from
independent scholars and faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Summer Stipends may not be used for projects that seek to promote a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view; projects that advocate a particular program of social action; specific policy studies; research for doctoral dissertations or theses by students enrolled in a degree program; the preparation or revision of textbooks; curriculum development;
the development of teaching methods or theories; educational or technical impact assessments; empirical social science research, unless part of a larger humanities project; inventories of collections; works in the creative and performing arts (for example, painting, writing fiction or poetry, dance performance, etc.); the writing of autobiographies, memoirs, or works of creative nonfiction; or the writing of guide books, how-to books, and self-help books.
Summer Stipends provide $6,000 for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing.
Recipients must work full-time on their projects for these two months and may hold other research grants supporting the same project during this time. Summer Stipends normally support work carried out during the summer months, but arrangements can be made for other times of the year.
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What is the Hubble Space Telescope looking at?
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Did you know that it is not only famous politicians who tweet? Famous telescopes tweet too.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has a live twitter
feed "What is @HubbleTelescope
looking at?"
Earlier this week, HST took the final observations for one of my programs - taking lots of high-resolution infrared pictures of the twelfth and last cluster in a set of very distant galaxy clusters that my team discovered a few years ago. Fortunately for my team and me, real live astronomers are still necessary to interpret the data that HST gathers.
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Image Credit: Hubble Space Telescope and SDSS Digital Sky Survey
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