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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- Friendly Reminder: PI's Should Not Sign Agreements for UCR Projects
- ONR Vannevar Bush
- Universities Research Association's (URA) Visiting Scholar Program
- Limited: Simons Investigators Program
- Sloan Research Fellowships (Limited Submission by Department)
- UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative Call for Proposals
- Limited: Keck Foundation
- NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2)
- NSF Approved Biographical Sketch Format
- Mars
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Friendly Reminder: PI's Should Not Sign Agreements for UCR Projects
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All extramural awards, including unfunded agreements (e.g., MOUs, MTAs, CDAs, Data Use Agreements, etc.), issued in support of research, instruction, training, or public service are to be made in the University's corporate name, "The Regents of the University of California." Per UC policy, the responsibility for reviewing the terms and conditions of awards before they are accepted on behalf of The Regents rests on those who have been delegated the legal authority to approve, accept, and execute such awards. At UCR, this delegation is in the Research and Economic Development (RED) office.
If a sponsor, material provider, or data provider gives you an agreement for your signature, do not sign it. Instead, forward the agreement to the Sponsored Programs Administration Contract and Grant Officer for your department. Principal Investigators do not have the delegated authority to execute agreements.
There is good reason for this policy. Faculty have signed documents that obligate the entire University of California to notify a company of all inventions related to their contract. Another contract required that no one at UCR wear sandals. Another prohibited students from publishing.
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ONR Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship
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Department of Defense
Office of Naval Research
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA) FY2020 VANNEVAR BUSH FACULTY FELLOWSHIP Synopsis 1
The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD (R&E)). VBFF supports innovative basic research within academia, as well as opportunities intended to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers for the defense workforce.
VBFF is oriented towards bold and ambitious “blue sky” research that may lead to extraordinary outcomes such as revolutionizing entire disciplines, creating entirely new fields, or disrupting accepted theories and perspectives.
This FOA is for single investigator grant proposals for basic research in one or more of the following technical subject categories of interest to the DoD:
- Engineering Biology
- Quantum Information Science
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Novel Engineered Materials
- Applied Mathematics and Computational Science
- Other fields of research with high potential
All awardees will receive a research grant and the title of VBFF Fellow. VBFF Fellows and their students are provided with opportunities that are designed to enhance their understanding of DoD’s critical research needs and interact with DoD senior Science and Technology (S&T) program leaders.
Budget will vary by topic area and scope, but they anticipate that the maximum award will be $3 million for 5 years.
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Universities Research Association's (URA) Visiting Scholar Program
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The Universities Research Association’s (URA) Visiting Scholars Program has released its Announcement of Opportunity for the fall 2018 awards cycle . Proposals for this cycle are due
Monday, August 26, 2018 and awards are anticipated to be announced at the end of September.
Individual proposals may be submitted by researchers who are faculty, postdocs, or graduate students at URA member universities (UCR qualifies). Researchers are defined as graduate students, postdocs, or faculty doing research in areas such as
high energy physics experiments, astrophysics, theory, accelerator physics, materials science, computer science ,
engineering, and accelerator R&D, related to the Fermilab mission. Applicants must be employed by or, in the case of graduate students, enrolled at URA member institutions during the course of the award.
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Limited: Simons Investigators Program
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SPECIAL Limited Submission Instructions: Please only submit the nominee’s CV. Other materials such as a research proposal are not needed.
Internal Deadline: September 1, 2019
Number of Submissions Allowed:
2 for Mathematics
2 for Theoretical Physics
2 for Theoretical Astrophysics
2 for Theoretical Computer Science
1 for Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences
Rationale:
The Simons Investigators program aims to provide a stable base of support for outstanding midcareer scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term investigations of fundamental questions in their fields. The intent of the program is to support these scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing new research directions, providing leadership in the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists.
Level and Duration of Funding:
A Simons Investigator is appointed for an initial period of five years for up to $132,000 per year. Renewal for an additional five years may be considered, contingent upon the evaluation of scientific impact of the Investigator prior to the end of year five. Renewal beyond the ten-year period will not be considered. Appointments will begin
August 1, 2020
.
An Investigator will receive research support in the amount of $100,000 per year. An additional $10,000 per year will be provided to the Investigator’s department. The Investigator’s institution will receive an additional 20 percent per year in indirect costs.
Eligibility:
To be eligible to be nominated for an Investigator award, a scientist must be engaged in theoretical research in mathematics, physics, astrophysics or computer science and must not have previously been a Simons Investigator. He/she must be midcareer, have a primary appointment as a
tenured faculty member
at an educational institution in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland, on a campus within these countries, and the primary department affiliation must have a Ph.D. program (note that the appointment need not be in a mathematics, physics, astrophysics or computer science department). A nominee must be in place at the institution submitting the nomination at the time of the appointment start date.
Additional Eligibility Criteria for “Theoretical Physics of Life Sciences”:
This year, up to two Simons Investigator in Physics awards — out of seven — will be granted to well-established midcareer researchers who develop and apply advance theoretical physics ideas and methods in the life sciences.
A spectrum of research areas within the life sciences will be considered ranging from cellular-level issues of organization, regulation, signaling and morphogenic dynamics to the properties of organisms and ecology, as well as neuroscience and evolution; however, preference will be given to areas in which modeling approaches are less established, and for that reason, bioinformatics- and genomics-related proposals fall outside the scope of the program. Furthermore, researchers whose primary theoretical activity is the application of the existing computational platforms to fit or parametrize experimental data will not be considered in this program.
The foundation’s expectation is that an Investigator in Theoretical Physics in Life Sciences nominee would have a level of theoretical sophistication on par with the best practices used in theoretical condensed matter physics. The theory must eventually connect with an experiment, suggesting new questions and new classes of experiments, introducing important new concepts and explaining data, thus fostering a scientific culture of theory-experiment collaborations, which is characteristic of physics.
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Sloan Research Fellowships (Limited Submission by Department)
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Sloan Research Fellowships are prestigious national fellowship available to early-career faculty in chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, physics, or a related field.
To be eligible, candidates must be nominated by a department head or other senior researcher. No more than three candidates may be nominated from any one department. More details are below. If you are a potential Fellow please do not be shy in seeking nomination from your Chair!
Recent UCR Fellows are Wei Liu and
Sandra Kirtland Turner (Earth Sciences), Ming Lee Tang (Chemistry) and Naveen Reddy (Physics and Astronomy).
Internal Deadline:
8/7/19
Agency (Nomination) Deadline:
9/16/19
Number of Submissions Allowed: 3
The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.
These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field. The 2020 Sloan Research Fellows will receive fellowships in the amount of $75,000.
Successful candidates for a Sloan Research Fellowship generally have a strong record of significant independent research accomplishments that demonstrate creativity and the potential to become future leaders in the scientific community. Nominated candidates are normally below the rank of associate professor and do not hold tenure, but these are not strict requirements.
In keeping with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's longstanding support of underrepresented minorities in the sciences, the Foundation strongly encourages the nomination of qualified women and minority candidates.
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UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative Call for Proposals
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The University of California Office of the President has invited budget requests for the 2020– 2021 fiscal year for projects supporting priorities of the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI).
The link to the Call for Proposals, along with supporting
informational materials
, is below.
Note that an initial Letter of Intent is
due on July 3, 2019
, including high level budget information, in accordance with the specified guidelines. Based on the criteria of the Call and the advice of the CNI’s Applied Research Working Group members and a blind reviewer, a limited number of applicants will be contacted during the week of
August 5
and invited to submit full proposals
due September 4, 2019
.
Call for proposals
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The Keck Foundation offers the opportunity to discuss potential projects with universities before proposals are submitted. UCR can submit one proposal in the area of Medical Research and one in Science/Engineering research on May 1 and
November 1
annually. The ideal target is $1 Million over three years.
Interested faculty should submit an internal preproposal following the below format at
http://or.ucr.edu/ord/limitedsubmissions.aspx
by
July 8, 2019.
Keck requires abstracts of one page or less to focus the conversation. Please do not submit anything directly to the Keck Foundation. When submitting your concept as a Limited Submission, you must include reviewer comments following rejection by a federal agency. Keck requires proof that a project has been denied due to being outside the scope of the reviewing agency, or too high-risk (and not for other reasons such as a weak hypothesis, incomplete methodology, etc.)
Single-paged concepts must be in 12 point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins and should include:
1. an overview of the proposed project emphasizing any unique aspects and pilot studies (indicate the program of emphasis for the project - Medical Research or Science and Engineering Research);
2. a description of the methodologies and key personnel;
3. a brief justification of the need for W.M. Keck Foundation support (including reasons for federal rejection); and
4. an estimated budget broken down, if possible, by major areas, e.g., personnel, equipment, consumable supplies, etc. The budget can be a rough approximation at this stage.
If space allows, researchers may add other details (e.g., background to put the research into perspective, description of the institution’s prominence in the field, etc.). Avoid illustrations in these single-pagers – all the room is needed for text. If a reference is necessary, abbreviate it as (Science, 323, 45, ‘11). DO NOT USE (Jones et al., 2011).
A successful project:
· Has the potential to develop breakthrough technologies, instrumentation or methodologies
· Demonstrates a high level of risk due to unconventional approaches, or by challenging the prevailing paradigm
· Has strong potential for transformative impact, such as the founding of a new field of research, the enabling of observations not previously possible, or a new perception of a previously intractable problem
· Demonstrates that private philanthropy, particularly from the W. M. Keck Foundation, is essential to the project’s success (following rejection from a federal funding agency for being too risky or out of scope for the agency, which must be documented at this stage)
Some common reasons why concepts are rejected by Keck:
· Federal agency feedback is not included in the concept paper.
· Federal agency feedback points out weak research design or a faulty hypothesis.
· The project is not ambitious enough (representing a small advance vs. creating a new paradigm).
· The proposal does not fully detail the scope of work and research plan, or fails to describe the potential impacts.
· The project focuses on disease-related therapies or treatments (in the case of medical research) as opposed to bench science.
· The project focuses on policy or implementation.
· The project focuses on scaling (mass-producing or downsizing) existing technology, which is rarely competitive.
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NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2)
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RED will offer mock review of NIH New Innovator proposals again this year. If you are planning to apply for an NIH New Innovator and if you finish a complete draft and mail to vcredadmin@ucr.edu by midnight on
Monday July 29th, we'll review it and get you feedback by August 12th. Also RED will send you $500 in a research fund as incentive for finishing early.
The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2) supports a small number of early stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. The NIH Director's New Innovator Award complements ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund early stage investigators through R01 grants.
An early stage investigator has not competed successfully for a significant NIH independent research award and is within 10 years of completing his/her terminal research degree or is within 10 years of completing medical residency (or the equivalent).
New investigators may have exceptionally innovative research ideas, but not the preliminary data required to fare well in the traditional NIH peer review system. As part of NIH's commitment to increasing opportunities for new scientists, it has created the NIH Director's New Innovator Award to support exceptionally creative new investigators who propose highly innovative research projects that have the potential for unusually high impact. This award complements ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund new investigators through R01 grants and other mechanisms.
The NIH Director's New Innovator Award is different from traditional NIH grants in several ways. It is designed specifically to support unusually creative investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career when they may lack the preliminary data required for an R01 grant application. The emphasis is on innovation and creativity; preliminary data are not required, but may be included. No detailed, annual budget is requested in the application. The review process emphasizes the individual’s creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project, if successful, to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem.
The research proposed for a NIH Director's New Innovator Award may be in any scientific area relevant to the mission of NIH (biological, behavioral, clinical, social, physical, chemical, computational, engineering, and mathematical sciences). Investigators who were not selected for an award in prior years may submit applications this year as long as they retain their ESI (early stage investigator) eligibility; however, all applications must be submitted as “new” applications regardless of any previous submission to the program.
Awards will be up to $1.5 million of direct costs ($300,000 per year over five years).
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NSF Approved Biographical Sketch Format
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From NSF:
Dear Colleagues:
Please be advised that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has designated the National Institutes of Health’s
SciENcv
(Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae) as an NSF-approved format for submission of biographical sketch(es) and is encouraging its use to prepare a biographical sketch for inclusion in proposals to NSF.
In accordance with the current
Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide
(PAPPG) (NSF 19-1), a biographical sketch (limited to two pages) is required for each individual identified as senior personnel on a proposal, and a separate biographical sketch PDF file, or other NSF-approved format, must be uploaded in FastLane for each designated individual (see
PAPPG Chapter II.C.2.f.
). The biographical sketch and file format requirements also apply to NSF proposals submitted through
Research.gov
and
Grants.gov
.
Use of an NSF-approved format aims to reduce administrative burden and improve efficiencies by providing proposers with a compliant and reusable way to maintain this information for subsequent proposal submissions to NSF, while also ensuring that the information is submitted in a searchable composition.
Beginning with the next iteration of the PAPPG (anticipated effective date, January 2020), NSF will only accept PDFs for biographical sketches that are generated through use of an NSF-approved format. A description of NSF-approved format(s) will be posted on the NSF website when the PAPPG is issued. A draft version of the PAPPG was published in the
Federal Register
for public comment. The deadline for submission of comments is COB
July 29, 2019
.
Multiple training resources are available on the
SciENcv
website. The following website resources may be of assistance to proposers preparing a biographical sketch using the SciENcv format:
We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues.If you have IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at
1-800-381-1532
or
rgov@nsf.gov
. Policy-related questions should be directed to
policy@nsf.gov
.
Regards,
Jean
Jean Feldman
Head, Policy Office
Division of Institution and Award Support
Office of Budget, Finance & Award Management
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This striking image of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope reveals frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms.
Given optimistic projections based on current technologies, the first humans may be able to stand on the surface of Mars sometime during the 2030s.
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Image Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA
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