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I recently had the honor of recognizing UC’s calendar year 2007 patent awardees. I joined the group during halftime of a January UC men’s basketball game and presented each with a framed copy of the first page of their patent.
Recognizing the intellectual property at our great university is important and serves as a reminder to our colleagues and our community that UC is a place of great scholarly achievement and creativity—in biology as well as art and design!
Read more about 2007 patent awardees.
As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to check out research.uc.edu for the latest research magazine, news and announcements.
Sandra Degen, PhD
Vice President for Research
NEWS/GRANTS
UC Ranked in Top 15 for Funding
UC is ranked No. 15 among more than 100 universities for the amount of funding it received from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in 2007. ORAU awarded $776,500 to UC in support of fellowships, scholarships, internships, laboratory research and travel programs. ORAU is a consortium of doctoral-granting academic institutions striving to advance scientific research and education by creating mutually beneficial collaborative partnerships involving academe, government and industry. For more information, visit www.orau.org.
URC Announces Grant Winners
The University Research Council (URC) has awarded seven grants—each totaling approximately $25,000—through its fall Interdisciplinary Grant competition. The program’s goal is to bring faculty together from across the university to work on an interdisciplinary research project that will result in applications to federal granting agencies. Thirty-seven proposals were submitted from a total of 118 faculty members representing 10 of UC’s 16 colleges. Pediatric faculty members working through Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation were also represented. See all project titles and faculty awardees at www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=7784.
Apply Now for a Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
Applications are now being accepted for the 2008 University Research Council (URC) Summer Faculty Research Fellowship Program. The program is designed to support the development of faculty research and scholarship and provides financial support over the summer months to faculty who are in the initial stages of developing a line of research or scholarship. Successful applicants are expected to present records of prior activity that indicate a devotion to scholarship and the potential for high quality achievement. Applications are due by 5 p.m., Friday, March 28. For more information, visit www.uc.edu/ucresearch/URC_summer.html or e-mail Linda Minton at linda.minton@uc.edu.
Grant-Writing Workshops
Mark your calendars for spring 2008 grant-writing workshops. Several sessions will be offered, including a general session on grant writing, an intensive grant-writing workshop, writing winning revisions and writing for biomedical publications. Two additional sessions, one on National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Development Awards (NIH K Awards and F32s) and one on National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards will be offered. Sessions begin in April. For more information, visit www.uc.edu/ucResearch/GrantWritingWorkshop.html. Registration information will be posted in the coming weeks.
Chemical Inventories Due
Every department and principal investigator must participate in the campus-wide chemical inventory. Chemical inventories should be sent to Sandra Degen, PhD, vice president for research, at sandra.degen@uc.edu. The deadline for inventories has been extended to March 1, 2008. Questions should be directed to Jan Utrecht in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at (513) 556-4968. Read more about this and download the inventory document at www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=7615.
New Grants Awarded in January
Writing winning grants is tough. We understand the hard work that goes into preparing a proposal and want to make sure that effort doesn’t go unnoticed. Check out your great work—and that of your colleagues—at uc.edu/ucresearch/new_grant_winners.html.
New Software for Grants.gov Proposal Submissions
Grants.gov is transitioning from their current PureEdge software to Adobe Forms. These forms will have the same look and functionality as the PureEdge forms, but will incorporate new functionality powered by Google and Adobe Forms. Agencies are slowly transitioning to the new software; however, at this time, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not announced its transition timeline to Adobe Forms. If the grants.gov application forms are Adobe format, you must use Adobe Reader 8.1.1 to prepare and submit the grants.gov application. Using older versions of Adobe Reader may result in application errors. Adobe Reader 8.1.1 is available to download for free from Adobe. Download now. Since Adobe Reader 8.1.1 is the only application recommended by grants.gov to complete the Adobe Forms, it is suggested that you set Adobe Reader 8.1.1 as your default application to open PDF documents. This will make it easier to avoid corrupting an application package with an incompatible version of Adobe Reader or Acrobat. If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional loaded on your computer you will still be able to use the application to work on PDF files, but you will need to first open Adobe Acrobat and then open the document for editing. See srs.uc.edu/file_doc/Set_Reader_as_default.doc for instructions on how to set Adobe Reader 8.1.1 as the default application to open PDF files. For additional information on grants.gov, please visit srs.uc.edu or grants.gov.
GREEN BITS
The university is working collaboratively with four other major organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area to reduce its carbon footprint. There are several things you can do in labs and offices to improve energy and waste management. Research Update—with the help of Eric Gruenstein, PhD, professor of molecular genetics—provides monthly “greening” tips for research faculty and staff. This month, Gruenstein looks at the office at work.
Tip #2: Greening the Office
If you’re like me, the first thing you do when you open your office door in the morning is turn on the lights. It doesn’t matter how brightly the sun is shining or that there are no shades on my two windows, my hand just automatically goes to the light switch. Well, about a month ago I decided to override that automatic movement and see what it would be like to operate by daylight. Turns out that on most days I’m very comfortable without the lights on, unless I stay late enough that the light is starting to fade outside or there’s a thunderstorm brewing, in which case, I just flip the switch.
My office has two light fixtures, each of which has two 32-watt fluorescent bulbs. A quick calculation, assuming a 50-hour work week and an electricity cost of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, gives a savings of about $16 per year. Not much by itself, perhaps, but if we all did it, the savings would be substantial. And it takes absolutely no effort. And it makes me feel good. (If your office doesn’t have windows or they’re too small, turning the lights off when you walk out the door will still help.)
I’ve also lowered the winter time thermostat in my office from 70 to 67 degrees. I don’t know how to calculate how much money this saves or how much less atmospheric CO2 I’m producing. Not much I’d guess, but every little bit helps, and, like the lights, this too can be done without installing any devices or asking anyone’s permission. Besides, I think I look thinner in a sweater.
SPOTLIGHT
Steven Boyce, PhD
Intellectual Property Committee Chair, Steven Boyce, PhD, knows a lot about commercialization of technologies from academic research. He has founded, developed and sold two companies—one called Clonetics Corporation, which was developed based on technology from the University of Colorado, and another called Cutanogen Corporation, based on technologies from the University of California, San Diego, UC and Shriners Hospitals for Children, Cincinnati. Boyce completed his doctoral training in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In 1989, following an appointment at the University of California, San Diego, Boyce joined the staff at Cincinnati Shriners as a senior investigator, and was appointed as a research assistant professor in UC’s department of surgery. He was promoted to associate professor in 1996 and then to professor in 2002. Boyce’s research is focused on cultured skin substitutes for treatment of burns, burn scars and chronic wounds. He holds nine patents and has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 12 book chapters and 169 abstracts. He has also served on review panels for both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration and is a member of several academic societies.
EVENTS
Showcase 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tangeman University Center
Faculty—Don’t forget to apply to “show off” at Showcase 2008. The event is filling up. For registration information or to check out some of the projects to be featured at March 7 event, visit www.uc.edu/showcase.
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