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Research Faculty and Staff,
I hope you’ll join me one week from today for the 2008 State of Research Address. UC President Nancy Zimpher will offer opening remarks and I’ll then share with you data from 2008, review highlights from the year and lay out key goals for 2009.
Following my presentation, I’ll turn things over to Donna Dean, PhD, of Lewis-Burke Associates. Dr. Dean, senior science advisor at Lewis-Burke, has spent more than 27 years as a senior Federal government executive with such agencies as the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. She’ll offer insights into the new administration’s priorities with regard to research funding and explain what the current economy could mean for research budgets.
Dr. Dean will be followed by Margie Rolf, assistant vice president for governmental relations and university communications at UC, who will share insights into funding opportunities at the state level.
Don’t miss the State of Research Address.
9 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 13
Rieveschl Auditorium
Vontz Center for Molecular Studies
And, as always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to check out research.uc.edu.
Sandra Degen, PhD
Vice President for Research
NEWS/GRANTS
New Collaborative IRB Training Initiative
The UC Institutional Review Board (IRB) is strengthening its ties to the Greater Cincinnati research community. The UC IRB is working with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University Hospital and Christ Hospital to coordinate CITI training. This collaborative effort—identified as Greater Cincinnati Academic Health Center (GCAHC)—allows researchers or key personnel who have completed training through affiliation with a GCAHC institution to have their CITI training accepted by other GCAHC members. CITI training is now available to researchers and key personnel who conduct studies involving human subjects research. All UC researchers/key personnel who are new or whose CITI certification is expiring are instructed to go to the CITI Web-based training course and select the Greater Cincinnati Academic Health Center. All individuals participating in the conduct of research that involves human subjects must demonstrate their knowledge by completing the new GCAHC CITI training by Dec. 1, 2009. The new CITI training automatically assigns a core group of modules when one registers or affiliates with an above-named institution. A series of research-related questions adds additional modules to the training curriculum for each applicant based on his/her research practices. A score of 80 percent is required to pass on each module. The Continuous Professional Development (CPD) online competency test will no longer be accepted. Questions should be directed to Julie Gerlach, IRB director, at (513) 558-2086 or julie.gerlach@uc.edu. You can also contact Claudia Norman at (513) 558-5784 or Andy Gardner at (513) 558-5105.
Call for Information
The National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) has requested that UC request its faculty to create profiles for their international project activity on the NASULGC Web site. Many of you have already supplied similar information to UCosmic, and may not want to take the time to submit information a second time to another place. However, participating in these requests increases both your own research profile, as well as that of UC, and hopefully such exposure will, in time, materialize into new opportunities for everyone. To participate, go to http://nasulgc.advcomp.com/survey/index.cfm?sref=idpds. Once you have reviewed and edited your responses, click “finalized.” Within a short time, a link to your project’s final profile will be posted under this university’s name on the NASULGC Commission on International Programs’ Web page at http://www.nasulgc.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=776&srcid=776. Questions can be addressed to dedelson@nasulgc.org.
Transformative RO1 Program
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced plans to spend up to $25 million on 60 research grant projects that “have the potential to create or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through the use of new and novel approaches.” This request for applications is the newest initiative under the NIH roadmap/common fund concept. It will also pilot new approaches to peer review processes. The research plan, limited to eight pages, will be evaluated on the extent to which it reflects ideas “substantially different from mainstream concepts” and “creates or overturns fundamental scientific paradigms.” To learn more about the selection process and application deadlines, visit http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-08-029.html.
Call for Unsolved Clinical Problems
UC faculty are invited to submit ideas for the Medical Innovation Device and Entrepreneurship Program. Past projects completed in this program include: ventral hernia repair, endocardial thermal monitor, emergent intubation, laser guide for biopsy, patient interface for c-pap, bilirubin measurement and bioreactor for vascular testing. These projects are a result of physician or health care experts who partnered with UC’s multidisciplinary design teams comprised of students
and faculty in engineering, design and business. All ideas or problems are welcome and encouraged from all departments. Selected opportunities are evaluated with regards to the best match for
success with student and faculty capabilities, product/impact potential, and funding
availability. If you would like to join in the quest for innovation and help solve the
problems you encounter on a daily basis, contact Mary Beth Privitera at (513) 556-0647 or mary.privitera@uc.edu, or Daniel Kanter at (513) 558-5042 or daniel.kanter@uc.edu.
Graduate Student Research Fellowships Available
Applications are now being accepted for the University Research Council’s (URC) 2009 Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program. Awards of $3,000 each are available for successful applicants. Students can use fellowship awards for research activity conducted throughout the year, or for summer stipend support for scholarly activities pursued on a full-time basis between July 1, 2009, and Aug. 31, 2009. Graduate research fellowship applications should be submitted by specific graduate programs and the number of applications from each program is limited. Final applications are due by 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. Deadlines for internal proposal review are set by each graduate program. For questions, more information or to determine the number of applications allotted for each program, visit http://www.uc.edu/ucResearch/funding_opportunities.html. You can also contact Linda Minton at (513) 558-0026 or linda.minton@uc.edu.
Notice to Researchers Working with Toxins
Regulations regarding toxins carry criminal and civil penalties. If you use toxins, please make sure you that you are aware of the current rules and limits. More information at researchcompliance.uc.edu/biosafety/RegulationsAndMandates.html. Questions should be directed to Marcia Espinola, biological safety officer, at (513) 558-6182 or marcia.espinola@uc.edu.
NSF Makes Changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide
Check out the latest changes to the National Science Foundation’s Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). Significant changes include new guidance on the mentoring requirement of the America COMPETES Act, a revision of the NSF’s faculty salary reimbursement policy, the debut of the Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) mechanisms, and a revision of the definition of co-PI.
NIH Policy Supports Early-Stage Investigators
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently published a notice describing changes in NIH New Investigator policies designed “to encourage early transition to independence.” Under the policy, new investigators within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or within 10 years of completing their medical residency will be designated Early Stage Investigators (ESIs). Traditional NIH research grant (R01s) applications from ESIs will be identified and the career stage of the applicant will be considered at the time of review and award. The notice lists various implementation details. Read more.
New NIH Policy on Resubmission (Amended) Applications
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have made changes to the existing policy on resubmission (amended) applications (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/amendedapps.htm). Beginning with original new applications (i.e., never submitted) and competing renewal applications submitted for the Jan. 25, 2009, due dates and beyond, the NIH will accept only a single amendment to the original application. Failure to receive funding after two submissions (i.e., the original and the single amendment) will mean that the applicant should substantially re-design the project rather than simply change the application in response to previous reviews. It is expected that this policy will lead to funding high-quality applications earlier, with fewer resubmissions.
New Grants Awarded in October
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.
GREEN BITS
The university, as part of the Green Partnership for Greater Cincinnati, 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.
Tip #9: Take a Nap
I don’t know about you, but I love naps. So do my grandchildren and my dogs. So why not my computer, too? After all, it’s kind of like a relative and I spend more time with it than I do with most relatives.
In a previous Green Bit I did some rough calculations on how much energy (and money) we could save in my departmental computer room just by putting its 10 computers on inexpensive, programmable lamp timers for shutdown during non-use hours at night and over the weekend. Taking into account the cost of the timers, the payback time was about one year for a return on investment (ROI) of about 100 percent. Since then, I have learned from an information tech analyst in the Health Sciences Library that there is a built-in function in Windows that can be programmed to do much the same thing. It’s easier to do than going out and getting a timer and it doesn’t cost anything at all. In “bean-pusher-speak” that means the ROI is essentially infinite. A quick calculation based on saved kilowatt hours and the cost of electricity indicates a savings of about $18 per year for every desktop computer that we put down for a nap during off hours.
“But wait,” I hear you say, “isn’t this going to be technically difficult, time consuming and hazardous to my computer’s health.”
“Au contraire,” I reply, “it’s easy, quick and will make your computer last longer, even as it’s saving energy and reducing green house gases at the same time.” Here’s how.
Assuming you’re using Windows XP on a PC, click on the <Start> bar in the lower left corner and select <Control Panel> from the popup menu. Now click on the <Power Options> icon which will open a dialog box with several tabs including one called <Power Schemes>. Under this tab you will find options for turning off your monitor and hard disks as well as for putting the system into standby or hibernate modes. (On some systems the hibernate option may be a separate tab.)
What then are the pros and cons of each of these options?
The monitor and the hard drives are the two biggest power consumers of your PC, so turning them off automatically gives big savings with negligible downside. Touching the mouse or any key turns them back on within a second or two. I have my system set to turn both monitor and hard drives off after 20 minutes of non-use.
System standby, like taking a power nap, is even more energy conserving because the entire computer switches to a low-power state. Not only do the monitor and hard disks turn off, but the entire computer uses less power. It’s easy to return to work, because standby leaves applications and files open on the desktop and within just a few seconds you can pick up exactly where you left off. My computer is set to go on standby after 30 minutes.
Hibernate mode, on the other hand, is more like really going to sleep. It writes an image of what you're currently working on to a special file on your hard drive, and then shuts your computer almost completely off. It takes a bit longer to resume, but when you start it back up, you'll see everything exactly as you left it. Hibernate is the perfect mode for shutting down for the night or even the weekend. Furthermore, if there’s a power outage, nothing is lost because everything has been saved to your hard drive. If you set your system to hibernate after eight or nine hours of non-use, you’ll only have to wake it up once—when you arrive the morning.
So come on, give your computer some regular snooze, nap and sleep time. You’ll both be happier for it and so will our environment.
SPOTLIGHT ON: UCosmic
In January 2006, UC International began an ambitious plan to develop a single window into the diverse international activities of the university. This initiative, called UCosmic™—shorthand for the University of Cincinnati Online System for Managing International Collaboration—is now achieving national recognition as a visionary approach to mapping internationalization across complex organizations, in a way that enables academic entrepreneurship.
Vice Provost for International Affairs, Mitch Leventhal, PhD, describes UCosmic as a “cyber-infrastructure designed to enable visualization across domains and relationships.” He adds, “It isn’t really a database in the strictest sense, though it does have database elements. In fact, it is a meta-database, pulling information from diverse information pools across the university, and integrating it into a geographic reference frame.”
The system is underpinned by a database of 8,000 post-secondary institutions across the globe. All data is associated with a geographic location (country or region) and, if applicable, with an associated foreign institution. Users can search on a given country and receive a sweeping picture of UC’s relationships in that location. A typical report for Country X will provide the user with:
- All institutional agreements in the country
- Faculty research associated with local institutions, if applicable
- Institutional origins and destination programs for international graduate students
- Faculty with degrees from the country, by institution
- Activities of outbound UC students
- News reports
UC International is adding more data sources to the system monthly. Among the new features being developed, but not yet publicly accessible, is a database of the international operations of several thousand companies with which UC has relationships through professional practice or sponsored research. This database will enable researchers to more strategically identify potential corporate partners for international projects.
“The most important single source of data is our faculty,” says Leventhal. “We need faculty to create profiles of every significant international activity which they believe is worth sharing. This may be a discrete research project, a Fulbright stint, a performance, or even some other kind of activity such as organizing a significant international conference.”
UCosmic™ has been designed so that creation of profiles can be done quickly, taking about two to three minutes each. To date, UCosmic™ has nearly 300 separate international faculty activity profiles.
According to Leventhal, “We estimate that this is just a scratch on the surface of international actual activity which our faculty are engaged in.”
Earlier this year, UCosmic™ was integrated to eProfessional. Once profiles have been created in UCosmic™, a link automatically connects the viewer back to the faculty member’s eProfessional resume.
Visit UCosmic™ at uc.edu/international/cosmic. Login to view more detailed information and to create profiles of your own international research and creative activities.
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