Sponsored Research News
January 30, 2009

The economic stimulus package is working its way through congress. Although the details are still being worked out, both the House and Senate package include substantial increases in funding for most federal agencies that support research at universities for FY 2009. It is expected that this bill will reach President Obama's desk by mid February. While there are plans and discussions to create new programs at most agencies, the vast majority of FY2009 funds will go to existing programs. There is likely to be higher acceptance rates than previous years at most agencies for proposals funded in FY 2009. Due to the various delays in reviewing, proposals submitted in February and March may be awarded this fiscal year. Therefore, if you have been considering applying for funding, disappointed by the acceptance rates of the past few years, or have been planning on revising a declined proposal, the next month or two are the ideal time to submit a proposal. While the state budget situation for higher education does not look promising, schools and departments might want to consider applying for NSF support for education and diversity (see below).

The first 6 months of Rutgers fiscal year have set a record for external funding. A total of $191,600,000 (corrected 2/17/09) in new awards have come in, an increase of $45M over the previous year with increases in NIH, NSF, and DOD funding. Research Funding from the State of New Jersey has declined by $8M over the same period of last year.

The downturn in the economy is likely to affect Rutgers undergraduates severely, many of whom need to work over the summer. With Starbucks closing stores and Circuit City closing, there may be fewer options for students. Can I suggest including support for an undergraduate student to work in your lab this summer in your next proposal. Furthermore, if you have a current NSF grant, you can apply for a research experience for undergraduate supplement, a simple 2-3 page proposal for an additional $5,000-10,000 to support an undergraduate. Mike Mueller ( micmuell@vpr.rutgers.edu ) can get you examples of funded REU supplements.

Let's face it, Grants.gov is an embarrassment. Someday, it may work as well as FastLane. Until then, it pays to submit early. Grants.gov gets intolerably slow and unreliable when there are over 350 users. NIH expects 10,000 applications for the Feb 5 deadline. Grants.gov recommends you submit early to avoid anticipated system delays due to the large number of users logged in to the system.

ORSP can't emphasize enough the importance of early submission. Please be sure to notify your grant specialist in advance of submissions for the February deadline. Due to the departure of Marta for another position with Rutgers, the grant specialist caseload has been redistributed. See http://orsp.rutgers.edu/alphabetical.php for details.

Feb 2, 2009, 4:00 pm (Refreshments at 3:30 pm)
Speaker: Glenn Shafer, Rutgers Business School
Topic: The Philosophical Implications of Game-Theoretic Probability

Fiber Optics Auditorium, Busch Campus

Since World War II, most mathematicians have favored treating probability theory as a branch of measure theory. This reliance on measure theory tells us nothing about how to use mathematical probability, leaving statisticians and philosophers free to debate whether it is subjective (degree of belief) or objective (frequency or propensity). The game-theoretic foundation for probability, recently shown to be a viable alternative to the measure-theoretical foundation ( www.probabilityandfinance.com ), gives more philosophical guidance. It tells us that probabilistic theories should be understood as making predictions: they predict particular events by giving them very high probability. Whether these predictions are subjective (we believe the events will happen) or objective (we claim they really will happen) is often only a nuance. More important than this nuance is the setting in which predictions are made. (1) When a probabilistic theory successfully predicts a long sequence of future events (as quantum mechanics does), it tells us something about phenomena. (2) When a probabilistic theory predicts only one step at a time (basing each successive prediction on what happened previously), it has practical value but tells us nothing about phenomena; we can say this because the method of defensive forecasting has been shown to succeed in this setting (pass statistical tests) regardless of how events come out . (3) When we talk about the probability of an isolated event, which different people can place in different sequences, we are weighing arguments, and our predictions are only as good as our arguments; this is the place of evidence theory.

Glenn Shafer spent his childhood on a farm near Cany, Kansas. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Princeton in 1968, and after a stint in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan, he earned a doctoral degree in mathematical statistics from Princeton in 1973. After teaching at Princeton and the University of Kansas, he came to Rutgers Business School in 1992. He is best known for launching the Dempster-Shafer theory with his 1976 book A Mathematical Theory of Evidence.

Broadcast live on RU-TV http://rutv.rutgers.edu/ruiptv.shtml

Directions to Fiber Optics Building - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?133
Parking is available in Lots 54 or 68.

On 2/16/09 at 10:45 a.m., Mr. Scott Forbes, V.P. of GE Technology Ventures, will give a presentation about ways in which GE is looking to collaborate with university researchers and support commercialization of Rutgers technologies.

The presentation will take place at CAIT Building, Auditorium, 100 Brett Road, Busch Campus. Parking is available in Lots 54 or 68.

http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?id=1087

Sally J. Rockey, PhD
Deputy Director for Extramural Research
Topic: NIH Opportunities

Dr. Rockey will discuss opportunities for funding at NIH.

Dr. Rockey received her PhD in Entomology in 1985 from The Ohio State University. She is active on a number of Federal intergovernmental committees related to science, research, grants management and electronic government, and collaborates closely with the scientific community. She has been honored by receiving the Presidential Rank Award in 2004 which recognizes and celebrates a small group of senior career employees. More than 80% of the annual NIH budget, or approximately $25 billion, is disbursed as extramural funding.

http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/historical/deputy_directors.htm#rockey

Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Time: 11am
Location: Fiber Optics Auditorium, 101 Bevier Road, Piscataway NJ

Directions to Fiber Optics Building - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?133
Parking is available in Lots 54 or 68.

March 2, 2009, 4:00 pm (Refreshments at 3:30 pm)
Speaker: Joan Marter, Art History
Topic: The Perils of Progress: Artists Respond to Advances in Science and Technology of the 1930s--1940s
Fiber Optics Auditorium, Busch Campus

In recent years scholars have been exploring the visual languages of painting and sculpture not just "as a formative tool for political struggle," but as a "location for ongoing political conflict" [David Craven] Sculptural themes of the 1940s suggest that this art production is more divergent ideologically than has been previously recognized. This paper will introduce themes that appear in sculpture of the 1940s, and the historical factors that problematize these works. Sculptors are revealed as both subverting American attitudes toward technological developments, while serving her cultural ascendancy. Advances in technology which had evoked positive responses among artists of the 1930s, now assumed sinister connotations. The promise of a world of peace and prosperity based on the successful utilization of scientific progress was irrevocably broken.

Professor Marter is the author of books on sculptors Alexander Calder (Cambridge) and Theodore Roszak (Washington) and many articles and essays. She has organized numerous exhibitions and written catalogue essays, including Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957-63 , and she was co-author of American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , volume II (Yale). Her recent publication is Abstract Expressionism, The International Context (Rutgers). Marter has been editor of the Woman's Art Journal since 2005.

Broadcast live on RU-TV http://rutv.rutgers.edu/ruiptv.shtml

Directions to Fiber Optics Building - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?133
Parking is available in Lots 54 or 68.

NIH has a variety of Activity Codes for awarding grants and contracts. While the R01 is the most common, Rutgers receives awards for a variety of other purposes, including conferences, equipment, and training of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The table below shows data of the activities for which Rutgers is funded.

In an effort to improve the quality of IRB submissions and therefore streamline the approval process, Dr. Kathryn Greene will continue as the "IRB Advisor." Kathryn will advise applicants on how to smoothly and successfully complete the process for IRB submission. Her activities will include several University-wide presentations on different Rutgers campuses this Spring, keeping "office hours" before IRB deadlines, and responding to emails sent to irbadvisor@orsp.rutgers.edu

IRB Seminars:

"How to Smoothly and Successfully Complete the Process for IRB Submission" will include an hour long presentation by IRB faculty reviewers followed by a 30 minute question and answer session. Faculty, staff and students (graduate and undergraduate) will all benefit from attending.

March 26 at 9am, Busch Student Campus Center, Room 117
RSVP to: rivera@orsp.rutgers.edu

April 8 at 12:30 pm, Cook Student Campus Center, Room 202ABC
RSVP to: rivera@orsp.rutgers.edu

April 13 at 2pm, CAC SCILS Bldg (corner of College Ave & Huntington), Rm 222 (Interaction Lab)
RSVP to: rivera@orsp.rutgers.edu

Spring 2009 Office hours:

The IRB Advisor will hold office hours each month before the submission deadline. Generally, the IRB Advisor's office hours will be held a week prior to the submission deadline (the 12th ). Office hours are open (that is, not by appointment). Feel free to stop by with questions and/or submissions in progress. Location: CAC, SCILS Building, Room 204 (corner of College Ave & Huntington).

Feb. 2, 1-2:30
     3, 10-12

March 2, 1-2:30
     3, 10-12

April 2, 1-2:30
     6, 1-2:30

May 4, 1-2:30
     7, 10-12

The advent of what has been called "data-driven inquiry" or "cyberscholarship" has changed the nature of inquiry across many disciplines, including the sciences and humanities, revealing new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on problems of common interest. The creation of vast quantities of Internet accessible digital data and the development of techniques for large-scale data analysis and visualization have led to remarkable new discoveries in genetics, astronomy, and other fields, and--importantly--connections between academic disciplinary areas. New techniques of large-scale data analysis allow researchers to discover relationships, detect discrepancies, and perform computations on data sets that are so large that they can be processed only using computing resources and computational methods developed and made economically affordable within the past few years. With books, newspapers, journals, films, artworks, and sound recordings being digitized on a massive scale, it is possible to apply data analysis techniques to large collections of diverse cultural heritage resources as well as scientific data. How might these techniques help scholars use these materials to ask new questions about and gain new insights into our world? To encourage innovative approaches to this question, four international research organizations are organizing a joint grant competition to focus the attention of the social science and humanities research communities on large-scale data analysis and its potential application to a wide range of scholarly resources.

The goals of the initiative are

• to promote the development and deployment of innovative research techniques in large-scale data analysis;
• to promote international collaboration;
• to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among scholars in the humanities, social sciences, computer sciences, information sciences, and other fields, around questions of text and data analysis; and
• to work with data repositories that hold large digital collections to ensure efficient access to these materials for research.

http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/diggingintodata.html

Letter of Intent- March 15 & Application- July 15

NSF has numerous programs that align with Rutgers Educational and Diversity goals.

1. Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences (UBM)

   Deadline: February 12, 2009

   The goal of the Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics (UBM) activity is to enhance undergraduate education and training at the intersection of the biological and mathematical sciences and to better prepare undergraduate biology or mathematics students to pursue graduate study and careers in fields that integrate the mathematical and biological sciences.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08510/nsf08510.htm

2. Developing Global Scientists and Engineers (International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) and Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Projects (DDEP))

   Deadline: February 15, International Research Experiences for Students (IRES)

   The United States needs to educate a globally-engaged science and engineering workforce capable of performing in an international research environment in order to remain at the forefront of world science and technology. To support this aim, the Developing Global Scientists and Engineers program provides highest quality international research experiences for U.S. students. Whereas the International Research Experiences for Students component of the program supports groups of U.S. undergraduate or graduate students conducting research abroad in collaboration with foreign investigators, the Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Projects component supports the dissertation research abroad of one doctoral student in collaboration with a foreign investigator.

   No deadlines apply for Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Projects (DDEP). Such proposals may be submitted at any time.

   http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12831&org=OISE

3. International Research and Education: Planning Visits and Workshops

   Deadline: Feb 20, 2009 and May 20, 2009

   International Planning Visit/Workshop Awards can support the initial phases of developing and coordinating integrated research and education activities with foreign partners. Support is primarily for travel and subsistence expenses; salaries and stipends are not typically supported. Individual proposals can be submitted for: (1) Planning visits to assess foreign facilities, equipment, or subjects of research, and to have detailed discussions with prospective foreign partners to finalize plans for cooperative research. Visits typically range from 7-14 days. (2) Joint workshops designed to identify common research priorities, focused on a specific, well-defined area of research collaboration. U.S. and international co-organizers collaboratively design the agenda around a disciplinary or inter-disciplinary theme, and invite individuals who will uniquely contribute to the workshop's objectives. Workshops may be held at either a U.S. or foreign location.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04035/nsf04035.htm

4. Earth Sciences: Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF)

   Deadline: February 23, 2009

   The Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR/IF) supports meritorious requests for infrastructure that promotes research and education in areas supported by the Division. EAR/IF will consider proposals for:

   Acquisition or Upgrade of Research Equipment that will advance laboratory and field investigations, and student research training opportunities in the Earth sciences.

   Development of New Instrumentation, Analytical Techniques or Software that will extend current research and research training capabilities in the Earth sciences. Support of National or Regional Multi-User Facilities that will make complex and expensive instruments or systems of instruments broadly available to the Earth sciences research and student communities.

   Development of Cyberinfrastructure for the Earth Sciences (Geoinformatics) that will enable transformative advances in Earth science research and education through novel application, development or adaptation of information technologies.

   Support for Early Career Investigators to facilitate expedient operation of new research infrastructure proposed by the next generation of leaders in the Earth Sciences.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09517/nsf09517.htm

5. Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM)

   Full Proposal Deadline Date : March 5, 2009

   The objective of PREM is to broaden participation and enhance diversity in materials research and education by stimulating the development of formal, long-term, multi-investigator, collaborative research and education partnerships between minority-serving colleges and universities, women's colleges, and colleges and universities dedicated to educating a majority of students with disabilities, groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the NSF Division of Materials Research (DMR)-supported centers and/or facilities.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09518/nsf09518.htm

6. Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering

   Deadline: April 29, 2009

   Nanoscale science and engineering permit new strategies for enhancing science and engineering literacy, preparing the workforce for emerging technologies, and attracting a diverse group of talented students to the workforce of tomorrow. The solicitation is focused on nanoscale engineering education with relevance to devices and systems, and/or on the societal, ethical, economic and/or environmental issues relevant to nanotechnology.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09533/nsf09533.html

7. Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC)

   Deadline: May 20, 2009

   The Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post secondary degrees in the computing disciplines, with an emphasis on students from communities with longstanding underrepresentation in computing: women, persons with disabilities, and minorities. Included minorities are African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The BPC program seeks to engage the computing community in developing and implementing innovative methods to improve recruitment and retention of these students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Because the lack of role models in the professoriate can be a barrier to participation, the BPC program also aims to develop effective strategies for encouraging individuals to pursue academic careers in computing and become these role models.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07548/nsf07548.htm

8. Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI)

   Deadline: May 21, 2009

   The Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) program seeks to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for all undergraduate students. The program supports efforts to create, adapt, and disseminate new learning materials and teaching strategies, develop faculty expertise, implement educational innovations, assess learning and evaluate innovations, and conduct research on STEM teaching and learning. The program supports three types of projects representing three different phases of development, ranging from small, exploratory investigations to large, comprehensive projects.

   http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08546

9. NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM)

   Deadline: August 2009

   This program makes grants to institutions of higher education to support scholarships for academically talented, financially needy students, enabling them to enter the workforce following completion of an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate level degree in science and engineering disciplines. Grantee institutions are responsible for selecting scholarship recipients, reporting demographic information about student scholars, and managing the S-STEM project at the institution.

   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07524/nsf07524.htm

10. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP)

    Deadline: August 2009

    Program activities under the STEP Type 1 competition should be efforts aimed at adapting and implementing best practices that will lead to an increase in the number of students (United States citizens or permanent residents) obtaining STEM degrees at institutions with baccalaureate degree programs; or completing associate degrees in STEM fields or completing credits toward transfer to a baccalaureate degree program in STEM fields at community colleges. The goal of the project must be to increase the total graduation numbers of such students at the institution(s), and all STEP proposals must include specific numerical targets for these increases.

    Institutions enrolling more than 15,000 undergraduate students may request up to a total of $2.0 million for five years.

    http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08569/nsf08569.htm

11. Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP)

    Deadline: October 09, 2009

    To promote institutional commitments to increase the quality and quantity of underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines at the undergraduate level. Cooperative agreements of up to $1M per year over a 5 year period

    http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09515/nsf09515.htm

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education announces the 2009 Busch Biomedical Grant Program. This program, made possible by the Charles and Johanna Busch Bequest, with a budget of approximately $350,000 is designed to enhance health-related research at the university and to strengthen the competitive position of faculty members who seek external research funds. For additional information about the Busch Biomedical Fund, visit http://vpr.rutgers.edu . The website will be open for electronic submissions on February 22, 2009. Proposals are due by 5 P.M. on Friday, March 27, 2009. Late applications will not be accepted.

The academic excellence fund announcement has been posted to the Vice President for Research web site at http://vpr.rutgers.edu . Please consult with your dean or director for their deadlines for prioritizing proposals to submit.

I'm sorry the newsletter is so long. I do hope you'll come to the distinguished speaker talks the first Monday of each month, attend the NIH and GE talks, and submit a grant or supplement early that includes support for an undergraduate.