Sponsored Research News
March 1, 2009

NIH is about to announce at least three new programs with deadlines 60 days from the announcement. One way to keep up with NIH announcements is to subscribe to an RSS feed created by NIH: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/newsfeed/fundingopps.xml. If you've always wanted to learn what an RSS feed is, here is your chance: Many e-mail programs, including Outlook 2007 (see Tools»Account Settings»RSS Feeds) and Apple's Mail program (File»Add RSS Feed) make it easy to read RSS feeds. Most web browsers also have functionality for subscribing to and reading RSS feeds.. For those that that prefer technology invented last century, there is also a weekly e-mail that you can subscribe to, see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/listserv.htm.

Sally Rockey in her talk at Rutgers indicated that NIH will be posting announcements for:

• Challenge Grants for high-impact short-term projects
• Supplements to existing grants to accelerate progress
• Infrastructure

Proposals are likely to be shorter than traditional NIH proposals, e.g., 12 pages.

NSF also has an RSS feed ( http://www.nsf.gov/rss/rss_www_funding_pgm_annc_inf.xml ) as does NEH ( http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/rss2.xml ). NSF also has an email subscription http://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USNSF_25. If you feel the need for real time info on your cell phone, NSF posts short announcements on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NSF. If you are aware of RSS feeds for other funding agencies, please let me know. The latest announcements from NIH, NSF, and NEH are also posted at http://vpr.rutgers.edu under the Funding Agency News.

NIH and NSF are diverging on implementation plans for stimulus funds. Much of the NSF funds will go to existing programs and announcements ( http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_list.jsp?org=NSF&ord=date ) , while NIH will create new announcements and use supplements, ( http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/qa/supplements.htm ) with a smaller percentage going to existing programs. Both agencies have plans to increase funding for new investigators.

The America COMPETES Act created a new Technology Innovation Program (TIP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). TIP was established "to support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of critical national need.

TIP is aimed at speeding the development of high-risk, transformative research targeted to address key societal challenges. Funding could be provided to industry (small and medium-sized businesses), universities, and consortia for research on potentially revolutionary technologies for meeting critical national needs that present high technical risks-with commensurate high rewards if successful. The primary mechanism for this support would be cost-shared research grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts awarded on the basis of merit competitions.

NIST announced that, while it is accepting papers in any topic area of concern to the submitter, it is particularly interested in white papers that would help further refine several topic areas now under consideration, including:

• Civil Infrastructure-for example construction technologies or advanced materials for transportation or for water distribution and flood control;
• Complex networks and complex systems-for example new theory or mathematical tools to enable better understanding and control of the complex networks that have evolved for energy delivery, telecommunications, transportation and finance;
• Energy-technologies that address emerging alternative energy sources;
• Water-technologies that address growing needs for fresh water supplies and ensure the safety of water and food supplies from contamination;
• Manufacturing-for example, advanced manufacturing technologies that have shorter innovation cycles, more flexibility, and are rapidly reconfigurable;
• Nanomaterials and nanotechnology-for example technologies that enable the scale-up of nanomaterials and nanodevices from lab prototypes to commercial manufacturing;
• Personalized Medicine-for example, advances in proteomics and genomics that could enable doctors to select optimal drug treatments and dosages based on the patient's unique genetics, physiology, and metabolic processes; and
• Sustainable Chemistry-for example, novel, advanced process chemistries and technologies that are inherently safer and cleaner, while creating products and processes with attributes superior to conventional methods.

White papers can be submitted to meet several due dates, including: Jan. 15, 2009, March 9, 2009, May 11, 2009, and July 13, 2009. White papers may be mailed to: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology Innovation Program, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 4750, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4750, Attention: Critical National Needs Ideas, or may be emailed to tipwhitepaper@nist.gov.

The white papers are expected to contain: a description of an area of critical national need and the associated societal challenge, why government support is needed, the consequences of inaction and a high-level discussion of potential technical solutions and the audience for such a competition. They should not include specific project proposals. Detailed instructions on preparing TIP white papers may be read at http://www.nist.gov/tip/guide_for_white_papers.pdf. Detailed discussion of the seven areas of particular interest is in the Federal Register notice http://www.nist.gov/tip/frn_seeking_whitepapers.pdf

You are invited to attend a series of special seminars by the final candidates for the School of Engineering Deanship. Each candidate will give a seminar on their research and vision for the School, followed by a question-and-answer session and a brief reception. Dr. Yogesh Jaluria interviewed last week. His CV is available at http://coewww.rutgers.edu/YogeshJaluriaCV.pdf

The next presentation, by Dr. Alice White, Vice President, Bell Laboratories North America, will be held on Monday, March 2, at 2:30 p.m. in CAIT Auditorium, 100 Brett Road, Busch Campus, and is open to the university community. Dr. White's CV is available at. http://coewww.rutgers.edu/AliceWhiteCV.pdf

The third candidate, Dr. Thomas Farris, Professor and Head, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, will give his seminar on Thursday, March 5, 2009, at 4:00 p.m. in the Fiber Optics Auditorium, 101 Bevier Road, Busch Campus, and is open to the university community. Dr. Farris' CV is available at http://coewww.rutgers.edu/ThomasFarrisCV.pdf

A fourth candidate will give a seminar on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at 4:00 p.m. in the Fiber Optics Auditorium, 101 Bevier Road, Busch Campus, and is open to the university community. The name of this candidate will be announced shortly after the candidate has had the opportunity to notify the candidate's current employer. The candidates CV will be available on the School of Engineering home page. http://www.soe.rutgers.edu.

Comments and reactions on these four candidates may be shared with search committee chair, Dr. Michael Pazzani, at soeds@rci.rutgers.edu.

NSF's CAREER Award is prestigious and opens doors for further funding opportunities. Although the deadline for the CAREER award to ORSP is July 14, 2009, it pays to plan early. Last year, Rutgers faculty had an acceptance rate of greater than 50% for CAREER proposals although the overall acceptance rate was less than 25%. This year, with the stimulus bill, NSF plans on increasing the acceptance rate of CAREER and is requiring that all directorates, including BIO and SBE increase spending on CAREER.

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate and Professional Education is sponsoring Rutgers 7th annual NSF CAREER Award Workshop. The purpose is to provide valuable information to faculty AND DEPARTMENT CHAIRS of faculty eligible to submit proposals to the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503214. This workshop will support faculty in obtaining these awards by giving them knowledge and insight to compete effectively.

New Brunswick Campus
Wed - March 4
3:00-5:00 p.m.
CoRE Building, Rm 701, Busch Campus
Directions to CoRE - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?id=88

Newark Campus
Fri.- March 6
1:00-3:30 p.m.
Conklin Hall, Rm 449, Newark Campus
Directions to Conklin Hall - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?id=457
(Will be teleconferenced to the Dean's Conference Room, Armitage Hall, Camden).
Directions to Armitage Hall - http://maps.rutgers.edu/building.aspx?id=442

But wait, there's more. Attendees at either event will be eligible for a free train ticket to Washington to visit the National Science Foundation.

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.

The focus of the Herrup lab is on cell cycle regulation in the adult neuron. While most textbooks describe the typical CNS neuron as permanently post mitotic, we have been exploring the ways in which the textbook needs to be re-written. We are particularly interested in the ways in which cell cycle dysregulation is linked to cell death in normal situations and in human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Our work involves mouse genetics and animal models of human diseases, as well as direct work with human tissue. Our technical approaches involve mammalian genetics and molecular biology.

Karl Herrup is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Rutgers University, a position he has held since 2006. He received his Bachelors degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University in 1974. After two postdoctoral fellowships in Neurogenetics at Childrens Hospital/Harvard Medical School and in Neuropharmacology at the Biozentrum in Basel Switzerland, he joined the faculty of the Human Genetics Department of Yale Medical School in 1978. He became Director of the Division of Developmental Neurobiology at the E. K. Shriver Center in Waltham, MA in 1988. In 1992 he moved to Case Western Reserve University Medical School and University Hospitals of Cleveland where he directed the Alzheimer's Center from 1999 through 2005.