August 2015 Newsletter

iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software Now Available

Most faculty are already familiar with the software program called Turnitin, which is used by FSU students to screen their class papers for potential plagiarism issues prior to submitting them to their instructor. The Office of Research is pleased to announce that faculty, staff, and students now have access to an additional plagiarism detection tool called iThenticate.

Where Turnitin is used primarily for student assignments, iThenticate is designed to screen more scholarly works, such as research proposals, journal articles, and conference presentations. The Office of Research strongly encourages investigators to screen draft proposals through iThenticate prior to submitting them to the funding agency. Many federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, also use iThenticate to scan proposals.

For more information about iThenticate and avoiding plagiarism, please visit the Office of Research Compliance Program’s updated website on Research Misconduct.

New NIH proposal submission system: ASSIST

The National Institutes of Health has released a second option besides Grants.gov for submitting proposals for most NIH solicitations: Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST). For participating programs, the PI chooses between ASSIST and Grants.gov. While Sponsored Research Administration (SRA) has only had a few submissions through ASSIST so far, departments and SRA have found it to be more user-friendly than Grants.gov.

NIH created ASSIST in response to requests for improvements to Grants.gov. ASSIST has been likened to NSF´s FastLane due to its ease of use. The following are some of its features:

No more e-mailing of different versions of Grants.gov applications back and forth
Real-time error checking prior to submission
Multiple users can access/view the same page at the same time in ASSIST; they just cannot update/edit the same page at the same time
Pre-population of data from eRA Commons profiles
Pre-submission print/preview of application so that it can be seen just as NIH reviewers will see it
One-stop tracking of submitted proposals instead of having to check in both Grants.gov and eRA Commons

The Office of Proposal Development (OPD) will offer training geared towards PIs beginning in the fall semester. In the meantime, please contact SRA for help by visiting their webpage.

Arts & Humanities Faculty Workshop Set for August 28

The Office of Proposal Development and Office of Faculty Recognition will host an Arts and Humanities workshop on August 28th from 1:00-2:30pm in the Museum of Fine Arts. The goal of the workshop is to help Arts and Humanities faculty secure funding for their research and creative endeavors.

In addition to a Pivot run-through and Faculty Awards training, two faculty members with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will discuss their methods and experience. Please bring your laptop, a brown-bag lunch and any questions about finding funding in the Arts & Humanities. For more information about this workshop, and to register, please visit the workshop page.

NSF Automated Compliance Checking

NSF has implemented new features in the FastLane system for automated compliance checking and about common reasons for lack of compliance. The goals are to ensure consistency in NSF's proposal submissions, to enhance the ease of submissions, to reduce the number of submitted proposals that will be returned without review, and to enable a greater number of meritorious ideas to advance.

FastLane users are encouraged to check proposals for compliance during the proposal preparation and submission process. The current complete NSF Proposal Preparation Checklist can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf15001/gpg_2.jsp#IIex1.

Below are the most common reasons for return without review for proposals previously submitted to the Engineering Directorate.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Should ONLY be uploaded as a PDF if the use of special character is required.
Must include separate sections labeled "Overview," "Intellectual Merit," and "Broader Impacts" if uploaded as a PDF.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Must include "Results from Prior NSF Support" over the past five years for each PI and Co-PI.
Must include a section — with a heading — for "Broader Impacts" of the proposed work.

Research Award Opportunities for New Faculty

The Searle Scholars Program, Sloan Research Fellowships, Beckman Young Investigators Award are programs for assistant professors, largely focused on STEM areas. The awards carry significant national recognition and new faculty members are highly encouraged to apply. Below are brief synopses of each award in terms of eligibility, guidelines and deadlines. You can find a more inclusive list of awards for new faculty on the Office of Proposal Development’s site. The awards below are listed by due date. Please note that each of these awards is recurrent, with the same opportunity and similar deadlines opening up again next year.

Sloan Research Fellowships: These fellowships support fundamental research by early-career faculty in chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics. Candidates should be no more than six years from completion of their most recent Ph.D. at of the year of their nomination. The size of the award is $50,000 for the two-year period. Candidates must be nominated by a department head or other senior researcher (they can be from outside of FSU) and the nominations must be uploaded through Interfolio.com. Departments are limited to one nomination per cycle. The portal for nominations opens over the summer, and all materials (including the candidate’s C.V., a one-page statement, two articles and three letters of support) must be uploaded by Sept. 15.

Beckman Young Investigators Award: This award funds researchers in chemistry, engineering, and the life sciences, with a special interest in proposals that foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials. To be eligible, an applicant should not have completed more than three full years in his or her tenure-track or other comparable independent research appointment. Grants may be in the range of $750,000 for up to four years. To apply, applicants must submit a letter of intent (no more than 800 words describing the project), biosketch and research support form by Sept. 3. Individuals are invited to apply no more than two times and preference is given to researchers without funding from other sources.

Searle Scholars Program: This program awards $100,00 per year for three years of support to researchers pursuing careers in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine and biological sciences. Candidates should have begun their first appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor level on or after July 1 of the year prior to the application year. There are generally 15 awards made per year, with the application portal opening in September of each year.

Fall CRC Funding Opportunities Workshop

On Friday, September 11th, an interactive workshop will be held to introduce new professors and other interested faculty to all of the guideline, platform, and policy changes that the Council on Research & Creativity (CRC) has made for the 2015-2016 academic year. Highlights include:

Details and expectations for each of the 11 grant and honorary award programs
CRC policies
^New CRC Submission Website
CRC specific forms

For more information, and to register, please visit the Fall 2015 CRC Workshop page.

Council on Research and Creativity Updates

The websites for the various Council on Research & Creativity (CRC) competitive grant programs and the three honorary award programs will be updated and active effective August 21st. Watch for specific details on these programs in the September Office of Research Newsletter.

Build a “Boat” for Whatever Floats Your Boat Regatta

Summer is a great time to build a vessel for the 4th Annual Whatever Floats Your Boat Regatta at the Florida State University Coastal & Marine Laboratory. Challenge friends, family, and colleagues to build boats out of stuff that any normal person would take to the dump. Just build ‘em and they will float… more or less. Gather recycled materials and get started! For more information and to register, visit: http://marinelab.fsu.edu/outreach/regatta/.

Landlubbers will be busy ashore cheering on the captains and crews of these outrageously constructed vessels as they sail, row, or scull around the course, topple over, or slowly sink into Apalachee Bay. Enjoy good food, have loads of fun, all while learning about recycling and how to reduce the impact of plastics on marine environments.

Join us on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. for a day of racing fun.

Extended Deadline for Race to 7-Day Solar - SunShot Prize Opportunity

The SunShot Initiative is extending the deadline to compete in the SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar. The new deadline for entrance applications is August 14, 2015.

The SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar aims to motivate local governments, communities, solar companies, and electric utilities to collaborate towards improving the “going solar” experience from permit to plug-in for all Americans.

This competition offers a total of $10 million in cash awards to the best teams that bring process certainty and reduce the permit to plug-in time from current durations to a swift seven days for small PV systems (≤100 kW) or seven weeks for large systems (≤1 MW). SunShot will provide seed funding to help support up to 20 teams during a set 18-month performance period that begins in September 2015.

Before you submit an application, please review the updated rules for the contest and the updated frequently asked questions page. All participating teams, including winners of the first stage of the Change Champion prize, will be announced during the week of September 14, 2015.

All questions and completed applications should be sent by email to sunshot.prize@ee.doe.gov no later than August 14, 2015.

NSB Welcomes Nominations for 2016 Honorary Awards

Each year, the National Science Board (NSB) pays tribute to remarkable contributions and public service in science and engineering through its Vannevar Bush and Public Service awards. NSB is currently accepting nominations for its 2016 honorary awards through Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.

Named after the gifted visionary and dynamic public servant who was behind the creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF), NSB's Vannevar Bush Award honors life-long leaders who have made exceptional contributions toward the welfare of humankind and the nation through public service activities in science, technology, and public policy. Past recipients include former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, former science advisor and NSF director Neal Lane, and Maxine Singer, former Carnegie Institution president.

Nomination instructions are available on the Vannevar Bush Award website and all recipients are listed on the NSB site.

NSB's Public Service Award honors individuals and groups for substantial contributions to increasing public understanding of science and engineering in the United States. These contributions may be in a wide variety of areas, including mass media, social media, education, training programs and entertainment. Moira Gunn, Host of Tech Nation, Craig Barrett, of Intel Corporation, and the PBS series "NOVA," are past awardees. A complete list of recipients, as well as nomination instructions, can be found on the award website.

Leaders in the higher education, scientific society and association, congressional, federal, and private industry communities celebrate the accomplishments of NSB award recipients during an awards ceremony held in May.

Research Photos, Videos, Story Opportunities Needed

Do you take pictures of your research? Capture videos of experiments, creative endeavors, etc.? Do you blog? Do you have a paper ready to be published or a new grant you just received? If any of these even remotely apply, we want to hear from you!

Whether it’s @FSUResearch, the FSU research blog, the FSU news website, or news releases in general, we have a variety of ways to promote your research. But we need your help in getting the content so we can communicate it to the masses.

Please contact Tom Butler (tbutler@fsu.edu) and Kathleen Haughney (khaughney@fsu.edu) with any photos, videos or news opportunities you would like to send along.

Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program

The faculty portal is now open for FSU's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). UROP is a year-long program in which high-achieving first- and second-year students, as well as some transfer and veteran students, serve as research assistants with faculty members working on research or creative projects. The faculty interview and select admitted UROP students for their projects and direct their work during the year. All UROP students attend a year-long research colloquium and present their work at the annual FSU Undergraduate Research Symposium.

As UROP research sponsors, faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students can have student research assistants at no cost to them. Faculty can also receive a materials grant for up to $500 and be eligible for a $2,000 Undergraduate Research Mentor award. We encourage you to upload a project for which you would like research assistants (and view previous UROP projects) through the UROP site. For more information on UROP, contact Dr. Joe O'Shea at joshea@fsu.edu.

Funding Opportunities

Please click here to access some of the latest funding opportunities available for the arts, humanities, social sciences, STEM disciplines and medicine.

Washington Update

Please click here to learn of recent activities in Washington affecting higher education. Included are budget and appropriations updates, new funding announcements and other important campus related issues.

FSU Awards Report

A monthly awards report is available online. This report will allow interested faculty, staff and others, to learn more about who has been recently awarded research grants. Access the latest report here.

Date	Course Code and Name	Location/Time
8/5/2015	SRA26 Subcontracting/Audit Requirements	Student Services Building, 301, 8:30-10:30
8/7/2015	SRA 27 Administrative Requirements & Cost Principles	Strozier Library, Room 005A 2:30-4:30
8/11/2015	SRA03 SRA Financial Management	Dirac 2:30-4:30
8/14/2015	SRA 28 Federal & State of Florida Conflict of Interest	Student Services Building, 301, 10:00-12:00
8/19/2015	SRA12 National Institutes of Health	Student Services Building, 301, 8:30-10:30
8/24/2015	SRA18 Intellectual Property/Export Control	Student Services Building, 301, 10:00-12:00
8/28/2015	SRA11 Award Negotiations & Processing/Federal Acquisition Regulation Clauses	Student Services Building, 301 2:30-4:30
8/31/2015	SRA16 Project Closeout	UCA 1203, 8:30-10:30

New Faces in the Office of Research

Four new team members have recently joined the Office of Research family. Please join us in giving them a warm welcome.

Ephey Priest
If you are involved with the FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory then say hi to Ephey Priest, who is serving as the Assistant Captain for the R/V Apalachee, assisting with all offshore and dockside boat operations. Ephey is from Manteo, North Carolina and has worked as a boat captain, dive instructor, and fisherman along the east coast of the United States as well as the Caribbean.

Donna Whittle
If you interact with the FSU Research Foundation (FSURF), then be sure to welcome Donna Whittle, an Accounting Representative who is performing day-to-day accounting functions for the FSURF. Donna graduated from FSU and brings three years of accounting experience to the FSURF.

Kate Herron
If you work with, or use the services of the Office of Proposal Development then say hi to Kate Herron, a Training and Research Development Specialist who is providing training and working with our junior faculty to assist them with their proposals. Kate spent the last two years as an English Department advisor after four years of working in the social services sector in Chicago and graduates with her Master’s in December.

Jennifer Garye
If you contact or work with the Office of the Vice President for Research then give a warm welcome to Jennifer Garye, a Program Director of Administrative Services who is aiding in development and planning of administrative and analytical support activities pertaining to university research programs. Jenn is from St. Augustine, Fl. She came to FSU to pursue her Bachelor’s degree and, like many, never left. She has now received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from FSU and has worked at the university for nine years.