July 2015 Newsletter
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.
Posting of a "For Comment" Draft of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide
The NSF has published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of a “for comment” draft of the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG). The Foundation is accepting comments from the external community until close of business July 20, 2015.
To facilitate review, revised text has been highlighted in yellow throughout the document and explanatory comments have been included in the margins, where appropriate.
The following are links to the draft PAPPG and associated Federal Register Notice:
Any questions should be directed to the DIAS/Policy Office at policy@nsf.gov.
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.
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 at http://www.research.fsu.edu/publications-notices/research-awards-reports/2015-june/
Sponsored Research Administration Certificate Series
Sponsored Research Administration Certificate Series will provide central and departmental staff with the skills and knowledge to manage sponsored projects fiscally and administratively. Space is limited for some classes; please register through OMNI HR Self Service. The following courses are offered during July:
| Date | Course Code and Name | Location/ Time |
| 7/8/2015 | SRA02 Advances/ Cost Transfers | Strozier Library, Room 005A 10:00-12:00 |
| 7/14/2015 | SRA17 Facilities and Administrative Costs/ Auxiliaries | Student Services Building, 301 2:30-4:30 |
| 7/17/2015 | SRA01 Proposal Basic/ Electronic Submission Systems | UCA, 1203, 2:30-4:30 |
| 7/20/2015 | SRA14 National Science Foundation | Strozier Library, Room 005A, 2:30-4:30 |
| 7/23/2015 | SRA21State of Florida Agencies | Strozier Library, Room 005A, 10:00-11:30 |
The entire course list can be found on the Sponsored Research website at http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/workshops.html and on the FSU HR training site at http://www.hr.fsu.edu/index.cfm?page=DepartReps_Training_Train.
NIH Statement On Peer Review Process
The NIH understands that professional interactions between applicants and reviewers often continue while an application is undergoing peer review. However, an official of an applicant institution, Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI), or individual named in an application, unless contacted by a government official:
- should not contact reviewers on the study section evaluating his or her application to request or provide information about the review or to otherwise attempt to influence the outcome of the review or the reviewer(s). The only acceptable process for such communication is through the Scientific Review Officer (SRO) who is managing the study section.
- should not send information or data directly to a reviewer on the study section evaluating his or her application. The only acceptable processes for submitting post-submission materials are outlined in NOT-OD-10-115, NOT-OD-12-141, and related notices.
- should not attempt to access information related to the review of that application in secure NIH computer systems.
An official of an applicant institution, PD/PI, or individual named in an application who is contacted by a reviewer for purposes of obtaining or exchanging information outside of the channels described above should contact the SRO who is managing the review of his or her application.
- Consistent with applicable law, the NIH may defer an application for peer review or withdraw the application if it determines that a fair review is not feasible because of action(s) by an official of an applicant organization, a PD/PI, or other investigator named in an application. Depending on the specific circumstances, the NIH may take additional steps to ensure the integrity of the peer review process, including but not limited to:
- Notifying or requesting information from the applicant institution or the individual's institution.
- Pursuing a referral for government-wide suspension or debarment.
- Notifying the NIH Office of Management Assessment (OMA) with possible referral to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Please direct all inquiries to: Sally A. Amero, Ph.D. NIH Review Policy Officer, at ReviewPolicyOfficer@mail.nih.gov.