December 2016 Newsletter

FSU Recruiting African-American Dementia Caregivers for Faith-Based Project

Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are tough on patients but also on caregivers, and Rob Glueckauf, an FSU College of Medicine professor, and his health-service team are offering a new approach that they hope will benefit numerous caregivers. And it’s free.

For this project, he and his team are recruiting African-American adults who provide direct care for a loved one with dementia at least six hours a week and have a strong need to reduce their own stress. They’ll be involved in the program for 12 to 14 weeks and receive up to $90 for their participation. Trained faith community workers, or “lay pastoral care facilitators,” will help the caregivers with:

Communicating effectively with doctors and family members
Dealing with their loved one’s difficult behaviors, wandering and general safety
Managing the stresses and worries of caregiving
Increasing their self-care, rest and relaxation

Glueckauf and his health-service team hope to get more than 130 caregivers to participate in the project.

TO REGISTER: Qualified caregivers may call 850-274-4945 (Tallahassee), 866-778-2724 (toll-free) or go to www.ACTS2Project.org.

TO SUPPORT ACTS 2: Rob Glueckauf and his team want to make this faith-based program available to more Floridians. Although it’s free to caregivers, the recruiting, training and evaluation efforts all require money and time. That’s why they're seeking additional support. Interested donors may visit http://spark.fsu.edu/Project/215 to make a financial contribution online.

Discovery on Parade – Final Call for Exhibitors

Discovery on Parade, a unique event that showcases research and commercialization in all of Tallahassee’s institutions of higher education, will be held from 5 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017 at the Augustus B. Turnbull III Florida State Conference Center. This annual event is a combined institutional effort among FSU, FAMU and TCC that provides researchers an exceptional opportunity to show the local community the scientific and economic impact their work will have moving forward.

Last year was the first time FSU combined its efforts with the other institutions. The combined efforts proved to be a tremendous success. The event had more than 70 exhibitors representing the three institutions and attracted more than 600 business, government and community members. We anticipate the 2017 event will draw an even bigger crowd.

Discovery on Parade offers a great opportunity for researchers to showcase their technology and inventions. A completed Exhibitor Interest Form is all that is required to secure your participation. Each individual or team of exhibitors will have a table to display posters, provide demonstrations, or just talk about the work they are accomplishing and what the end goal for their work will be.

If you are interested in participating in the event, please contact Beverlyn Samuels at bsamuels@fsu.edu to obtain an Exhibitor Interest Form. Completed forms must be returned on or before Friday, December 16, 2016.

Federal Lobbying Activities Report is Due January 5

Federal regulations require that FSU report to the U.S. House and Senate all time and expenses related to federal lobbying activities conducted by its faculty and staff. To aid us in completing those reports accurately, employees who participate in federal lobbying related to university activities should report those activities to FSU’s Office of Federal Relations. The Federal Lobbying Activities Report covering the period October-December 2016 should be submitted to the Office of Federal Relations no later than January 5, 2017. To access the form and additional information, please visit the Federal Relations website.

Date	Course Code and Name	Location/Time
12/01/2016	SRA09 Effort Commitments/Certifications	8:30-10:30 SSB301
12/07/2016	SRA11 Award Negotiations & Processing / Federal Acquisition Regulation Clauses	10:00-12:00 SSB301
12/08/2016	SRA18 Intellectual Property / Export Control	2:30-4:30 SSB301
12/13/2016	SRA13 Tuition Waivers and Projects	8:30-10:30 SSB301
12/14/2016	SRA26 Subcontracting / Audit Requirements	8:30-10:30 SSB301
12/15/2016	SRA03 SRA Financial Management	2:30-4:30 Dirac Library
12/16/2016	SRA28 Federal & State of Florida Conflict & Florida	8:30-10:30 SSB301

Moore Inventor Fellows Program

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announces the 2017 competition for Moore Inventor Fellows. Inspired by Gordon Moore’s passion for discovery, this competition seeks to identify outstanding early-stage inventors who harness science and technology solutions to enhance scientific research, strengthen environmental conservation, or improve the experience and outcomes of patient care. Fellows will receive funding for three years at a level of $200,000 per year from the Moore Foundation.

You can find more information on criteria, nomination procedure and the selection process here. Institutions may submit up to two nominations by March 1, 2017, with the applications being due March 1. If you are interested in this program, please visit the FSU Limited Submission Site to apply. The internal deadline for this program is Thursday Dec. 22.

NIH Announces Implementation of New Final Research Performance Progress Reports

The National Institutes of Health intends to replace the Final Progress Report (FPR) with the Final Research Performance Progress Report (Final RPPR) through a new eRA Commons module effective January 2017.

Background

NIH implemented the interim RPPR in 2012, based on a policy memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to the heads of executive departments and agencies establishing the uniform RPPR for use by agencies supporting research and research-related activities. The RPPR replaced previous interim performance reporting formats used by NIH and other agencies.

In order to keep its promise, the Research Business Models (RBM), an Interagency Working Group of the Social, Behavioral & Economic Research Subcommittee of the Committee on Science (CoS), charged NSF and NIH to serve as the co-chairs of an interagency workgroup tasked with developing a standard format for use in reporting final progress on federally-funded research projects and research-related activities, taking into consideration the lessons learned from implementation of the interim RPPR. This interagency workgroup completed its task and on Nov.16, 2016, published a Federal Register notice announcing the updated standardized RPPR to be used for final performance progress reporting.

NIH Implementation

For NIH, the Final Research Performance Progress Report (F-RPPR) will replace the Final Progress Report (FPR) for closeout effective Jan. 1, 2017. On or after that date, NIH will no longer accept FPRs. Generally, the format will be the same as the current interim/annual RPPR, making it easier for recipients to navigate through the F-RPPR based on familiarity with the existing format of the annual RPPR. However, a significant change with implementation of the F-RPPR, is that in order to maximize public transparency, NIH will not maintain the current Type 2 policy which in accordance with NIHGPS Chapter 8.6.2 states that "whether funded or not" the progress report contained in the Type 2 application may serve in lieu of a separate final progress report. It is important to note that the discontinuance of this longstanding policy aligns NIH's final performance reporting requirement with the requirements imposed by other Federal research awarding agencies thus reducing the administrative burden associated with a unique NIH reporting requirement.

Therefore, as a standard policy, NIH will request that organizations submit an "Interim-RPPR" while their renewal application (Type 2) is under consideration. In the event that the Type 2 is funded, NIH will treat the Interim-RPPR as the annual performance report for the final year of the previous competitive segment. If the Type 2 is not funded, the Interim-RPPR will be treated by NIH staff as the institution's Final-RPPR.

Also, in accordance with NIH's implementation of the F-RPPR, recipients will be required to adhere to the new requirement to report on project outcomes. This section will be made publicly available, thus allowing recipients the opportunity to provide the general public with a concise summary of the cumulative outcome or findings of the project (analogous to the Project Summary/Abstract section of the competing application).

As mentioned, NIH is aligning its reporting requirement with other federal research agencies and therefore will not be making any changes to the deadline for submitting the final report- i.e., the Final RPPR or Interim-RPPR must be submitted via eRA Commons no later than 120 calendar days from the period of performance end date. If a recipient fails to comply with this reporting requirement, NIH may take one or more enforcement actions, such as a decision not to make a non-competing continuation award, consistent with NIHGPS Chapter 8.5.2. NIH also plans to maintain the business rule in the RPPR module enabling institutional signing officials (SOs), at their discretion, to delegate submission of the Final RPPR or Interim-RPPR to the Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI).

Note: Implementation of the Final RPPR for Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants will occur approximately 2 months after implementation for all other NIH grants due to unique final reporting requirements under the Small Business Administration's SBIR/STTR Policy Directive.

FAQs and additional information pertaining to NIH's implementation of the F-RPPR will be available on the NIH RPPR website.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
Office of Extramural Research
grantspolicy@od.nih.gov

NIH says it will raise postdoc salaries, despite threats to overtime rule

Republicans in Congress have vowed to roll back a controversial new rule expanding the number of workers eligible for overtime pay when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. And a federal judge has already blocked implementation of the rule, which covers postdoctoral researchers and was supposed to take effect on Dec. 1, 2016.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that regardless of those developments, it will move ahead tomorrow with its plan to raise the stipends of certain biomedical postdocs so they aren’t affected by the rule.

The overtime rule, released this past May, requires overtime pay for workers earning less than $47,476 — more than what many postdocs earned at the time. In response, the NIH announced this past August that it would increase the starting stipends of postdoctoral fellows on the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) — one NIH’s bread-and-butter training awards — to $47,484 from $43,692. It also offered a one-time supplement for grant recipients to meet the pay difference. (NIH did not offer specific guidance regarding pay for postdocs funded through non-NRSA avenues.)

Now, despite the political and legal drama around the rule, NIH is sticking with its plan, Michael Lauer, NIH’s deputy director for extramural research, wrote in a blog post on Nov. 23. “If there are any changes, we will alert the community,” Lauer wrote ScienceInsider in an email.

Some Republicans in Congress have said they would like to overturn the overtime rule early in the next Congress that convenes in January by using a rarely invoked law called the Congressional Review Act. But that might require lawmakers to adjourn earlier next month than they had originally planned, so that the regulation becomes vulnerable to disapproval under the CRA.

FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory Updates

The FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory has several updates that stakeholders may be interested in learning more about.

FSUCML Research Faculty, Dr. Chris Koenig and FSUCML Director, Dr. Felicia Coleman were interviewed on sustainability issues concerning the goliath grouper for a new article published by National Geographic, 800-Pound Groupers Making a Comeback—But Not Everyone's Happy. You can read the article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/groupers-oceans-goliath-fishing/.
FSUCML Research Faculty, Dr. Sandra Brooke is assisting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on a project researching seagrass recovery in the Big Bend region. The ultimate goal of the project, “Seagrass abundancy and productivity in St. George Sound and Apalachicola Bay: Roadblocks to Seagrass Recovery,” is to create a model that will help predict how the changing environment will affect seagrass and what can be done to help facilitate and manage its recovery.
FSUCML is pleased to announce that Brian Moe (Biological Science) is the first recipient of the Coastal and Marine Conservation Research Assistantship Award. FSU alumni Tommy Warren and Kathy Villacorta’s 2016 gift created this endowment to provide support for graduate student research into protecting and conserving coastal and marine habitats, ecologically and economically important marine species, and sustainable fisheries. Congratulations, Brian!
The 2017 recipients of the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory Graduate Student Research Scholarships are: Maggie Vogel (Biological Science) for “The influence of abiotic stress on the diversity and composition of seagrass associated microbial communities;” Kevin Olsen (Biological Science) for “Influences of microscale genetic differentiation on the mating system characteristics of the colonial ascidian Lissoclinum verrilli;” and Austin Heil for “The reproduction and age structure of the Sheepshead in different habitats in the NE Gulf of Mexico.” Recipients receive $1,000 each and use the Marine Lab as a base for conducting their graduate research.

Council on Research & Creativity Updates

Spring Submissions - Spring CRC Deadlines are now at 4:59 p.m. on the day of the deadline. This has moved up from 11:59 p.m. on the day of the deadline to better assist faculty members with any last-minute submission questions or website problems. Please contact the CRC Coordinator with any questions.

The Arts & Humanities Program Enhancement Grant (AHPEG) proposal deadline is a little more than a month away with applications due on Jan. 11, 2017. Nominations for the Developing Scholar Award (DSA) are also coming up in mid-January with the nomination packets due on January 19, 2017. Visit the CRC website for more information on these and other programs available through the CRC.

Fall Submissions – Funding decisions have been made for the 2016 Fall Planning Grant (PG), Fall Small Grants Program (SGP), Multidisciplinary Support Grant (MDS), and Fall Equipment & Infrastructure Enhancement Grant (EIEG). Notifications will be sent out to PIs over the next week. Committee on Faculty Research Support (COFRS) and First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) proposals are currently being reviewed; funding decisions for these programs will be made in late January.

ORI Releases Updated Learning Modules and New Infographics Series

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity has released a revised edition of its popular learning module, "Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing." They also updated their Basic Research Concepts learning module, which is designed to train research support staff who have little formal training in research.

Twelve new infographics are now available on topics related to the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and the handling of research misconduct. These infographics are designed to help young as well as experienced researchers to identify with their role in detecting and preventing research misconduct and promoting a culture of research integrity. They offer specific tips around delicate issues, such as knowing when and how to report questionable activity.

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.

Funding Opportunities

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

SUS Washington Update

The December edition of the State University System E-Update Newsletter from Washington is now available. Click here for the update.

New Faces in the Office of Research

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

Nicholas Lybbert
Nicholas is a Sponsored Research Administration accounting coordinator who will assist with overflow on Compliance’s garnet team and cover the biological science department and Panama City Campus. Nicholas has worked at FSU for more than ten years. He started with the UBA where he obtained experience with sponsored projects and comes to us from procurement where he has worked for the past eight years

Jontae McClure
Jontae is an administrative specialist who will be responsible for all HR and payroll actions for the OVPR, including all actions that route through the OVPR for approval, as well as budget management for select OVPR accounts. The position was previously held by Carmel Cameron. Jontae joins FSU after working more than 10 years in the private sector where she managed administrative and financial functions for a small business.