March 20, 2015 edition
(Please follow links in the titles for original posting and further details)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
DER Noontime Seminars Series
Next week’s presentation will feature Trifecta. The mission of Trifecta research
collaborations is to reduce health disparities by developing applied innovations
that improve health outcomes and the organization and delivery of health
services to underserved communities through new communication and
engineering technologies.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015| 12:00-1:00pm | 3540EB | Pizza and pop provided.
NSF Day at MSU
This event is free; registration is required. Seating is limited to the first 40 people
who register. This event will be live video streamed & the link will be e-mailed to
registered participants in advance. Please register by Friday, March 27 to
nifs@msu.edu
International Research Funding Opportunities from NSF and Other Agencies
Dr. DeAndra Beck joined MSU in December as the International Studies and
Programs (ISP) Associate Dean for Research. She brings an impressive resume of
work, including program director for the National Science Foundation’s Office of
International Science and Engineering. She was responsible for NSF’s Developing
Country initiatives and the Middle East and Africa portfolios. Prior to joining the
NSF, she held leadership positions at the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation
and the U.S. Forest Service, with a tour of duty at U.S. Agency for International
Development.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015| 3:00-4:00 pm | 3540EB | Refreshments provided.
VPRGS 2015 Research Workshops
 Data Management Plans, Data Preservation Issues. Main LibraryNorth Conference Room, 4th Floor. April 02, 2015 from 3-5pm.
 Taking Your Research Abroad. Main Library, North Conference Room,
4th Floor. April 16, 2015 from 3-4pm.
 Export Controls on Research. FRIB 1200 Lecture Hall. April 23, 2015
from 3-5pm.
Higher Education Partnerships for Innovation and Impact
The Higher Education Partnerships for Innovation and Impact (HEPII) is a new
mechanism developed by the U.S. Agency for International Development to 1)
strengthen human and institutional capacity within higher education institutions
in USAID partner countries, and to 2) achieve USAID development impact through
their rigorous research capabilities; focus on science, technology and engineering;
subject-matter knowledge and experience; and partnership connections.
Partnerships developed through HEPII will expand USAID's reach into academic
and technical sectors to solve mutual development challenges, while engaging the
private sector, foundations and other industry partners. The program description
is available for public comment at until March 25, 2015.
Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) - Investigator Training Program
(ITP)
The Investigator Training Program is designed to support clinical trial
investigators. It aims to improve the many skills required for the planning,
conducting, & reporting of clinical trials. The ITP provides a forum in which both
novice and seasoned investigators/staff involved in clinical trials can share their
experiences and receive practical advice on trial organization and execution.
Thu, 03/26/2015 - Fri, 03/27/2015 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
National Science Foundation selects Rebecca Spyke Keiser to head Office of
International Science & Engineering
OISE promotes an integrated, Foundation-wide international strategy and
manages internally focused programs that are innovative, catalytic and responsive
to a broad range of NSF and national interests.
MSU Sponsored Projects’ Proposal Deadline Policy
College of Engineering’s Proposal Processing Timeline
Completed proposals must be provided to OSP at least three full business days
prior to the sponsor's deadline to be considered on time. On-time proposals will
take precedence over those considered late. Thank you for your continued
cooperation and commitment to improving the process of proposal review,
approval and timely submission.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
1) Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation-Implementation NSF 15553
2) Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) PD 14-7680
3) MSU Sustainability Fellows Program
4) The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA)
5) Exploratory Technologies to Understand the Control of Organ Function by
the Peripheral Nervous System for SPARC (U18) RFA-RM-15-002
6) Future Arctic Sensing Technologies DARPA-BAA-15-28
7) International Technology Alliance (ITA) US Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
& United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD)W911NF-15-R-0003
8) Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research- Technology
Translation (PFI: AIR-TT) NSF 14-569
9) STEM + Computing Partnerships (STEM+C) NSF 15-537
10) BRAIN Initiative: New Concepts and Early- Stage Research for Large-Scale
Recording and Modulation in the Nervous System (R21) RFA-EY-15-001
11) Identification of Novel Targets and Pathways Mediating Weight Loss,
Diabetes Resolution and Related Metabolic Disease after Bariatric Surgery in
Humans (R01) RFA-DK-14-025
12) Next Generation Electric Machines: Megawatt Class Motors DE-FOA0001208
13) Computational Materials Sciences DE-FOA-0001276
14) U.S. Wind Manufacturing: Larger Blades to Access Greater Wind Resources
and Lower Costs DE-FOA-0001214
15) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (R35) RFA-GM-16-002
16) Water Science Network announces the WaterCube Program
1)
Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation-Implementation
NSF 15-553
The Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Computer & Information
Science & Engineering Directorate (CISE/ACI) is partnering with Directorates and
Offices across the NSF to support SI2, a long-term comprehensive program
focused on realizing a sustained software infrastructure that is an integral part of
CIF21. The goal of this program is to catalyze and nurture the interdisciplinary
processes required to support the entire software lifecycle, resulting in
sustainable community software elements and reusable components at all levels
of the software stack. The program addresses software in all aspects of
cyberinfrastructure, from embedded sensor systems and instruments, to desktops
and high-end data and computing systems, to major instruments and facilities.
Institutionally Limited: internal deadline April 09, 2015
2)
Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) PD 14-7680
The Broadening Participation in Engineering program is interested in reviewing
projects that will address how to achieve significant increases in the participation
and professional success, leading to improved retention of under-represented
ethnic/racial minorities within the ranks of our engineering faculties. Of particular
interest are projects that increase our understanding of the inherent challenges
faced by members of underrepresented ethnic and racial groups in the
attainment of engineering doctoral degrees and achieving success as an early
career engineering faculty member.
Deadline: April 10, 2015
3)
MSU Sustainability Fellows Program
As a major research university, Michigan State is committed to furthering
knowledge and improving life for present and future generations through the
convention of research. The Sustainability Fellows Program funds research
projects that investigate topics in environmental sustainability specific to MSU.
Successful proposals will use MSU’s campus as a laboratory to address issues
related to greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, waste reduction, water
conservation, sustainable transportation, education, engagement, social
responsibility and more.
Deadline: April 10, 2015
4)
The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA)
The YFA program provides funding, mentoring, and industry and DoD contacts to
awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the
context of DoD needs. The program focuses on untenured faculty, emphasizing
those without prior DARPA funding. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to
develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers and
mathematicians in key disciplines who will focus a significant portion of their
career on DoD and national security issues.
Deadline: April 13, 2015
5)
Exploratory Technologies to Understand the Control of Organ
Function by the Peripheral Nervous System for SPARC (U18) RFA-RM-15002
This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), supported by funds from the
NIH Common Fund (Common Fund) and managed by the Office of the Director
and participating NIH Institute(s) and Center(s) of the Stimulating Peripheral
Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program, solicits U18 Research
Demonstration Cooperative Agreement applications to develop new and/or
enhance existing tools and technologies tailored to elucidate the neurobiology
and neurophysiology underlying autonomic control of internal organs in health or
disease, which will ultimately inform next generation neuromodulation therapies.
These awards will establish feasibility for further technology development in any
future SPARC initiatives. Additionally, the technologies developed through these
awards are expected to lay the groundwork for more systematic facilitation of
biological mapping activities in any future SPARC initiatives.
Deadline: full proposal April 14, 2015
6)
Future Arctic Sensing Technologies DARPA-BAA-15-28
DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of novel Arctic
sensor systems. In particular, DARPA is interested in concepts for low-cost,
rapidly-deployable, environmentally friendly, unmanned sensor systems,
including deployment and data reach-back from above the Arctic Circle that can
detect, track and identify air, surface and subsurface targets.
Deadline: April 14, 2015
7)
International Technology Alliance (ITA) US Army Research
Laboratory (ARL) & United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD)W911NF15-R-0003
The purpose of this United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and
United Kingdom Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) International
Technology Alliance (ITA) Program Announcement (PA) is to solicit offers that will
help to fulfill the research and development goals of the US Department of Army
and UK Ministry of Defence. This document announces a new and innovative
opportunity for cooperation between the US and the UK in the area of Distributed
Analytics and Information Science (DAIS).The DAIS ITA Program is comprised of
two components: (1) the Basic Research Component and (2) the Technology
Transition Component. The Basic Research Component will provide for
fundamental research, the results of which will be in the public domain, while the
Technology Transition Component will provide for the application of the
fundamental research results to military, security and commercial applications to
foster the best technologies for future defense and security needs.
Deadline: White paper due April 14, 2015
8)
Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation ResearchTechnology Translation (PFI: AIR-TT) NSF 14-569
The NSF Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) program within the Division of Industrial
Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) is an umbrella for two complementary
subprograms, Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) and Building Innovation
Capacity (BIC). Overall, the PFI program offers opportunities to connect new
knowledge to societal benefit through translational research efforts and/or
partnerships that encourage, enhance and accelerate innovation and
entrepreneurship. The subject of this solicitation is PFI: AIR-Technology
Translation (PFI: AIR-TT). The PFI: AIR-TT solicitation serves as an early
opportunity to move previously NSF-funded research results with promising
commercial potential along the path toward commercialization. Projects are
supported to demonstrate proof-of-concept, prototype, or scale-up while
engaging faculty and students in entrepreneurial/innovative thinking.
Deadline: full proposal due April 14, 2015
9)
STEM + Computing Partnerships (STEM+C) NSF 15-537
The STEM+C Partnerships program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and
teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and
computing by K-12 students and teachers, through research on, and development
of, courses, curriculum, course materials, pedagogies, instructional strategies, or
models that innovatively integrate computing into one or more STEM disciplines,
or integrate STEM content into the teaching and learning of computing. In
addition, STEM+C seeks to build capacity in K-12 computing education with
foundational research and focused teacher preparation. Projects in the STEM+C
Partnerships program should build on research in STEM education and prior
research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical
justification for proposed projects. Pre-service and in-service teachers who
participate in STEM+C projects are expected to enhance their understanding and
teaching of STEM and computing content, practices, and skills.
Deadline: April 14, 2015
10) BRAIN Initiative: New Concepts and Early- Stage Research for
Large-Scale Recording and Modulation in the Nervous System (R21) RFAEY-15-001
A central goal of the BRAIN Initiative is to understand how electrical and chemical
signals code information in neural circuits and give rise to sensations, thoughts,
emotions and actions. Available technologies for recording and manipulating
neural circuit activity in human and animal experiments are not sufficient to
accomplish this goal. Non-invasive technologies are low resolution and/or provide
indirect measures such as blood flow, which are imprecise. Invasive technologies
can provide information at the level of single neurons producing the fundamental
biophysical signals, but they can only be applied to tens or hundreds of neurons,
out of a total number in the human brain estimated at 85 billion.
Deadline: April 16, 2015
11) Identification of Novel Targets and Pathways Mediating Weight
Loss, Diabetes Resolution and Related Metabolic Disease after Bariatric
Surgery in Humans (R01) RFA-DK-14-025
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support applications that
address the mechanisms by which novel, unexplored targets and pathways, or
known targets, mediate the sustained weight loss, diabetes resolution and
improvements in other obesity-related metabolic diseases reported following
bariatric surgery in humans. Studies directly addressing novel mechanisms using
targeted approaches are of interest and responsive to this FOA particularly those
which utilize up-to-date sophisticated methodologies. Studies simply identifying
differences in responses before and after surgery that do not address mechanism
will not be considered responsive.
Deadline: April 16, 2015
12) Next Generation Electric Machines: Megawatt Class Motors DEFOA-0001208
This specific Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is focused on developing
MV integrated drive systems that leverage the benefits of state of the art power
electronics (i.e., wide band gap devices) with energy efficient, high speed, direct
drive, megawatt (MW) class electric motors for efficiency and power density
improvements in three primary areas: (1) chemical and petroleum refining
industries; (2) natural gas infrastructure; and (3) general industrial applications.
These application areas represent a significant number of motor installations, a
large amount of electrical energy consumption, and significant opportunities for
U.S. technology and manufacturing competitiveness.
Deadline: concept paper due April 16, 2015
13) Computational Materials Sciences DE-FOA-0001276
The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
announces its interest in receiving applications in Computational Materials
Sciences proposing integrated, multidisciplinary teams that will develop validated
community codes and data bases for predictive design of functional materials,
excluding structural materials. Computational Materials Sciences Teams could
also involve new approaches to enhance the use of large data sets derived from
advanced characterization of materials, materials synthesis, processing, and
properties assessments and the parallel data that are generated by large scale
computational efforts that model materials phenomena.
Deadline: April 17, 2015
14) U.S. Wind Manufacturing: Larger Blades to Access Greater Wind
Resources and Lower Costs DE-FOA-0001214
This FOA supports Research and Development (R&D) partnerships leading to
innovative designs and processes for the manufacturing and assembly of wind
turbine blades in order to facilitate deployment of the next generation of multimegawatt wind turbines. Supported projects will develop cost-competitive
integrated solutions that address the challenges of fabricating, transporting
overland, and assembling rotor blades longer than 60m, with design concepts
scalable to greater lengths, and installing them at wind turbine hub heights of at
least 120m.
Deadline: concept paper due April 17, 2015
15) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (R35) RFA-GM-16-002
The Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) is a grant to provide
support for all of the research in an investigator's laboratory that falls within the
mission of NIGMS. The goal of MIRA is to increase the efficiency and efficacy of
NIGMS funding. It is anticipated that the new program will: Increase the stability
of funding for NIGMS-supported investigators, which could enhance their ability
to take on ambitious scientific projects and approach problems more creatively.
Increase flexibility for investigators to follow important new research directions as
opportunities arise, rather than being bound to specific aims proposed in advance
of the studies. More widely distribute funding among the nation’s highly talented
and promising investigators to increase overall scientific productivity and the
chances for important breakthroughs. Reduce the time spent by researchers
writing and reviewing grant applications, allowing them to spend more time
conducting research. Enable principal investigators to devote more time and
energy to mentoring junior scientists in a more stable research environment. The
purpose of this FOA is to test the feasibility of this grant mechanism through a
pilot program with restricted eligibility.
Deadline: letter of intent due April 20, 2015
16) Water Science Network announces the WaterCube Program
The MSU WaterCube Program stimulates new multidisciplinary collaborations and
novel water research ideas. For College of Engineering Faculty, tokens are
generated by obtaining approval from your Chair for $5k support, which the
College will match. ESPP will then provide another $10k, for a total value of $20k.
Engineering participation will be limited to 5 tokens in the initial run. Faculty
members then form teams of at least three token holders, one of whom must be
new to the team, to create a WaterCube. Each WaterCube is thus provided with
at least $60,000 to be spent over two years to pursue promising research ideas.
WaterCubes are expected to produce external grant proposals and peer‐reviewed
publications, and document evidence of progress through annual WaterCube
meetings with peers.
Deadline: All teams must complete a brief online form to lock themselves in as a
WaterCube by April 30, 2015
All deadlines listed in this announcement indicate the agency’s due date. Please
adjust your PPF submission to account for the new deadline policies.
DER Proposal Processing Form (PPF)