The Interstellar Initiative

The New York Academy of Sciences, along with The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, will hold a two-day networking conference in June in New York City and they want YOU.

Maybe. Attendance is by invitation only as this is a mentor-mentee matchup opportunity. NYAS is looking for Early Career Investigators in four broad categories: 1) Clinical Research; 2) Life Science; 3) Physical Science; and 4) Technology. 2018's event has two major interest themes of Cancer and Neuroscience, and will also focus on the topic of Artificial Intelligence in medicine.

Please see the full announcement for more information on the event and eligibility criteria: https://www.nyas.org/events/2018/the-interstellar-initiative/. If you are interested and eligible, the application portal can also be found at that link. Applications are due by 11:59pm on April 2nd.

NIH wants your input on their Strategic Plan for Data Science

In their latest Request for Information (RFI) notice, the National Institutes of Health recognize that "data science has increased in importance for biomedical research over the past decade" and they expect this trend will continue; because of this, they have created a draft strategic plan for data science which explains their goals, objectives and implementation tactics to keep the NIH on the cutting edge. The draft plan may be downloaded here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/NIH-Strategic-Plan-for-Data-Science.pdf. Responses to this request for information must be received by April 2nd, and submitted electronically to: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/rfi.cfm?ID=73. Please see the complete RFI notice at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-134.html for more about what questions the NIH wants you, the stakeholder, to answer for them.

NEH boosts fellowships to $5000/month

Earlier this month the NEH announced that they are increasing the amount of their fellowships from $4200 a month to $5000 a month, for a maximum stipend of $60,000 over a 12-month period. That's almost $10,000 more per year! The increase applies to the NEH's 'regular' fellowships as well as the NEH-Mellon fellowships for digital publication.

Please see this press release dated February 21, 2018, for more details: NEH Increases Award Amount for NEH Fellowships. The deadline for both types of NEH Fellowships is April 11, 2018.

NSF Spring Grants Conference

The National Science Foundation has sent out a 'Save the Date' for their always popular Spring Grants Conference. It will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center on June 4th and 5th. The registration will open on March 15th at 12pm EST at this link: NSF Spring 2018 Grants Conference.

A Note about the Government Shutdown

As with the previous shutdown a few years ago, many federal funders have temporarily dismissed their "non-essential" employees and some have blacked out their websites. While the Feds are staffed by skeleton crews, many grant-related tasks will not be undertaken: awards may be delayed; Fordham will not be able to draw down funds; proposal deadlines will be pushed back indefinitely; program officers and grant management staff will not answer phone calls or respond to emails. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to your OSP contact. We're here to get you through this.

Additionally, here is a list of contingency plans submitted by Federal agencies to the Office of Budget and Management.

NIH's 'All of Us' is looking for research topics

The NIH's 'All of Us' program looks to create a diverse database of more than one million people across the country willing to share information about their health, habits and the conditions where they live. Anyone can sign up! And now the NIH is looking to researchers to provide them with ideas about what topics are most important to study. You can submit your research ideas and questions at the All of Us Research Priorities website: https://allofusresearchpriorities.ideascale.com/. What do YOU think is the most important medical research we should be using this database for? The submission window is open until February 9th, 2018.

NEH upcoming grant deadlines

As recently as late Fall, it was not clear that the National Endowment for the Humanities would be able to issue grant announcements for the Spring (see: "NEH Head Says Humanities Funding Still a Question Mark," NET News, October 20, 2017).
We're happy to share the NEH's announcement of upcoming grant competitions, including some which may be of particular interest to Fordham faculty:

• NEH Public Scholar (due 2/7/18)

• Summer Seminars and Institutes (due 2/22/18)

• NEH/Melon Fellowships for Digital Publication (due 4/11/18)

• NEH Fellowships (due 4/11/18)

• Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (two deadines: 1/16/18 and sometime in June)

More information about these and other opportunities may be found on the NEH website: https://www.neh.gov/grants.

History of Medicine lecture series

The US National Library of Medicine announces its History of Medicine Lecture Series for 2018, kicking off on January 29th. Lectures are held at 11am on the National Institutes of Health campus, and are free, but to insure adequate space attendees are requested to register for the lectures. If you can't make it in person, the lectures are also live-streamed, and archived for later watching. Lectures include:

• Theresa MacPhail, PhD, Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Evolution of Viral Networks: H1N1, Ebola, and Zika;

• A Conversation about Graphic Medicine, a special program in conjunction with Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well Drawn, a new NLM special display, traveling banner exhibition, and online exhibition launching soon;

• Trevor Owens, Head of Digital Content Management, Library of Congress, Scientists' Hard Drives, Databases, and Blogs: Preservation Intent and Source Criticism in the Digital History of Science, Technology and Medicine;

• Heidi Morefield, MSc, 2017 NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellow in the History of Medicine, Doctoral student, Department of the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Transplanting Technology: Dr. Michael DeBakey and Cold War Technology Transfer;

• David S. Jones, MD, PhD, A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine, Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University, Making the Case for History in Medical Education

For more information on the lecture series, check out NLM's announcement here.

2017 NSF Fall Grants Conference webcasts available

The NSF Grants Conferences are always popular events that can't accommodate everyone that wants to attend; thankfully they've posted the videos from the conference proceedings so everyone has a chance to learn. Visit the NSF Resource Center to view the videos.

Big Data training and symposium

The Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) and Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) programs, both initiatives of the NIH Common Fund, announce their 2018 Summer Research Training Program in Biomedical Big Data Science. This is a research intensive, ten-week training for undergraduate and graduate students starting June 4, 2018. Applications are due on February 1st. For more information on how to apply, and to see past training fellows and their research projects, see the Training and Outreach page of the BD2K-LINCS website.

BD2K-LINCS also announces the 2018 Data Science Symposium, January 31-February 2, 2018, in sunny Miami, Florida. This year's topic is "Studying Systems Biology by Cellular Perturbations". For more information on the symposium, see their News and Events page.

Distinguished Lectures in Mathematical and Physical Sciences

The National Science Foundation announces the 2017-2018 Distinguished Lectures in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, a series of free lectures at the NSF Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. If you are going to be in the area, all you need to do is send an email to arrange for a visitor badge at least 24 hours prior to the lecture you wish to attend. The schedule is:

•Monday, Dec. 11, 2017: Soft Materials Research in the Era of Machine Learning, Juan de Pablo, professor of molecular engineering, University of Chicago.

•Monday, Jan. 22, 2018: Turning Inert Nitrogen from the Atmosphere into Useful Products through Mild Catalytic Chemistry, Nobel laureate Richard Schrock, professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•Monday, Feb. 12, 2018: Strange Bonds and Odd Angles: Exploring Exotic Chemistry in Space, Michael McCarthy, associate director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

•Monday, April 23, 2018: Modeling and Simulation of Asteroid-Generated Tsunamis, Marsha Berger, professor of mathematics and computer science, New York University.

•Monday, May 21, 2018: Hairy Hydrodynamics in Biology and Beyond, Anette (Peko) Hosoi, professor of mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

•Monday, June 25, 2018: Atomic Clocks in the Next Quantum Revolution, Marianna Safronova, professor of physics, University of Delaware.

For more information, please see NSF's Media Advisory 17-012.

NIH regional seminar on program funding and grants

NIH announces Early Registration rates for a May 2018 regional seminar on program funding and grants administration for researchers or administrators who want to learn more about NIH, talk to colleagues from the area, and speak with NIH personnel. The two-day seminar will be held May 2nd to 4th, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Registration is open now and early bird rates are available until December 15th. There are also full and half-day workshops available.

Act FAST! NIH regional seminars sell out very quickly.

Should scientific presentations use emojis?

Last November, a team of scientists attended Emojicon in San Francisco and demanded that the Unicode Consortium approve a new set of scientific emojis that would better help them express themselves quickly. (See: Scientists call for emoji that represent the full spectrum of nerdom, Quartz, November 14, 2016.)

Now, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, after meeting with conference organizers to discuss efforts to increase transparency in the communication of scientific results, has released a Request for Information on developing emojis for scientific presentations such as conference posters. Use of an accepted emoji indicating, for example, randomized trials or a double-blind protocol, would allow someone viewing a poster to quickly assess the research method's rigor.

Responses are requested by December 15th. See NOT-NS-18-014, "Request for Information on Developing Experimental Design "Emoji" Symbols for Use in Scientific Presentations" for more information.

scientist emoji via Wikimedia Commons

NEH announces collaborative research grants

The NEH announces three types of collaborative research grants, for a proposal deadline of December 6, 2017. Each grant type supports groups of two or more scholars engaging in significant and sustained research in the humanities, and seeks to encourage interdisciplinary work. The three available grants are:

Type 1: Convening Grants – up to $50,000
Convening grants last one year and typically fund conferences and working group meetings to sharpen the chosen research topic and discuss and plan subsequent publication.

Type 2: Publication Grants – up to $250,000 (no more than $100,000 per year)
Publication grants last one to three years and support the project toward completion of its publication goals. Publications can appear in traditional print or in digital form. Note that costs paid to publishers and subventions are not supported.

Type 3: Archaeology Grants – up to $250,000 (no more than $100,000 per year)
Archaeology grants last one to three years and support projects that lead to publication.

Please see the Collaborative Research Grants page for more information.

Open House at CUNY's Advance Science Research Center

The City University of New York announces its second annual ASRC Open House on Thursday, November 16th from 10am to 7pm. Guests will be able to tour 10 active core facilities, talk to research faculty, and have the opportunity to become a core facility user or affiliate faculty member with access to the Center. Research Initiatives of the ASRC include photonics, nanoscience, structural biology, neuroscience and environmental sciences. To register for the tour, and get more information about the ASRC, visit this link: http://www.asrc.cuny.edu/events/open-house-2017/.

NSF wants to know what research infrastructure you need

In Dear Colleague Letter 18-013 NSF has issued a request for information about the need for Mid-scale Research Infrastructure. "Mid-scale" is defined as costs falling between the maximum you can request from their popular Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, which is $4M, and the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act's definition of a 'major multi-user research facility project', which is $100M or greater. This request for information is not a request for funding, nor should the request be interpreted as an intent to publish a new research infrastructure opportunity in the near future, but it will help the NSF identify "promising projects that remain difficult to address within program budgets due to the comparatively large investment needed in a relatively short period of time." A link to the survey can be found at the bottom of the Dear Colleague Letter linked above. It doesn't hurt to let the NSF know what the community needs!

Four NSF BIO divisions do away with pre-proposals (and deadlines!)

NSF announced on October 5th in Dear Colleague Letter 18-011 that after careful consideration of the impact of the pre-proposal pilot on reviewers, institutions and the research community, "BIO will implement a 'no-deadline,' full-proposal mechanism for receiving and reviewing proposals submitted to core programs in the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS), the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and to the programs in the Research Resources Cluster of the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)." More information on the changes to proposals can be found in these FAQ's (NSF 18-012) as well as on the division's websites.

NIH's Loan Repayment Program -- webinar coming up soon!

Interested in the NIH's Loan Repayment Program (see previous blog post here) but having some trouble figuring out how to apply? Register for the LRP Technical Assistance webinar at this link: NIH LRP Webinar.

Webinar Info:
Date and Time: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 3:00 pm, EST
Meeting number (access code): 620 964 208
Event password: LRPApp
Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-650-479-3208

Agenda:
1. Description of the Programs and Eligibility Requirements
2. Overview of Application Components
- Major Sections of the Application
- Research Activities and Personal Statement
- Recommendations
- Loan Information
3. Application Timeline
4. Applicant Checklist
5. Q&A

NIH's Next Generation Researchers initiative

As of August 31, 2017, the National Institutes of Health has implemented new procedures to better support early stage and early established investigators called the Next Generation Researchers Initiative. Early state investigators (ESI) are those who are within 10 years of their terminal research degree or the end of their post-graduate clinical training, who have not received a "substantial" NIH award yet. (For a list of smaller NIH grants that an investigator can hold, and still be considered early stage, click here.) An early established investigator (EEI) is within 10 years of receiving their first substantial NIH award as an early stage investigator. Both classes of investigator will be given priority, and NIH's goal is to award 200 more ESI and 200 more EEI awards this fiscal year than last year. Learn more about this initiative here: NOT-OD-17-101.

NIH Loan Repayment Program

The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress, designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. The escalating costs of advanced education and training in medicine and clinical specialties are forcing some scientists to abandon their research careers for higher-paying private industry or private practice careers.

The LRPs counteract that financial pressure by repaying up to $35,000 annually of a researcher's qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research. Awardees can receive up to $70,000 of qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year contract. This year's application cycle opens on Friday, September 1st. See the LRP website for more information: lrp.nih.gov.