NSF Day at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is Rescheduled!

We had some disappointed faculty when last Fall's NSF day had to be canceled due to sequestration. Fortunately CSHL have rescheduled the workshop for June 4th, 2014. A tentative agenda is here.
From Walter L. Goldschmidts, Ph.D., Executive Director of Sponsored Programs at CSHL:

The workshop is intended to assist new faculty and other research scientists and educators from the New York and the northeast region to learn more about the full scope of NSF supported research and education programs and priorities and to better understand the NSF grant proposal and merit review process. Representatives from seven NSF Directorates and the Office of International and Integrative Activities are anticipated to make presentations on their programs and will be available informally and in breakout sessions for discussions of potential research proposals.
The workshop will be held in the Grace Auditorium on the CSHL campus and support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has been secured by CSHL to help defray participant costs so that registration fees can be held to a minimum. Space is limited, so please register early by visiting: http://meetings.cshl.org/meetingsregistration_nic.asp.

Symposium on Public Access to Scholarly Research

The Tri-Institutional Collaboration Network, Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medical College are sponsoring a symposium on the Public Access policy on April 16th at Rockefeller University. To learn more and register for the free symposium, click here: http://www.mskcc.org/events/symposium/public-access-scholarly-research.

Two NSF Items

First, an article from Inside Higher Ed about a bill passed earlier this month that could decrease NSF's budget for social and behavioral research.

Second, the NSF's FY 2013 Performance and Financial Highlights, which includes information like this: in fiscal year 2013, 49,014 proposals were evaluated by their merit review process and 10,844 were funded. This is the lowest number of new awards since fiscal year 2006. It can only get better from here!

Beware of a grant scam!

The Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) has received reports from a number of people regarding a grant scam. The scammers contact investigators saying they represent COFAR and want to award the investigator a grant ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, but they require a processing fee be paid first and ask for bank account information. COFAR wants people to know that they never award grants; in addition, no one from the government would ever ask for someone's bank account information for any reason.

Read more about the scam here: http://www.fordham.edu//images/academics/Office_of_Research/OSP//COFAR-Grants-Alert.pdf

NIH raises salary cap to $181,500

The NIH announced today that they are operating under a continuing resolution, and that the Executive Level II salary is increased by 1% from $179,700 to $181,500. See NOT-OD-14-043 for more information.

Inside Higher Ed article about how the sequester has affected research institutions

WASHINGTON -- The automatic federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, that took effect in March have forced universities to lay off research-related personnel, delay projects and admit fewer graduate students, according to a new survey released Monday. Read more: Inside Higher Ed

Cold Spring Harbor Lab (LI) hosts the NSF for an upcoming workshop

The tentative agenda includes:
• an overview of the proposal and merit review process at NSF
• information on cross-disciplinary programs
• breakout sessions for specific disciplines, and
• "Proposal Preparation 101"

Registration costs run from $150 to $300 (including lunch, reception and hotel room where appropriate). More information can be found at https://meetings.cshl.edu/meetingsregistration_nic1.asp.