NIH peer review briefings for fellowships and R01 applicants

The National Institutes of Health will be providing three online video briefings in November and December regarding peer review at the NIH. On 11/2, they will concentrate on fellowship applications; on 12/1, R01 applications; and 12/2 a more general briefing for basic research applications. Registration is required, but free, and registrants will have the opportunity to submit questions before and during the webinars. Please see notice NOT-OD-16-152 for more information.

GrantForward webinar October 10

GrantForward, one of the funding search tools that Fordham subscribes to, is holding a webinar on how to use the site:

Join us on Monday, October 10 at 2:00 - 3:00pm (Central Time) for a GrantForward Webinar. This webinar will focus on the basics of Using GrantForward as a Researcher. We will guide you through creating an account, trying a simple search, using advanced filters, exporting grants, saving searches, and creating a profile.

Note that Central Time is an hour behind Eastern so the webinar is 3-4pm New York time. Sign up for the webinar here.

Upcoming research workshops: NIH and NSF

The NIH is holding a Regional Seminar in Chicago, at the Palmer House, October 26-28. General registration for this seminar ends September 1st.
Visit http://regionalseminars.od.nih.gov/chicago2016/ to view the agenda and register for this seminar, which has three tracks: administrators, new investigators, and all interests (you are not limited to staying within one track).

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The NSF will be holding a Grants Conference in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University November 14 and 15. Visit http://www.nsfgrantsconferences.com/ehome/nsf/fall2016/ to view the conference site. Registration begins on September 8th. This conference is excellent for those who want to know more about the NSF's upcoming programs, the merit review process, and proposal preparation.

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These research workshops are a great opportunity to meet NIH and NSF program officers and staff. In the past, for example, more than 100 NIH employees were available at one of their regional seminars. Don't miss out!

NIH's new Rigor and Reproducibility requirement in a handy chart

The NIH has come out with a resource chart to help you make sense of their Rigor and Reproducibility in NIH Applications requirement (see http://grants.nih.gov/reproducibility/index.htm).

Click here to download the PDF version of the chart.

How can you, as a supervisor, promote research integrity?

As a PI, academic advisor, mentor or project director, you've got an opportunity to promote research integrity during day-to-day life in the lab or office among those you supervise.

The Office of Research Integrity has created a helpful infographic on how to do this, which you can download at this link.

It's the National Science Foundation's birthday!

Read about some of the exciting discoveries and inventions that resulted from NSF funding over the past 66 years in this article on Medium.

Experiment shows eliminating deadlines dramatically reduces submissions

" [Alex Isern, the head of the surface Earth processes section] eliminated the twice-a-year deadlines for four of her grant programs, in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry, geomorphology and land-use dynamics, hydrological sciences, and sedimentary geology and paleobiology. NSF sent out a notice about the change at the beginning of 2015, and after a 3-month proposal hiatus, the no-deadline approach began in April 2015.

The number of proposals plummeted, from 804 in 2014 to just 327 in the 11 months from April 2015 to March... So far, she says, there have been no effects on the demographics of who is applying, such as the age of the principal investigator or the type of university they are applying from. Because of a lag in decisions, she hasn’t yet measured the expected rise in success rates."

Read the full story in Science.