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.

Grants.gov will phase out PDF-based application packages on 12/31/17

Grants.gov has announced that as of the end of 2017, they will no longer make available or accept the PDF-based application packages, now known as "legacy packages". Instead, Grants.gov offers their online application preparation and submission website, Workspace. You can learn more about how to use this new tool here: Grants.gov Workspace Overview. Additionally, many of the Federal sponsors already have, or have recently created their own online submission tools, such as NSF's Fastlane and NIH's ASSIST, that you may also have the option to submit through.

If your proposal must go through Grants.gov for submission, get familiar with Workspace early and give it a go -- pretty soon you won't have a choice anymore!

Do you do research with human subjects?

Under the NIH's new definition of "clinical trial", your study might become one, soon.

Due to upcoming policy changes in the definition which broaden the requirements that qualify a study as a clinical trial, you may have to start checking "yes" to clinical trial on the Notice of Intent to Submit form and registering your studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, when you did not have to do so previously.

The NIH has created a helpful page at https://grants.nih.gov/policy/clinical-trials.htm that provides more information about the changes in policy, and the four questions which, if you answer "yes" to all, will define your human-subject study as a clinical trial.

Undergraduate research doesn't just benefit students...

...It also benefits universities, and science knowledge in general. So say David Rovnyak and George Shields in an Inside Higher Ed article entitled, "How Undergraduate Research Drives Science Forward":

Some in the scientific community have a skeptical view of undergraduate research. They may not doubt the benefits it offers students, but for true scientific innovation, it’s best to leave that to the flagships.

Such biases could not be more misguided.

Focusing mainly on PUIs (Primarily Undergraduate Institutions), Rovnyak and Shields explore the advances made, and prejudices suffered, by undergraduate researchers.

Fun with an AI

We're all familiar with the motivational posters popular in workplaces, encouraging employees to greater productivity and better morale with inspirational quotes set against soothing backgrounds. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence has a hard time understanding this concept.

InspiroBot is "an artificial intelligence dedicated to generating unlimited amounts of unique inspirational quotes" and claims, "all I want to do is please humans."

Inspire yourself at inspirobot.me/.