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Federal agencies are beginning to issue guidance on their operations following the government shutdown that ended last week. See information below. Additional notices are expected to be issued, so check funding agency information frequently, or contact your grants officer.

NIH

In a nutshell, grant application deadlines, processing, reviews, peer review meetings, payments, reporting and other aspects of NIH extramural research operations have been affected, including delays or rescheduling. Federal Notices explaining specific changes have been issued.

See Federal Notices of October 17 and October 18. You can also read their interpretation in NIH’s “Rock Talk,” from Sally Rockey, NIH Deputy Director of Extramural Research.

Oct. 22 Update: See the latest notice on rescheduled deadlines, meetings, etc.  See Sally Rockey’s interpretation.

 

NSF

NSF also is recovering from the funding lapse.  See a webpage with all notices about funding actions.

 

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World-renowned geneticist Claude Bouchard, professor and director of the Human Genomics Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, will deliver the fall 2013 George H. Boyd Distinguished Lecture at the University of Georgia.

On October 1, Bouchard will deliver two separate lectures. The first is a scientific lecture designed primarily for faculty and staff currently working in the sciences. This lecture is titled “The Genomic and Epigenomic Evidence

Dr. Claude Bouchard
Dr. Claude Bouchard

Among the Multiple Determinants of Obesity,” and will be at 11:00 A.M in room 203 of the Ramsey Center.

The second lecture, titled “The Obesity Epidemic: Reflection on Contentious Issues,”  is appropriate for a larger audience of scientists and non-scientists. It will be given at 3:30 P.M. in the UGA Hotel and Conference Center’s Mahler Hall.

Claude Bouchard is a leading expert on the genetics of obesity, and the morbidities associated with obesity, such as Type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Much of his research focuses on the genetics of adaptation to exercise and nutritional interventions, and he is currently investigating the genetic variation in adaptation to regular physical activity as it relates to cardiorespiratory endurance and changes in obesity-related health risk factors.

Dr. Bouchard has authored and coauthored several books and more than 1,000 scientific papers. He is past president of the Obesity Society and past president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. He served as the Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center from 1999 to 2010. Prior to coming to Pennington, he held the Donald B. Brown Research Chair on Obesity at Laval University where he was the Director of the Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory for about 20 years. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Society of Nutrition, the American Heart Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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In order to access appropriate facilities and services, a Visiting Researcher / Scholar must be authenticated with a UGAID.   In March this year, the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of International Education, together with EITS, implemented a process for obtaining a UGAID for visiting researchers and scholars.   This process required each unit’s HR representative to apply for access to the Visiting Scholar IDM system and then to apply for a UGAID for each visiting researcher through this system.

To minimize the number of people having to access the Visiting Scholar IDM system, OVPR has streamlined this process by centralizing the ID request portion of the Visiting Researcher workflow.  This change is effective immediately.

Individual unit HR representatives will now provide information about the visitor to the OVPR Coordinator, who will obtain and return the UGAID. The instructions to request a UGAID for a visiting researcher/scholar have been updated and can be found on the OVPR website: https://ovpr.uga.edu/visiting/ (select the “Planning: UGA IDS, MyIDs and Personal Services Support tab).

Questions regarding a UGAID request can be directed to the OVPR Coordinator, Jessica Hawks (jhawks@uga.edu).

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After 15 years of funding basic biomedical research and supporting over 600 New and Senior Scholars in Aging, Global Infectious Disease, and Neuroscience, the governing Board of Directors of the Ellison Medical Foundation has decided to establish a new direction for the Foundation’s activities and to discontinue funding these programs. Accordingly, the Foundation will no longer be accepting new applications for New and Senior Scholar awards in Aging, Neuroscience, or other biomedical research topics.

All currently funded awards will continue to be honored under all the terms and conditions established in the original award agreement between the grantee institution and the Ellison Medical Foundation, but no new applications or letters of intent will be accepted for these or other grant programs.

 

 

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Faculty and graduate students are encouraged to attend the launch of the Willson Center’s new Research Clusters at a public reception Thursday, August 29 at 4 p.m. in Room 285 of the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Building. President Jere Morehead and Vice President for Research David Lee will join Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen in announcing this major new initiative in humanities and arts research at UGA.

The Faculty Research Cluster (FRC) program supports groups of faculty who are organized to address large-scale humanities and arts questions in partnership with colleagues from allied departments, colleges, centers, and institutes. FRCs are designed to build research capacity in the humanities and arts and increase the profile and competitiveness of faculty for grants and support. The Faculty Research Cluster program is funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research through the University of Georgia Research Foundation.

Six Research Clusters are funded for the 2013 – 2014 academic year:

  • Athens Music Project • Co-directors: Susan Thomas (Music, Women’s Studies) and Jean Kidula (Music, African Studies)
  • International Modernism • Director: Jed Rasula (English)
  • EcoFocus Film Initiative • Director: Sara Beresford (Ecology)
  • Digital Humanities Initiative • Co-Directors: Stephen Berry (History), Bill Kretzschmar (English), Claudio Saunt (History)
  • Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) • Executive Director: David Z. Saltz (Theatre and Film Studies), Artistic Director: Mark Callahan (Art)
  • Neuroimaging, Movie Trailers, and Spectator Cognition • Co-Directors: Tianming Liu (Computer Science), Richard Neupert (Theatre and Film Studies), L. Stephen Miller (Psychology)

See more information.

 

 

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EITS has produced a new technology orientation Web site that includes information that can help new faculty ramp up their use of key technology services.

The “New to Campus” website includes information on everything from establishing a UGA MyID, setting up UGAMail, cloud-based printing; protecting your computer; as well as services specifically for faculty and staff, such as voicemail,  conference calls, and other telephone services; working off campus via remote access VPN; and the Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center

IT also includes a “tech checklist” for new students.

In addition to these online resources,  faculty, staff and students are encouraged to contact the EITS Helpdesk at helpdesk@uga.edu with questions or requests for support with UGA technology services.

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EITS launched a new UGA wireless network for campus visitors, “Welcome to UGA,” which provides visitors with information on how to access UGA wireless Internet services.

The previous wireless service used by UGA guests, “PAWS,” was discontinued in July.

People without a MyID, such as visiting scientists, seminar speakers, or vendors, will be asked to contact the EITS Help Desk to receive a temporary guest account and password to access “Welcome to UGA.”

Units should consider routinely making such requests on behalf of visitors just before arrival so that they can get immediate access to the network while they are on campus.

Students, faculty and staff  are now directed to “PAWS-SECURE” for wireless Internet service that is more secure and more reliable.  PAWS-Secure requires just a one-time registration for any device. To access PAWS-Secure, provide a valid UGA MyID and password (the same as a UGAMail login and password).

The wireless network changes on July 19 will also affect users at UGA’s extended campuses in Griffin, Buckhead and Gwinnett. At the Health Sciences Campus, MedPAWS will no longer be available. Those with a MyID are encouraged to use MedPAWS-Secure at the HSC.

More information.

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An investigative scientist for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Office of the Inspector General reported at a recent workshop that the predominant type of research misconduct seen by the NSF is plagiarism.

The scientist, Scott Moore, went on to say that “inexperienced” researchers, in particular, are more likely to submit proposals that contain plagiarized material.   For example, approximately 2-3% of NSF proposals in a given year contain actionable plagiarized sections, yet 10-15% of these are submitted by individuals within 5 years of starting their academic career.

CAREER proposals were singled out by Moore during the workshop as having the highest levels of actionable plagiarism.  Oftentimes, expert reviewers for NSF discover that CAREER applicants submit proposals plagiarizing the reviewers’ work!  NSF also uses plagiarism-detection software to randomly check proposal submissions.  All researchers are reminded to take a few minutes and ensure that proposals to any sponsor contain proper citations and attributions, as required. Source: Report on Research Compliance (Vol. 10, No.8, August, 2013)

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NIH has posted a Notice in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts announcing that NIH encourages grantees to develop an institutional policy requiring an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for every graduate student and postdoc supported by any NIH grant, regardless of the type of NIH grant that is used for support.

IDPs are a useful tool to help graduate students and postdocs identify their career goals and what they need to accomplish to achieve those goals. The IDP process also can facilitate communication between faculty mentors and their trainees.

Read more from NIH on how this came about from NIH. Read the Notice.