OPPORTUNITIES

Statement of intent sought for THEC ITQ solicitation

University of Tennessee, Knoxville faculty members who intend to propose to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s Improving Teacher Quality program must send a statement of intent to Bill Dockery (dockeryb@utk.edu) and Bob Cargile (rcargile@utk.edu). The statement should include (a) principal investigator(s), (b) a list of other investigators, and (c) the working title for the project.

Note that all UT proposals to the THEC ITQ require a partnership that includes the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (Page 5, Section III, “Eligible Partnerships”). If more than 10 responses are received, the UT Office of Research will schedule an internal competition.

Deadline for statement of intent: Friday, August 29, 2008, by 12:00 noon.
Deadline for submission to UTOR, September 29, 2008.

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Provost accepting faculty leave proposals

The process of applying for UT Knoxville faculty development leave for 2009–10 has opened. More information is available from Sarah Fisher Gardial, vice provost for faculty affairs, sgardial@utk.edu or 865-974-6152. Announcement of awards is expected on Dec. 5, 2008.

Deadline to appropriate dean: October 3, 2008
Deadline to provost: November 3, 2008
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DOE Clean Coal Power Initiative, Round 3

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory has announced its final funding opportunity for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, Round 3. The solicitation specifically targets advanced coal-based systems and subsystems that capture and sequester, or put to beneficial use, carbon dioxide emissions.

Deadline to UTOR: January 8, 2009, 8 a.m.
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NSF Arctic Research Opportunities

The National Science Foundation is soliciting proposals that will conduct research on topics in natural sciences, social sciences, system science, and observing networks in the Arctic.

Deadline to UTOR: November 11, 2008, 8 a.m.
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ORAU/ORNL High Performance Computing Grant

Oak Ridge Associated Universities has established a grant program with Oak Ridge National Laboratory that will provide ORAU member institutions with as much as $75,000 in funding over three years on ORNL supercomputing resources.

Deadline to UTOR: September 12, 2008, 8 a.m.
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NSF Proactive Recruitment in Introductory Science and Mathematics (PRISM)

The National Science Foundation is seeking to increase the numbers of well-prepared, successful U.S. undergraduate majors and minors in science and mathematics through its PRISM program, which will support innovative, potentially transformational partnerships between the mathematical sciences and other sciences or engineering disciplines. Proposals must include a principal investigator from a department of mathematical sciences and at least one co-PI from another science or engineering department.

Deadline to UTOR: February 9, 2009, 8 a.m.
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Philip B. Crosby Medal

The American Society for Quality is seeking nominations for the Crosby Medal, which recognizes a distinguished book on the philosophy and applications of the principles, methods, or techniques of quality management. Internal coordination is required, and there are limits on what organizations can be nominators.

Deadline: October 1, 2008
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Research Grants from Pfeiffer

The Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation provides grants of up to $75,000 for researchers in medicine and pharmacy, including research in nutrition, blindness, deafness, and other disabilities. The University of Tennessee, as accredited, can submit no more than three letters of inquiry every six months. UT researchers must contact Bill Dockery at dockeryb@utk.edu if they intend to seek Pfieffer Foundation funding.

Deadline: January 8, 2009
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IN THE NEWS

COGR comments on USDA indirect costs

The Council on Governmental Relations has released questions and answers elaborating on recent increases in indirect costs associated with the USDA CSREES program, which were modified in a USDA memo of June 19, 2008.

The focus of the memo was on section 7132 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (FCEA), which limits indirect costs on any agricultural research, education, and extension grant to 22 percent of the federal funds provided under the grant award. Below is a summary of several important points, both related to the memo and broader issues on CSREES programs.

1. Effective Date
The FCEA indirect cost limit (22 percent) became effective on the enactment date of June 18, 2008.

2. Non-competitive awards
a. Prior to this legislation, indirect costs were unallowable for most non-competitive awards and continue to be unallowable for such awards because of superseding authorizing legislation. For the non-competitive awards where full indirect costs were allowable, most of these awards are now limited to 22 percent with the enactment of FCEA.
b. The memo states that, “some potential awardees may be requested to submit a revised budget.” There are limited situations where this will be applicable. An example where this would occur is if your institution was to receive an FY 2008 non-competitive award (the new award or funding increment had not been issued as of June 18, 2008) where indirect costs were previously allowed but are now limited to 22 percent of the total federal funds provided. Depending upon the amount of indirect costs requested by your institution, the CSREES Awards Management Branch (AMB) may need to request a revised budget to make any necessary adjustments.

3. Competitive awards
a. When it comes to applying indirect cost caps, the FCEA provision is superseded by the FY 2008 Appropriations Bill. In other words, competitive programs that were limited to 20 percent by way of the FY 2008 appropriations will continue to be limited to 20 percent of the total federal funds awarded in FY 2008.
b. The FY 2008 Appropriations Bill includes a provision allowing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to recover their full indirect cost rate. COGR comments on USDA indirect costs

4. FY 2009 and thereafter
The FCEA provision is effective for five years from the date of its inception. The FCEA provision applies unless provided otherwise by law. Questions may be directed to Carol Langguth or Melanie Krizmanich.

NSF emphasizes "broader impacts" language

In a recent "Dear Colleague" letter, Zakya Kafafi, director of the NSF Division of Materials Research, states: "In light of NSF’s commitment to the ‘broader impacts’ criterion, proposers should carefully consider ways to incorporate rigorous, meaningful, and innovative broader impacts activities . . . that integrate with the research being proposed. It is expected that project activities related to broader impacts will be of the same caliber as those addressing the intellectual merit criterion, . . . should be based on good scholarship, and be designed to achieve clearly stated goals and metrics. . . ."

Kafafi’s letter outlines five areas that proposals should address in delineating a project’s broader impacts:

• Advancing discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning
• Broadening participation of underrepresented groups
• Enhancing infrastructure for research and education
• Broadening dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding
• Providing benefits to society

Kafafi notes that the NSF evaluators will determine which broader impacts activities are specific to a given proposal and which are activities that would have occurred whether or not that proposal is funded.
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MATLAB availability celebrated

The Office of Information Technology is sponsoring a kickoff celebration for the MATLAB suite of applications on August 27 and 28 in the Shiloh Room at the University Center. UT Knoxville faculty, staff, and students will be able to download and use MATLAB, Simulink, and 54 companion products that allow for a variety of sophisticated computational and simulation activities.

Cleve Moler, the author of the original MATLAB code and the founder of MathWorks, will keynote the celebration, and engineers from MathWorks will provide training sessions. More information

Nanocenter user meeting features film festival

The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the Shared Research Equipment User Facility will hold their 2008 annual user meetings jointly at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from noon, Sept. 24 through noon, Sept. 26.

The user meeting includes oral presentations, poster sessions, tours, workshops, and tutorials that illuminate the scope of nanoscience research and acquaint researchers with the resources available for nanoscience and advanced electron microscopy through the two centers.

The event will include the RidgeDance Nanoscience Film Festival, featuring video and still images produced during research on nanoscale projects.

Deadline for registration: September 12, 2008
Preliminary agenda and registration information

ONR mandates Grants.gov

Beginning immediately, the Office of Naval Research will accept responses to Broad Agency Announcements for fiscal year 2009 only through Grants.gov. ONR will not accept submissions of applications from any other source.

Tip on file submissions

Grants.gov guidelines typically specify what types of files can be used in sending a submission: Word, rich text, pdf, etc. However, at present Grants.gov and its PureEdge application package will not accept Word files generated in Microsoft Office 2008. These files should be saved as an earlier version of MS Word.

New dean named for College of Veterinary Medicine

The UT Institute of Agriculture has named James P. Thompson as dean of the UT College of Veterinary Medicine. Thompson’s appointment is effective Oct. 1. He will be the fifth dean of the college, which is one of only 28 such colleges in the United States.

Drumm heads biosystems department

Eric Drumm is the new head of the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Drumm comes to the post from a professorship in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has been on the UT Knoxville faculty since 1983.

News & Opportunities is published by the Office of Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.