IN THE NEWS

Campo named director of Sponsored Programs

Miriam Campo has accepted the position of director of Sponsored Programs following the retirement of Chris Cox in December.

Campo has served the UT College of Engineering as a research coordinator since 2005. Her prior jobs include management positions with the College of Education at Miami Dade College, the Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology at Florida International University, and the division of sponsored research at FIU. She brings 25 years of experience in research administration to the post, including a broad knowledge of federal regulations affecting sponsored research. Campo’s first day at UTOR will be February 2, 2009.

Budget hearings for ORUs set for Haslam Building

Budget hearings for the proposals submitted by Organized Research Units at UT Knoxville will begin on Wednesday, 28 January at 1 p.m. and run through the end of Friday, 30 January. Budget presentations will take place in Room 440 of the Haslam Business Building, a conference room above the atrium on the 4th floor of the building’s west wing.

Organized Research Units are campus research centers recognized by the UT Office of Research as independent entities. The Office of Research will make limited allocations of funds to help selected units with administrative and other related costs.

More information

UTOR offers new training program

The Office of Research has a new comprehensive training program available to all faculty, staff, and student researchers. Current offerings include the following:

• IRB/Human Subjects
• Proposal Development (Yellow Sheet, Budget Basics and Finding Funding Using COS)
• Sponsored Programs
• Export Control
• Biosafety—Introductory and Refresher Courses
• Radiation Safety—Introductory and Refresher Courses
• IACUC—Introductory and Refresher Courses
• Responsible Conduct of Research

These training modules are currently offered in classroom and face-to-face format and will also be available other formats for online instruction. Other opportunities for training will be added as they are developed. In order to have an official record for taking the training course online you must first register as a Blackboard user with Online@UT and, secondly, register as a community participant for the OR Training Community through ortraining@utk.edu. There will be a short quiz at the end of each online module.

More information

There is also a new OR Training Listserv that will be used as the primary means of communicating announcements and course offerings regarding OR training sessions.

Subscribe to the OR Training Listserv

QUEST Magazine Winter 2009 edition now available

The inaugural issue of QUEST Magazine is now available. QUEST is UT Knoxville’s comprehensive research communication initiative showcasing the vitality of our multidisciplinary research enterprise and highlighting the faculty’s scholarly pursuits and creative achievements. Our first issue covers a range of endeavors in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts, from the new NIMBioS Center to students in the undergraduate College Scholars program.

We hope that you will read and use the magazine in a variety of ways: to publicize a featured program, solicit funding for your research, supplement your classroom instruction , to promote the university in general. All of the articles featured in the print version are also online at http://quest.utk.edu.

Rather than distribute a copy to every faculty member, we are making QUEST available to deans, directors, and department heads, who will have copies if you need them. Additional 2009 issues of QUEST will focus on specific areas:

• Spring -- research in engineering and in the physical and biological sciences
• Summer -- humanities and social sciences
• Fall -- creative activity and achievement

All faculty are encouraged to submit descriptions of their current projects for consideration as a feature in QUEST Magazine. Please send a brief write-up to Dennis McCarthy at dmmccarthy@utk.edu.

Proposal development team will target bigger projects

The Office of Research has formed a proposal development team designed to help UT Knoxville research teams locate and respond competitively to solicitations for large projects.

“This realignment of staff is intended to give extra support to researchers seeking funding for large projects that are strategic for the university and require a longer time frame for development,” said Greg Reed, associate vice chancellor for research, who heads the team.

Reed’s team comprises Jim Lloyd, who will seek research opportunities; Paul Montgomery, who facilitates Department of Defense opportunities; Alan Rutenberg, who specializes in proposal development in the humanities; and Bill Dockery, who coordinates competitions for limited-submission opportunities and is UT’s liaison with Community of Science.

A coordinator from the office’s grants and contracts staff will sit on the team, and a new assistant director in the National Defense Business Institute will interact with the team. Jim Mazzouccolo will provide administrative support. As needed, the team will seek editorial, information, and design assistance.

For more information, contact Dr. Greg Reed at gdreed@utk.edu

Chancellor’s faculty honors nomination deadline

Nominations for the Chancellor’s Awards in Research and Creative Achievement are due at noon on January 30, 2009.

The honors, which come in categories recognizing senior faculty accomplishments and junior faculty professional promise, will be awarded at the Chancellor’s Honors Banquet for spring 2009. Small academic departments or budgetary units can nominate one candidate in each category. Larger departments (20 or more faculty members) can nominate two faculty members in each category.

Senior faculty information | Junior faculty information

Summer graduate research assistantship applications now being accepted

Each application for a Summer Graduate Research Assistantship must be submitted by a member of the faculty and must be in support of a named graduate student for the three-month summer period. While the research project may be in partial fulfillment of the graduate student’s degree requirements, the application must show how the research project will advance the faculty member’s research agenda. The proposals will be judged by a subcommittee of the Research Council. Funding will be available at the beginning of the summer term.

Electronic applications must be submitted by noon, February 13, 2009. There can be no exceptions. A subcommittee of the Research Council will judge proposals and the faculty and department will be informed of the results.

More information

Undergraduate research exhibition dates announced

The Office of Research is hosting the 13th annual Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA), to be held 1-2 April 2009, at the University Center Ballroom. The event highlights research and creative projects completed by UT Knoxville students in collaboration with faculty mentors.

Cash awards will be presented in each division. The standard award is $200 plus any division match or supplement. Top awardees could receive as much as $650. Winners may submit their projects to the Office of Research to be considered for a summer internship.

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Faculty to be honored for 2008 books

The Office of Research and University Libraries will hold a reception and book display for UT Knoxville faculty who have had a book published in 2008.

Faculty who have had a scholarly monograph published with a 2008 or 2009 imprint (that was not featured at last year’s reception) should contact Patty Boling (boling00@utk.edu) with faculty author’s name, title, and publication date by February 13. Faculty new to the UT Knoxville campus in 2008 should also include books published in their name in 2007.

Faculty authors are asked to lend or donate copies of their books to the University Libraries so that each new title may be placed on display. The reception is set for 3:00-4:30 p.m. on March 24, 2009 in Hodges Library, Room 605.

OPPORTUNITIES

Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics (FODAVA)

The National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security invite research proposals whose outcomes will enable data stakeholders to detect the expected and discover the unexpected in massive data sets. Research outcomes will be applicable across broad application areas, establishing a solid scientific foundation for visual analytics systems of the future. Proposals should focus on creating fundamental research advances that will be widely applicable across scientific, engineering, commercial, and governmental domains that utilize visualization and analytics to gain insight and derive knowledge from massive, often streaming, dynamic, ambiguous and possibly conflicting, data sets. NOTE: This solicitation is for projects that will partner with the FODAVA-Lead institution at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Deadline: Completed proposal to UTOR -- 8 a.m., March 27, 2009

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Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (EAR-PF)

The Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) awards postdoctoral fellowships to highly qualified investigators within 3 years of obtaining their PhD to carry out an integrated program of independent research and education. The program supports researchers for a period of up to 2 years with fellowships that can be taken to the institution or national facility of their choice.

Deadline: July 1, 2009 at 5 p.m.

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Domestic Nuclear Detection Office/NSF Academic Research Initiative (ARI)

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) within the Department of Homeland Security will invest, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, in transformational research effort focused on detection systems, individual sensors or other research that is potentially relevant to the detection of nuclear weapons, special nuclear material, radiation dispersal devices and related threats.

NOTE: Research proposals on detection of biological, chemical, and conventional weapons are specifically excluded from the scope of this solicitation.

Deadline: Completed proposal to UTOR by 8 a.m., March 26, 2009

More information

City of Knoxville 2009-10 Community Development Block Grants

The City of Knoxville will fund projects providing essential services to the community on behalf of the Community Development Department. Projects must involve housing improvement, planning and design assistance to nonprofit community organizations, and management of the homeless information and tracking system. Agencies interested in applying MUST send a representative to a technical assistance workshop on Friday, January 23, 2009 at 10 a.m. in the Cansler YMCA building. Applications are due at noon on Tuesday, February 17, 2009.

For more information, contact Becky Wade, Knoxville community development administrator at bwade@cityofknoxville.org or (865) 215-3900.

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