Kansas State University

In 2011, Kansas State was named by the Carnegie Foundation as an “Engaged University,” citing our many programs across campus that are part of a “partnership of university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity.”‡ Over the past few years, we have featured our research programs, centers, and other units in our annual Research Showcase for on-campus and off-campus stakeholders, fostering and building key research partnerships across the region. We’ve fine-tuned the concept, partnering with KSU-IC and the Foundation, and now we’re ready to offer our forum to a much broader audience in Kansas City. We’ve just started recruiting companies, and 18 have already registered, including Black & Veatch, MRIGlobal, DeLaval, Ceva, and Ardent Mills.  

Engagement with our communities statewide is part of our land-grant heritage. Engagement with corporate partners helps stimulate funded research opportunities here, which leads to a broader economic impact statewide. It’s good for K-State, too. Funded industry partnerships and other research activities promote the great things we do here and build our funded research portfolio, which, in turn, helps us achieve our Top 50 goal for research of $350 million in research expenditures.  

The Research Showcase serves as an important networking opportunity for faculty, students, and staff who are seeking to broaden their impact and potentially engage in funded research relationships. If you can’t attend personally, work with your graduate students or postdocs to represent your center or program at the event and gain valuable experience communicating what they do to company representatives. Exhibitors will have a chance to set up just after midday then appreciate their colleagues’ work before guests attend from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Networking opportunities and refreshments will be plentiful.

We appreciate that this is a busy time of year and that Olathe is a bit of a drive. Our campus in Olathe offers an inviting venue for the showcase and connectivity with the broader KC area industry sector that seeks our talent and expertise to address their unique challenges. I hope to see you there.

— Peter

‡Association of Public and Land Grant Universities definition.

Internal Grant Info & More

Find out about Faculty Development Award and University Small Research Grant programs at information sessions on February 9 at 3:00 and February 20 at 3:30. Both sessions are in Union 207. More details are available on our events calendar — note the full slate of training sessions and workshops while you’re there.

Cancer Insights

Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh, associate professor from the departments of pediatrics and molecular genetics and microbiology at the School of Medicine and Cancer Center at Stony Brook University, will present “Insights into cancer through Epstein-Barr virus” on Friday, February 3 at 4:00 p.m. in Ackert 221. Refreshments will precede the seminar in Ackert 225. If you would like to visit with the speaker, please contact Sherry Fleming at sdflemin@ksu.edu

2017 Research Showcase

K-State RSCAD is hitting the road this spring! Mark your calendar to head to K-State Olathe on May 17. Read more about the event or find the basics and register.

Second Quarter Results

Awards for December 2016 and second-quarter totals are posted on our Award Reports page. 

Registration opens for the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Regional Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration. This seminar offers a comprehensive program for the NIH extramural community about the NIH grants process and related policies, including such topics as fundamentals of the NIH, compliance, peer review, grant writing for success, pre-award and post-award issues for administrators and investigators, animal and human subject research, and how to interact electronically with NIH. In addition to a strong, track of sessions for administrators, a track for new investigators will provide step-by-step guidance on mapping your career, an understanding of the funding process and what can be expected up to the time of award. To add to the array of topic choices, special interest sessions will be provided on subjects like research integrity, foreign collaborations, clinical trials.gov, public access, and so much more. Two dates are available: May 3-5 in New Orleans and October 25-27 in Baltimore.

USDA Scrambles to Ease Concerns After Researchers Were Ordered to Stop Publishing News Releases

Employees of the scientific research arm at the Agriculture Department were ordered Monday to cease publication of “outward facing” documents and news releases, raising concerns that the Trump administration was seeking to influence distribution of their findings. Department officials scrambled to clarify the memo Tuesday afternoon, after intense public scrutiny and media requests, stating that the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) had not “blacked out public information” and adding that scientific articles published through professional peer-reviewed journals have not been banned. Such a decree would have conflicted with established scientific integrity standards and previous media guidance “encouraging, but not requiring, USDA scientists to communicate with the media about their scientific findings.”

Under President Trump, U.S. Agencies Find Their Words Scrutinized

Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department all have seen directives come down from the newly minted leadership seeking to limit how they communicate to the public.

Trump Asks Francis Collins to Remain NIH Director, at Least for Now

The incoming Trump administration has asked the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, to remain as head of the nation’s top medical-research agency for an indefinite period.

FDA Forms Oncology Center of Excellence, Names Richard Pazdur Director

On his last full day as FDA commissioner, Robert Califf announced the formation of the Oncology Center of Excellence and named Richard Pazdur its director. The process of forming the center began in June, and Pazdur has been the acting director. Reorganization of the FDA oncology portfolio is an element of the Obama White House Moonshot Initiative.

A ‘Shot Over the Bow’

Supporters of the arts and humanities on Thursday sounded unanimous alarm over an article in The Hill reporting that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s administration plans to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Neither endowment is commenting on the newspaper’s report.

$12.7 Million in Grants Awarded to Assist Small Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is awarding $12.7 million in grants to help small drinking water and wastewater systems and private well owners. Water systems staff will receive training and technical assistance to improve operations and management practices, promote system sustainability, and better protect public health and the environment.

Born in the USA: The Best New Architecture by American Firms

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has declared the winners of its 2017 Institute Honor Awards, which recognize excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design projects from firms licensed in the United States. The awards are a great opportunity to check out some top-tier architecture.

Special Report: Keeping Women in STEM

How colleges are retaining female undergraduates in engineering and computer science.

Donors and Drug Makers Offer $500 Million to Control Global Epidemics

“We’ll have to make sure we do better than we did against Ebola,” said Bill Gates, founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest initial donors. He has often predicted that the catastrophe most likely to kill 10 million people in the near future is a pandemic rather than nuclear war, terrorism, famine or natural disaster. The other donors, besides the Gates Foundation, include the governments of Japan and Norway, and Britain’s Wellcome Trust. Each is putting up $100 million to $125 million over five years; Germany, India and the European Commission are expected to announce donations soon. Six major vaccine makers — GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda — joined in the coalition as “partners” rather than donors, as did the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders.

Climate Change Will Hurt Crops More Than it Helps Them, Study Suggests

Out of the many consequences of climate change, from melting glaciers to changing weather patterns, its effect on agriculture has emerged as one of the most complex issues for scientists to investigate. It’s also among the most globally significant. As the world’s population approaches 8 billion people — and is expected to exceed 9 billion before midcentury — protecting global food security has become a top priority for scientists and policymakers alike. And figuring out how climate change might affect the world’s future crop yields is a major concern.

Evolution, Climate, and Vaccines: Why Americans Deny Science

The U.S. has a science problem. Around half of the country's citizens reject the facts of evolution; fewer than a third agree there is a scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, and the number who accept the importance of vaccines is ticking downward. Those numbers, all gleaned from recent Pew and Gallup research polls, might suggest that Americans are an anti-science bunch. But yet, Americans love science. Even as many in the U.S. reject certain scientific conclusions, National Science Foundation surveys have found that public support of science is high, with more than 75 percent of Americans saying they are in favor of taxpayer-funded basic research.