Kansas State University

Greetings from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, where I have assumed the position of Senior Associate Vice President for Research. I look forward to working with faculty, postdocs, administrators, and others involved in research projects and proposals. We are here to help!

Today’s topic is a heads-up for the spring 2017 call for proposals for our internal small grants and faculty travel programs. These will be announced soon in K-State Today, so stay tuned.

Faculty members in tenured or tenure-track positions with the rank of assistant professor or above may request support for their scholarly activities and professional development. To be eligible, faculty members must have at least some percentage of their appointment devoted to research. The programs have been tweaked in recent years on the basis of feedback from faculty.

The President's Faculty Development Awards, or FDA, program is primarily known for providing support for travel to international meetings to present research. A relatively little-known option of the FDA program is to funding of travel to meet with program officers from potential external sponsors.

The University Small Research Grants, or USRG, program is a "seed" grant program to support early research, scholarly activity and other creative efforts.

You may have noticed that ORSP and the VPR office are now announcing the results of funding from these programs and highlighting their outcomes. We are looking for examples of how these programs have helped faculty make connections in their fields or obtain needed preliminary data resulting in later larger external awards. Please share such examples with us!

Applications are due March 6 for travel/projects occurring between July 1 and Dec. 31 of this year. We will be conducting two FDA and USRG information sessions to share information about the programs and the application and review process. The sessions will be at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 9 and 3:30 p.m. Monday, February 20. Both sessions will be held in Union 207.

Read more about the application requirements and access application forms. 

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.

Spring Training

Our calendar lists workshops and training opportunities for faculty, postdocs, and grad students. Upcoming sessions include Faculty Development Award and University Small Research Grant information sessions, a grant writing workshop for grad students and postdocs, and more. (Bonus: You can also access recordings of past events.) Take a look. 

The Guggenheim Foundation’s Fellowships are considered “mid-career” awards and are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The fellowship runs for a minimum of six months and maximum of twelve months and provides Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. No special conditions are attach to them, and Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.  Note that the Foundation funds composers but not conductors, singers, or instrumentalists; choreographers but not dancers; filmmakers, playwrights, and performance artists who create their own work but not actors or theater directors.

Federal Budget Authority for Research and Development Continues Upward Trend

Federal budget authority for research and development (R&D) rose in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, the third straight year of current dollar increases, according to a new report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). The FY 2016 budget authority total for R&D and R&D plant (facilities and fixed equipment) came to $149 billion in current dollars, up $10.5 billion from the previous year. Federal budget authority is the primary source of legal authority for federal agencies to enter into spending commitments. … In current dollars, the three years of increases roughly offset the years of decline, bringing R&D and R&D plant budget authority back to the FY 2010 level. Adjusted for inflation, however, the FY 2016 total remains below the FY 2010 level by about 10 percent.

U.S. Department of Transportation Announces a New Committee Focused on Automation

The U.S. regulatory agency overseeing transportation at the federal level has announced a new official committee on automation, be it autonomous driving, drones or other self-guided modes of getting around. The committee is designed to help the Department of Transportation (DOT) learn from industry experts regarding how it should be shaping policy and research in these emerging fields.

Final Rule Enhances Protections for Research Participants, Modernizes Oversight System

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and 15 other federal agencies ... issued a final rule to update regulations that safeguard individuals who participate in research. Most provisions in the new rule will go into effect in 2018. The new rule strengthens protections for people who volunteer to participate in research, while ensuring that the oversight system does not add inappropriate administrative burdens, particularly to low-risk research. It also allows more flexibility in keeping with today’s dynamic research environment.
View the rule.

Agriculture and Food Security — Where Are We Headed in 2017?

As climate change impacts the global ability to grow food, both in quality and quantity, researchers in agriculture have become an important asset for establishing long-term food security as the world’s population continues to increase. In December, agriculture and food security researchers visited Canberra for high-level discussions on development matters with the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. And as 2017 will be an important year for establishing long-term goals and making important inroads into advances within the sector, Devex spoke with attendees to better understand where we are headed.

 Five new Nature journals for 2017

Since Nature Genetics was launched in 1992, the stable of Nature research and review journals has grown significantly. This year they’ll be joined by five more — a launch rate that is unprecedented and unlikely to be repeated. These new online-only subscription journals are responding to positive signals from their target research communities. They also reflect a deliberate diversification of the Nature journals into multidisciplinary research that addresses societal challenges, without losing their commitment to the disciplines of fundamental science.

A Super-Cool Science Story About a Really Cold Thing

The rules of physics say it's impossible to cool an object to absolute zero, to remove all thermal energy until its atoms come to a standstill. But researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are getting really close. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they describe using a laser to make a microscopic aluminum drum colder than anything like it has been cooled before.