Research and Innovation Digital Newsletter September 2021
DEAR COLLEAGUES
Welcome to the new school year! It is so good to see students on campus and have some normalcy return.
As I continue in my position as interim vice president, I’d like to share some of the priorities that I plan to stress during my tenure. First, we have seen a decrease in proposal submissions due to COVID-19. I would like to do my part to help investigators prepare to submit new research proposals over the next year or so. Second, I would like to stress a culture of funding graduate student research assistants. Training the next generation of scholars is an important part of our role as graduate faculty. In addition, it is an extremely rewarding experience to help spur curious minds to solve the problems of society.
This newsletter contains several opportunities to engage in professional development and grant submissions. I encourage everyone to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by ORI.
Regards,
Steven M. Carr, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation
Reminder: IDC Training
ORI will be offering “Introduction to Customer Discovery" training, which provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn about the customer discovery interview process and business model design. Western-affiliated teams are eligible for up to a $2,500 mini-grant upon successful completion of the training and customer interviews. Completion will also provide the teams with eligibility for the $50,000 National Science Foundation I-Corps program.
ORI’s ICD webpage has been updated to reflect the fall ICD program we’ll be hosting Oct. 1 through Nov. 5. Information and the application are on the website. Dr. Carr looks forward to working with faculty and staff to advance the research mission of WMU.
Undergraduate Research Excellence Award applications open
The Undergraduate Research Excellence Award is ready for applicants. The application deadline is Thursday, Nov. 18. The goals of the award are to provide Western undergraduate students with an opportunity to have a mentored research or creative scholarship-related experience with one of the University’s tenured faculty, tenure track faculty or staff. Visit our website for more information.
Discovery Acceleration workshops scheduled
View the fall schedule for the Discovery Acceleration Workshops. The series begins Monday, Sept. 20, at noon with "Cayuse and the IRB Process." The WMU IRB will transition from a paper-based process to a web-based system called Cayuse IRB. Cayuse IRB is a user-friendly interface that manages protocol creation, review, submission, files and simplifies the human subjects research submission process. Julia Mays, associate director of research compliance, will lead this workshop and answer your IRB questions. Join via Webex.
NSF MRI funding opportunity competition open
The competition for the NSF MRI funding opportunity is now open in InfoReady along with other limited funding opportunities. Please notify your Research Officer if you've found a funding opportunity not listed in InfoReady that limits the number of submissions per institution.
Support for Faculty Scholars Award information available
The competition for the Support for Faculty Scholars Award is now open in InfoReady. Proposals are due Wednesday, Dec. 1. More information on this internal funding opportunity is available.
Fall release time for grants
Please make sure Planned Effort forms for fall have been submitted to Grants and Contracts. The Planned Effort form should reflect the period of time the individual is working on the grant. If there are questions about the time frame someone is planning to work, please reach out to us . These forms need to be complete prior to the work being done. If ECRT is confirmed with the release time missing, the department may not be able to recover the release time savings. Please refer to Grants and Contracts website in the forms section. If the forms have not been turned in, the department will be responsible for completing the JES for each pay period missed.
Summer ECRT confirmation period opening soon
The summer May 15 through Aug. 14 ECRT pre-review period will open Tuesday, Sept. 14. Please refer to Grants and Contracts website for step-by-step instructions. Before clicking the pre-review button, please make sure all payroll, direct or cost share, for the project is reflected and accurate. If not, please email Grants and Contracts. Pre-review will need to be completed prior to the opening of confirmation, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Cayuse eRA platform IRB wrapping up
Cayuse IRB will allow you to create and submit your research protocols to the IRB with ease, including by offering these and other elements:
- Auto-fill features and easy-to-use forms
- Online access to all your IRB projects
- Electronic submission
- Guidance links for human subject research
To introduce the new online submission and answer questions, the following town halls have been scheduled:
- Tuesday, Sept. 14, 10 to 11:30 a.m.
- Wednesday, Sept. 15, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 16, 3:30 to 5 p.m.
The proposed go live with Cayuse Human Ethics (WMU IRB) is Friday, Sept 24.
Learn how the WMU IRB will transition from a paper-based process to a web-based system called Cayuse Human Ethics. Join us on Webex. For questions, contact Julia Mays or call (269) 387-8293.
Libraries present speaker series on digital storytelling and community-driven archives
In this series, guest scholars will share how they use community-driven archiving and digital storytelling to highlight underrepresented communities, preserve their histories and stories and capture history-making social justice movements. These experts will share their successful collaborative projects and participate in a panel discussion at the conclusion of the series. All sessions will be hosted online by the Center for Humanities and University Libraries. Learn more and register.
- In the Streets; On the Walls: Archiving, Activism and the Urban Art Mapping Street Art Database, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m.
- The Detroit Muslim Storytelling Project: An Oral History Initiative, Thursday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m.
- Capturing Community Panel Discussion, Thursday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m.
Learn about GrantForward
Recently, we shared a reminder about an excellent resource for funding searches to support research and creative scholarship called Grant Forward. Have you tried it? If you already have an account and filters applied, we encourage you to map out your proposal timeline. Please share promising funding opportunities with your research officer. They’ll be happy to help you with a successful submission.