The plenary sessions for the upcoming National Science Foundation (NSF) Fall 2018 Grants Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 8–9, 2018 will be webcast live to the research community.
There is no cost or limit for participants to view the live stream.
Please see the Fall 2018 Grants Conference Webcast page for more information and to register. Read more →
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), (NSF 19-1). The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 28, 2019.
A webinar to brief the community on the new PAPPG will be held on November 27 at 2 pm EST. For additional information about the webinar, including how to register for it, visit: https://nsfgrantsconferences.com/pappg-webinar-19/
Significant changes in the new PAPPG include the following:
The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in conjunction with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, has announced a research training workshop on developing and evaluating adaptive interventions with a focus on sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMARTs).
When: March 11-14, 2019
Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan
All applications must be received no later than December 16, 2018 at 11:59 pm EST.
Reprinted from Message from IES Director
A while ago, I wrote to say that IES was working on developing research quality standards inspired by the famous LEED building standards. Our goal in developing these standards is to identify the domains and the core questions that, from the IES perspective, constitute the most important dimensions of high quality education research.
Paralleling LEED procedures, we intend to create tiers of excellence (Platinum, Gold, etc.). These award levels will be appearing on the What Works Clearinghouse. It is important to remember that these levels will be in addition to the evidence standards that make the WWC so crucially important.
Several new features have been added in the new version of the Grants.gov Mobile App.
You can download the Grants.gov app today for iOS and Android devices.
Some of the new features include the following:
ResearchVault (ResVault) is UF’s secure computing environment for scientists and collaborators to conduct research on restricted and confidential data.
The system is modeled on a bank vault where you receive the following:
A secure area within the vault to privately access your valuables
Congratulations to Lynda Hayes for her award from the Florida Department of Education; Jonte Myers and Mary Brownell for their award from the American Educational Research Association; and Philip Poekert for his awards from the Louisiana Department of Education, the Education Foundation of Collier County, and Study Edge.
For more details, see the Awarded Projects table.
Best wishes to Christopher Anthony for his proposal to the American Educational Research Association; Mary “Kristina” DePue and David Miller for their proposal to the National Institutes of Health; Philip Poekert and Thomasenia Lott Adams for their subcontract proposal NSF Flow-Through from SRI International; and Philip Poekert for his proposal to the Jefferson Parish Public School System.
For more details, see the Submitted Projects table.
From Joseph Glover, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
One of the key elements of elevating the University of Florida’s national and international reputation in pursuit of top-five public university stature is creating national and international interest in your research through coverage in top-tier news media outlets such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and cable and network news programming.
UF’s Office of University Relations works with other campus communications professionals to seek out such research, but they rely heavily on you, the faculty, to inform them when your work has been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
From David P. Norton, Ph.D., Vice President for Research
On August 23, 2018, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins issued a statement to the NIH extramural research community about NIH’s concerns of foreign influence on NIH researchers and peer reviewers.
The University of Florida is committed to compliance with NIH regulations and with good stewardship of all sponsored funds. In addition, please be reminded that all proposals for outside funding need to comply with requirements for reporting of current and pending support.
We call out from the letter, NIH is specifically concerned about the following:
Excerpted from OMB Memorandum M-18-24
Annually, the federal government spends about $700 billion on grants and cooperative agreements for approximately 1,800 different funding opportunities/categories awarded to more than 40,000 grant recipients.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a memorandum outlining steps the federal government is taking to reduce grant recipient reporting burden. Below are some highlights:
On October 22, Grants.gov will update its website with Release Version 16.3 to improve the user experience. If you have multiple, unmerged Grants.gov accounts using the same email address, you can log in to Grants.gov to merge them now. If you haven’t received an email from Grants.gov about this already, then your account is fine.
Some of the enhancements in the new release are as follows:
Matthew Soldner, NCEE Commissioner, shares some points about IES.
UF IT is debuting a new training this semester — Survey Design Basics. In this two-hour session, learners will explore the six steps of survey design, how to create valid survey questions, and apply best design principles to real-world examples.
The next session is scheduled in Hub 221:
UF IT also offers Qualtrics@UF training, which focuses strictly on using the Qualtrics tool to build, distribute, and report on surveys. (The Qualtrics survey tool is pre-assessed by UF’s integrated risk management office and available free to all faculty, students, and staff.)
The Zoom service is now available for UF faculty, students, and staff. For those unfamiliar with Zoom, it is a service that provides connection capabilities for video conferencing, online meetings, chats, and mobile collaborations in an easy, intuitive way.
