UF Office of Research Request Regarding New Research Faculty Hires

In light of recent and ongoing hiring initiatives, the UF Office of Research is asking departments to complete the Compliance Form for an Investigator Transferring to UF located on the Office of Research Forms and Templates webpage each time a new faculty hire is made. This information will facilitate the process of getting new faculty on track with the applicable university, federal, and state requirements so they can get their research up and running as quickly as possible.

In turn, when faculty leave the institution, we are asking for departments to please complete the Notification of Departing PI form so the applicable offices on campus can follow-up to ensure that all necessary actions are taken to transition the exiting faculty member and if necessary their research projects or labs.

Links to the forms are provided below:

Compliance Form for an Investigator Transferring to UF

Notification of Departing PI

Office of Research Forms and Template webpage

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Progress Reports with Detailed Budgets: UFIRST

All awards as well as any other progress reports requiring detailed budgets for future year(s) should be entered into UFIRST Proposals and routed through the appropriate units for approval (Proposal type continuation). As these budgets often differ from the original proposal and can include cost shared effort and modifications to the original commitments, they require a full review by the appropriate fiscal approvers of each unit.

If they represent funds originally committed by the Sponsor in the award, they fall under the definition of “life of the award” for the purposes of retaining the originally awarded F&A rate.

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NSF Implements Updates to FastLane

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released updates to FastLane that may impact the way you work. As part of NSF’s efforts to modernize proposal submission and increase competitive fairness in the proposal process, NSF continues to focus on implementing automated proposal compliance checks in FastLane.

Effective September 26, 2016, FastLane will now check to ensure that the combined text of the Project Summary text boxes (or uploaded PDF if the Project Summary contains special characters) does not exceed one page prior to submission, rather than the current check of 4,600 characters.

See the Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG), Chapter II.C.2b for further information.

The compliance checks will trigger an error message in the following circumstances:

  • Project Summary text exceeds the one-page limit
  • Project Summary text is entered and the user also uploads a “Project Summary with Special Characters” supplementary document

Note about Proposal File Update (PFU):

Proposers should be aware that if a proposal was received by NSF prior to September 26, 2016, containing a Project Summary that complies with the previous 4,600-character limit but exceeds the one-page limit, a PFU addressing any section of the proposal will result in the proposal not being accepted if it does not comply with these compliance checks. The checks will be run on all sections of the proposal, regardless of which section was updated during the PFU.

Note about Grants.gov:

Proposers should also be aware that Grants.gov will allow a proposal to be submitted, even if it does not comply with these proposal preparation requirements. Should NSF receive a proposal via Grants.gov that is not compliant, it will be returned without review.

For system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or Rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

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IES What Works Clearinghouse Launches Redesigned Website

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has launched a new website for the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). This site features an enhanced “Find What Works” tool that allows educators and policymakers to find programs and interventions that evidence shows have had a positive impact on student outcomes.

The new WWC site also allows users to download “practice guides” with evidence-based recommendations for improving teaching and learning and search thousands of studies reviewed against the WWC’s rigorous standards.

See the IES website to view a WWC video tour.

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IES State Education Reforms Website Updated with New Data

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) State Education Reforms website, a product of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), has been updated with new state-level data on prekindergarten enrollment, standards and teacher qualifications, and initial certification of elementary and secondary school teachers.

The State Education Reforms website compiles data primarily from organizations other than the NCES and disseminates data on state-level education reform efforts in five sections:

  • Accountability
  • Assessment and Standards
  • Staff Qualifications and Development
  • State Support for School Choice and Other Options
  • Student Readiness and Progress Through School

To view the website, please visit State Education Reforms.

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IES Guides Help Educators Design, Administer, and Analyze Surveys

Survey data can be an effective way to gather data that informs instruction or programmatic decisions. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has released the new three-part Survey Methods for Educators guides. The guides provide clear information on how to develop and adapt surveys (part 1), select a sample of potential respondents and administer surveys (part 2), and analyze and report survey data (part 3).

Part 1 of this series, Collaborative Survey Development, outlines the following steps:

  • Identify topics of interest
  • Identify relevant, existing survey items
  • Draft new survey items and adapt existing survey items
  • Review draft survey items with stakeholders and content experts
  • Refine the draft survey using cognitive interviewing

Part 2 of this series, Sampling Respondents and Survey Administration, outlines the following steps:

  • Define the population
  • Specify the sampling procedure
  • Determine the sample size
  • Select the sample
  • Administer the survey

Part 3 of this series, Analysis and Reporting of Survey Data, outlines the following steps:

  • Review the analysis plan
  • Prepare and check data files
  • Calculate response rates
  • Calculate summary statistics
  • Present the results in tables or figures

Download all three guides at: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=4482

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IES Guide Compiles Measurement Instruments for Assessing the Performance of PLCs

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has released a compilation of 49 instruments for measuring key performance indicators of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). The new guide Measurement Instruments for Assessing the Performance of Professional Learning Communities features an annotated bibliography that identifies valid and reliable measures of teacher/principal, PLC team, and student-level indicators that can be used to assess PLCs.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic created this tool in partnership with its Professional Learning Research Alliance, which brings together state and district education leaders. The research team employed a rigorous process of searching and screening the scientific literature and other sources for relevant qualitative and quantitative instruments, followed by a careful review and evaluation of each instrument against established standards of measurement quality.

This resource is intended for researchers, practitioners, and education professionals seeking to engage in evidence-based planning, implementation, and evaluation of teacher PLCs. The PLC-related measurement instruments identified in this project include 31 quantitative and 18 qualitative instruments that assess a range of teacher/principal-, team-, and student-level variables.

Visit the IES website to download the complete guide: Measurement Instruments for Assessing the Performance of Professional Learning Communities

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OECD Releases Education at a Glance 2016

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released its annual publication Education at a Glance, providing data on topics such as the impact of learning across countries, financial and human resources invested, access, progress of education systems, and the learning environment in the 35 OECD countries, including the U.S., as well as a number of partner countries. These data are important to understand as U.S. students increasingly compete in a global society.

For a summary of the report, view the IES National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) blog posted Sept. 15, Education at a Glance 2016: Situating Education Data in a Global Context

View the full Education at a Glance 2016 to see how the U.S. compares to other countries on important education-related topics.

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Research Spotlight: Pavlo “Pasha” Antonenko

Q & A with Pavlo “Pasha” Antonenko, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning

What basic questions does your research seek to answer?

My work focuses on two essential questions: “How do people learn with technology?” and “How can we improve learning environments using technology?” I believe strongly that in order to deduce guidelines for effective teaching, we must have a solid understanding of the motivations, contexts, and mechanisms underlying learning. I am very interested in informal learning because informal, and often incidental, learning experiences precede formal education, and I think there is much to be learned about improving formal education in K-12 schools and colleges by examining how people learn individually and in groups outside the formal classroom environment.

What makes your work interesting?

When I study learning, I focus on both the outcomes (or products) of learning and the processes underlying learning within diverse groups of learners. Traditionally, educational researchers have focused primarily on learning outcomes. However, the problem with that is if we only focus on outcomes we have little understanding of why certain learners succeed in certain contexts and using certain tools, while others do not. What makes my work interesting and useful, I think, is I cross traditional disciplinary boundaries and try to use the research methods and tools used by cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and computer and information scientists to study the mechanisms underlying learning. One example is my contribution regarding the use of Electroencephalography, or EEG, in educational research. I use EEG to study the dynamics of cognitive processing during learning. Tools like EEG allow us to record and study the rhythms of our brain waves and based on the analysis of brain wave synchronization we can infer the levels of working memory load, or the intensity of cognitive processing, at any point of time during the learning process.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a variety of research projects, funded by the National Science Foundation and University of Florida, to study optimal conditions for learning with technology. For example, Project LENS focuses on establishing an interdisciplinary collaborative network of scholars that use Electroencephalography, eye tracking, and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy to understand multimedia learning within a diverse population of students that exhibit attentional and cognitive differences. iDigFossils is a project focused on improving K-12 education. Specifically, its goal is to expand and extend our understanding of integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning by designing and testing a model for student engagement using 3D scanning and printing technologies, as well as computational modeling with statistical language R within a highly relevant but unexplored educational pathway to K-12 STEM – paleontology. My other projects are described here: http://www.antonenko.org/lab

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Information to Assist Faculty in Securing Appointments to Federal Committees

The State University System of Florida has created a helpful guide to assist faculty in applying for federal agency advisory boards or committees. As explained in the guide, service on such committees and advisory boards is an excellent way to contribute to both the university at large and the agency served. Further, such service can enhance one’s own professional development and career trajectory via gains in knowledge about the grant making process as well as through networking and leadership opportunities. The guide below provides information about agencies with such positions and how to be selected for them.

State University System of Florida 

April 25, 2016

Resources to help in securing appointments to federal boards

We would like to pass along some information to help our State University System faculty and administrators when considering an application for service on federal agency advisory boards or committees.  In this increasingly competitive federal funding environment, such service may help your institution and the individual become even more successful in the grant application process.

There are over 1,000 agency committees across the government.  Service on them usually involves a 4 or 5 year term appointment. Travel and related expenses are covered by the sponsoring agency.

Such service contributes to:

  • the agency — by providing the government with needed outside expert advice
  • the university — by having its visibility raised in these settings
  • the appointed faculty member – by achieving prestigious agency service which can be a career enhancer

Serving on these committees can provide faculty with valuable knowledge and insight about an agency’s culture, budget and inner workings, as well as exposure to agency leaders and decision makers.

Central listing

The government maintains a centralized access point for all “Federal Advisory Committee Act” committees arranged by agency.  See: http://www.facadatabase.gov/. This database provides important information about the committees, including their decision-makers and general information. It contains a wealth of information for each committee.

The link to the complete list of agencies with advisory boards and committees is found at http://www.facadatabase.gov/agency/agencies.aspx

Click on each agency of interest to see the latest list and links to each. For instance, to find NIH-related committees, click on the Department of Health and Human Services and then click on the committee of interest to see background information and the contact information for the relevant official.

Or, to search by name for committees at individual agencies, see http://www.facadatabase.gov/rpt/search.asp

How to use the link

The link will take you to a complete list of government agencies sponsoring committees under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a law that specifies certain procedures for open meetings, adequate meeting notice and chartering.

From there you can select an agency of interest.  For example, clicking on the Department of Health and Human Services link will provide a list of 267 committees operating under the agency. Selecting a particular committee will provide general information, members and the contact or decision maker relating to the committee. Committees range from the Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect to the World Trade Center Health Program Scientific Technical Advisory Committee –and everything in between!

Nomination letter

Once a committee has been identified, normally a letter of nomination is required to the appointing official, often the Department Secretary. These letters can be sent by other faculty, deans, school presidents, association leaders. Usually a local Member of Congress can also provide a letter of endorsement if the faculty member is known to the Member. Often for peer review groups, the process involves a self nomination. It also generally helps to have your professional association, university supervisors or some other third party who is familiar with your work write a letter of support.

Other agency resources

In addition to the main committee link provided above, your faculty may also want to explore the websites of individual agencies for more information on other committees, especially peer-review or study sections that review grants.

For example the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy each have great need for faculty, including early career reviewers, to serve on peer review committees to judge grant applications.

National Institute of Health Study Sections

For information on the expertise required and the nomination and selection criteria and process at NIH, see: http://public.csr.nih.gov/ReviewerResources/BecomeAReviewer/Pages/default.aspx  To find lists of all study sections, integrated review groups and special emphasis panels: http://public.csr.nih.gov/StudySections/Pages/default.aspx

NIH lists the top ten reasons for serving in this way: We asked a number of reviewers why someone considering becoming a reviewer should do it, and here is what they told us:

Get a Front Row Seat to the Future: “It’s intense and cutting edge . . . and intellectually stimulating to see the wonderful ideas and approaches to major problems that come through.”

Become More Successful: “It really helps you to appreciate the difference between good grant writing and bad grant writing, more importantly between good science and bad science.”

Learn More: “It is the best way to stay up to date in your field, and to gain insights from other fields that can be applicable to your own work.”

Meet New Colleagues: “Getting together with colleagues to review grants is still one of the best mechanisms for building and maintaining professional contacts.”

Become a Better Mentor: “I got much better at counseling young people in how to think about their applications and what to do, and it’s paying off in their success.”

Give Back: “I feel it’s something I owe the scientific community . . . If you’re going to be a part of the system, you have to bear the responsibility.”

Shape the Future: “Helping to mold what direction science goes in is very satisfying.”

Reviewers with a substantial commitment to NIH review also can submit at anytime applications that would otherwise have a standard due date.

National Science Foundation

NSF has similar needs for merit reviewers. For information on how to become an external reviewer at the National Science Foundation, see:

https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/merit_review/reviewer.jsp

Department of Energy

For information on advisory committees at the Department of Energy, Office of Science, please visit:  http://science.energy.gov/about/federal-advisory-committees/

Prepared by Cavarocchi-Ruscio-Dennis Associates for the State University System of Florida.  For more information, contact Brent Jaquet at bjaquet@dc-crd.com or 202 484-1100.

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NCURA Departmental Research Administration Workshop

The UF Office of Research is considering offering a third 2.5 day National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Departmental Research Administration workshop this fall.  The workshop was offered in February and May to full sessions and very high marks.  If there is sufficient interest, we will offer this same workshop for the third time this year — from November 30-December 2.  The cost of the workshop would be $600 per attendee.

If you are interested, please register your interest at: http://research.ufl.edu/or/research-events/ncura-fall-workshop-survey.html.  This would not be an absolute commitment to attend, simply a way to gauge if UF could support filling the 60 slots required at minimum for NCURA to allow us to host such an event.

More information is available at: http://www.ncura.edu/Education/TravelingWorkshops/DepartmentalResearchAdministration.aspx

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Stephanie Gray in the Office of Research’s Division of Sponsored Programs at slgray@ufl.edu

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ORCID.org Registration and Updates

If you have not yet done so, consider creating an ORCID identifier and profile to track your research publications and grant submissions. As described on the ORCID website, ORCID “provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized” (http://orcid.org/).

ORCID has made some important changes to their functionality and user interface to better optimize their system. See below for important updates on changes to the ORCID system from the ORCID Team (support@orcid.org).

From ORCID:

New: The ORCID Inbox
To help you manage how and when you receive notifications from ORCID, ORCID developed an ORCID Inbox system, orcid.org/inbox. ORCID users can choose which messages are delivered to their Inbox and how frequently they receive alerts. For more information and to reset the default weekly alert frequency, please see “About the ORCID Inbox.”

New: Permission requests for ORCID record auto-updates
To reduce the amount of time spent maintaining an ORCID record, the ORCID Team has been working with selected member organizations including CrossRef and DataCite – non-profits that work with publishers and data centers to provide digital object identifiers (DOIs) – to enable automatic updates to ORCID records. These organizations may post messages to a user’s Inbox requesting permission to update the user’s record when the user uses their ORCID iD during manuscript submission or dataset deposit. Users need grant permission only once, and may revoke permission at any time. To learn more about this feature, please see “About the ORCID Inbox.”

Privacy Policy Changes
To help identify and block spammers from creating fake ORCID iDs and records, ORCID now may associate a user’s IP address with their ORCID account. See updates to ORCID’s privacy policy here: https://orcid.org/privacy-policy

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Sci-Hub Website and Library Information

You may be aware of a website called Sci-Hub, which is a potentially illegal repository of millions of academic journal articles stored online. Articles posted on this website routinely violate the original copyright agreements set forth by the articles’ authors and journal publishers. University of Florida-affiliated individuals are discouraged from accessing or participating in any Sci-Hub activities, including using this website to access research articles.

For more information about this controversy, see this article from Science Magazine: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone

The University of Florida subscribes to numerous academic journals, free access to which is provided for all University of Florida faculty, staff, and students (http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/).

The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries contains (retrieved from http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/Communications/Libraries_glance):

  • Over 5 million print volumes
  • 1 million e-books
  • 170,522 full-text electronic journals
  • 1,000 electronic databases
  • Over eleven million pages from the libraries’ collections have been digitized for online public access. Each year 1.2 million pages of archival, photo and textual materials are added. There are over 85,000,000 unique material views annually to the digital collections’ web site.
  • 43,648 UF theses and dissertations are available through the libraries. Over 20,000 are available online.

Library-based information (e.g., academic journal articles) may be accessed off-campus by logging on to the Virtual Private Network (VPN). For instructions on how to use the VPN for library access, see: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/login/vpn.html

If the University does not subscribe to a journal you wish to access, or if access to a particular article is restricted, the University facilitates an Interlibrary Loan service (ILL/ILLIAD) to assist patrons in retrieving information. This quick and convenient service results in the delivery of many previously inaccessible articles and book chapters directly to the user free of charge. For instructions on how to use the Interlibrary Loan service, see: http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/accesssupport/InterlibraryLoan

Additional tutorial videos for popular library topics (e.g., how to locate journals by title and subject, how to renew books online, how to access online journals from off campus) are available at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/tutorials/catalogtutorials.html

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A DSP Reminder: IPA Agreement Processing Guidance

The UF Division of Sponsored Programs (DSP) has updated its Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Agreement Processing Guidance. What is an IPA Agreement? The IPA Agreement is the contract between UF and a federal agency that allows a UF employee to go on assignment to the federal agency and provide research, administrative, or other services to the federal agency for a limited period of time.

The assignee remains a UF employee and continues to be paid by UF payroll for the duration of the assignment. The Federal agency may agree to pay all, some, or none of the costs associated with an assignment. Costs may include salary pay, supplemental pay, fringe benefits, and travel and relocation expenses.  Most IPAs do not allow reimbursement of indirect costs, but there are a few federal agencies that do allow a reduced indirect cost rate.

The updated guidance can be found on the DSP website: IPA Agreement Processing Guidance

UF IPA Agreement Processing Guidance

  • UF employees considering going on assignment need to first coordinate the activity with their Dept Chair and in some cases the Dean’s Office.
  • All IPA agreements must receive UF’s four levels of approval (PI, Dept, College and DSP) using UFIRST Proposal with a related UFIRST Agreement, prior to DSP signing the IPA Agreement.
  • Upon IPA full execution the funding is established in a project in Fund 201 using UFIRST Awards.
  • C&G Accounting will invoice the federal agency and collect the payments.

UFIRST Instructions

If the assignee is PI eligible,

  • In the Proposal and Award SmartForms the assignee is entered as the Principal Investigator.
  • The PI will be the Project Manager and their effort commitment will be entered into the Award commitment page.
  • No effort commitment is required of the immediate supervisor identified in the IPA agreement.

If the assignee is not PI eligible,

  • In the Proposal and Award SmartForms the assignee will be entered as the Principal Investigator, with the assignee’s supervisor, who is PI eligible, entered as the Responsible Faculty Mentor.
  • The Responsible Faculty Mentor will be the Project Manager and no effort commitment is required.
  • The assignee’s effort commitment is entered into the Award commitment page.
  • No effort commitment is required of the immediate supervisor identified in the IPA agreement.

Questions can be directed to ufproposals@ufl.edu or DSP-HSC.

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Awarded Projects for August 2016

College of Education
Awarded Projects
August 2016
Principal Investigator: Alice Kaye Emery (SSESPECS)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Florida Department of Education
Project Title: Working with the Experts 2016 – 2017
Project Period: 8/1/2016 – 7/31/2017
Award Amount: $240,000
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