RESEARCH

The 2008 Presidential Research Initiative (PRI) awards were announced last week. The purpose of the PRI grant program is to promote an interdisciplinary research environment at Case by seeding new research projects involving investigators preferably from two or more schools or colleges within the university. PRI applications for interdisciplinary research involving two departments within the same school or college are also considered; however, a strong case needs to be made that the proposed project is truly interdisciplinary. It is expected that this research will lead to extramural applications and, eventually, extramural support.

57 applications were received and 7 awards were made. The list of awards can be found at: http://ora.ra.cwru.edu/ospa/2008_PRI_Awardees.pdf

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters has released NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNH08ZTT003N entitled "Research Opportunities for Fundamental Space Biology Investigations in Microbial, Plant and Cell Biology". Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, and other Government agencies. Electronic proposals may be submitted via the NASA Proposal data system NSPIRES or via Grants.gov. Questions in regards to responding to this NRA may be addressed to the contacts referenced in the full solicitation document. The full text of the solicitation is available on the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com under menu listing "Open Solicitations."

The Director, Defense Research and Engineering announce the second opportunity in 2008 to be nominated and apply for the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (NSSEFF) program. Annual opportunities are anticipated in future years.

Important due dates (see BAA for complete details - linked provided below):

* 25 June 2008 University letters of Intent to Nominate (required)
* 11 July 2008 Nominee White Paper with supporting documentation (required)
* 5 Sept 2008 Security clearance initiated for nominees invited to submit full proposals
* 3 Oct 2008 Full Proposal (invited)

NSSEFF ensures that DoD maintains an active, long-term, and aggressive basic research and engineering portfolio that attracts the foremost creative, innovative, and productive university faculty scientists, engineers and their students. Distinguished faculty, whose PhD was awarded within the past 25 years, and are employed by a U.S. accredited, degree-granting academic institution are invited to pursue relevant basic research ideas for the Department of Defense. NSSEFF provides an opportunity for researchers to be exposed to extraordinary DoD challenges and to benefit from extensive, long-term financial support for their research.

NSSEFF Fellowships are unclassified basic research science and engineering grants of up to $600K/year for up to five years. The Fellowships are open to all science and engineering disciplines.

Link to complete SAA: http://www.nps.edu/Research/WorkingWithNPS.html

Other items of interest: http://nsseff.ida.org/

DoD Press Release Announcing Inaugural Class of NSSEFF Fellows http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11964