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Case Research Weekly  
November 13, 2007  
Compliance News
Chemical Security Rule Will Require Universities to Report Levels of Common Lab Chemicals

According to Appendix A of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards regulation, issued on Nov. 2, 2007, universities will need to survey their facilities to comply with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) list of "chemicals of interest and their corresponding Screening Threshold Quantities." Examples of chemicals that will need to be reported include propane, chlorine, ammonium nitrate, acetone, urea and hydrogen peroxide.

If quantities exceed the listed thresholds, they must be reported to DHS, using an assessment tool called a "Top Screen." DHS then would decide if the university must take further action. Top screens must be completed "within 60 calendar days of the publication of a final Appendix A or within 60 calendar days of coming into possession of the listed chemical of interest at or above the listed screening threshold quantity," DHS said.

The appendix does not become final until published in the Federal Register, which is expected within the next two weeks.

Link: http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1193971455405.shtm.

 
Sponsored Projects News and Updates
Final Pentagon Spending Bill Reduces Indirect Cost
On November 6, 2007, Congressional leaders approved a spending bill that caps overhead, or indirect costs, on basic resaerch grants funded by the Department of Defense at 35%. Congress is expected to approve the overall bill this month.

Three organizations representing university researchers, i.e., the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the Council on Governmental Relations, issued a joint statement asking Congress to reconsider.

Please see the link below to access this statement: http://www.aau.edu/publications/Research_Universities_Stmt_Indirect_Cost_Cap-11-5-2007.pdf.

 
Funding Opportunities
NSF RFP: Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI)
Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) is NSF’s bold five-year initiative to create revolutionary science and engineering research outcomes made possible by innovations and advances in computational thinking.

Computational thinking is defined comprehensively to encompass computational concepts, methods, models, algorithms, and tools. Applied in challenging science and engineering research and education contexts, computational thinking promises a profound impact on the Nation’s ability to generate and apply new knowledge. Collectively, CDI research outcomes are expected to produce paradigm shifts in our understanding of a wide range of science and engineering phenomena and socio-technical innovations that create new wealth and enhance the national quality of life.

CDI seeks ambitious, transformative, multidisciplinary research proposals within or across the following three thematic areas:
  • From Data to Knowledge: enhancing human cognition and generating new knowledge from a wealth of heterogeneous digital data
  • Understanding Complexity in Natural, Built, and Social Systems: deriving fundamental insights on systems comprising multiple interacting elements; and
  • Building Virtual Organizations: enhancing discovery and innovation by bringing people and resources together across institutional, geographical and cultural boundaries.
With an emphasis on bold multidisciplinary activities that, through computational thinking, promise radical, paradigm-changing research findings, CDI is unique within NSF. Accordingly, investigators are encouraged to come together in the development of far-reaching, high-risk science and engineering research and education agendas that capitalize on innovations in, and/or innovative use of, computational thinking. CDI projects are expected to build upon productive intellectual partnerships involving investigators from academe, industry and/or other types of organizations, including international entities.

Congruent with the three thematic areas, CDI projects will enable transformative discovery to identify patterns and structures in massive datasets; exploit computation as a means of achieving deeper understanding in the natural and social sciences and engineering; simulate and predict complex stochastic or chaotic systems; explore and model nature’s interactions, connections, complex relations, and interdependencies, scaling from sub-particles to galactic, from subcellular to biosphere, and from the individual to the societal; train future generations of scientists and engineers to enhance and use cyber resources; and facilitate creative, cyber-enabled boundary-crossing collaborations, including those with industry and international dimensions, to advance the frontiers of science and engineering and broaden participation in STEM fields.

Two types of CDI awards will be supported as a result of the first (FY 2008) CDI competition:
  • Type I awards will require efforts up to a level roughly comparable to: summer support for two investigators with complementary expertise; two graduate students; and their collective research needs (e.g. materials, supplies, travel) for three years.
  • Type II awards will require larger (than Type I) efforts up to a level roughly comparable to: summer support for three investigators with complementary expertise; three graduate students; one or two senior personnel (including post-doctoral researchers and staff); and their collective research needs (e.g. materials, supplies, travel) for four years. The integrative contributions of the Type II team should clearly be greater than the sum of the contributions of each individual member of the team.
In subsequent years, subject to availability of funds, funding opportunities will be provided for three classes of awards, Types I and II as defined above, and Type III as defined below:
  • Type III awards will require the engagement of larger (than Type II) multidisciplinary teams, roughly comparable to multiple senior investigators with complementary expertise, multiple graduate students, several senior personnel, and their collective research needs (e.g. materials, supplies, travel) for up to five years. As for Type II awards, the integrative contributions of the Type III team should be clearly greater than the sum of the contributions of each individual member of the team.
Letters of Intent are due by November 30, 2007; preliminary proposals are due by January 8, 2008; and full proposals (by invitation only) by April 29, 2008.

To access the complete RFP, go to: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07603/nsf07603.htm.

 
Third Round Proposals for the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center
The Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center invites researchers, small and large companies to submit proposals for funding nanomaterials commercialization projects. The Center supports advanced nanomaterials research and development which has applications for new nano-based products and manufacturing processes in the commercial and defense sectors.

The Center is opening its Third Round of Invitation for Proposals on November 1, 2007. Potential proposers may offer an early “Idea Submission” for preliminary feedback on concept suitability through the Center’s website prior to formal proposal submission. The staff of the Center will provide feedback on proposals submitted prior to January 15, 2008 and accept changes to proposal submissions until the deadline for final proposal submission, which is January 31, 2008.

The Center plans to award up to $800,000 in grants by April 2008 for supporting promising projects which have both novel nanotechnology solutions and proven commercial potential. Typical projects supported by the Center are 12 months duration and range from $150,000 - $250,000.

Full proposals will be reviewed by the Center’s Technical Advisory Committee, a group of nanotechnology experts from industry, academia, and federal agencies.

For more information, please visit the Center’s website at: http://www.pananocenter.org or call Executive Director, Dr. Alan Brown, at (412) 918-4205.

 
Sponsored Projects News and Updates
Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index
As reported in a recent article in the Chronicles of Higher Education, Academic Analytics, a for-profit company, owned in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, recently compiled its third annual Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index — a ranking of graduate programs at research universities based on what it purports to be the first objective measurement of per-capita scholarly accomplishment. The measurement this year considers several new factors, causing some surprising fluctuations in the rankings.

The index is based on 1) the number of professors in a given program, 2) the number of books and journal articles they have written, 3) the number of times other scholars have cited them, and 4) the awards, honors, and grant dollars they have received.

In addition to journal and citation data taken from the Scopus publication database, the index now includes information on 64,000 books purchased by university libraries. It also incorporates grant data from federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as 22,000 scholarly honors and awards. Those variables are weighted differently according to discipline. (In civil engineering, for example, journal citations receive more weight than they do in, say, art history, where books count more.)

Critics of the index object most to the way the company collects data. Academic Analytics compiles faculty lists from departmental and graduate-program Web sites, which it then submits to universities for verification. Last year 172 out of 375 institutions sent back corrected lists of names. Even subscribers who say the index's data about their own university are watertight are skeptical about the accuracy of data on other institutions.

So far, most universities have been tentative in their embrace of Academic Analytics' data. Many want to see the National Research Council's long-anticipated new data, expected in February, before deciding how much legitimacy to grant the council's more commercial rival.

To access the latest report, please go to: http://www.academicanalytics.com/overview.html.

 
CWRU Collaborates with the Great Lakes Science Center on BioMedTech Exhibit
Over the past two years, a team of faculty and administrators from Case Western Reserve University have served as advisors to the Great Lakes Science Center in upgrading their biomedical/biotech exhibits with funding from the NIH.

The upgraded exhibits incorporate concepts, research findings, and technology from Case in the following areas:
  • Human Genetics
  • Neural Engineering, principally functional eletcrical stimulation
  • Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine
  • Imaging
  • Infectious Diseases
The exhibit has recently opened and some photos, courtesy of Michael Gilkey from the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, can be found at the following link: http://ora.ra.cwru.edu/ospa/photos.cfm.

 

Please note: At the time of this transmission, all links functioned. However, Case Research Weekly cannot guarantee that the information will not be moved or deleted.