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Case Research Weekly  
February 8, 2008  
Sponsored Projects News and Updates
Grants.gov Transitioning from PureEdge to Adobe
In an effort to better serve the grant community and increase site accessibility, Grants.gov has committed to transitioning from the previous PureEdge based application system to an Adobe Reader based application system.

The Adobe Reader applications offer more functionality and expansive system compatibility. The Adobe Reader applications are compatible with most operating systems including all Windows (Vista, Windows 2007), Mac OSX (Tiger, Leopard), Linux and UNIX.

The system transition will not affect the application process itself. Grants.gov is working with agencies to identify specific dates when the agencies will transition to Adobe Reader. Some agencies are currently posting opportunities in Adobe. The transition is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2008. During the transition period applicants will need to have both PureEdge and Adobe Reader 8.1.1 software installed on their computers, since not all applications from all agencies are transitioned to Adobe Reader. Both PureEdge and Adobe Reader 8.1.1 software are available for free download on Grants.gov: http://www.grants.gov/resources/download_software.jsp.

 
Compliance News
HHS OIG Recommends Changes in NIH COI Oversight
Following a review of more than 400 conflict of interest reports submitted by grantees to the National Institutes of Heath, the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services recommends that the NIH's Office of Extramural Research increase oversight of grantee institutions to ensure their compliance with federal financial COI regulations.

OIG further recommends that the NIH require grantee institutions to provide details regarding the nature of financial COIs and how they are managed, reduced, or eliminated; and require NIH institutes to forward to OER all financial COI reports that they receive from grantee institutions and ensure that OER's COI database contains information on all such reports, the audit states. "NIH concurred with two of our recommendations but did not concur with our recommendation to require grantee institutions to provide details about financial conflicts of interest," the report states. OIG released the findings on Jan. 17.

Link: http://www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-03-06-00460.pdf.

 
Sponsored Projects News and Updates
NIH Center for Scientific Review Newsletter Contains Info for Applicants and Reviewers
The Center for Scientific Review at the NIH has posted the January 2008 issue of its monthly newsletter, containing news and updates for grant applicants and reviewers. The CSR processes about 80% of the grants submitted to the NIH. Among the items in the newsletter is information on new flexible submission deadlines for reviewers and a plea to medical societies to recommend reviewers. The newsletter also provides links to helpful documents, including The Insider's Guide to Peer Review. "We asked a group of current and retired study section chairs to give us their advice for applicants. The group responded with great enthusiasm, hitting many of the same notes. We consolidated their comments and produced The Insider's Guide to Peer Review for Applicants," the newsletter states.

Link: http://cms.csr.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/22D86291-60E1-40AA-AB85-9B89C074BC8D/15122/PRNJan2008FinalWeb2.pdf.

 
FY09 Federal Budget and Impact on Research
Earlier this week, President Bush presented his 2009 federal budget to Congress. It recommends providing NIH with $29.31 billion — an amount unchanged from fiscal 2008. The new budget proposes increasing the National Science Foundation's funding by 13.6%, to $6.9 billion, with the increases occuring mainly to physical and mathematical sciences.

The FY 2009 budget for NIH forecasts flat spending at all Institutes, with budget increases ranging from 0.1% (for most Institutes) to 0.7% (for the Institute of Nursing).

According to the NIH's Summary of the FY 2009 President's Budget, "inflationary pressure on our research portfolio and scientific purchasing power remains a key concern; however, we have made the difficult decision to again eliminate inflationary increases" for research project grants (RPGs).

For a link to this summary, please go to: http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/ui/2008/Summary%20of%20FY%202009%20Budget-Press%20Release.pdf.

For information on NIH's fiscal policy for grant awards - FY 2008 - including the elimination of inflationary increases, please go to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-036.html. p>

 
February Science Café
February’s Science Café Cleveland will take place on Monday, February 11th at Great Lakes Brewing Company.

This month’s topic is "A new alphabet for the classroom: The genetics of reading and writing."

The featured guests will be Dr. Lee Thompson of Case's Department of Psychology and Dr. Barbara Lewis of the Department of Pediatrics.

For more details of this and other science cafés: http://www.case.edu/affil/sigmaxi/.

NEXT MONTH'S TOPIC: Malaria, featuring Dr. James Kaszura, Dr. Peter Zimmerman, and Dr. Moses Bockarie (all from Case's Center for Global Health and Diseases).

 
Tech Transfer News
Case Western Reserve University Start-up Companies Attract $130 Million in Venture Capital in 2007
Companies spun off from research at Case Western Reserve University took in $130 million in venture investment capital last year. All seven spin-out companies involved operate in the health care sector – developing biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices – and all but one are based in Northeast Ohio.

The six Cleveland-area enterprises attracted nearly $100 million in venture investments. That figure represents almost a third of the $318 million of new capital investments that flowed to the region’s start-ups in 2007, a record total reported in the 2007 Venture Capital Report, to be released in February by the NorTech Venture Capital Advisory Task Force. The task force operates through NorTech, the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition.

To learn more, please go to: http://ora.ra.cwru.edu/techtransfer/news/newsrelease.pdf.

 
Inventors Forum: "The Low-Down on Start-Ups: What to Consider When Building Your Company"

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
4:30pm
Wolstein Research Building Auditorium, Room 1413

Warren Goldenberg, Esq. of Hahn, Loeser & Parks LLP, Intellectual Property Law, and Michael Haag, Director of Case's Technology Transfer Office, will present.

This seminar is part of the fifth annual "Inventors Forum, Tuesdays with Technology Transfer", a series of lectures about the entire innovation and technology commercialization process.

Bring your colleagues! Refreshments will be served.

RSVP is appreciated, but not required, to acs51@case.edu.

 

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