Greetings, faculty!
Please see the list of announcements, new funding opportunities, and events below.
Staffing Changes in ORSP
As many of you know, Sam Stanley has accepted a new position at Colorado State University. Her last day with us was Wednesday, 1/25. We know that all of you enjoyed working with her as much as we did. She will be greatly missed!
The good news is that Lindsey Nabors, a former graduate assistant in our office, has joined us full-time as the Pre-Award Coordinator. She will be providing proposal development support to campus alongside Todd Moore-Doman and myself. Please join us in welcoming Lindsey to this new role!
Please note that in light of these changes ORSP response times may be longer than normal for the next few weeks as we rebalance work loads. We greatly appreciate your patience during this transition period.
Other Announcements
- NSF has announced new policies for research conducted off-site, including proposals with fieldwork components. Some Directorates, including BIO and GEO, will be requiring a 2-page supplemental document called a Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan. For programs that do not require the supplemental document with submission, ORSP will have to certify that a plan is in place at the time of submission, so PIs will still be required to submit one to ORSP for Cayuse routing. NSF Program Directors will hold a Virtual Office Hour on February 7 at 3:30pm, and you can register here. We encourage all PIs who regularly conduct fieldwork as part of their research to attend.
- All proposals submitted to NIH now require a Data Management & Sharing Plan. You can review the policy and download the suggested template here.
- The recent emergence of AI tools capable of generating text when given a prompt has raised a host of ethical questions about the use of this technology in academia. Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT can be used by researchers to generate text for inclusion in research manuscripts and proposals. The scientific journal Nature recently published preliminary ethical guidelines for the use of LLMs in the creation of scientific publications. This brief article touches on authorship, disclosure expectations, and the risks of using LLMs, including unreliable output and a lack of transparency, both of which erode trust in science.
Funding Opportunities
- NSF Analytics for Equity: The Analytics for Equity Initiative builds on the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act and E.O.13985 by piloting a new way to support social, economic, and behavioral sciences research that leverages federal data assets and scientific advances in researching equity-related topics for greater public benefit. You can read more about the Initiative here and view the BAA here. The deadline to apply is March 3. Note that this Initiative is very different from other NSF programs. Please let ORSP know byFebruary 3 if you are planning to submit a proposal.
Events
- Last Chance! Grant Writing Workshop with The Implementation Group – February 2 and 3, 2023. This workshop is highly encouraged for new faculty or faculty who are new to federal proposal development. New this year is a session on the National Institutes of Health R15 program. See the competition in InfoReady Review to review the agenda and register for the workshop: https://tennessee.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1884239. Please direct any questions to ashley-ledford@utc.edu
Best,
Ashley Ledford,
Research Development Specialist
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs