Tag Archives: research

OARS Research Fair

In response to requests from new and continuing faculty for more information about the research support services available here at Miami, OARS will sponsor a research fair on Tuesday, September 12 from 10:00am to 2:00pm in the Heritage Room in Shriver Center. No registration required. Modeled after Miami’s annual benefits fair, the research fair will offer resources related to a range of services, including:

  • Internal funding for research
  • Collaborative research opportunities
  • Research centers
  • Laboratory services
  • Program evaluation services
  • Statistical services
  • Writing support services
  • Proposal development assistance
  • Research ethics and integrity support
  • Undergraduate research support
  • Crowdfunding

New budget templates for grants

OARS has developed new budget templates with updated fringe benefit rates for FY2018. The NSF budget template is used for all NSF grant proposals. The eSPA budget template is used for all other grant proposals; both files can be found in this departmental Drive folder. From OARS:

No outdated budget templates will be accepted and the FY2018 templates are not available online, so please take a minute to download and save the attached templates and delete any outdated ones you may have saved.

If you plan on submitting a grant this year, please adhere to this. OARS is short-staffed with Tricia’s departure and every little way we can help will be appreciated.

NSF Major Research Instrumentation

Faculty interested in this grant mechanism should let OARS know of your interest, since the number of institutional proposals is limited. From OARS:

The National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation.

NSF is currently revising guidelines for this program, which may affect the number of proposals Miami University can submit. Historically, however, we have been allowed to submit up to 3 MRI proposals (at least 1 of which must be for instrument development and no more than 2 for instrument acquisition) on which we are either the lead or a partner institution. To facilitate the selection of our submissions to NSF, we have set a deadline of Monday, October 2, 2017 to receive preliminary MRI proposals for internal review. You are required to provide a preliminary proposal regardless of whether you were selected as an institutional submission in previous years.

To be considered as an institutional submission, please email a preliminary proposal to
Anne Schauer, including a cover page giving title, PIs and departments, amount, and list of instrumentation.  The Project Description should address both the scientific merit and broader impacts (3 pgs.). You should describe the proposed major research instrumentation, the type of research or research training to be conducted, the activities and projects that would result from this instrumentation, and how students will be involved and how their education will be enhanced through this instrumentation.

Direct any questions to Anne Schauer.

Is my “basic” research really a clinical trial?

Many of you may be following this through your professional societies, but if not this is an important change in federal policy that could potentially impact even “basic” research. The policy went into effect January 1 and is currently active. The following summary is from FABBS:

The new NIH policy on clinical trials potentially includes a good bit of basic science research. According to the policy, a clinical trial is “a research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes.” The policy requires registration of the research and results as well as good clinical practice training for investigators. It also affects funding opportunities and review of grant applications. There are criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance. Additional information can be found on the NIH blog here.

FABBS and other scientific societies are expressing their concerns over this broad definition/policy, but their objections do not seem to have gained much traction. They have created this site to compile information and resources. I will provide updates as I hear of them through FABBS; Robin Thomas is also her society’s FABBS contact and may have more information. Josh Magee also points out that the NIH provides examples to help one determine whether their research is included.