Family Foundations: A webinar on Family Foundations as a Rising Force for Research Funding
On October 3, 2012, the Principal Investigators Association held a webinar on Family Foundations and why they can be a good source for researchers seeking funding. Consider this: In the most recent Giving USA results (2010), while overall private foundation giving remained flat, gifts from small foundations increased more than 20 percent. Also, while larger foundations may only fund proven research projects, family foundations are more likely to be flexible, take a chance on “high risk, high reward” endeavors, and have more lenient application and reporting requirements.
Amy Confair from the Office for Research attended this webinar and has an mp4 recording and pdf of the complete slides to share with anyone interested. Please
email Amy to request these materials.
The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is the portal for NIH grant applications and their review for scientific merit. Their mission is to see that NIH grant applications receive fair, independent, expert, and timely reviews – free from inappropriate influences – so NIH can fund the most promising research. They receive all research grant applications sent to NIH and handle the review of more than 70% of those by organizing peer review groups (study sections) to evaluate research grant applications. To compose these study sections, they need scientists to volunteer as reviewers. This is a great opportunity for faculty to grow their exposure and knowledge in a particular field, to network and work with some of the most accomplished researchers in your field, to learn how reviewers determine overall impact scores, to contribute to the integrity of your field's research literature and scientific community moving forward, and to further develop your own research-evaluation, grant writing, and critique-writing skills. Of specific interest, the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) created
the Early Career Reviewer (ECR) program to train qualified scientists without prior CSR review experience so that they may become effective reviewers, help emerging researchers advance their careers by exposing them to peer review, and enrich the existing pool of NIH reviewers by including scientists from less research-intensive institutions as well as those from traditionally research-intensive institutions. Their
website has all of the relevant information regarding eligibility qualifications, how to apply, and what happens after you apply. The
Reviewer Resources website provides additional information on the specific steps throughout the review process. For questions about the ECR program, please send an email to
CSREarlyCareerReviewer@mail.nih.gov.
Drexel University's Development of a New Extension Center in Powelton Village
Drexel University, led by Dr. Lucy Kerman, Vice Provost of University and Community Partnerships, is currently in the process of developing plans for a new Extension Center in the Community, to facilitate improving the availability of Drexel expertise and resources in the community. The specific address of the facility is 3509 Spring Garden Street, just north of main campus, and directly bordering the neighborhoods of Mantua and Powelton. There are three buildings on the 1.3 acre lot with various configurations that will be redesigned to facilitate use by Drexel faculty and students in their work with community members. Please contact
Amy Confair, MPH if you have any questions, or if you are interested in potentially using space in this facility. Discussions around the redesign of the buildings are currently happening, which means space can be configured around specific anticipated needs.
Those who conduct community-based research know that many challenges can arise from 2 main sources: community partners do not understand research regulations, protocols, and human subjects considerations; and IRBs have little experience or expertise in understanding and reviewing for community-level risk. The goal of the Community Engaged Research and Regulatory Subcommittee supported by Harvard Catalyst is to facilitate bi-directional communication and build partnerships that support research among communities, organizations, investigators, and regulatory leadership through the development of tools, training materials, and education to help IRBs, investigators, and communities to promote reciprocal teaching and learning. This group is already conducting trainings and developing useful tools to educate and train community partners and IRBs, and would like to share these with other interested institutions and hear feedback from researchers working in communities. This
power point presentation (in pdf format) more fully describes the Community Engaged Research and Regulatory Subcommittee supported by Harvard Catalyst, the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center.
The
STAR Scholars Program provides opportunities for faculty to mentor undergraduate students in research, scholarship, or creative work. The STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholars Program allows 125 high-achieving first-year students from across the university (all colleges accepted) to engage in faculty-mentored research, scholarship, or creative work during the summer between freshman and sophomore year. Students commit to working a total of 400 hours over the ten weeks of summer term (40 hours/week) and are compensated by the Pennoni Honors College with a $4,000 stipend and free on-campus housing; this program is at no cost to departments.
The Office of Undergraduate Research does NOT assign students to mentors; rather, they advise students on available research opportunities, encourage students to use the
Discover portal to search for open research positions, and work with faculty to suggest appropriate STAR Scholars for their specific projects. The best way for faculty members to advertise open research positions to STAR Scholars is to post positions on Discover.
In order to ensure that both faculty and students have a rewarding STAR experience, we ask all STAR Mentors to:
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Construct a meaningful project for the STAR Scholar – we do not expect or ask that STAR Scholars create their own project; we rather ask that faculty create a project for STARs to work on independently (often a piece of their own scholarly work)
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Provide a work environment in which STARs can:
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Gain knowledge about performing research, scholarship, or creative work in their discipline
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Engage in substantive, independent work
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Receive regular feedback and guidance about their work
If you have any questions about the STAR Scholars Program or how to participate in the program as a Mentor, please feel free to contact
Jaya Mohan in the Office of Undergraduate Research or
Amy Confair in the School of Public Health Office for Research.
Drexel’s
Discover website, with its growing database, is the perfect venue for Drexel faculty to identify and be matched with talented and motivated undergraduate students eager to work with you on research, scholarly and/or creative projects. We have large numbers of qualified students eager to work with faculty as volunteers, as work-study students, for academic credit, and as co-ops. But there aren’t enough opportunities posted on Discover. For Discover to work, Drexel faculty have to post opportunities.
Let’s make March 2012 “Join Discover” month. As an incentive to have faculty post opportunities, Provost Dr. Mark Greenberg will raffle off an iPad to an individual within the department that has the greatest proportion of faculty members with postings on
Discover as of March 31.
Posting opportunities on Discover is fast and easy. Go to
www.drexel.edu/discover. Log in under the faculty banner and post. Should you need help, the Office of Undergraduate Research is eager to help you. Contact them at
OUR@drexel.edu.
HRSA is looking for new and experienced grant reviewers with experience in HIV/AIDS, Health Professions Training, Maternal and Child Health, Organ Transplantation, Primary Care for Underserved People, and Rural Health.
Potential applicants include doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, medical/health educators, health researchers, psychologists, social workers, health administrators, allied health providers, economists, physician assistants, patient navigators, health facility architects and engineers, and others with experience in health care. Please click
here for more information and to apply.