The ORSP wishes to thank the numerous faculty who participated in the ORSP-coordinated day of meetings with Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation. Your enthusiasm and expertise spoke well for all of us. Dr. Colwell was on campus as the keynote speaker for a conference hosted by the UM Field Station/Center for Water and Wetlands Research, May 23-25.
Diane Lindley, Program Development Specialist, will assume the task of coordinating activities of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Lindley can be reached at 915-7482 or dlindley@olemiss.edu.
Patrick Brown, Associate Director for Sponsored Programs, will be overseeing submissions to DEPSCoR, the Department of Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Interested applicants are urged to contact him at 915-7482 or pbrown@olemiss.edu. DEPSCoR supports research consistent with DoD research goals as outlined in the Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) from participating branches ARO, ONR, AFOSR, and BMDO. Applications must be accompanied by a letter of support from the appropriate branch and scientific area. Under the DEPSCoR process, UM faculty submit proposals for internal review and ranking before those proposals are sent to the State level for ranking statewide. The deadline for submission to the UM Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is 5:00, August 4. Guidelines can be found at http://www.aro.mil/research/dep01baa.htm.
NSF’s FastLane is making a change from issuing PIN numbers to requiring user-selected passwords. The change is to increase security and comply with other federal electronic initiatives. The ORSP will be contacting faculty in the UM PI database and assisting them in making this change, but there is no need to wait to be contacted. To change to a password, go to the FastLane website (https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.htm) and click on “Change Password” on the right of the screen. You’ll log-in with your current PIN, then enter (and re-enter) your new password. Passwords must be at least 6 characters, including at least 1 numeric and at least 1 alphabetic character (e.g., esubs1 or 1603QE). FastLane is making this change gradually, and your PIN will continue to work, but you may log-in and find that you are asked to change to a password. Please note: the Office of Research will not have a record of your password, so please write it down and keep it somewhere you can find it. (If you forget it, the ORSP can “change” your password so that you can log-in and create a new one of your choosing, but we won’t be able to look up the password you created initially.) For further background on the change and the timeline, please check the FastLane website, or contact Debra Young (915-7482; dbyoung@olemiss.edu) for assistance.
Unlike other issues, this June issue of ResearchHighlights will not be posted on the ORSP website (http://www.research.olemiss.edu/ResearchHighlights). Ordinarily, the issue goes on-line at roughly the time hard copies are mailed, but the ORSP is temporarily between webmasters. We anticipate having the newsletter on-line again in August. Meanwhile, past issues are still available, including the links to lists of recent awards.
Update: I'm currently attempting to get all available past issues of Research Highlights online. If you have any problems or comments feel free to contact me at spis@cedar.olemiss.edu -Price Rials
