2009 Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award Goes to NCNPR’s Larry Walker
Dr. Larry Walker, Director of UM's National Center for Natural Products Research and Professor of Pharmacology, has been named the 2009 recipient of the University's Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award.
The Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award recognizes a faculty member on the Oxford campus who has achieved national and/or international recognition in his or her field. Nominees have distinguished careers; are engaged in scholarly and/or creative activity; and demonstrate evidence of encouraging the scholarly and/or creative works of others. In addition, nominees participate in leadership roles in scientific and professional societies.
A full story about Dr. Walker and the award is available on the UM website at the Newsdesk.
UM Research Funding News
Proposal and Award Activity
UM faculty and staff submitted 33 external funding proposals and received 24 external funding awards during April 2009. For a complete listing, see the Monthly Report.
Faculty Travel Support
In April $1,142 was awarded by the ORSP to help support research-related travel. The ORSP's Faculty Travel Support program provides funds for UM faculty members to take part in development activities that will lead to new or extended research, scholarly or creative work. The program typically does not support travel to a conference for presentation of completed work unless the request includes specific development activities beyond the conference itself.
Examples of research purposes for which faculty have recently received support include:
- Attend summer artists’ colony to develop new work
- Consult with expert about book project while at conference
- Expand ongoing research project by conducting in-person interviews in new location
- Collect research data for planned monograph through observations and interviews
- Meet with collaborator about planned grant proposal while at conference
Additional Information
Speaking of COS
Well-Defined Search Criteria Lead to Relevant Results
If you are seeing information in your COS Funding Alert that is not relevant to you, you probably need to refine or update your search criteria. Many COS Funding Alert users have never reviewed or refined their search criteria after initial account set-up. Others may have neglected to update their criteria to reflect the evolution in their work and interests. COS Funding Alert can only search on the criteria set by users, so if those criteria are not kept current, the results can be less than useful. Each user can define several different searches, so you can receive targeted, relevant results for multiple purposes. To modify your search criteria, access the COS Funding Alert section of your COS Workbench.
Don’t know about COS?
Check out our COS page, the January 2005, September 2006, and March 2007 newsletter articles, and/or the COS home page. COS is for all UM faculty in all academic disciplines and research areas.
Bits & Pieces
Important ORSP Procedures Now on Website
A new section on the Policies and Procedures page of the ORSP website now lists three important procedures:
- Accepting Funds for Research or Sponsored Programs Without Properly Executed Agreement
- Operating Under Fixed-Price Agreements for Research and Other Sponsored Programs
- Processing Industry- or Privately-Sponsored Research Proposals
If your work involves any of these types of agreements, be sure to read and follow the procedures. If you have questions, contact a member of the ORSP Pre-Award or Post-Award Staff.
A Few Program Announcements and Deadlines
DoE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy ~ Deadline June 2 (concept papers)
The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) is an organization within the Department of Energy, chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act (P. L. 110-69) to create transformational new energy technologies and systems through funding and managing research and development (R&D) efforts. The mission of ARPA-E is to overcome the long-term and high risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies that can achieve the following, with no direct detriment to any of ARPA-E's Mission Areas:
- Enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources; reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors;
- Ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.
The kinds of R&D activities supported by ARPA-E are not restricted. They may include targeted acceleration of novel, early-stage energy research with possible technology applications; development of techniques, processes, and technologies, and related testing and evaluation; research and development of manufacturing processes for novel energy technologies; and coordination with nongovernmental entities for demonstration of technologies and research applications to facilitate technology transfer.
NEH Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants ~ Deadline July 30
The National Endowment for the Humanities invites research proposals for Preservation and Access Research and Development grants. The program supports projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources, such as: 1) better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation's cultural heritage-from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence, and 2) development of advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials.
NSF/DOE Basic Plasma Science and Engineering Grants ~ Deadline October 22
The National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy formed a partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering to enhance plasma research and education in this broad, multidisciplinary field by coordinating efforts and combining resources of the two agencies. The FY09-FY11 initiative will address fundamental issues in plasma science and engineering that can have impact in other areas or disciplines in which improved basic understanding of the plasma state is needed.
MAC Arts Reinvestment Initiative ~ Deadline July 10
The Mississippi Arts Commission has announced a new grant program, the Arts Reinvestment Initiative (ARI), which will administer and distribute federal funding received from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for support of job preservation in the non-profit arts sector. The Arts Reinvestment Initiative will provide one-time grants to non-profit organizations or government agencies in Mississippi to sustain jobs in the arts that have been cut or are in danger of being eliminated due to the current national economic downturn. The focus of the federal funding is to preserve and expand jobs in the arts; therefore, the ARI grants must be used in accordance with the NEA guidelines.
Additional Resources
Congratulations from the VCRSP
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs oversees funding for research, service, and education projects. These activities complement the fundamental aspects of The University of Mississippi’s mission and are among its most tangible contributions to the future. Funding for these activities is one of the best measures of a university’s success in engaging with national and international communities.
All of us who have sought funding to test our ideas know that it is difficult and that the communities to which we belong are highly competitive. That spirit of competition is critical and it contributes more than a little to the relief and excitement a researcher feels on receiving a funding award.
Listed below are our colleagues who have been notified of external funding awards in the last calendar month. Please join me in congratulating them. The news of their discoveries and the importance of their contributions are part of all of our futures and the future of Ole Miss.
Alice M. Clark, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs
Summary of Awards Received in April 2009
| PI Name | PI Department/Unit | Co-PI Name(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Angle, T. | Division of Outreach and Continuing Education | Love, Fannye E |
| Avery, Bonnie A | Pharmaceutics | |
| Cavaglia, Marco (2 awards) | Physics and Astronomy | |
| Cheng, Alexander H D | Civil Engineering | |
| Davis, Cynthia | Mississippi Judicial College | |
| Di, X. | Jamie Whitten National Center for Physical Acoustics | Gilbert, Kenneth |
| Gabrynowicz, Joanne | National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center | |
| Gladden, Joseph | Physics and Astronomy | |
| Glisson, Susan | William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation | |
| Haley, Bryan | Sociology and Anthropology | Johnson, Jay K |
| Jones, Terron | Physical Plant | Buchannon, Denny Pearson, Ashton Swann, C. |
| McConnell, Germain | Curriculum and Instruction | Guest, Ben |
| McCurdy, Christopher | Medicinal Chemistry | |
| Oakley, Charlotte | National Food Service Management Institute | |
| Parsons, Glenn R | Biology | |
| Sabatier, James | Jamie Whitten National Center for Physical Acoustics | Aranchuk, Vyacheslav |
| Showalter, Stephanie | Mississippi Law Research Institute | |
| Smillie, Troy | National Center for Natural Products Research | |
| Sufka, Kenneth | Psychology | |
| Sukanek, Peter | Chemical Engineering | |
| Vaughan, James G | Mechanical Engineering | |
| Vaughan, James G | Mechanical Engineering | Lackey, Ellen |
| Walker, Larry | National Center for Natural Products Research | Nanayakkara, N P Dhammika Tekwani, Babu |
- April 2009 Report: A list of awards received and proposals submitted by The University of Mississippi in the previous month.
- April Proposals Submitted: 33 from 31 Principal Investigators
- April Awards Received: 24 totaling $3,330,799
- FY09 Year-to-Date Number of Active Sponsored Projects: 502
- FY09 Year-to-Date Number of Active Investigators: 241