Office of Research Update
New Proposal Submissions
In September, NSM faculty submitted 35 research proposals (including 15 to NSF, 2 to NASA, and 1 to DoD) corresponding to $11.96M in requested funding.
Awarded Research Grants
Yuxuan Wang (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was awarded a $586,102 grant from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: “Investigating the Effects of Drought Stress on Biogenic VOC Emissions and Tropospheric Air Quality.”
Yingcai Zheng (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was awarded a $300,000 grant from DOE: “Detecting and Characterizing Fracture Zones Using Convolutional Neural Networks.”
Bernhard Bodmann (Mathematics) was awarded a $189K grant from NSF: “POP-FLOW: Spatio-Temporal Modeling of Flows in Mobility Networks for Prediction and Anomaly Detection.”
Gabriela T. Jaramillo (Mathematics) was awarded a $175,783 grant from NSF: “The Effects of Nonlocal Coupling in Oscillatory Media.”
Di Chen (Physics) was awarded a $75,206 contract from Battelle Energy Alliance/Idaho National Laboratory (flow through from DOE): “Development of an Integrated Multifunctional Experimental Vehicle for GFR Irradiation Testing in VTR.”
Yuxuan Wang (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was awarded a $64,000 grant from NASA: “Synergistic Analysis of Multi-Dimensional Ozone Measurements in Coastal Environments Toward Improving Ozone Simulation and Advancing Geostationary Satellite Products.”
Matthew J. Nicol (Mathematics) was awarded a $20,000 grant from NSF: “Conference Support for Thermodynamic Formalism: Dynamical Systems, Statistical Properties and their Applications at CIRM.”
Julia Wellner (Earth & Atmospheric Sciences) was awarded a $17,899 grant from Columbia University (flow through from NSF): “U.S. Science Support Program Office Associated with the International Ocean Discovery Program.”
Internal Award Opportunities
Grants to Enhance and Advance Research (GEAR)
The GEAR program seeks to leverage research at UH, with exclusive emphasis on projects that will attract support from federal and other external sources. GEAR recipients are required to submit a proposal to an external funding source. The GEAR program cannot be used as a supplement to currently funded research.
NSM’s Pre-proposal Deadine: Monday, November 11, by 5:00 p.m. Interested faculty should submit their completed, unsigned pdf pre-proposals to the NSM Office of Research: nsm_research@uh.edu.
A detailed description of the NSM selection process and the pre-proposal submission form is below.
If your pre-proposal is recommended by the College to move forward as a full proposal, you will be contacted and must follow the DoR guidelines for full proposals. Those applicants invited to submit a full GEAR proposal will be notified by January 10, 2020.
Small Grants Program
Proposal Deadline: Monday, November 11, before 5 p.m. No late proposals will be considered.
The purpose of the Small Grants Program is to provide funding for unique or unusual research and scholarly projects not routinely supported by departments or colleges or not currently funded from external sources. Preference will be given to proposals from faculty who presently have limited alternative sources of funding and to proposals that have partial financial support from their department or college. Small grants may be requested for the publication of books. These awards are specifically targeted for scholarly activity in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and education. Pilot projects from any area, including engineering, natural sciences, and mathematics, will be accepted if they meet the criteria for submission. Awards will be made on the basis of the merit and DOR review.
Up to $5,000 per year may be requested. Be advised the review committee or DOR may award partial amounts at its discretion in order to support a greater number of faculty projects. Individuals may submit only one application for this program per year. An applicant is only eligible to have one funded SGP over a 2-year period. Exceptions to this eligibility criterion must be made in writing with a letter of support from the corresponding Associate Dean for Research.
Equipment Grants
Proposal Deadine: Monday, December 2, before 5 p.m. No late applications will be accepted.
The Provost and the Vice President for Research have initiated a program to invigorate the university research enterprise through targeted investment of Equipment Grants. The purpose of the program is to support research labs and groups with funds that would permit submission of competitive external research proposals. About 70% of the awards will be allocated for proposals in the four high priority areas (see details in the figure on Equipment Grants webpage). Another 30% will be for any relevant area selected by an investigator. Proposals will be considered in two categories: small equipment grants can range up to $50,000; large equipment grants can range from $50,000-250,000.
High Priority Area Research Seed Grants
Application Deadline: Monday, March 2, 2020, before 5 p.m. No late applications will be accepted after the deadline.
The Provost and the Vice President for Research are continuing a program to invigorate the University’s research enterprise through targeted investment of seed research funds in high priority areas (see the examples in Figure 1 on High Priority Area Research Seed Grants webpage). The purpose of this program is to invigorate research labs and groups with funds that would permit submission of competitive research proposals. The seed funding grant program is closely tied to the four institutional thrusts that the Vice President for Research and the Provost developed in consultation with the college deans, and which the Chancellor has endorsed: (1) physical and cyber security, (2) drug discovery and development, (3) sustainable communities and infrastructure, and (4) accessible healthcare. Each of the thrusts is described in Figure 1, which provides the general area of emphasis and some examples. Formation of interdisciplinary research teams is encouraged to build capabilities to address these complex issues.
Announcements
National Science Foundation Biosketches
Beginning in January 2020, NSF will only accept biosketches generated through an NSF-approved format. Currently, the only approved format is NIH’s SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae). Please plan ahead and prepare your NSF biosketch now with SciENcv.
Read the NSF Biosketch Advisory
National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Submissions Portal
Beginning in early 2020, NSF will discontinue FastLane, and all proposals will need to be submitted through research.gov. In order to become familiar with the system and to troubleshoot errors, NSM will immediately begin using research.gov for all non-last-minute NSF submissions.