Since Thursday, July the 4th is a Federal holiday, all NIH offices will be closed. Friday, July 5, 2013 is not a Federal holiday. NIH and its help desks will be open, and application deadlines of July 5th remain in place. If you have an application due on July 5, NIH recommends planning to submit early in the week to give yourself time to respond to errors and to view your application in the eRA Commons before the deadline.
NIH along with other government granting agencies is transitioning to updated electronic forms packages. The new packages are called FORMS-C and will be required for any submissions after September 25, 2013. NIH has provided detailed information regarding the changes to the forms. To read more, click here.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: The University’s policy, as instituted by the Vice President for Research in April 2012, mandates that eIAFs for sponsored research proposals be fully routed 3 business days prior to the sponsor’s proposal deadline. Anyone in an investigator role must provide their own certification. Chairs, Directors, and Deans can set up a delegate to provide the required certification if they won’t be available. Your CGO can provide assistance to make these arrangements, if needed.
As a reminder, the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) is currently required for all NIH grantees for SNAP and Fellowship awards. This would include most standard R series awards. SNAP and Fellowship progress reports submitted in another format will not be processed by the NIH and will require submission in the RPPR format. More information is available at these NIH links: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/rppr/ and http://era.nih.gov/services_for_applicants/reports_and_closeout/rppr.cfm. The RPPR should be routed to your CGO.
The University of Kentucky has been selected to host the 28th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) from April 3rd – 5th, 2014.
Part of the planned festivities will include an event called ‘Open Houses’, which is intended to showcase and promote research at UK. Open Houses will take place on Thursday April 3rd from 4-6pm. We would like to provide participating undergraduates with an opportunity to take part in a number of interactive demonstrations hosted by departments and academic units across campus.
The UK COM RO1 Consultant Review Program is a process that will facilitate a faculty member engaging an authoritative external consultant to provide an assessment of a complete, but not yet submitted, RO1 (or equivalent) application. Read more.
Does you lab door have proper signage? For a fillable template, please visit the EH&S website at http://ehs.uky.edu/docs/pdf/bio_s_lab_signage_0001.pdf.
From UK Biosafety News, Newsletter Date May 2013.
With the return of warmer weather and summer approaching, the UK Department of Biological Safety would like to issue the following friendly reminders:
Please remember to add new personnel, including summer interns and students, to your IBC registrations (http://topaz.uky.edu).
Please be advised that all high school volunteers must be approved by UK Environmental Health and Safety (http://ehs.uky.edu/ohs/minors_0001.php).
Minors under the age of 14 are NOT PERMITTED inside of any research laboratory, greenhouse, or animal facility at the Un
On May 8, 2013, NIH released its new Fiscal Policy for grant awards for its FY 2013. To information on the policy including changes from previous years, click here.
According to NIH grants policy, all grantee publications about research that are funded by NIH must include a specific acknowledgment of NIH grant support. A new web page on NIH funding acknowledgement provides grantees with useful guidance to meet the award requirements. The new web page can be found by clicking here.
Two University of Kentucky faculty members were honored on April 25 with awards recognizing their outstanding contributions to teaching and scholarship at UK.
Sidney W. Whiteheart, professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry in the UK College of Medicine, was awarded the 2013 Albert D. and Elizabeth H.
The Provost Budget Office Grant Group collaborates with college, program, and central Units to provide tools which will enable departments to achieve operational and strategic goals through guidance on best practices with regards to pre- and post-award grants management. For more information, check out their website.
We’ve become aware that while the transition to RPPR is effective for all NIH continuing awards to be made July 1 or later (for all reports due beginning in May), both the eSNAP and RPPR options may be available in eRA Commons. PLEASE advise your faculty to select the RPPR option. They should not select eSNAP.
Alzheimer's disease is on the rise, but the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is a major player in the fight against this debilitating condition. Since the founding of the SBCoA in 1979, and the federal funding of the SBCoA Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC) in 1985, the center has made many contributions to the body of knowledge about Alzheimer's and related brain aging conditions.
The facts about Alzheimer's disease are staggering. An estimated 5.2 million Americans and approximately 34 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
From Susan Stark, College Grants Officer (CGO) for the College of Medicine:
As reminder, it is the College’s practice that proposals (including annual progress reports) will NOT be reviewed until the eIAF for the submission has been rec’d by the CGO for review.
Also, the CGO will communicate directly with the person who submitted the eIAF if there are questions about the eIAF, associated attachments, or financial disclosure/conflict of interest.
NEWS FOR RESEARCHERS: MAJOR CHANGES TO PATENT LAW EFFECTIVE MARCH 16, 2013
The America Invents Act (“AIA”) became fully effective March 16th, bringing major changes to American patent law. Many of these changes will substantially impact the way universities pursue patents. A summary of the major changes most likely to affect you include the following:
1. CHANGE TO FIRST TO FILE RULE
The U.S. will change from the prior first to invent rule to a first to file rule. While the first to file rule has been the norm for most foreign countries, since inception of the patent office the U.S.
Warm weather is back. Therefore it is time to review appropriate clothing for working in the laboratory. According to the UK Environmental Health and Safety guidelines, lab personnel should not shorts or tank tops, torn clothing or extremely loose or dangling clothing. Long hair should be restrained. Shoes should be closed toed therefore, sandals and flipflops are not allowed. If you have questions about appropriate clothing to wear while working in the lab, refer to the Environmental Health and Safety website.
The National Science Board has recently released a Request for Information: Reducing Investigator's Administrative Workload for Federally Funded Research. Read more at the National Science Board website.
Federal regulations issued by the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) require employees performing work on sponsored agreements to certify university work efforts as a distribution of 100% of total compensated time worked. UK has chosen the After-the-Fact effort reporting method described in Section J.8 of OMB Circular A-21 to meet the requirement for certifying effort on sponsored project agreements.
