• Understand the new NSF BIO and GEO off-campus plan requirement for certain solicitations.

• Share your input on postdoctoral training with NIH.

• View upcoming departmental seminars.

• Browse new funding opportunities from NIH, NSF, and UCI’s ICTS.

• See which BioSci professors were recognized as innovators by UCI Beall Applied Innovation.

New Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan Requirement: NSF BIO and GEO

Several solicitations from the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Geological Sciences (GEO) now require the submission of a Safe and Inclusive Work Environments Plan (list of those solicitations below) that will be considered as part of the Broader Impacts criteria during the review process.

• BIO Core Solicitations:  

  • Division of Environmental Biology (NSF 23-549) 

  • Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (NSF 23-547) 

  • Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (NSF 23-548) 

  • Plant Genome Research Program (NSF 23-559)

• Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP, NSF 23-542) 

• Pathways into the Geosciences (GEOPAths NSF 23-540) 

• Cultural Transformation in the Geosciences Community (CTGC NSF 23-539) 

This 2-page plan must address the following four sections:

1. a brief description of the field setting and unique challenges for the team;  

2. the steps the proposing organization will take to nurture an inclusive off-campus or off-site working environment, including processes to establish shared team definitions of roles, responsibilities, and culture, e.g., codes of conduct, trainings, mentor/mentee mechanisms and field support that might include regular check-ins, and/or developmental events;   

3. communication processes within the off-site team and to the organization(s) that minimize singular points within the communication pathway (e.g., there should not be a single person overseeing access to a single satellite phone); and   

4. the organizational mechanisms that will be used for reporting, responding to, and resolving issues of harassment if they arise.

If you plan to submit a proposal with off-campus or off-site research (e.g., fieldwork, research on vessels), we encourage you to take some time to learn about this new requirement.

NIH Community Input on U.S. Postdoctoral Training

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking community input on U.S. postdoctoral training through April 14, 2023, with a particular interest in hearing from trainees, early-career faculty and others invested in the biomedical workforce about potential solutions to challenges affecting postdocs. 

October

Focus on Evolution Seminar Series

1114 Natural Sciences I or Zoom (https://uci.zoom.us/j/95838869040)

March

Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Seminar Series

Edna (Eti) Cukierman; Professor; Fox Chase Cancer Center
 

1114 Natural Sciences I

March

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Special Seminar

Stephen Wright; Professor; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; University of Toronto

Dr. Wright's research focuses on the forces driving patterns of natural variation and genome evolution in natural plant populations. He is particularly interested in the relative importance of mutation vs selection in driving such variation and the importance of mating systems and population history. His recent work also focuses on sex chromosome evolution and plants' genomic responses to agricultural changes over the past two centuries.

1114 Natural Sciences I or Zoom (https://uci.zoom.us/j/95838869040)

NSF Cultural Transformation in the Geoscience Community (CTGC) Office Hour

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences is hosting office hours for the Cultural Transformation in the Geoscience Community (CTGC) Program (NSF 23-539). These office hours are a chance to communicate with NSF program officers and to ask any questions you may have about the program. They will take place on Monday, February 27, 2023 at 12 PM – 1 PM.

Zoom (https://nsf.zoomgov.com/j/1611130331?pwd=YXZKWlViVzlOL2VJN05BeXVJM2c1Zz09)
Meeting ID: 161 113 0331
Passcode: 586645

NIH Accelerating the Pace of Drug Abuse Research Using Existing Data (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite applications proposing innovative analysis of existing social science, behavioral, administrative, and neuroimaging data to study the etiology and epidemiology of substance using behaviors (defined as alcohol, tobacco, prescription, and other substances) and related disorders, prevention of substance use and HIV, and health service utilization. This FOA encourages the analyses of public use and other extant community-based or clinical datasets to their full potential in order to increase our knowledge of etiology, trajectories of substance using behaviors and their consequences including morbidity and mortality, risk and resilience in the development of psychopathology, strategies to guide the development, testing, implementation, and delivery of high quality, effective and efficient services for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder and HIV. Primary data collection is not allowed for applications in response to this FOA.

Next deadlines: March 7, 2023; August 9, 2023; November 15, 2023

UCI ICTS Campus-Community Research Incubator Grant Program

The Campus-Community Research Incubator Program (CCRI) is a small funding mechanism designed to foster collaborative research-oriented projects between university researchers and community organizations. Annually, there are two levels of grant funding available: 1. Pilot CCRI $8,000-$10,000 (for research applications) and 2. Mini CCRI $3,000-$5,000 (for capacity- and partnership-building applications). Potential applicants are encouraged to attend a workshop on general application preparation. A registration link for this workshop can be found below. The estimated funding period is July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024.

Deadline: March 28, 2023

NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries made while conducting academic research into tangible solutions that benefit the public. This is the primary aim of the “Accelerating Research Translation” (ART) program. Specifically, the primary goals of this program are to build capacity and infrastructure for translational research at U.S. Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) and to enhance their role in regional innovation ecosystems. In addition, this program seeks to effectively train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in translational research, benefiting them across a range of career options.

Deadline: May 9, 2023

NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Bioinspired Design Collaborations to Accelerate the DiscoveryTranslation Process (BioDesign)

Bridging the gaps between foundational and use-inspired research as well as the translation of research results to practice requires transdisciplinary collaboration. To encourage such collaborations, this Dear Colleague Letter supports productive transdisciplinary teams that work together to (1) test hypotheses about the functioning of living things that are of interest to biologists and engineers; (2) create an iterative process that generates ongoing feedback between the workflows of foundational and use-inspired research in order to design a device, machine, algorithm, and/or a workflow that solves a practical problem; and (3) develop prototypes based on these activities as part of a process of exploring pathways to larger societal and economic benefits.

Deadline: N/A

BioSci Professors Recognized as Innovators!

Congratulations to Professors Mathew Blurton-Jones (Neurobiology and Behavior) and Maksim Plikus (Developmental and Cell Biology) for receiving awards from UCI Beall Applied Innovation (BAI)!  

Dr. Blurton-Jones received the Early Career Innovator/Emerging Innovation of the Year award for research on molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, and Dr. Plikus received the Innovator of the Year award for research on regeneration of tissue and organs after injury or disease.

Please visit BAI's website to learn more about these awards!

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If you’re a faculty member, postdoc, graduate student, or other researcher in the School of Biological Sciences and would like help with a grant submission, please email bio-research@uci.edu.

To let the Pre-Award team know of your planned proposal submission, please fill out this form at least four weeks before the deadline.