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December 11, 2018

2018 was a very busy year for all of those involved with SC EPSCoR and/or the NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 MADE in SC award. Here is a quick list with brief description of all of the things we accomplished this year:

MADE in SC

Completed Year-1 of the MADE in SC Project
Hired new faculty: Drs. Angela Alexander-Bryant, Abu Bakarr Kamara, Jessica (Kelly) Larsen, Changhui Tan, and Ge Tao
Initiated our MADE in SC Speaker Series: Dr. T homas Crawford spoke at the West Metro Rotary Club, Dr. Michael Yost at MUSC Science Café and Dr. Timothy Hanks at Science on Tap (Greenville)
Project purchased equipment
Hosted our first Annual MADE in SC Research Fellows Conference and
All-Hands Meeting
Hosted our first External Advisory Review Board and Industry Engagement and Advisory Board
Funded several summer research programs including programs at Claflin University, Clemson University, Winthrop University and Furman University
Offered two different Scientific Advocate Network (SAN) Program solicitations - funding 9 projects in April and 8 projects in November
Funded 5 Grants for Exploratory Academic Research (GEAR) Program Awards
Funded 5 GEAR Collaborative Research (GEAR CRP) Program Awards
Funded 4 Phase-0 Awards

SC EPSCoR

Funded 4 Stimulus Research Program (SRP) Awards
Hosted our largest to-date Annual State Conference
Expanded our Portal to better serve you in application submissions and MADE in SC project reporting
Updated and improved our Website - adding many more features and pages based on your feedback and needs
With SC INBRE, co-hosted Annual Academic Leadership and Career Development Workshop - grant writing and skills for faculty and students
Annual visit to Capitol Hill to visit the SC Congressional Delegation offices
Our program office attended the National EPSCoR Program Officers Meeting in Charleston, WV

More funding from federal EPSCoR agencies

2 faculty received a NSF EPSCoR RII Track-2 award as co-PIs with Lead PI from KY
2 faculty received NSF EPSCoR Track-4 awards
1 faculty received a NASA EPSCoR CAN award

News, Opportunities and Deadlines

NEW – NSF/REU Undergrad Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Water Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Rising sophomore, junior and senior undergrads from all US colleges/universities are invited to apply for this 10-week NSF/REU summer research program. Fellowships begin May 28 and end August 2. $500/week stipend, housing, meals, and travel expenses are provided. Ten students will be recruited for this program; two applicants will be selected for travel to India for research at The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM). Application due Feb 15, 11:59 pm EST.

DOE SBIR / STTR: Will fund >100 new projects, totaling ~ $20M in 12 topics. LOI due to DOE by Dec 17, 5 pm EST. Learn more

DOE Scholars Program: Stipends start at $600/week for undergrads ($650/ week for grads / post grads), limited travel reimbursement to/from assigned location, plus many other benefits. Apply to DOE by
Dec 17, 5 pm. Learn more

DOE EPSCoR Implementation Grants: Up to 10 awards of $2M to $3M for two years. Only selected pre-apps will be able to submit a full proposal. Must reference SC's S&T Plan, Vision 2025 and place research in context of this Plan. Pre-app due to DOE by Dec 20, 5 pm EST. Learn more

DOE Computational Material Sciences: Aim is to produce widely applicable, validated community codes and the associated databases for the design of functional materials. Up to 8 awards are anticipated, with a mix of single PI/small group and larger team awards (collaborative applications will not be accepted under this FOA). Individual/Small Group Awards: $200K to $750K per year for four years. Large Team Awards: $750K to $2M per year for four years. Pre-Proposal Due to DOE by Dec 21, 12 noon EST.

NSF 18-599: Understanding the Rules of Life: Building a Synthetic Cell. Projects aimed at designing, fabricating, and validating synthetic cells that express specified phenotypes. Preliminary proposal due to NSF by Dec 28, 5 pm.

NSF Career Compass Challenge: Cash prize competition, totaling $100,000. NSF is looking to spark the thinking of the best and brightest to co-create a tool that can be tested on a small scale, for NSF, but is intended to be useful to a broad range of employers in both the public and private sectors. Deadline Dec 31, 11:59 pm EST.

USDA with NIH (NIH PAR-17-482): Comparative Genomics Research Program. USDA focus: Understand basic biological processes related to health and disease of agriculturally important animals. LOI due to NIH by Jan 5, 5 pm.

Call for Papers. Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, Thin Films, and Devices XVI (OP112), August 11-15, San Diego. Abstracts due Jan 30.

NSF 18-600: Understanding the Rules of Life: E pigenetics. How epigenetic phenomena lead to emergent properties that explain the fundamental behavior of living systems. Due to NSF by Feb 1, 5 pm.

NSF Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1: “Implementation” and “Design” – which may comprise any combination of equipment, infrastructure, computational hardware and software, and necessary commissioning. Design includes planning (preliminary and final design) of research infrastructure. Implementation projects may have a total project cost ranging from $6M up to below $20M, supporting new or upgraded research infrastructure. Only Design projects may request less than $6M. Preliminary Proposal Due Feb 19, 5 pm.

NSF CBMS Regional Research Conf in the Math Sciences:
These are a series of five-day conferences that usually feature a distinguished lecturer delivering ten lectures on a topic of important current research in one sharply focused area of the mathematical sciences. Support is provided for about 30 participants at each conference. Full Proposal due April 26, 5 pm.

Save the dates:
• Feb 26, Science on Tap, Greenville. Speaker: Kostya Kornev, Thrust 3-Biomaterials.

• April 2019: SC EPSCoR/MADE in SC Annual State Conference. Details to come!

Have you registered?
• Research Expertise Profiles Database
(faculty)
• Student Research Interests
Profiles Database (students)

Funding Opportunities:
• SC EPSCoR • DOE
• NASA • NIH
• NSF • USDA
• More on our Calendar!