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December 17, 2018

As you saw in last week's newsletter, 2018 was a very busy year for SC EPSCoR and the MADE in SC (NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1) project. We already have several exciting things in the planning stages for 2019 and are looking forward to what is to come. Below are a few things for you to note. More details will follow through our newsletter, social media and website.

This will be our last newsletter of 2018. On behalf of our entire program office – April, Cyndy, Denise and Nadim – hope you, *|FNAME|*, enjoy your break and wish you all a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

2019 EVENTS

FEBRUARY: MADE in SC All-hands Meeting.
This is a meeting of all of the faculty members involved with the project. Location and more information to come.

APRIL: Annual State Conference. This year’s conference will be held in Greenville and showcasing all of the programs offered by both MADE in SC and SC EPSCoR. There will be exhibit tables and sponsorships available. Information will come after the first of the year. This event is open to the public. Helps us show the Upstate all of the great work done by our faculty and students and let’s make it an even greater event than last year!

SUMMER: Academic Leadership and Career Development Workshop and MADE in SC Research Fellows Conference. Once again, we will be co-hosting with SC INBRE for their annual Academic Leadership and Career Development Workshop. This event is open to students and faculty statewide and includes grant writing workshops for faculty focusing on NSF and NIH, and skills and career development for students and faculty. Click here to find information on 2018’s workshop for an example of what you can anticipate for 2019. This event will also include our annual MADE in SC Research Fellows Conference for students involved with MADE in SC. Location and dates for both to be determined.

OCTOBER 28-30: 26th Biennial NSF EPSCoR Meeting. South Carolina will be playing host of this national conference at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center (this is the third time our state has hosted this event). This national meeting brings together people from all NSF EPSCoR jurisdictions and is a great opportunity to not only to learn, but also to network and find collaborators (especially important for those grants which require multi-jurisdictional teams). Click here to see the program from the 25th NSF EPSCoR meeting held in Missoula, MT.

And be on the lookout for funding opportunities coming to you from the SC EPSCoR Program!

HOLIDAY CLOSURE

The SC EPSCoR State Program Office will be closed Monday, December 24 through Tuesday, January 1. We will be happy to serve you again starting Wednesday, January 2!

Focus On...

National Academy of Inventors

On December 11, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) named 148 renowned academic inventors to NAI Fellow status. The 2018 class of Fellows represent 125 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide and are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued US patents. To date, there are over 1,000 NAI Fellows who have generated more than 11,000 licensed technologies and companies, created more than 1.4 million jobs, and generated over $190 billion in revenue.

Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.

We are very pleased and proud to announce that the three South Carolina faculty who have been named NAI Fellows are all associated with SC EPSCoR and/or MADE in SC. The new NAI Fellows from South Carolina are:

Dr. Prakash Nagarkatti, MADE in SC Lead PI, SC EPSCoR State Director and member of the SC EPSCoR State Committee. Dr. Nagarkatti is a Carolina Distinguished Professor and the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Michael Yost, co-leader of MADE in SC Thrust 3 (Biomaterials) research focus and the MADE in SC Institutional Director of MUSC. Dr. Yost is a Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering and Vice Chairman for Research, Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, Trauma and Acute Care at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Apparao Rao, team leader for one of the 2018-2019 SC EPSCoR Stimulus Research Program grants. Dr. Rao is the R.A. Bowen Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University. He also has current funding from NASA EPSCoR.

Congratulations to all!

News, Opportunities and Deadlines

Now hiring – Idaho EPSCoR Project Director: Position requires leadership in collaboratively engaging multiple research-intensive institutions and a diverse array of undergraduate institutions to build connections across disciplines and to energize others to work together. The project director serves as the principal administrator of EPSCoR in Idaho and the principal investigator on Idaho’s NSF RII Track-1 awards. The director plays a vitally important role on behalf of the Idaho EPSCoR Committee to plan and implement long-term strategies regarding the operations, programs, and direction of EPSCoR in Idaho.

JUDGES NEEDED for South Carolina Academy of Science and South Carolina Junior Academy of Science 92nd Annual Meeting at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC on Saturday, March 30. Need ≥40 judges for 200+ written papers and ≥60 judges for 350-400 oral and poster research presentations at the event. Judges registration form

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/REU Undergrad Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Water Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech. Rising soph., jr. and sr. undergrads from all US colleges / universities are invited to apply for this 10-week NSF/REU summer research program (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.

NSF Mid-scale Research Infrastructure:
“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.

SPEAKER SERIES:
Feb 26, Science on Tap, Greenville. Kostya Kornev, Thrust 3-Biomaterials.

We need more speakers! Contact Cyndy with your availability!