DER Weekly Newsletter, February 26th, 2021


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February 26, 2021

Past DER Weekly Newsletters

Weekly In Progress Report

Thank You & Congratulations Jacque Shoppell

Today is a bittersweet day in DER as we say thank you to Jacque Shoppell (DER Assistant Director) for her excellence in service and dedication to MSU. Today she begins her retirement from MSU after serving within the University for over 36 years. Over the years, Jacque has been an incredible part of DER and helped countless faculty effectively secure research funding. She has helped DER to efficiently navigate major system changes and helped DER become one of the leading pre-award research offices within MSU. Her leadership and experience have helped to greatly advance research in the College of Engineering and helped to promote EGR at MSU. She has been a great teacher and mentor to the DER staff, and we are indebted to her. The DER staff want to say thank you to Jacque and our office will truly miss you. We wish her the best in her retirement.

MSU College of Engineering Facebook post

Engineering Research Reactivation SharePoint

The Engineering Research Reactivation all-inclusive SharePoint page has helpful reopening resources, important processes, and documents that need to be completed and approved to "return to research". Please request access if prompted.

Important Announcement:

Where is my "LABORATORY PLAN FOR A SAFE RETURN" in the approval process?

You can see what step of the approval process your plan is on by looking under the “Engineering Research Reactivation” folders on the SharePoint site.

If the plan has been approved by the Department Chair, you can see if it has been sent to VPRI by clicking on “EGR ADR Review” > “At VPRI for Review”. If the plan is in the “At VPRI for Review” folder then it is currently being reviewed by VPRI.
To check to see if your plan has been completely approved by all required departments (DC, EGR Dean's Office, and VPRI), you can click on the “VPRI Final Approved Plans” folder. If your plan is in the “VPRI Final Approved Plans” folder then you approved to return to research. Monique Blackmer (monique@msu.edu) will reach out to you.

SharePoint Page

Women in Research Month at MSU

Join your MSU colleagues and students as we acknowledge and celebrate women in research during a special, month-long event, focused around the independent film documentary, "Picture a Scientist".

The event will kick off on February 11 for International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and conclude on March 8, International Women’s Day, with a second opportunity to view the documentary.

Learn more Here.

$100 Million OPEN Funding Opportunity for Transformative Clean Energy Solutions

In support of the Biden Administration’s climate innovation agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $100 million in funding for transformative clean energy technology research and development via ARPA-E's OPEN 2021 funding opportunity. The first of billions of dollars of DOE R&D opportunities to be announced this year, this funding will help identify cutting-edge, disruptive clean energy technologies to address the climate crisis. Concept papers are due by 9:30 a.m. ET on April 6.

Learn more HERE.

Broader Impacts of Research: Strategies, Resources, and Partners

The offices of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and University Outreach and Engagement are excited to announce the Broader Impacts of Research: Strategies, Resources, and Partners conference taking place March 17-18, 2021. It will provide faculty, staff, and students who are interested in applying for NSF grants an overview of the broader impacts (BI) of research criterion and introduce them to the wide array of resources, supports, and partners available at MSU to help them design innovative broader impacts activities and write winning BI plans.

RSVP HERE.

Future Manufacturing (FM)

The goal of Future Manufacturing is to support fundamental research and education of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic and social barriers in order to enable new manufacturing capabilities that do not exist today.

Learn more HERE.

DER's Proposal Volume

The chart above shows DER's Proposal Volume from 2017 to 2021 as of (02/26/2021).

Take a closer look

DER Seminars

Miss the Last Seminar? Watch it Here!

The Project Summary is one of the most important parts of every NSF grant proposal. A clear and concise Project Summary will make a positive first impression on reviewers and succinctly convey the key points of your project. However, writing a strong Project Summary can be deceptively hard. With only a single page to work with, it can be difficult to decide which information to include and how to best frame that information for impact. During this seminar, Dr. Sara Steenrod (Grant Consultant with OSVPRI) will walk you through best practices for writing a compelling Project Summary for your next NSF proposal.