DER Weekly Newsletter, October 1st, 2021


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October 1, 2021

Past DER Weekly Newsletters

Weekly In Progress Report

October 2021

Message From DER Director

Welcome to my favorite part of the year complete with weekend trips to the cider mill, football from Thursday through Monday, homecoming, pumpkin spiced everything, and my favorite of all, sweatshirt weather. For so many years, fall feels like going back to school/campus and this year is no different (aside from last year of course). As I pull onto this this beautiful campus, each work day feels more exciting, more team oriented, and serves as the perfect reminder of what it means to be a part of the Spartan Community.

I’m happy to report just as many others have returned to campus. We’re back in the DER office providing face-to-face service. While DER and the Research Administrators can still be found online and are able to provide the reliable customer service you’ve come to appreciate, check with each to see what part of the week you can find them back in room 2527.

We’re gearing up to bring DER seminars back to you, both the favorites of the past as well as brand new sessions. Don’t forget that past DER Seminars can still be found online. Past sessions cover a whole array of greatest hits (DER is Here to Help, Academic Analytics, Mentoring Engineering Graduate Students), specific funding opportunity sessions (NSF CAREER Awards, Ford, MTRAC, Leveraging the Online Professional Foundation Database), Research Development (Establishing Relationships with Funders & Securing Research Grants, Insight to NSF Grant Preparation and Effective Broader Impacts), and so many more.

As with most school years, we get new faces around the Engineering Building. This year, one that is new is also one that’s familiar, Dr. Lauren Aerni-Flessner, PhD. As briefly noted in last week’s DER newsletter, the Dean’s office welcomes Dr. Aerni-Flessner as a Research Specialist to assist Engineering Faculty Members for research proposal/grant consultations. While her work will focus on large scale/multi-PI/multi-institution proposals and working closely with new faculty, she’s a great wealth of knowledge and talent for all Engineering Faculty in their pursuit of research funding. Look for upcoming DER seminars featuring Dr. Aerni-Flessner presenting on an array of topics, and in the meantime, you can reach out to her directly at aernifle@msu.edu.

While I’ve been welcomed so graciously virtually over the last few months, I can’t wait to see you in person in the very near future, no matter if that’s around the Engineering Building, at an upcoming DER seminar, or else at the football games as we cheer together. Go Green.

If you have additional questions regarding upcoming funding opportunities, please send an email to proposals@egr.msu.edu as you begin to prepare now and remember DER is here to help and support faculty. Feel free to contact me directly at alexd@msu.edu with any questions relating to DER.

September 27, 2021

From: Office of Sponsored Programs

To: SPA/OSP/CGA Listserv

NIH: MSU is eligible to use the InCommon Federated Account option to log into eRA Commons

As of September 15, 2021, National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires two-factor authentication to access many of their electronic systems, including eRA Commons. MSU’s Unified Login Experience qualifies the Institution for logging in using the InCommon Federated Account option.

What does that mean for me?

You can log into eRA Commons using your MSU credentials and multi-factor authentication. This eliminates the need to use Login.gov as your two-factor authentication option and should reduce the number of steps it takes to log in.

How do I log in using the InCommon Federated Account option?

1. From the eRA Commons login webpage, look for the Federated Account field on the left hand side of the screen.

2. Start typing “Michigan State University” in the search field, and select the “Michigan State University” option. Click the Login button.

3. If you are currently logged in through MSU's Unified Login Experience, you will land on the eRA Commons webpage, ready to use the system. If you are not logged in, you will be redirected through the Unified Login Experience. Once authenticated, you will be redirected back to eRA Commons.

NOTE: The first time you log in using the InCommon Federated Account option, you will be asked to enter your eRA Commons User Name and Password. Going forward, you should not be asked for this information.

If you have any questions on logging in using the InCommon Federated Account option, please contact your OSP Proposal Team.

NSF 22-1 Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) becomes effective on October 4^th

This guide provides instructions for preparing and submitting proposals. The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due, and awards made, on or after October 4, 2021. For more details, go to the general summary of the new PAPPG on our website. For NSF proposal questions, please contact your OSP Proposal Team, and for NSF post-award questions, please contact the CGA Awards Group.

Kuali Coeus (KC) is now compatible with S2S forms that include the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

The federal government is transitioning from using DUNS numbers to track recipients of federal funds, to using a Unique Entity Identifier. Some federal agencies have already transitioned to using the UEI in application forms, and all federal agencies must transition by April of 2022. For KC System-to-System (S2S) applications, we have recently updated the system to be compatible with the new UEI number. Going forward, whether the forms in the application package use the DUNS or UEI number, the application can be submitted in KC.

Similar to MSU’s DUNS, the UEI will automatically populate on the S2S forms. For reference, MSU’s UEI number is R28EKN92ZTZ9 and can be found on SPA’s Frequently Required Budget and Proposal Data webpage.

If you have any questions on submitting S2S proposals that contain the UEI number, please contact the KC Helpdesk.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that a revised version of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1) has been issued.

The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due on or after October 4, 2021. Significant changes include:

A new section covering requests for reasonable and accessibility accommodations regarding the proposal process or requests for accessibility accommodations to access NSF’s electronic systems, websites and other digital content;

A table entitled, NSF Pre-award and Post-award Disclosures Relating to the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support. This table identifies where pre- and post-award current and pending support disclosure information must be provided. Proposers and awardees may begin using this table immediately;

Increasing the page limit for the biographical sketch from two to three pages;

Updates to the current and pending support section of NSF proposals to require that information on objectives and overlap with other projects is provided to help NSF and reviewers assess overlap/duplication;

Adding planning proposals and Career-Life Balance supplemental funding requests as new proposal types;

Updates to travel proposals will require that AORs certify that prior to the proposer’s participation in the meeting for which NSF travel support is being requested, the proposer will assure that the meeting organizer has a written policy or code-of-conduct addressing harassment.

You are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG.

NSF plans to conduct a webinar covering these changes. Visit the NSF policy outreach website to sign up for notifications about this and other outreach events.

While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on October 4, 2021, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 20-1) continue to apply.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the DIAS/Policy Office at: policy@nsf.gov

Links to more information:

Regards,

Jean Feldman
Head, Policy Office
Division of Institution and Award Support
Office of Budget, Finance & Award Management

Spotlight Opportunities & Information

Environmental Research & Education Foundation

OPPORTUNITY: Research on Waste Management Practices

AWARD AMOUNT: Up to $500K including 25% IDC.

DEADLINES: Pre-proposals due December 1, 2021. Pre-proposals will be accepted starting 15 days prior to the deadline date and up to the close of business (5 p.m. eastern time) on the deadline date. Pre-proposals that are deemed most relevant to the solid waste management field and that have a high perceived impact by the selection committee will receive invitations to submit a full proposal.

OVERVIEW: The sustainability movement has reached the business models of nearly every industry in the United States, and many companies, municipalities and states have set aggressive sustainability goals that include how waste streams are being managed. The EREF Board of Directors has set an initiative to ensure research funded reflects EREF’s long-term strategic plan to address all areas of integrated solid waste management, with a strong focus towards research that increased sustainable solid waste management practices. It should be noted that EREF defines solid waste to include:

Municipal solid waste (e.g. residential, commercial, institutional)
Construction & demolition debris
Certain industrial wastes (e.g. exploration & production waste, coal ash) and
Other wastes typically managed by the solid waste industry or generated by the public not included in the above items (e.g. electronic waste, disaster debris, etc.)

Pre-Proposal submissions are limited to two (2) submissions per principal investigator during a submission period.

Learn more Here.

Shanelle Foster: Creating innovative and green electric motor designs

Each year, the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program, or CAREER, awards grants to “early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education.” The following story is part of a series highlighting Michigan State University’s recipients of NSF’s 2021 CAREER grant awards.

This Spartan engineer is using 3D printing and some inspiration from nature to design electric motors that are breaking design boundaries and are good for the environment

Designing innovative electric motors for automotives, power tools or toys hasn’t translated into the capacity to efficiently manufacture them. Michigan State University researcher Shanelle Foster wants to change that with new 3D-printing technology guided by careful observations from some of nature’s most deft engineers — web-spinning spiders. ...

Learn more Here.

J&J Immunology Innovations QuickFire Challenge: Precision Medicine in Immune-Mediated Disease

Purpose: to help or aim to advance precision medicine approaches in immune-mediated disease

Background: Nearly 4% of the world’s population is affected by one of more than 80 different autoimmune diseases, according to the National Stem Cell Foundation, and incidence is rising. However, of the 30 million patients diagnosed with moderate-to-severe forms of chronic immune diseases, only 5 million receive advanced therapies and only 2 million experience adequate responses. A key barrier to the development of novel therapies and treatment paradigms has been the complexity and heterogeneity of these diseases, which consist of different disease states with distinct unmet medical need and biology.

Specific disease areas of focus:

Gastroenterology
Rheumatology
Dermatology
Fetal-maternal diseases
Autoantibody-mediated diseases
Other immune-mediated diseases where a stratified approach has the potential to be transformational for patients

Due date: January 14^th, 2022

Funding: up to $500,000 in grant funding and access to mentoring from experts across the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies

Learn more Here.

New step in preventing congenital heart defects

The Michigan State University researchers who created the first miniature human heart model with primary heart cell types, vascular tissue and a functioning structure of chambers have taken another step forward: developing new therapies for congenital heart disease.

The study, “Self-assembling human heart organoids for the modeling of cardiac development and congenital heart disease,” was published in Nature Communications and first-authored by Yonatan Lewis-Israeli, a biomedical engineering graduate student. It details how the heart model can be used to study human congenital heart defects (CHD), thus opening avenues for the development of treatments and prevention strategies.

“The most exciting thing in this publication is that we used our previously established heart organoid model to study and recapitulate, for the first time, the effects of diabetes of the mother on the developing embryonic heart, which is one of the main causes of CHD,” said Aitor Aguirre, the study’s senior author and assistant professor of biomedical engineering at MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering. ...

Learn more Here.