DER Weekly Newsletter, November 20th, 2020


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November 20th, 2020

		DER Funding Database

		Weekly In Progress Report

DER’s “Did You Know?” Spotlight

This week in DER’s “Did You Know?” Spotlight, we are focusing on SharePoint. In 2020, DER transitioned to using SharePoint to help faculty have seamless access to their proposal documents and create a tool to store many helpful resources. The tool also created a more secure method for sharing files with DER for your current proposal. As part of the SharePoint site, each PI has a secure shared drive dedicated to each of their proposals in which the faculty can access those past files and proposal documents for the last several years. The SharePoint network is easy to navigate and the folders use the same naming as the email subject lines which will allow you to easily find the documents from past proposals. If you would like help finding your specific shared drive, and instructions for pinning that to your computer, please send an email to proposals@egr.msu.edu.

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

American Association for Cancer Research

Multiple Funding Opportunities:

MSU Science Festival: Submit Your Proposal to Present

Proposals are accepted until December 1st.

The MSU Science Festival, now in its 9th year, is an amazing multi-day series of events for people of all ages to experience science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) through live presentations.

Because of the uncertainty due to the coronavirus, the 2021 Festival will be online with synchronous events and some asynchronous experiences.

Learn more HERE.

Design Matters Seminar

Key steps for choosing a proper study design are understanding the scientific aims of the study and what is required to achieve them.

In this seminar there is a brief overview of some aspects of selected study designs. It is important to understand what sources of variation exist in your data and how your study design can address it. Threats to internal validity are measurement error, selection bias, imprecise estimation, confounding, missingness, and inappropriate analyses. Some design mistakes can be irremediable.

Presented by Dr. Marianne Huebner, CSTAT and Department of Statistics and Probability

On a related note, here is a 5 minute video of the presentation “Only fools rush in! – Initial data analysis is required for developing and validating prediction models”. It does give an outline of an initial data analysis plan (needed in addition to a statistical analysis plan for the study) and potential consequences.

https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/Only+fools+rush+in%21+-+Initial+data+analysis+is+equired+for+developing+and+validating+prediction+models/1_1n07g3j0

		Burroughs Wellcome Fund
		BWF identified Innovation in Regulatory Science as an important, underfunded area. This initiative is designed to provide financial support to stimulate research efforts in this area. The program's focus is on providing support for academic researchers developing new methodologies or innovative approaches in regulatory science that will ultimately inform the regulatory decisions the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others make. This would necessarily draw upon the talents of individuals trained in mathematics, computer science, applied physics, medicine, engineering, toxicology, epidemiology, biostatistics, systems pharmacology, and food safety and nutrition to name a few. Candidates must hold an M.D., Ph.D., D.V.M., D.D.S., or M.D.-Ph.D. degree. Learn more Here.

DER's Proposal Volume

The chart above shows DER's Proposal Volume from 2016 to 2021 as of (11/20/2020).

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.