Read the research blog Further Findings.
Research Prizes and Honors
[Have you or a colleague won a research-related prize or honor? Let the Research Alert know.]
PROFESSOR ELECTED TO LEAD BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY
Richard W. Aldrich, professor in the Section of Neurobiology, has been elected president-elect of the Biophysical Society. He will assume that office at the society’s 2010 annual meeting and become president at the 2011 meeting.
News and Information
GRANT WRITING SEMINAR SET FOR OCT. 30
The Office of Sponsored Projects is sponsoring a seminar on Oct. 30, 2009, aimed at improving submissions to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and other funding agencies or in learning about the proposal process in general.
The seminar will be conducted by grant writing consultant David C. Morrison, co-founder and member of Grant Writers’ Seminars and Workshops.
Find out more about the seminar, including registration information, online.
INFORMATION ABOUT RECOVERY ACT REPORTING AVAILABLE
The slides from recent OSP presentations about the reporting requirements for research grants obtained through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are available online. The presentations were made by Susan Sedwick, director of the Office of Sponsored Projects and associate vice president for research.
OSP PROPOSALS AND GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSIONS EXPECT HIGH VOLUMES IN OCTOBER
OSP is expecting higher than normal proposal volumes the first two weeks in October due to the NIH, NSF and CPRIT programs. If you plan to submit during this time, please plan to give OSP adequate lead time to review and submit your proposal.
Grants.gov will experience high volumes and slow submission times for these deadlines so whether your submission is through Cayuse or direct using Adobe forms, there will be submission slowness. Remember, if the Grants.gov forms are available in Cayuse, you must use Cayuse. OSP cannot guarantee successful submission of proposals provided to OSP for submission the day of the deadline.
QuotedUT Researchers in the News
[A sampling of recent quotes by university faculty members and researchers. To be included in this section, let the Research Alert know when you or a colleague have been quoted.]
The New York Times
Sept. 30, 2009
HEADLINE: Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a Need for Water
(Michael Webber, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was quoted in an article about the role of water in renewable energy.)
Here is an inconvenient truth about renewable energy: It can sometimes demand a huge amount of water. Many of the proposed solutions to the nation’s energy problems, from certain types of solar farms to biofuel refineries to cleaner coal plants, could consume billions of gallons of water every year.
”When push comes to shove, water could become the real throttle on renewable energy,” said Michael E. Webber, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin who studies the relationship between energy and water.
Research Opportunities
Important university research deadlines:
Awards and Grants
Limited Submissions
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
The University of Texas at Austin Stimulus Package Web page is online.
ARRA–NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Recovery Act Limited Competition: Building Sustainable Community-Linked Infrastructure to Enable Health Science Research
Deadline: Letter of Intent, Nov. 12, 2009; Application, Dec. 11, 2009
Recovery Act 2009 Limited Competition: AHRQ Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness Grants
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 18, 2009; Application, Dec. 16, 2009
Recovery Act 2009 Limited Competition: Innovative Adaptation and Dissemination of AHRQ Comparative Effectiveness Research Products
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 18, 2009; Application, Dec. 16, 2009
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Developing Research Capacity in Africa for Studies on HIV-Associated Malignancies
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 17, 2009; Application, Dec. 17, 2009
[This is a limited submission. For more information, contact limitedsub@austin.utexas.edu.]
Functional Modeling of Pediatric Upper Airway Disorders
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Dec. 14, 2009; Application, Jan. 12, 2010
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Postdoctoral Fellowships in Polar Regions Research
Deadline: Dec. 28, 2009
Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrument Pools (OBSIP) Management Office
Deadline: Jan. 4, 2010
Plant Genome Research Program
Deadline: Jan. 26, 2010
ARTS, HUMANITIES AND CULTURE
The Getty Foundation
Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships (in the Display of Art)
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2009
Bibliographical Society of America
Pantzer Senior Fellowship (research in topics relating to book production and distribution in Britain during the hand-press period)
Deadline: Dec. 1, 2009
American Institute for Maghrib Studies
2010-2011 Grants Program for US Citizens
Research grants for scholars and graduate students in North Africa
Deadline: Dec. 31, 2009
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Microsoft
Graduate Women’s Scholarship Program
Deadline: Oct. 9, 2009
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Grand Challenges Explorations Round 4: Grand Challenges in Global Health
Deadline: Nov. 4, 2009
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows (mid-career professionals)
Deadline: Nov. 13, 2009
Society of Toxicology
Student Research Internships in Toxicology
Deadline: Dec. 1, 2009
Pfizer Fellowship In Health Disparities
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2010
[This is a limited submission. For more information, contact limitedsub@austin.utexas.edu.]
Pfizer Fellowships in Health Policy
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2010
[This is a limited submission. For more information, contact limitedsub@austin.utexas.edu.]
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
Project: Experimental Coevolutionary Genetics of the Attine Ant-Microbe Symbiosis
RESEARCHER: Ulrich Mueller, professor, Section of Integrative Biology, principal investigator
AGENCY: National Science Foundation
AMOUNT: $498,583
From the abstract:
Inheritance of auxiliary microbes between generations occurs in diverse hosts, including humans, but the importance of communities of auxiliary microbes in their contribution to the health of a host is incompletely understood.
This research develops novel experimental approaches to elucidate the role of auxiliary microbe communities in disease suppression. Because microbial communities also confer disease resistance for humans (e.g., the microbiome of human skin or gut) and for crops (e.g., the microbiome of roots), this research on fungus-growing ants will contribute to the understanding of general microbial principles with applications to human and agricultural disease management.
