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.]
ANTHROPOLOGIST WINS “IG NOBEL” PRIZE FOR STUDY
OF WHY PREGNANT WOMEN DON’T TIP OVER
University of Texas at Austin anthropologist Liza Shapiro and two fellow researchers won an Ig Nobel Prize–dedicated to “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”–for a 2007 study on the evolutionary reasons pregnant women don’t tip over.
Shapiro’s fellow researchers–University of Texas graduate Kathleen Whitcome and Daniel Lieberman, who are both at Harvard–accepted the award October 1 at a ceremony attended by 10 Nobel Prize laureates. Their findings were first published in the journal Nature.
Find more about Shapiro’s research online.
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
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.]
New York Times
Oct. 4, 2009
HEADLINE: It’s Brand New, but Make It Sound Familiar
(From an article on how to make new products sound familiar.)
As a starting point, it helps to understand some basic traits of behavior. When people encounter something they don’t recognize, they make sense of it by associating it with something familiar.
”What category you place something in has a huge influence on how you view its basic properties,” says Arthur Markman, a professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. ”The category signals not only a set of features to expect, but at a more basic level, when and how you should use the novel item.”
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.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DoD Breast Cancer Concept Award
Deadlines: Pre-application, Oct. 29, 2009; Application, Nov. 12, 2009
Clinical Consortium Award (for clinical studies focused on improving the outcomes of severe musculoskeletal injuries commonly associated with military combat)
Deadlines: Pre-application, Dec. 23, 2009; Application, Jan. 11, 2010
Advances in Bioscience for Airmen Performance
Deadline: White Papers accepted through Sept. 30, 2014
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
U.S.-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund
Joint Research Grants
Deadline: Oct. 20, 2009
NASA
NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (Opens PDF)
Deadline: April 30, 2010
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 9, 2009; Application, Dec. 9, 2009
Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging
Deadlines: Letter of Intent, Nov. 12, 2009; Application, Dec. 11, 2009
Small Grants for Behavioral Research in Cancer Control
Deadline: Dec. 21, 2009
Mechanisms, Models, Measurement, and Management in Pain Research
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2010
Drug Discovery for Nervous System Disorders
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2010
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Biomolecular Systems Cluster
Deadline: Jan. 12, 2010
Developmental and Learning Sciences
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
Manufacturing Enterprise Systems
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2010
ARTS, HUMANITIES AND CULTURE
American Antiquarian Society-National Endowment for the Humanities
Long-Term Fellowships (Postdoctoral)
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2010
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
American Federation for Aging Research
2010 Glenn/AFAR Breakthroughs in Gerontology Awards (two-year awards for faculty, previous aging research not required)
Deadline: Dec. 15, 2009
Research Project
[Let the Research Alert know about your research projects.]
Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowships 2009
Sound Investments: Historical Perspectives on Music Ownership and Piracy
RESEARCHER: Karl Hagstrom Miller, assistant professor, Department of History, principal investigator
AGENCY: American Council of Learned Societies
AMOUNT: $66,500
This project uses the recent debates about music piracy and illegal downloading on the Internet to open up new historical questions about the meaning and measure of music ownership. It shows that the filesharing debates, while conducted in the language of computer technology and copyright law, are fueled by more fundamental historical struggles over the role music should play in our economy and culture. A series of interdisciplinary case studies-ranging from antebellum slave songs to the recent market for out-of-print jazz recordings-demonstrates the tangled web of investments people have made in music and reveals that the current crisis in the music industry requires holistic attention to the multiple ways in which music creates cultural and economic value.
