Dear Colleagues, 

This communication was in final draft and ready to be distributed when I was informed that the new Carnegie classification raised KSU from R2 (high research activity) to R1 (very high research activity) status (more info below). This is an incredible accomplishment and a testament to all your hard work. R1 is the highest level an institution can achieve, putting KSU in a list of the top 137 research institutions in the U.S. I hope that you all take a minute to celebrate this major accomplishment.

Perhaps as a result of this announcement, or perhaps it is simply a result of us nearing the end of 2021, I find myself reflecting on the incredible work of our faculty, student researchers, scholars and all the people who support our new research discoveries. We have had a fantastic Fall semester and I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with an update on what we have been doing to continue our forward momentum in facilitating faculty research since my summer newsletter. We continue to show an increase in funding over last year at this point, and proposal submission rates continue to climb. We celebrated another class of Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) fellows and brought back our in-person Research and Innovation Forums. Behind the scenes, we have been collaborating closely with many other units at Kent to update policies and smooth procedures to ensure efficiencies in the research process, and we continue to celebrate and communicate the successes of our faculty and students.

We also recognize that this semester has presented many challenges in terms of simple mental health bandwidth as COVID continues to make daily headlines. I hope you can take some time to relax and recharge over the holiday break, and wish you and your families a safe, healthy, and wonderful 2022.  

At the March 2021 Board of Trustees meeting, the Anti-Racism and Equity Institute (AREI) was approved, and Dr. Carla Goar was named as the inaugural director! Be on the lookout for an upcoming announcement regarding AREI activities and opportunities to engage with the Institute.

Many of our research successes stem both directly and indirectly from the astounding generosity of individuals who have chosen to support our research and innovation efforts.

Faculty are working to address large-scale public health concerns in a number of innovative ways, and these research programs provide opportunities for students of all levels to engage in life-changing research experiences. One of the most gratifying aspects of my job is receiving emails from alumni explaining that their prior participation in undergraduate research cemented a passion for discovery resulting in a not-previously-considered career path. That is why I am very excited to announce that Giving Tuesday 2021 was an enormous success. Fundraising for the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) once again exceeded our goals, and both the Anti-Racism and Equity Institute (AREI) and Brain Health Research Institute (BHRI) Undergraduate Fellows funds were featured. Combined, these accounts received almost $43,000. We are forever grateful to our donors for supporting research and creative activities at Kent State University!

The Division of Research and Sponsored Programs is thrilled to welcome Cody Polack and Michelle Varso as new Sponsored Programs Administrators. Often uncelebrated, our RASP research support staff are second to none in their passion for helping our faculty and students succeed, and we are excited to welcome Cody and Michelle to the team.   

Faculty have also been busy over the summer. Here are just a few examples of recent grant success: 

• Deric Kenne received $525,000 from SAMHSA for Summit County MAT Expansion (Sc-MATx). $2,625,000 is anticipated in total for the five-year award.
• Cynthia Osborn, Joel Hughes, Kelly Cichy, William Lechner, and Cassandra Storlie received $562,315 from HRSA for Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program. $1,598,289 is anticipated in total for the four-year award.
• Veronica Dexheimer received a $440,138 subaward from University of Illinois/NSF for Frameworks: MUSES, Modular Unified Solver of the Equation of State
• Kwangtaek Kim, Robert Clements, and Jeremy Jarzembak received $517,000 from NSF for Bimodal Haptic‐Mixed Reality (HMR) Needle Insertion Simulation for Hand‐Eye Skills
• Xiaozhen (Jen) Mou received two separate $354,308 and $272,935.35 subawards from The Ohio State University/CDC for State of Ohio wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance subaward
• Rafaela Takeshita received $300,000 from NSF for Middle childhood growth and development in the evolution of human life history

Please join me in congratulating our colleagues!!

1. Sponsored programs should be notified of intention to submit a proposal at least ten working days before the submission deadline.
2. A complete proposal record with the final budget must be entered into Kuali and routed for internal approval no later than five working days prior to the due date.
3. Near final drafts of all documents should be provided two days before the deadline (this is to ensure that PIs have completed all components of the proposal and that Office of Sponsored Programs personnel know the correct number of attachment placeholders necessary for submission). Final documents are due by 8AM on the agency due date.

Faculty following these recommended deadlines will be prioritized on any deadline and will see no change in levels of service provided by the Division. We are unable to make the same promise to faculty not following these deadlines and may be forced to inform individuals not following these deadlines that we are unable to submit their proposals. It should be mentioned that these are extremely generous deadlines and in order to prepare a quality competitive proposal it is necessary to work far ahead of these deadlines, so the good news is that following these will result in a better proposal with a higher chance of being funded.