April 4, 2018
Funding Connection

  • The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood invites Letters of Intent for innovative projects/programs that will significantly enhance the development, health, safety, education, and/or quality of life of children from infancy through five years.
  • The National Science Foundation Statistics Program supports research in statistical theory and methods, including research in statistical methods for applications to any domain of science and engineering. 
  • Read more of this week's featured opportunities
Advancing the K-State mission
The Kansas State University Institute for Commercialization , or KSU-IC, serves the university in the areas of global licensing of K-State research innovations, economic-based corporate engagement, and regional economic development. Success in these core service endeavors through the years has placed K-State in the nation’s leading tier of public universities.

KSU-IC staff perform their roles with purpose, resolve, and enthusiasm. Here are a few of our recent successes.   

  • Global licensing: Moving patented K-State innovations into the global marketplace helps improve the lives of Kansas citizens and people around the world. According to the Association of University Technology Managers, K-State ranks 27th in license revenue per active license, 41st in total licensing revenue, and 46th in licenses per innovation disclosure among American public universities.

  • Corporate engagement: We engage large and small companies on a global basis, endeavoring to advance the university mission through both corporate-sponsored research and strategic, multi-faceted relationships that include student experience and recruitment, faculty opportunity, and economic partnerships. In the past year, KSU-IC has facilitated more than $1 million in sponsored research and a number of burgeoning strategic corporate partnerships.

  • Economic development: Advancing economic prosperity in Kansas is part of our land-grant mission. KSU-IC has a robust local partnership to leverage K-State capabilities and attract companies to locate on and around the campus. To date, our economic development work has created 485 jobs with an average salary of $50,000; $55.8 million in private capital investment; and $41.1 million in annual economic impact.

We look forward to continuing to serve the university, its faculty, and its students. Please let us know how we can help you!

— Kent Glasscock, president, KSU-IC
Events and announcements
  • Thanks to the many researchers who will be sharing their work at K-State Open House on April 7. Our unit's events are as follows.
  • The Kansas Science Communication Initiative will have a table in the K-State Student Union with a number of different faculty and student scientists sharing their work with the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • The Biosecurity Research Institute is offering a presentation from the director, a video about science in containment, and interactive activities in the training lab in Pat Roberts Hall from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Find more information.

  • Research Administrators Council will meet April 10, 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon in Union 227. Hear "Sub-Awards: Everything You Wanted to Know but Didn't Know to Ask" presented by Laura Hohenbary, grant specialist in the College of Arts & Sciences; Adassa Roe, international contract negotiator in PreAward Services; and Roger McBride, assistant director of Sponsored Programs Accounting.

  • Kevin R. Macaluso from Louisiana State University will deliver a Biosecurity Research Fellows Lecture titled "Rickettsial Determinants for Arthropod Infection and Transmission" on April 10 at 4:00 p.m. in Pat Roberts Hall. Find more information.

  • Join our Young Investigator Program information session to learn about specific Department of Defense grant programs for young faculty who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. April 12, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., Engineering Hall Ice Conference Room. Find more information and register.

  • The National Science Foundation invites entries to the 2018 Vizzies Challenge for photographs, illustrations, posters and graphics, interactives, videos, GIFs, or other visualizations from science and engineering. Entries are due April 15. Find more information

  • The National Science Foundation is piloting a planning grant opportunity in advance of the next Engineering Research Center solicitation. These planning grants are intended to build capacity in the engineering community for center-scale, convergent engineering research. Learn more at an ERC Planning Grants Webinar on Monday, April 16 at 1:00 pm EDT. Find information and register.

Reminder: Safety equipment in research photos
When we represent our work to the outside world through photography and video, we need to demonstrate that we follow all safety policies and best practices. Please take a moment to review our Research Photo and Video Guidelines and note the following:

  • K-State communications staff — including writers, photographers, and video producers — know that researchers must wear safety glasses, gloves, and lab coats in lab or workshop photos and videos, but freelance photographers or videographers may not prompt researchers to do so. In such cases, researchers must take responsibility for remembering to wear appropriate safety gear or the photos or videos may not be appropriate for K-State media.

  • Researchers who are standing in their labs or workshops to take photos or video should wear safety gear even if they are "just" posing for a photo and aren't working on anything at the time of the photo.

Thank you for helping us represent the K-State research enterprise well! Please contact the Office of the Vice President for Research at 532-5110 with questions.
Agency news and trending topics
At the 2018 National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins ... announced the launch of the  HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative , an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Toward this effort, NIH is nearly doubling funding for research on opioid misuse/addiction and pain from approximately $600 million in fiscal year 2016 to $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2018, made possible from a funding boost by Congress.

AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific organization, announced Thursday that it will partner with the March for Science, a worldwide nonpartisan movement highlighting the essential role that science plays in understanding our world, improving our daily lives and informing policymaking in towns and cities across the globe. In addition to the March for Science rally on April 14 in Washington, D.C., more than 175 satellite marches are being organized around the world, offering supporters of science and scientists a chance to leverage the value of science in and beyond their communities.

Under its biotechnology regulations, USDA does not regulate or have any plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests. This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to produce new plant varieties that are indistinguishable from those developed through traditional breeding methods. The newest of these methods, such as genome editing, expand traditional plant breeding tools because they can introduce new plant traits more quickly and precisely, potentially saving years or even decades in bringing needed new varieties to farmers.

There is a problem with the culture in science, and it is one that loads an increasing burden on the shoulders of younger generations. The evidence suggests that they are feeling the effects. (Among the tweets, one proposed solution to improving the PhD is to “treat it like professional training instead of indentured servitude with no hope of a career at the end?”.) It will take a while to change that culture — and, unfortunately, it will probably take almost as long for some in the community to realize the need to change. But change it must.

Numerous appeals for collaboration ...demonstrate a limited understanding of the depth of existing engagements between science and culture. Often, they ignore the considerable body of work specifically on the history and philosophy of science. They also limit the expertise of the humanities to questions of empathy, ethics and values. At the same time, ... they mischaracterise scientists as devoid of the sort of “soft” skills that are often associated with the humanities alone.

Integrating science communication training into science curricula is imperative to nurture a future generation of scientists who can explain their research to the public. During such training, Ph.D. scholars should be taught to communicate their research with not only peers, but the public, the media, and other stakeholders.

Revelations keep emerging in the Cambridge Analytica personal-data scandal, which has captured global public attention for more than a week. But when the dust settles, researchers harvesting data online will face greater scrutiny. And so they should.
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