The Office of Research Development provides resources that prepare faculty, staff and leaders to submit high-quality, highly competitive proposals. Our staff can help faculty:

• Find funding opportunities and collaborators.
• Polish proposal writing skills.
• Apply to specific funding programs or submit to specific agencies such as NSF, NIH and USDA.
• Manage teaming and logistics and diversity/education plans for larger, multidisciplinary submissions.
• Develop data management plans.

Learn more about our faculty resources.

K-State's Game-changing Research Initiation Program, or GRIP, announced its first call for proposals in October 2022. All K-State faculty were offered the opportunity to form interdisciplinary teams to address transformative research on grand challenges or other complex and promising research directions requiring transdisciplinary teams. A total of $3M is available for this program, with funding from the Offices of the President, Provost, Vice President for Research; K-State Foundation; and participating college deans.

In total, 36 teams submitted two-page pre-proposals outlining ideas for projects. The principal and co-principal investigators from these teams included participants from eight colleges as well as the Olathe campus, leadership studies and K-State Libraries. The pre-proposals were reviewed by a committee of K-State faculty members representing six different colleges. Based on the reviewers' recommendations, 10 proposal teams were identified and invited for full proposals, which are due in May. Teams not invited to advance in the GRIP selection process were offered assistance in finding alternative potential funding sources for their proposed research by the Office of Research Development (grants) and K-State Innovation Partners (industry partnerships). 

The CNAP COBRE center at Kansas State University is soliciting applications for pilot grants that will begin on June 1, 2023. The grants are open to all faculty with appointments at higher education institutions within the state of Kansas, although early and mid-career faculty will be prioritized for funding.

Proposed pilot grants should seek to enhance neuroscience research in the state of Kansas and/or fit within CNAP’s theme of cognitive and neural plasticity. The center funds basic, translational and clinical research in humans and animals from a wide range of disciplines (e.g., animal behavior, biology, pharmacology, veterinary medicine, cognitive science, human factors, kinesiology, human nutrition, computer science and engineering).

Applicants are encouraged to submit a letter of intent by 5 p.m. CST on Wednesday, Feb.1, 2023. This is highly recommended to ensure that your grant can be reviewed in a timely manner. Applications should be submitted by the applicant’s research office and are due by 5 p.m. CST on Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

K-State faculty, staff and students are invited to design and facilitate a hands-on science, technology, engineering, and/or math activity for middle school students at the Girls Researching Our World, or GROW, workshop on Saturday, March 4 on the K-State campus in Manhattan.

Activities should incorporate the workshop theme, “Happy Healthy Planet.” In this Saturday Workshop, we investigate how STEM and STEM professionals are working to create a happier and healthier planet through their areas of expertise. Activity proposals should relate to this theme. KAWSE program coordinator, Stephanie Wacker, is available to help brainstorm activity ideas and relate facilitators’ area of expertise to the event theme. KAWSE can also help find student volunteers to assist with the activity.

Activity sessions are 45 minutes long and attended by 8-12 middle school students at a time. Sessions begin at 10 and 11 a.m., and 1 and 2 p.m. Facilitators may choose to host the morning sessions, afternoon sessions, or all sessions. The session should be hands-on; any presentations should be less than 10 minutes long. A GROW student employee will chaperone each group to and from sessions and will be present during the activity to help facilitate as necessary. A free lunch is provided at noon for those facilitators who request one. Activity proposals are due by February 18.

An activity proposal guide is available on the KAWSE website to help with activity development.

The KAWSE office is happy to provide letters of support to grant agencies for those who collaborate with us.

Office staff can be reached by email at kawse@k-state.edu, by phone at 785-532-6088 or at 215 Fairchild Hall to answer any questions.

9:30-11 a.m.

January 26

Please join the Human Networks and Data Science Program to discuss questions about the program with the program director. 

To join, use the Human Networks and Data Science office hour Zoom link.

• All meetings during office hours are 1-on-1. Guests are seen in the order they join. You may have to wait if others join before you.
• If you need captions or other accommodations, please contact Trisha Van Zandt in advance. 

For more information about the program, visit the Human Networks and Data Science Program page.

Jan. 25 and Feb. 1

Please join the Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program to discuss questions about the program with the program directors. 

Office hours will take place over Zoom, generally on Wednesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. 

Learn more and register to attend.

3-5 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 26

Children's Mercy Research Institute, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO

Presentations: 3:30-4:30 p.m.

• Welcome, Series Overview and Deliverables
• Dennis Ridenour, CEO, BioNexus KC and Sara Hart Weir, Rare KC
• Speakers
• Pediatric: Tom Curran, PhD, Executive Director and CSO, Children’s Mercy Research Institute
• Adult: Steven Stites, MD, Vice Chancellor Clinical Affairs, University of Kansas Medical Center
• Payor: Jay Bryant-Wimp, RPh, Clinical Advisor, Optum Frontier Therapies
• Patient: Kevin Wake, Patient Advocate, Uriel E. Owens Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Midwest
• Panel discussion | Moderator: Kelly Ranallo, Founder, RareKC

Join us for networking and refreshments before and after the presentations. 

The NSF Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems, or ECCS, has announced a new solicitation under the Addressing Systems Challenges through Engineering Teams, or ASCENT, program. 

This solicitation focuses on the national priority of climate change mitigation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions towards a carbon-free clean electricity sector. The most cost-effective way to reduce energy use and cut emissions is by improving the electricity sector's overall efficiency, which will assist in combating climate change and enhancing energy security. To address these national priorities, this ASCENT solicitation seeks proposals under the following two thematic areas:

• Integrated Electronic Systems enabled by Wide-bandgap and Ultrawide-bandgap Semiconductors for Climate Change Mitigation.
• Integrated Power Systems for Clean Energy.



On January 26 at 2 p.m., ECCS will host a webinar to explain this year’s solicitation and answer questions. 

Register for the webinar.

10-11 a.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 8

The upcoming Graduate Research Fellowship webinar, previously scheduled for Thursday, January 19, 2023 has been moved to Wednesday, February 8 at 11:00 am EST. If you’ve already registered, you will not need to re-register.

This webinar will give an overview of NIJ’s annual Graduate Research Fellowship program to potential FY23 applicants. The program is open to Ph.D. students from all branches of science and engineering whose dissertation work is relevant to issues of crime and criminal justice.

The presenters will discuss program scope, eligibility, application elements, and frequently asked questions. A Q&A session will conclude the webinar. Live captioning will be available.

Register to attend.

11-Noon

Feb. 2, March 2

Please join this I-Corps Teams webinar to ask an I-Corps program director questions and hear updates about the I-Corps program, curriculum, and important dates.

Register for the I-Corps Teams webinar on Zoom.

February 23-24

Arlington, Virginia

USDA’s 99th annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, will be held in person at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott on February 23-24, 2023, and all sessions will be livestreamed on a virtual platform.

More than 30 sessions and 100 agriculture leaders and subject matter experts will discuss key issues impacting the sector including:

• USDA’s initial forecast for the agricultural economy, commodity markets, and trade in 2023 and the U.S. farm income situation.
• Climate smart agriculture.
• Supply chain challenges and solutions.
• Factors impacting U.S. trade update & the global marketplace.
• Food prices outlook.

Learn more and register to attend.

Saving what's left of the underground water used for large-scale farms in west Kansas NPR

New K-State initiative to bring 'supercharged' business support in all 105 Kansas counties Topeka Capital-Journal

SQUIRREL SCIENCE | K-State researchers to begin field studies of southern flying squirrel The Mercury

Scoglio receives grant to study disease spread and long-distance dispersal of pathogens The Junction City Union

Fifteen Specialty Crop Block Grants awarded in 2022 Morning Ag Clips

How I learned to talk about climate science with skeptical audiences

“Sir, I am a climate scientist. Your remarks are unequivocally false.” I listened in admiration as a fellow scientist discredited a climate denier in her audience who had spouted false information during a Q&A session. As a climate scientist who had recently moved to Texas to start a faculty position, I was nervous about having to field similar questions during talks to the general public. I had given those kinds of talks in the past, but they were mostly to groups in more liberal states, where I felt I was preaching to the choir. Texas was a different story. Science

She fell in love with the majesty of volcanoes—and changed how science sees them

Krafft was a fearless pioneer in volcanology, studying the explosive peaks at a time when there were few women in the field. The moment a volcano exploded, she and her husband, Maurice Krafft, also a volcanologist, dropped everything to analyze and capture the beauty and mystery of each event. These stunning close-ups allowed geologists to dissect the intricate details of each eruption like never before. National Geographic

Glassfrogs hide red blood cells in their livers to become transparent

Glassfrogs make themselves transparent while they rest by taking red blood cells from circulation and concealing them in their livers. Now, a U.S. National Science Foundation-supported team of biologists and biomedical engineers has shown how these frogs become see-through in research appearing in the journal Science.  NSF

Why This Universe? Maybe It’s Not Special—Just Probable

Cosmologists have spent decades striving to understand why our universe is so stunningly vanilla. Not only is it smooth and flat as far as we can see, but it’s also expanding at an ever-so-slowly increasing pace, when naive calculations suggest that—coming out of the Big Bang—space should have become crumpled up by gravity and blasted apart by repulsive dark energy. Wired

Former KU researcher sentenced to time served in China-related case

A former researcher who was accused of hiding work he did in China while employed by the University of Kansas was sentenced Wednesday to time served by a federal judge who said his action did not warrant a prison sentence. Lawrence Journal-World

k-state.edu/research

researchweekly@k-state.edu

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