or select your discipline:
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The National Endowment for the Humanities' Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication by providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.
The National Science Foundation’s Resilient & Intelligent NextG Systems program seeks to accelerate research in areas that will potentially have a significant impact on emerging Next Generation wireless and mobile communication, networking, sensing, and computing systems, along with global-scale services, with a focus on greatly improving the resiliency of such networked systems among other performance metrics.
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President Biden Issues Executive Order Requiring $15 Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order, or EO, increasing the minimum wage federal contractors pay from $10.95 an hour to $15 an hour. According to a White House fact sheet, effective January 30, 2022, all agencies will need to include a $15 minimum wage in new contract solicitations, and by March 30, 2022, all agencies will need to implement it into new contracts. The higher minimum wage will also need to be implemented into existing contracts when extended or renewed.
According to Section 8, the EO applies to:
- Procurement contracts for services or construction.
- Contracts for services covered by the Service Contract Act.
- Contracts for concessions.
- Contracts “entered into with the federal government in connection with federal property or lands and related to offering services for federal employees, their dependents, or the general public.”
The language of the EO goes on to state that it does not apply to “grants; contracts, contract-like instruments, or agreements with Indian Tribes under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as amended; or any contracts or contract-like instruments expressly excluded by the regulations.”
The Office of the Vice President for Research advises K-State researchers that this EO applies specifically to service and concession contracts rather than research grants or cooperative agreements to support research. However, K-State also receives service contracts from the federal government which are focused on the delivery of research services that may be covered by this EO. Also, it is possible that some lease or vendor agreements held by K-State entities will be subject to this EO. K-State is also required to flow this requirement down to its covered subcontractors performing services for K-State under the prescribed contracts.
Please consult with PreAward Services if you have questions about contracts with which you may be involved. PreAward Services will review existing contracts at the time of their renewal, extension or during the government’s exercise of a contract option, to help identify any that may be impacted.
-Beth A. Montelone
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DARPA Biological Technologies Office Information Session
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2-3 p.m.
Thursday, May 6
This session with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, Biological Technologies Office, known as BTO, will provide an overview of the mission of the office, programs and related funding opportunities.
The BTO serves to foster, demonstrate, and transition breakthrough research, discoveries and applications that integrate biology, engineering, computer science, mathematics and the physical sciences. BTO’s research investment portfolio includes combating pandemic disease, innovative physiological interventions, human performance and readiness and deep exploration of changing ecologies and environments for improving U.S. capabilities and resilience. BTO’s programs operate across a wide range of scales, from individual cells to global ecosystems.
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US Army Research Institute Information Session
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9-10 a.m.
Friday, May 7
The Office of Research Development is hosting an information session about the Basic Research Program that resides within the Foundational Science Research Unit at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. The session will overview program strategy and tactics, introduce portfolios, and highlight a few recent BR projects.
The Basic Research program’s mission is to advance the fundamental theories, methods, analytical approaches and models of personnel and organizational science. The program seeks to conduct and support innovative, cutting-edge research in personnel assessment and measurement; team and organizational dynamics; leadership development, processes and measurement; and learning in formal and informal contexts in support of the army’s short-, mid-, and long-term operational and strategic requirements.
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UIDP Webinar: Open Innovation at Merck KGaA,
Darmstadt, Germany
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11 a.m.-noon
Wednesday, May 12
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a vibrant science and technology company with more than 350 years’ history, is active in healthcare, life sciences, and electronics. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is investing in overcoming major global challenges and is also committed to facilitating communications and building networks within the scientific community. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany offers a variety of programs and initiatives to partner and apply for. In this webinar, participants will learn about research grants, research challenges, Future InsightTM events in 2021 and 2022, and the opportunities to get involved, including the company's collaboration with well-known publisher Nature on the Spinoff Prize. Learn more.
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Share, convey and present your research with the community through art!
This platform is designed as a way for regional scientists to showcase research in a new and imaginative way.
How the “Science2Art” auction works:
2. Artwork is reviewed and selected by curators.
3. Selected applicants will be notified in mid-June.
4. Chosen artwork will be:
- Printed on various media.
- Featured online and in the 2021 Annual Event video.
- Featured in Science2Art exhibit at TBD location in KC*.
5. Auctioned on BioNexus KC’s website and at Annual Event in October 2021.
All proceeds from the auction benefit STEAM education in the Kansas City area.
*PLEASE NOTE: By submitting artwork, the researcher is committing to a 1-hr video session in Kansas City on a date TBD.
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K-State RSCAD in the news
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Agency news and trending topics
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Antarctic ice sheets crashing into the ocean. Clouds zipping across the Midwestern sky. Gases from Amazonian trees drifting across hundreds of miles. Wildfires burning across the American West. Extreme heat rising in Oklahoma City. Destructive winter storms raging in Texas. All of these are related to climate – and so related to energy. energy.gov
Fields of rotten sweet potatoes are not an uncommon occurrence in growing regions that experience hurricanes. A week before harvest, heavy rain can sweep through the area, flooding fields and promoting infection by opportunistic soil pathogens. Higher humidity and temperatures can increase plant susceptibility to these pathogens. While hurricanes may be temporary, the looming threat of more intensified and frequent severe weather events is looming. These severe weather events can have a long-term impact on pathogen populations, plant susceptibility, farm productivity and profitability. foundationfar.org
Researchers are now able to wirelessly record the directly measured brain activity of patients living with Parkinson’s disease and to then use that information to adjust the stimulation delivered by an implanted device. nih.gov
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have devised a four-part small-molecule cocktail that can protect stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from stress and maintain normal stem cell structure and function. The researchers suggest that the cocktail could enhance the potential therapeutic uses of stem cells, ranging from treating diseases and conditions — such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury — to genome editing. nih.gov
Using only minimally invasive image scanning techniques, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany have now identified a new species of Dumbo octopus called, Grimpoteuthis imperator, reports David Nield for Science Alert. The study may potentially open up the world of taxonomy to new techniques that could help identify larger rare animal species and other specimens without destroying it during dissection. The paper was published in BMC Biology this month. nsf.gov
Extreme weather and the Covid-19 pandemic have upended supply chains for plastic lab equipment. smithsonianmag.com
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k-state.edu/research
researchweekly@k-state.edu
785.532.5110
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