School of Information Research and Innovation Office
From SIResearchInnovationOffice
Research and Innovation Office
The Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) is led by Thomas Finholt, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation. Our goal is to create an environment where faculty research: flourishes; is engaged in cutting edge technology; and contributes to the mission of the School of Information (SI) by creating new knowledge and serving the local and global communities. This involves working with faculty in a broad spectrum of activities, from directing their ideas to appropriate funding sources to ensuring their work is published and results disseminated. ORI activities can be described as follows:
- Seek research funding
- Facilitate implementation of research projects
- Create appropriate infrastructure at SI for research
- Interact with the University of Michigan research world
- Track emerging opportunities, in industry, government and foundations
- Promote the sponsored activities of SI and manage relationships with partners in research and innovation of the School
ORI is led by Thomas A. Finholt who is the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation.
We have four staff associated with the Office and they are:
- Becky O'Brien - Assistant Director for Research Administration
- Erik Hofer - Project Director -VISIT and Research Investigator
- Jocelyn Webber - Research Administrative Assistant
- Karen Woollams - Student Affairs Program Manager-[STIET ]
Research Administration: Frequently Asked Questions
Current Funding Opportunities
This section has a list of current funding opportunities that we are aware of. If you would like us to post other opportunities that you've come across please contact us at siresearchwiki@umich.edu
Current Active Awards at the School of Information
For a list of all current active awards at the School of Information please go to the Research section at SIs Website. If you follow the link to the Current Active Awards at SI section of this wiki it will bring you to additional awards associated with the School of Information.
Funding Agency Opportunity Alert Sign Up
Important News, Notices and Events
News
New NSF Proposal Requirement: Data Sharing Plan (Posted 5/14/10)
During the May 5th meeting of the National Science Board, National Science Foundation (NSF) officials announced a change in the implementation of the existing policy on sharing research data. In particular, on or around October, 2010, NSF is planning to require that all proposals include a data management plan in the form of a two-page supplementary document. The research community will be informed of the specifics of the anticipated changes and the agency's expectations for the data management plans.
For more information please see NSF Press Release 10-077
Workshop on a Wireless National Test Bed (WiNTeB) May 5-6, 2010 (Posted 3/25/10
Kennesaw State University will host an NSF-supported Workshop on a Wireless National Test Bed (WiNTeB) on May 5-6, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel, 50 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia (funding pending). The purpose of the workshop is to develop a common understanding among the stakeholders of what the benefits and challenges are in building a Wireless National scale Test Bed (WiNTeB) to support research in academia, government agencies, and industry. The workshop will result in a report that will frame and guide efforts to create WiNTeB including recommendations to research agencies.
Stakeholders include:
- Academic researchers interested in using WiNTeB for applications research, such as public health studies involving large numbers of people using cell phones equipped with bio sensors
- Academic researchers interested in using WiNTeb to explore how to improve wireless networks
- Wireless service providers who might provide facilities for WiNTeB under Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)contracts
- Wireless equipment, software, semiconductor, and component companies who might want to perform experiments on WiNTeB
- Representatives of other government and industry organizations sponsoring research that might benefit from the availability of WiNTeB
The call for proposals and a draft agenda are available here
Share your thoughts on the Future of Museums and Libraries on the IMLS Wiki (Posted 3/12/10)
Share your thoughts on the Future of Museums and Libraries Wiki The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites you to help invent the future of museums and libraries through your participation in UpNext: The Future of Museums and Libraries Wiki.
http://www.imls.gov/news/2010/022410.shtm
NSF Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2) (Posted 3/4/10)
March 3, 2010
Dear Colleague:
Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2)
The Office of CyberInfrastucture (OCI) is partnering with Directorates and Offices across the Foundation to establish Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2), a long-term program focused on realizing a sustained software infrastructure that is an integral part of NSF’s Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CF21). 1 vision. This program will catalyze and nurture the multidisciplinary processes required to support the entire software lifecycle, and result in the development of sustainable community software elements at all levels of the software stack and addressing all aspects of CI, from embedded sensor systems and instruments, to desktops and high-end data and computing systems. The goal is to create a software ecosystem that scales from individual or small groups of software innovators to large hubs of software excellence.
The overarching goal of the CF21 is to catalyze new thinking, paradigms and practices in science and engineering. CF21 fosters a pervasive, linked architecture for cyberinfrastructure that enables research at unprecedented scales, complexity, resolution, and accuracy by integrating computation, data and experiments in novel ways, nationally and internationally. CF21 has the potential for revolutionizing virtually every discipline by providing unique insights into complex problems, and thus represents unprecedented opportunities for understanding and managing natural and engineered systems.
Software is a primary modality through which CF21 innovation and discovery will be realized. It permeates all aspects and layers of cyberinfrastructure (from application codes and frameworks, programming systems, libraries and system software, to middleware, operating systems, networking and the low-level drivers).
The CF21 software infrastructure must address complexity, accommodating disruptive hardware trends, ever-increasing data volumes, complex application structures and behaviors, and emerging first-order concerns such as fault-tolerance and energy efficiency. The software must be continually refined, at one end to support these new trends and requirements, and at the other end to support new advances in the disciplines and their computational methodologies. There is also a new sense of urgency and opportunity for such an investment driven in part by the confluence of various stresses, including disruptive hardware trends, new technologies, new application formulations and community readiness.
The SI 2 program will collectively support a vibrant ecosystem of partnerships between academia, government laboratories and industry for the development and stewardship of a software infrastructure that can sustain and accelerate innovation and productivity, nationally and internationally. The focus and scope of the program has been informed by the findings of a number of workshops and panels organized by multiple communities, most notably the various ongoing taskforces that are subcommittees of the NSF-wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI). It is anticipated that this program will begin with a program solicitation as early as FY 2010 and will ramp up in subsequent years.
Questions or feedback related to this SI 2 initiative and upcoming program solicitation may be directed to Manish Parashar, OCI Program Director, by sending email to si2@nsf.gov.
NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Grant Procedure Guide 2010 (Posted 12/21/09)
The National Science Foundation's "Proposal and Award Policies"(AAG) and " Grant Procedures Guide"(GPG) can be viewed at: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf10_1/index.jsp
NSF Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CF21) (Posted 12/21/09)
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10015/nsf10015.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_26
NSB RECOMMENDS REINSTATING MANDATORY COST-SHARING FOR SOME NSF PROGRAMS
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Alert, September 10, 2009
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Science Board (NSB) issued a report strongly recommending that NSF reinstate a mandatory cost-sharing requirement for a few of its programs; specifically for Engineering Research Centers, Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers, and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). NSF changed from a mandatory to a voluntary system in 2004. The NSB report, Investing in the Future: Cost Sharing Policies for a Robust Federal Research Enterprise was the result of a congressional charge to analyze the consequence of the 2004 cost-sharing policy change.
NSF ANNOUNCES NEW ETHICS TRAINING RULES
AAAS Policy Alert, September 10, 2009
On August 20 the National Science Foundation announced new rules mandating that NSF-funded research trainees receive training in research ethics. Institutions will need to have their training and oversight plans for students and postdocs in place by the beginning of next year. The move was required by provisions of the America COMPETES Act.
News Archive
Important Notices
NSF Recovery Act FAQ's - Posted 3/30/09
CISE Directorate: Coordinated Solicitation and Cross-Directorate Solicitation
In an effort to give us the big picture of all research funding opportunities within each division and across the entire CISE Directorate, CISE is embarking on a new way to present themselves. They will release this summer a Coordinated Solicitation and a Cross-Directorate Solicitation. The Coordinated Solicitation will be the simultaneous release of three solicitations that covers each research program within each division. The Cross-Directorate Solicitation will describe cross-cutting research programs, those with interests that cut across the entire CISE Directorate and are managed entirely within CISE.
Please see the Dear Colleague Letter for further details.
NSF Broader Impacts Notice
- On July 31, 2008, the Materials Research Division Director issued yet another statement on Broader Impacts:
Dear Colleague,
Proposals received by the National Science Foundation are evaluated based on two merit review criteria: intellectual merit and broader impacts. Through its merit review process, NSF ensures that proposals submitted are reviewed in a fair, competitive transparent, and in-depth manner.
Proposals submitted by Principal Investigators (PIs) are reviewed based on the first criterion, intellectual merit, with the mexpectation that the research be high quality, innovative and advance the frontiers of science. NSF asks reviewers to consider the following in evaluating intellectual merit.
- Potential of the Research to Advance Knowledge and Understanding
- Originality, Creativity and the Potentially Transformative Nature of the Proposal
- Qualifications of Researchers
- Organization and Conceptual Foundation of the Proposed Activities
- Access to Resources Needed
The broader impacts criterion identifies the important outcomes and consequences of NSF-supported research. Research supported by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) is particularly well suited to demonstrate these impacts in ways visible to scientists and engineers as well as the general public. This message is meant to clarify what is meant by broader impacts and how it is applied by Program Directors in making their final decisions.
The NSF Grant Proposal Guide (Chapter III, Section A)poses five questions that identify the general areas in which broader impacts (Merit Review Broader Impacts Criterion: Representative Activities) typically occur. Some examples that illustrate contributions in each of the five areas are given below.Proposals need not address all of these areas, and PIs are advised to focus on those areas in which they are well prepared to make meaningful contributions.
To Continue Reading, please visit the NSF Website
OR see http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08062/nsf08062.pdf?govDel=USNSF_25
- On April 7, 2008 the NSF issued a Dear Colleague Letter giving further clarification on Broader Impacts Proposal Requirements. Broader Impacts is one of two merit review criteria by which applications for funding are reviewed. Please familiarize yourself with these guidelines.
- On April 16, 2008 a News Blog in the Chronicle for Higher Education noted NSF's push to include broader impacts into proposals.
NIH Publication Policy
On October 8, 2008, The National Institutes of Health announced that it would allow researchers only two chances instead of three when they submit proposals for research grants. In the past, if a proposal failed during its first trip through the peer-review process, the scientist could amend and resubmit it a total of two times. Limiting the process to one resubmission, the agency said, “will help ensure earlier funding of high-quality applications and improve efficiencies in the peer-review system.”
The New NIH Policy on Resubmission
On April 7, 2008, a new NIH policy went into effect requiring the deposit of all articles resulting from NIH funding to be posted to Pub Med Central. The link here outlines the key components of the policy along with websites to go for help. [1]This new mandate presents a number of new obligations for NIH-funded investigators and failing to comply with them could have a severe impact on your access to future NIH funding.
Upcoming Events
Just for PhD Students
Tidbits
Links of Interest
- Computing Community Consortium www.cra.org/ccc
One of the main activities is to sponsor workshops on cutting edge topics in computing and information that can help develop research questions and inform CISE about areas in need of funding. The summit on Cyber-Physical Systems is one example, but they're open to a broad range of ideas.
