The USC Research and Innovation (R&I) welcomes Ishwar Puri, USC’s new Vice President of Research, whose term starts on Aug 1, 2021.
We are now in Phase 5 however, per the recent Health Alert, masks are required in all indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status. Interactive COVID-19 USC Reopening Guidelines are available on the EH&S website. Testing guidelines for unvaccinated individuals continue, and as of August 1, 2021, personal declinations will no longer be valid or accepted in lieu of a COVID-19 vaccination. Under USC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program, proof of vaccination, religious exemption form, or medical exemption form must be completed and submitted to MySHR. Please look here for additional information.
FACULTY ENGAGEMENT:
Internal Funding Deadline Reminders: Deans’ Matching Fund (LOI: Sept 7, 2021; Full proposal: Oct 18, 2021, by invitation); Core/Shared Instrumentation Fund (Sept 20, 2021); Strategic Directions in Research (Oct 4, 2021); USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship (request for nominations, November 1, 2021); Ming Hsieh Institute for Engineering-Medicine (Jan 24, 2022).
Mentoring and Training Workshops: Fall 2021 virtual CER workshops have been posted. Register here. If you’d like to be updated about upcoming workshops, join our mailing list.
Navigating Research @ USC 2021: This forum is designed for all researchers (faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research administrators) interested in learning about USC research resources and services. It will be held via Zoom, on Friday, Aug 27th. Click here to register.
FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the new National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force. As directed by Congress in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, the task force will serve as a federal advisory committee to develop an implementation roadmap for the National AI Research Resource, shared infrastructure providing AI researchers and students in all scientific disciplines access to computing resources, high-quality data, educational tools, and user support.
USC STEVENS CENTER FOR INNOVATION: Director of Licensing and New Ventures Named: The Stevens Center has promoted Donaldson Santos to lead the technology licensing and new ventures team, and the corporate collaborations team. Santos was previously Associate Director of Licensing and has nearly 20 years of experience in academic and industry technology commercialization. Technology Advancement Grants Awarded: For the fifth consecutive year, the Stevens Center has awarded TAG grants to USC researchers. This year, five grants totaling $250,000 were awarded. Learn about the awardees on the Stevens Center website.
OPRS/IRB: The IRB staff are reorganizing and expanding to better support the research community. To continue to improve efficiency, investigators should submit industry-sponsored clinical trials to the Central IRB engaged by the sponsor and a ceded review request to the USC IRB. This speeds us review times for industry-sponsored research and reduce the burden on the IRB. If your Human Subjects, Good Clinical Practice, or HIPAA certification expires within 30 days of the study expiration date, you won’t be able to submit your continuing review until the certifications are renewed. Similarly, if members of the study team have expired certifications within 30 days of the study expiration date, a continuing review will not be accepted for review.
CONTRACTS & GRANTS: Please remind your research administrators and/or research team to take any required Workday Financials trainings. All users with Workday Financials roles (e.g., Requisitioner, Grants Manager, etc.) have been notified by email if they were assigned a required Virtual Instructor-Led Training or eLearning. View all available trainings here. The Workday Hub offers tips and tricks to help you with processes from general Workday navigation to a step-by-step guide on how to complete a requisition.