Funding opportunities: USC Research and Innovation (R&I) grant programs are tailored to support a diverse range of research areas, scholarship, and artistic and cultural expression and are currently under revision, with new award programs being created. We are happy to announce new grant programs, including: the Institutional Training Planning Award, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Mentorship Award, the Alternative Methods to Animal Research, Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences and revised programs: the Instrumentation Award, the Ming Hsieh Institute Research Award as well as the call for nominations for theAssociates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship. Click here to download the Requests for Proposals and for additional information on all programs. R&I Programs are administered by the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) office. Contact us at rii@usc.edu should you have additional questions – we are here to help!
Limited Submissions: RII has updated the application process for Limited Submission proposals. Effective immediately, applicants are requested to use our new proposal template (click here to download). The expanded 2-page template aims to standardize and increase the transparency of the review process of USC’s research award programs.
The National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program will be announced by our office soon, with an internal deadline of Monday, July 17th, 2023. There will be significant changes to the process from last year, so please read our updates and announcements on this limited submission carefully as they develop.
Research and Scholarship Training Workshops: The Center for Excellence in Research spring 2023 workshops are now open for registration on our website! More will be added throughout the semester. If you would like to be updated about new workshops, please join our mailing list. Do you have an idea for a workshop? We’d love to hear from you!
FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: The FY 2024 Department of Defense (DoD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) announcement has been released. DoD’s MURI program supports multidisciplinary research efforts where more than one traditional discipline interacts to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of interest to the DoD. Detailed descriptions of the opportunity and specific topics are available here. Those interested in pursuing a submission should contact Research Strategy and Development for support at robyngil@usc.edu.
OPRS/IRB: We have returned to a 4 week wait time for assignment to an analyst for review. Please continue to check out the OPRS website as we are continuously updating it with new or clearer information.
CONTRACTS & GRANTS: We are pleased to release a Quick Guide for Principal Investigators that summarizes key information that PIs/Co-PIs will need to know when utilizing the new Cayuse SP system launching March 1st. The Quick Guide covers logging into the system, locating proposals and awards, downloading award documentation, and linking IRB/IACUC protocols. In addition, DCG recently released a NewsFlash highlighting multiple post go-live support avenues for Cayuse SP, all of which are valuable not only to Research Administrators but PIs/Co-PIs as well.
DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL RESOURCES: DAR is welcoming a new clinical veterinarian, Dr. Kris Galang, who will be starting May 8th. Dr. Galang earned his DVM at The Ohio State University in 2018 and has been working as a Senior Clinical Veterinarian at UC Davis. We are excited to have him. On March 6th, our new Animal Health Technician, Tika Summers will be starting. She is a Registered Veterinary Technician and will be a refreshing face for the department.
DAR is no longer utilizing live animals for sentinel screening of common rodent pathogens. This is historical because USC has always used live animals at some capacity to determine the health status of colonies. The alternative methods used today are epidemiologically more sensitive in picking up the prevalence of viruses and bacteria than older methods. They are also more sustainable since we are not wasting animal lives. This upholds the principles of the 3Rs (Russell and Burch, 1959) and the goals of the University’s sustainability program.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY: The use of gas stoves and appliances has been in the news lately. EH&S developed a fact sheet to provide some information on some common questions. USC’s Cal/OSHA logs that require employers to record injuries and illnesses have been sent to HR partners for posting. Please contact your HR partner or EH&S if you have any questions. EH&S distributed our annual memo that shares where asbestos related materials may be located at USC. If you have any questions, please contact EH&S at ehs.usc.edu.