Don’t Miss the Deadline – New OORI- Funding Opportunity! We have added a new 2023 submission deadline for our SBIR/STTR grant program – May 26. The Research & Innovation office will award over $7.5M in grants to USC faculty in fiscal year 23-24. Upcoming proposal submission deadlines also include May 15 for the Collaborative Research Planning Award (CRPA) and May 29 for the Humanities and Humanistic Sciences Award (HHSS) grants. We encourage you to visit our website to learn about the newly created OORI grant programs. Click here for updated information on Limited Submission funding opportunities.
Trojan Research Association – Recruit Undergraduates for Research! The Trojan Research Association (TRA) is an RSO that matches faculty members with highly qualified undergraduates for mentored research of at least a semester commitment. Moreover, TRA is rolling throughout each academic year, and there is no formal application deadline. TRA is inclusive of all academic disciplines and will match any student-faculty pair that deems fit. If you are interested, please fill out the TRA faculty interest/availability form and update the same form if your current availability changes (Please note that you will NOT be able to take other undergraduates from other sources for two weeks after your form submission/update). For inquiries, please contact Sanguk Han (sangukha@usc.edu).
FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: Dr. James Murday, Director of Physical Sciences within Research Strategy and Development, will host an upcoming Center for Excellence in Research workshop related to Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Dr. Murday will: describe the current status of the ARPA-H organization, present strategies to craft a winning proposal for the BAA and provide information about other ARPA-H programs. Registration details are available here.
STEVENS CENTER FOR INNOVATION: USC will serve as the venue for an upcoming roundtable discussion hosted by the Alliance for SoCal Innovation and Techstars. USC Research & Innovation, including the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, is assisting with the coordination of this event, titled Innovation in Higher Education and Industry to be held on Thursday, May 18th. This important event will include the region’s premiere leaders interested in digital transformation and how it affects industry.
OPRS/IRB: As we head into the end of the academic year, we are holding steady at a 4 week wait time for assignment to an analyst for exempt and expedited applications. Over the next several months we will be updating our website to include more recent and additional HRPP Dashboard data. Our goal is to provide data more regularly and to offer more insight into the way the HRPP and IRBs operate. We also encourage investigators and members of study teams to reach out for office hours when they have questions about their submissions. Our goal is to reduce the amount of time required for the review of applications so that we can speed up the approval timeline. We are also available to visit classes and meet with departments or programs to support the submission process and ethical research involving people.
CONTRACTS & GRANTS: The Department of Contracts and Grants has released several informative NewsFlashes over the last month based on feedback received from the campus community regarding the implementation of Cayuse SP. These include a new resource guide, system notification reminders, and directions for closing erroneously created proposal records. Research Administrators (as well as PIs) are encouraged to subscribe to the DCG NewsFlash for future guidance related to Cayuse SP or to post in our DCG Slack Channel for more immediate questions/concerns.
DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL RESOURCES: Starting 4/27, we will be bringing higher quality service to animal users by launching a 4/10 alternative work week for our animal lab technicians. You won’t notice any changes with your animal care and maintenance of facilities. The only change will be that the animal lab technician will be in the animal room for longer periods of time which means more access to animal research support staff. This is part of the many efforts DAR is making to improve service quality and support research.
Two new Clinical Veterinarians will be starting in the upcoming months: Dr. Kris Galang in May and Dr. Lynlee Stevey-Rindenow in July. Both veterinarians are highly qualified to bring the best standards of care to all laboratory animals at USC and be a resource for projects and teaching using animal models.
To meet the cost of operations in the animal facilities, per diem rates will be increasing 11.6% compared to last fiscal year. Letters and phone calls to each research dean have been sent out last month communicating this change with space recharge amounts and an Istar message will be sent out to all investigators notifying them that this change will go into effect on 7/1/23.
The Spring DAR Insider is out and ready as an enjoyable read. You can also check it out here. Highlights include information on AAALAC, new hires, and important lab animal science updates.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY: USC Environmental Health & Safety is pleased to announce a new YouTube video providing a step-by-step guide on how to locate and properly activate the emergency eyewash and safety shower station in your lab. By acting quickly, eye injuries and chemical burns can be greatly reduced or eliminated.
Additionally, the University has a surplus of nitrile gloves that EH&S would like to offer to the USC research community free of charge. If you are interested in receiving gloves for use in your lab, please fill out this form. EH&S will contact you in the coming weeks to arrange a distribution time and location that is convenient.