As the pandemic situation improves, USC is opening up. PhD, MS, and undergraduate students are now allowed to do research on campus, by being included on essential employee lists and/or provided with university employment verification letters. Find all research-related COVID-19 updates here. More steps toward opening are expected soon, in accordance with approvals from the LA County Dept. of Public Health.
FACULTY ENGAGEMENT:
Congratulations to our awardees! Please visit our website for all USC funding opportunities.
Zumberge Individual: 7 proposals were received and 3 were awarded: Addison Kemp (KSOM); Bhavna Sharma (School of Architecture); Alberto Robador (Dornsife).
Zumberge Diversity & Inclusion: 15 proposals were received and 6 awarded: Sue Kim (KSOM); Bo-Kyung (Elizabeth) Kim (School of Social Work); Adam Kho (Rossier); Alison Hirsch (School of Architecture); Sherin Guirguis (Roski); Christian Phillips (Dornsife).
Zumberge Interdisciplinary Small: Alexander Robinson (School of Architecture).
Mentoring and Training Workshops: The Center of Excellence in Research welcomes faculty to lead a virtual research workshop in the next AY on topics including: research collaboration, funding, data management, promoting research, professional development, research resources/methods, grant writing, etc. Please submit a brief proposal by Friday July 16, 2021.
We have established the Research Data Council to inform and improve USC’s research data collection, use, sharing, and retention. Please reach out to Council members with any input and questions. All USC Research and Innovation (R&I) committees and councils and their members are listed here.
FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: President Biden unveiled his first proposed budget. The spending plan would provide across-the-board increases in science funding, inject billions into the fights against COVID-19 and climate change, proposal raise R&D funding across nearly every federal science agency, including historic increases to improve public health and battle racial injustice. NIH would receive a $9 billion boost to $51 billion and would launch a new agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), focused on accelerating the development of treatments for cancer and other intractable diseases.
USC STEVENS CENTER FOR INNOVATION: USC Stevens is launching its redesigned website on May 6. The site will provide an intuitive and streamlined user experience, responsive design, expanded information for USC innovators, and an accompanying FAQ. It will include a directory making it easier to find staff and events relevant to specific interests. There will also be a new process for invention disclosures, including an optional “pre-disclosure” consultation form and downloadable, fillable disclosure documents for use to submit through Sophia.
OPRS/IRB: OPRS welcomes nominations for the Human Subjects Protection Council.We are extremely interested in involving members of the community to help assess and address pain points and discover new ways OPRS and the IRB can support USC’s research community. Please contact oprs@usc.edu for additional information or to submit a nomination. To align with recommended practices, in June the IRB will begin requiring all study personnel working with HIPAA protected data to complete a HIPAA Certification for Researchers that will last 3 years. More information and registration will be provided in May.
CONTRACTS & GRANTS: The Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG) is excited to announce the release of our first training video introducing Cayuse Sponsored Projects (SP) that provides an Introduction to the SP Dashboard, How to Start a Proposal, the Different Proposal Statuses and an Overview of the Proposal Record. DCG will be offering a series of video trainings and a set of customized online guides to help users through the new system, in particular Proposals, Awards, workflows, user roles, system enhancements and integrations.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (EH&S): EH&S is pleased announce that its General Lab Safety (GLS) Training is now available on Trojan Learn as a self-directed module. Zoom sessions will continue monthly until further notice. Lab Safety Meet and Greet is a one-time requirement (via Zoom) for GLS participants who complete the GLS training on or after April 12, 2021; view a special video message from your Lab Safety team for additional information on the Meet & Greet sessions and sign up for a session.