Los Angeles County is now categorized by the CDC as having moderate transmission of Covid. Surgical masks and N95 respirators are available and fully supported for use in indoor spaces and crowded spaces indoors and outdoors. As temperatures rise here in LA, the temperature of the room or building you are in may also rise since the HVAC unit is using as much outside air as possible to replenish the air in the buildings.
CONTRACTS & GRANTS: The Department of Contracts and Grants is reminding customers that Grants.gov will be unavailable for an extended period of time (Friday, September 23, 2022, at 12:01 AM ET to Thursday, September 29, 2022, at 11:59 PM ET) due to a planned cloud migration. Cayuse 424 submissions/ S2S connectivity will not be affected by the migration. All applications that were started before the migration will be available once Grants.gov comes back online and all progress made on applications started before the migration will be saved.
DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL RESOURCES: The DAR Insider Summer 2022 Edition has been published: be introduced to the newest additions to the DAR team, why we are here to support research, and other fun articles. Feel free to share with lab staff as well. DAR publishes a quarterly to semiannual newsletter in order to increase communication with the research community. These newsletters are posted in all animal facilities and posted on the DAR website, dar.usc.edu.
A Space Utilization charge of 5% will go into effect January 1st of 2023 for animal facility locations where animals are either not housed or where the space must still be cleaned and maintained by DAR, such as equipment storage/behavior room space. Details will be provided in September and the specific investigators who will be impacted will be contacted individually.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY: An excessive heat warning has been issued for our region. Water, rest, and shade are essential when temperatures rise. Heat related illness can be prevented with these measures. For additional tips, please refer to the Heat Illness Prevention fact sheet.
FACULTY ENGAGEMENT:
Postdoctoral Fellowships for Sustainability Solutions: On behalf of President Folt and the President’s Working Group on Sustainability, the Office of Research (OOR) is inaugurating a new exciting and unique opportunity for an interdisciplinary post-doctoral fellowship in Sustainability. Five postdoctoral fellows will be recruited this year. Please distribute this announcement widely among your schools and request our colleagues to disseminate it further through their external networks if possible. Since the application deadline is only 75 days away, time is of the essence!
New internal USC Award: The office has announced the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation limited submission opportunity for this year. The NSF MRI program requires 30% cost share by the proposing institution. In order to be eligible to apply for cost share from the Office of Research (up to $200,00), the applicant must be a core director or his/her designee, or proposing to establish a new core facility. USC’s Office of Research cost share support for this program is obtained through a competitive process. For more information, check our website here: https://orif.usc.edu/limited-submissions/nsf-18-513/.
CCST Nominations: The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is seeking nominations for experts from across the public and private health sectors, as well as academia, who would be interested in participating in an interactive virtual workshop on overcoming the challenges to data sharing presented by stringent privacy standards. Participants will explore solutions for ensuring health data are reliable, secure, and informative at all levels of the public health system. The workshop will be held virtually during the mornings of October 13th and 14th (8:00am -12:00pm PDT). Please use this form to nominate yourself or someone you think would be interested in participating in this workshop.
Research and Scholarship Training Workshops: The Center for Excellence in Research fall 2022 workshops are now open for registration on our website. Upcoming workshops include: Submitting a Limited Submissions Proposal, Funding from Foundations for STEM, Writing Compelling NSF Proposals, and Funding from Foundations for Arts and Humanities. More will be added throughout the semester. If you would like to be updated about new workshops, please join our mailing list.
FEDERAL LANDSCAPE UPDATES: The CHIPS and Science Act (CSA) 2022 recently passed by Congress and signed by the President provides $170 billion in authorizations for major federal programs over the next five to ten years subject to subsequent annual appropriations and $58.2 billion in appropriations over the next five years to fund semiconductor incentives. The Office of Research has developed a quicklook on CSA 2022 for USC senior administration, academic leadership and the research enterprise that is currently in coordination reviews and will be distributed when finalized.
OPRS/IRB: Remember to check out the OPRS website for information and guidance. We also just updated our policies and procedures for human subjects research. If you or anyone you know would benefit from office hours, please feel free to reach out. We are here to support you.