2. LLU’s Grants for Research and School Partnerships (GRASP) is also accepting applications. The LOI deadline is Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 5:00 pm and the submission deadline is Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 5:00 pm

For more information, visit http://www.llu.edu/research-affairs/grants-guide/grants_for_research_and_school_partnerships.page?

3. Top 20 Grant-giving Disease Foundations

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News has posted the top 20 nonprofit disease foundations that give grants and other awards for research. More information can be found at http://www.genengnews.com/insight-and-intelligence/top-20-grant-giving-disease-foundations/77899817/

Last year NIH said that they would not fund non-competing continuations unless all publications were compliant with the Public Access Policy, i.e., a full copy of the publication had been deposited in PubMed Central. Now NIH is adding language to the terms and conditions of new awards stating that if a grant is not compliant with the NIH Public Access Policy, all funds for the grant will be restricted with the exception of those costs associated with patient care and or animal care until that requirement is met. No research activities can occur during the restricted period and any salaries and fringe benefits paid during that time will be at the institution’s expense.

2. NIH to require NIH Commons IDs for Graduate and Undergraduate Students.

The requirement for all principal investigators and post docs to have an NIH Commons ID will now be extended to graduate and undergraduate students (NOT-OD-13-097). Graduate students listed on a current grant may request an NIH Commons account by sending an email to researchaffairs@llu.edu.

3. NIH has announce the availability of a Beta version of the Science Experts Network, (SciENcv).

This new electronic system will enable researchers to easily assemble the information (including expertise, employment, education and professional accomplishments) to populate an NIH biographical sketch (biosketch).  Initially, the goal of SciENcv is to reduce the burden associated with creating and maintaining federal biosketches while accommodating the need to describe scientific contributions.

Users can get to SciENcv by going to the NCBI sign-in page at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/ where they will have the option to sign in using third-party accounts (for example, an eRA Commons account, a local institutional account through InCommon, or a Google account). Full documentation on how to use My NCBI is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3842/.  Information on how to set up and use the SciENcv tool is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154494/. 

The beta version of SciENcv will allow users to explore the system and create an NIH biosketch.   Users also are invited to identify features that need to improved or added to fully serve the needs of the research community.  Suggestions can be entered using the utility provided at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.  A number of enhancements are already planned for future versions of SciENcv including the ability to generate biosketches for other federal agencies as well as other functionality listed below

• Generate and maintain multiple biosketches including those for NSF and other federal science agencies
• Describe the scientific impact of past discoveries
• Ingest data from additional external systems
• Control data exposure
• Transfer data to other systems
• Allow delegates to manage data

For more information: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-114.html

If Congress does not pass a budget or at least a continuing resolution by September 30, all non-essential government offices will be shut down, this includes the agencies that supply research funding.Research Affairs received the following note from the Council of Government Relations (COGR) earlier this week:

“In general, active grant and contract activity funded with FY2013 (or prior year) appropriations can continue. However, agency personnel most likely will not be available for approvals, supervisory support, and other administrative functions. In addition, it is not certain what will be the functionality of automated payment systems. Consequently, institutions should recognize that there is some risk that requests for reimbursement will not be processed. Other electronic administrative systems may or may not be available, depending on each agencies internal approach. For certain, no new awards will be issued. And most likely, new grant applications will not be accepted, though this also may depend on each agencies internal approach.”

2. Special Characters and Federal grant submissions

Grants.gov has a nice write up on ‘Restricting special Characters.’ Special characters, such as &,¿,*,%,/,#', -) and periods (.), cannot be included in the document names. Additionally, these special characters cannot be used in a fillable fields within the application (e.g. the title on the SF424 page).

The Department of Medicine is hosting a free online research course offered by the NIH: Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research (IPPCR). The course will be offered on a weekly basis from October 15, 2013 to March 25, 2014. There is no fee for the course, and all faculty, residents, fellows, and students who are interested in conducting research are encouraged to enroll. You may view the course live, or via web-broadcast on your personal computer and at your own convenience. All registered participants are eligible to take the exam for a Certificate of Completion for the NIH IPPCR course.

The first session will be launched 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM on Tuesday, October 15, 2013  In the LLU Medical Center A-Level Amphitheater. Thereafter, the live transmissions will take place twice on  Mondays and Tuesdays from 2:00 – 3:30 PM at LLU Medical Center. See attached preliminary syllabusfor more information.

Registration closes on October 2, 2013 and you must register to gain access to the IPPCR course and materials, whether you plan to view the course remotely or in person during the live stream. To register, please go to: http://ippcr.nihtraining.com/register.php?remote_site=true. Select Loma Linda University from the drop down menu, and fill in all required fields (highlighted in red). Once you have registered for the course, email Azmina Ghelani Allen, MPH (aghelani@llu.edu) to be added to a mailing list for all future course updates, room location announcements, and to ensure the availability of course materials.