Graduate students and postdocs: Register for tomorrow’s Grant Basics workshop
The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to offer a basic grant-writing workshop for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. In Grant Basics: Strategies for Writing a Competitive Grant Proposal, attendees will learn to identify appropriate research topics, find funding opportunities, understand the characteristics of competitive grant proposals, avoid common mistakes and get an overview of the proposal review process. The workshop and a live Q&A session will be presented online via Microsoft Teams tomorrow, Friday, October 2, 2020, from 11:00 a.m. to noon. Register and learn more about the workshop.
Apply for University Libraries Research and Educational Dataset Procurement Pilot
University Libraries is pleased to announce the launch of a program to purchase datasets for research or teaching. This pilot aims to fund several small requests in the $1,000 to $5,000 range. University of South Carolina – Columbia affiliated researchers and instructors (faculty, staff and graduate students) who would like for the libraries to purchase a dataset for research or teaching can visit the program website to learn more and apply. Researchers and instructors at other campuses, including Medicine and Law, should check their local resources for funding sources. The deadline to apply is October 30, 2020.
NSF seeks nominations for the 2021 Alan T. Waterman Award
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to accept nominations for the 2021 Alan T. Waterman Award. Established in 1975 to commemorate the Foundation's first Director, the Waterman Award is NSF’s highest honor for promising, early-career researchers. Nominees are accepted from all sources, and from any field of science and engineering that NSF supports. The award recipient will receive a medal and grant of $1,000,000 over a five-year period for scientific research or advanced study in any field of science or engineering supported by the NSF, at any institution of the recipient's choice. NSF is especially interested in nominations for women, persons with disabilities and members of racial and ethnic minorities that are underrepresented in science and engineering. Nominations are due by Wednesday, October 21, 2020. Visit the NSF website for complete details.
New report offers recommendations for public access to research data
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), in conjunction with several partner organizations has released a new report, Implementing Effective Data Practices: Stakeholder Recommendations for Collaborative Research Support, listing recommendations for data practices supporting an open research ecosystem. In this report, experts from library, research, and scientific communities provide key recommendations for effective data practices to support a more open research ecosystem. The recommendations are based on information and insights shared during a December 2019 invitational conference sponsored by the NSF and convened by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the California Digital Library (CDL), the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the APLU. The report focuses on recommendations for research institutions and also provides guidance for publishers, tool builders, and professional associations. Read more about the new report.
Internal selection process for Governor’s Awards discontinued
Over the past several years, the Office of the Vice President for Research has organized an internal selection process for UofSC’s Governor’s Awards for Excellence in Science nominees. Beginning with the 2021 Governor’s Awards cycle, this internal nomination process will be discontinued.
In past years, our office assembled a university-wide faculty committee to select and nominate one faculty member in each Governor’s Award category. These efforts have been highly successful in securing several awards over these years. However, the Governor’s Award Committee affiliated with the South Carolina Academy of Sciences also allows direct nomination of any faculty member for these awards. This has resulted in confusion among interested faculty members in past years. To avoid further confusion, we have decided to cancel the internal selection process.
Individuals may submit nominations directly to the program in the current 2021 awards cycle and moving forward. Award criteria, nomination information and forms, and a list of past recipients can be found on the SC Academy of Sciences website. 2021 Governor’s Awards nominations are due by Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
1 October 2020