Special News Section

BNL Van Survey

The offices of the Vice President for Brookhaven National Laboratory Affairs, the Vice President for Research, and the Graduate School have been supporting a van service to and from Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory that operates three times each day. (http://ws.cc.sunysb.edu/bnl/).

Recent studies indicate there is very little usage, and therefore we are considering abandoning the service. As sponsored researchers you have a perspective about usage and also whether a revised van service might better serve the needs of the research community. We solicit and welcome your comments on this. Please send your comments and suggestions to: Kathleen.Green@StonyBrook.edu

Research Faculty Reception/Informational Session to be held on Oct. 22. See Full Announcement Below

Essential Policy and Procedure Updates

Office of Research Compliance (ORC): IRBNet Update #1

As announced in last month's Research News, the Office of Research Compliance has signed on to utilize the IRBNet web-based system of electronic tools to support the management, submission, review and administration of IRB protocols. Some of IRBNet's many features include web-based protocol sharing and collaboration, automatic notifications, electronic submissions and reviews, and important audit capabilities including electronic revision histories, electronic signatures and event tracking. Pending success of the IRB aspect of the program, we will also be able to take advantage of the integrated functionality of the IACUC and IBC tools of IRBNet.

ORC continues to work closely with the staff at IRBNet to ensure an accurate and seamless transition to this paperless system. We are confident that you will find IRBNet to be extremely intuitive and easy to use. In fact, we invite you to 'see for yourself', by reviewing IRBNet's general training materials for researchers ("Resources for Researchers"). For the link, username and password, email Judy.Matuk@Stonybrook.edu

Please watch for future editions of Research News and specific e-mails announcing scheduling of in-person training sessions (optional), and for dates of deadlines after which all submissions will need to be provided to the IRB electronically, via IRBNet.

--If you have any questions or comments, please contact Judy Matuk, AVP, Research Compliance, at 2-9036, or via e-mail at Judy.matuk@stonybrook.edu

Office of Sponsored Programs Has Made Changes to the 4 Page Form

The Office of Sponsored Programs has made some modifications to Section V, Proposed Research Activity Information on the Proposal/Award Processing Form (aka "4 page form"). These changes are needed to 1) ensure that the proper approvals are in place when faculty/staff are using the facilities of SB Southampton, 2) identify the use of Veterans Administration's patients, personnel or facilities and 3) alert the Department of Information Technology of any special IT needs.

Kindly utilize this revised form on all submissions effective 11/1/07. Please let me know if you have any questions. The form can be found at:
http://www.sunysb.edu/research/forms/ors/susb299.html

-- Contributed by Ivar Strand, Assistant Vice President, Office of Sponsored Programs, Ivar.Strand@stonybrook.edu

NSF's New Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide

The Guide consolidates two previous standalone NSF policy documents: the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) and the Grant Policy Manual (GPM) and combines them into a single electronic policy framework.   The Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide will be effective for proposals submitted on or after June 1, 2007.  This document supersedes all prior versions of the GPG and GPM and can be accessed at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf07140. 
The new guide increases ease of access to the policies and procedures that govern the entire grant lifecycle and eliminates duplicative and sometimes truncated coverage between the GPG and GPM.   

The Guide has two parts:

Part I - NSF's proposal preparation and submission guidelines – the NSF Grant Proposal Guide and the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide (to be incorporated at a later date).
Part II - Documents to guide, manage and monitor the administration of awards The Grant Policy Manual has been renamed the Award & Administration Guide (AAG).

Each Part contains a by-Chapter summary of significant changes to assist the user in navigating through the changes.   

The document is available as a fully Web-linked and searchable PDF version which gives users the ability to print either Parts of the Guide or the document in its entirety and in HTML. If you have any questions regarding the new NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide, please contact the Policy Office on 703-292-8243 or by e-mail to policy@nsf.gov .

NIH Non-Competing Grant Awards Under the Current Continuing Resolution

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to operate on a continuing resolution (CR) that currently extends through November 16, 2007. The CR applies the terms of the FY 2007 appropriations for the period covered by the CR. Until the final FY 2008 appropriation is enacted, NIH will issue non-competing research grant awards at a level below that indicated on the most recent Notice of Award (generally up to 80% of the previously committed level). This is consistent with their past practice during the CRs of FY 2006 & 2007. NIH will consider upward adjustments to these levels after the final appropriation is enacted, but expects institutions to monitor their expenditures carefully during this period.

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Funding Opportunities

New Online Research Database

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Department of Information Technology are pleased to announce a new web-based database system that is available to all of the University community. The purpose of this system is to identify and record faculty research interests and expertise, and for delivery of available funding opportunities. Specifically, this shared resource is available to everyone at SBU, with easy navigation and one-stop access to the research interests, job history, publications and grants of all faculty and/or researchers. We are asking that every researcher on campus please complete or update their records. In the coming weeks and months, as the percentage of completed profiles increases, we expect that this database will be an extremely useful tool in identifying potential collaborators.

The second important feature of this system is the new Funding Opportunities web site. As our office collects funding opportunities each week from a variety of sources, we add them into the database, assigning to each a selection of disciplines and keywords. If the assigned keywords match those you've indicated in your profile, you will receive an automated weekly email providing you with the critical elements of the opportunity (sponsor, opportunity title, funding amounts, deadlines, synopsis, etc.) that you can click on and explore. Also, as a way of encouraging multidisciplinary collaboration, you'll see the names, email addresses and phone numbers of all other faculty who also matched the specific funding opportunity, and you'll be able to click on their profiles to learn more about them.

The following links will take you to the database (and you can navigate among the functions):
http://www.stonybrook.edu/researchinterests or http://www.stonybrook.edu/fundingopportunities. To access it, you simply need your SBU NET ID and password (this can be found in SOLAR [click here for instructions]).

Please feel free to explore the features of this database. Remember, it is important that each faculty member and/or researcher complete his/her profile in order to fully benefit from this service.

Finally, we are very interested in visiting your department during a faculty meeting to demonstrate the database and show you some of its features. Please contact Stefanie Massucci at smassucci@notes.cc.sunysb.edu or 632-8589 to schedule a demo.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

You can now access our new weekly Funding Opportunities Bulletin at http://www.stonybrook.edu/fundingopportunities. Here, you can search for Funding Opportunities by discipline, deadlines and keywords.

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News and Events

News

Hobbit Island: Another Episode in the Saga

The September 20 edition of National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered' reported the latest results from research on the 3-foot-tall skeletons of Homo floresiensis, widely known as the 'hobbit' since its discovery four controversy-filled years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores. Findings by an international research team that included William Jungers, Chair of Anatomical Sciences, and Susan Larson, also of Anatomical Sciences, bolster the theory that the hobbits should be considered a new species of human,  rather than a deformed or diseased aberration of modern humans, as other scientists had suggested.

The research team used three-dimensional imaging technology to compare three bones from the wrist of the hobbit skeleton to those of primates, modern-day humans and other fossil hominids. The quantitative results of the analysis provided clear evidence that the hobbit is not a predecessor of modern-day humans or their close relatives, Neanderthals, but a primitive form of human never seen before. The anatomical structure of the hobbit wrist bones was similar to that of the African ape and significantly different from modern-human or Neanderthal structure, which is adapted to use tools more efficiently.

What is so striking, and controversial, about these findings is that the hobbits somehow survived until some 12,000 to 20,000 years ago, when modern humans had already spread throughout the world. "The discovery is making us rethink hominid evolutionary patterns," said Professor Larson. "To find a creature this primitive that lived until comparatively recent times, while modern man existed, conjures up images of Jules Verne and mysterious islands."

"The Primitive Wrist of Homo floresiensis and Its Implications for Hominin Evolution," in the September 21 issue of Science, reported on the work of a team that, in addition to Stony Brook, included researchers from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Arizona State University, the University of Wollongong in Australia, and the National Research and Development Centre for Archaeology in Indonesia. Funding was provided, in part, by NSF, the Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program.

SB Researcher Awarded $3.2 million NIH Grant to Help Ease Arthritis Pain

Joan Broderick, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, has been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health over the next five years to conduct an effectiveness trial on "Coping Skills Training for Arthritis." Broderick will work in collaboration with the Stony Brook University Schools of Medicine and Nursing and the Pain Prevention and Treatment Research Program at Duke University.

"Health-related quality of life is significantly impaired in persons with osteoarthritis," says Dr. Broderick. "Biomedical treatments, such as medication and physical exercise are often limited in their ability to curb osteoarthritis disease progression and to eliminate pain and functional impairment." According to the National Pain Foundation, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting 15 to 20 million Americans, and approximately 60% of those over 65 years of age.

The good news is that clinical trials have shown that Pain Coping Skills Training (CST) for arthritis reduces pain, improves physical and social functioning, increases a sense of control over the disease, and reduces psychological distress.

Garcia Polymer Center Leads Students from the Materials Laboratory to the Real World

Miriam Rafailovich, director of the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces "prepares students for the real world environment where collaborative research is the norm." Each summer a group of approximately 60 high school research scholars, 20 undergraduate students and five high school teachers join the regular staff of graduate students, post-doctoral associates and university faculty into the world of materials research.

The Garcia Research Scholar Program combines formal and informal instruction where high school students receive intensive training by laboratory staff on laboratory techniques, safety protocols and waste disposal, basic statistics, data-base mining, intellectual property and ethical conduct.

In 2006-2007, Garcia Center high school students provided two of the six team entries in the national finalists of the Siemens-Westinghouse competition, eight semi-finalists and one finalist in the Intel competition, 50% of the New York delegation to the Intel-ISEF competition and two of the five inductees to the National Gallery for American Young Inventors. One of the 40 finalists in the 2006 Intel Science Talent Search Competition was Daniel Katz who developed a single-step room-temperature synthesis procedure to create folate-coated platinum nanoparticles that destroy cancerous cells while sparing healthy ones. For more information, please see: http://polymer.matscieng.sunysb.edu

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Events

Celebratory 20th Anniversary Humanities Institute Conference
"Cosmopolitanism and Globalization: Memory-Spaces-Cities-Images"
October 10-13

The conference seeks to "interrogate the usefulness of cosmopolitanism as a concept for understanding and contributing to our current historical, cultural and political movement." For more information, a list of participants and a schedule please visit: www.stonybrook.edu/humanities/conferences.shtml

New Faculty Research Information Session
October 22

The Office of the Vice President for Research will be hosting a reception and information session, including refreshments, on Monday, October 22, 3:30 - 5:30 pm in the small ballroom of the Student Activities Center (SAC Ballroom B). New faculty are invited to meet their colleagues and learn about the policies, procedures and resources available to support research at Stony Brook University. Representatives from the Offices of Economic Development, Sponsored Programs, Grants Management, Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Research, Compliance and Technology Licensing & Industry Relations will be discussing the research grant process from start to finish and will be available to answer any questions you may have.

Reservations WILL BE REQUIRED in order to plan appropriately. Please RSVP by October 11 with your name, department and phone number to Kathy Green at 632-7932 or via email to Kathy Green at 632-7932 or via email at Kathleen.Green@StonyBrook.edu

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For More Information

Gail S. Habicht is Vice President for Research. She can be reached at (631) 632-7932. An abundance of specific information for the research community is available on our website, where past issues of this bulletin can also be found.

Office of the Vice President for Research -
http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/

Research News and Monday Memo archive - http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/monmemo/mmarchive.html

All Past issue of Research News and Monday Memo are keyword searchable. The index can be accessed at - http://www.stonybrook.edu/research/sitemap.html.

If you have information you would like to contribute to Research News please email it to the editor, Ann-Marie Scheidt, at amscheidt@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

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