Inside Research & Funding Opportunities
08/07/2019, 11:00:02 AM
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Inside Research
News, Events and Resources for the UH Research Community
 
Latest News Upcoming Events Announcements Recent Grant Awards Featured Funding Ops
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Eye Exam: Can Specific Types of Light Prevent or Slow Myopia?

With a $1.8 million research grant sponsored by the National Eye Institute, UH optometrist Lisa Ostrin is examining why an ever-increasing number of youngsters need glasses and, specifically, if exposure to specific types of light might prevent myopia, or nearsightedness.

“In children, the prevalence of myopia is increasing faster than genetics can account for, so that means it’s something environmental or behavioral that children are doing,” said Ostrin. While light from computers, video games and cell phones (“near work”) continues to be studied for its impact on myopia, a new clue has emerged: Outdoor light, or ambient illumination.

Read More >

Campus News

U.S. Latino Digital Humanities Program to Launch at UH

A $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has been awarded to UH to establish a first-of-its-kind U.S. Latino Digital Humanities Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Science

A Wearable Device So Thin and Soft You Won’t Even Notice It

Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, led a project to develop a multifunctional, ultra-thin wearable human-machine interface.

UH Study: New Bottlenecks, Challenges Loom as Permian Booms

U.S. refiners and other domestic customers will be unable to absorb growing production from the Permian Basin, so the bulk of that production is destined for export, a study from UH Energy and the Department of Industrial Engineering has found.

Upcoming Events

August 6 & 7: Big Data & Machine Learning
10 a.m. -4 p.m.
Agrawal Engineering Research Building, Room 200

August 29: Startup Pains: What I Wish I Knew
4 p.m. -5 p.m.
UH Technology Bridge, Innovation Center, Building 4, Floor 2

Announcements

Big Data Analytics & Machine Learning

HPE Data Science Institute will host a two day, hands-on XSEDE workshop to introduce scalable data analytics and machine learning using Hadoop, Spark and TensorFlow. There are NO prerequisites, although some familiarity with Python is helpful.

Please join us from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 7.

RSVP

Division News

 

URMA Comes to Campus

The University Research Magazine Association (URMA) held its conference program on UH campus from July 24th – 26th.

It was as informative as it was fun, with notable speakers like John Lienhard, the voice of NPR’s The Engines of Our Ingenuity, science comedian Adam Ruben, and executive coach and creative strategist Brad Deutser, among many others.

Read More

View past announcements on the Division of Research website.

Recent Grant Awards

SHF: MEDIUM: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: ENHANCING MOBILE VR/AR USER EXPERIENCE: AN INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE-SYSTEM APPROACH

PI/Department: Xin Fu, Electrical Engineering
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Amount: $450,000

The AGEP Data Engineering and Science Alliance Model: Training and Resources to Advance Minority Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers into Faculty Careers

PI/Department: Hanadi S. Rifai, Civil Engineering
CO-PI/Department: Pradeep Sharma, Mechanical Engineering
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Amount: $388,410

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: FATIGUE CRACK FORMATION AND GROWTH IN THE PRESENCE OF REVERSIBLE MARTENSITIC TRANSFORMATION IN HIGH TEMPERATURE SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS

PI/Department: Theocharis Baxevanis, Mechanical Engineering
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Amount: $245,693

INTERLEUKIN-15 AND -21 ARMORED GLYPICAN3-SPECIFIC CAR T CELLS FOR PATIENTS WITH HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

PI/Department: Navin Varadarajan, Chemical Engineering
Sponsor: Baylor College of Medicine flow thru from Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
Amount: $76,941

PHASE II: COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS OF CHOKE VALVES

PI/Department: Kamran Alba, Engineering Technology
Sponsor: Master Flo Valve (USA), Inc.
Amount: $9,027

INSU_ A PERSONAL-USE COMPACT LONG TERM BIO-MEDICINE PRESERVATION SYSTEM

PI/Department: Jeff Feng, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
Sponsor: VentureWell
Amount: $5,000

Featured Funding Opportunities

Health Science, Engineering & Technology Social Sciences, Art & Humanities Education
Image Health

Funding Agency: Scleroderma Foundation
Title: New Investigator Grant
Internal Deadline: 8/9/19
Application Deadline: 9/15/19

The Scleroderma Foundation seeks applications from promising new investigators who hold faculty or equivalent positions and who wish to pursue a career in research related to scleroderma. This grant supports promising research that is likely to lead to individual research project grants. Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: NIH
Title: Center of Excellence for Natural Product Drug interaction Research (U54 Clinical Trial Required)
*Note: Optional LOI Due: 10/22/19
Application Deadline: 11/22/19

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit applications for a Center of Excellence for Natural Product Drug Interaction Research to provide leadership in the study of natural product drug interactions. The ultimate goals of this program are to 1) clearly establish the clinical relevance of pharmacokinetic interactions from a select number of natural products, and 2) provide guidance and leadership to the broader research community on how best to research metabolism mediated drug interactions involving complex natural products.

The Center will 1) identify, prioritize, source and characterize three to five natural products with potential to exhibit clinically significant interactions with commonly used medications; 2) perform all necessary preclinical work to characterize the interaction potential of the natural products including identifying the key mediators of any pharmacokinetic interaction as well as the mechanism(s) and magnitude of that interaction; 3) if warranted based on preclinical work, conduct rigorously designed clinical studies of these natural products to provide definitive data regarding the magnitude of any interaction in humans; 4) develop and maintain a repository for the data and methodology resources generated by this project as well as data generated by other researchers (especially the R21 grants funded through the companion RFA AT-20-001) regarding pharmacokinetic interactions involving natural products; and 5) provide ongoing guidance and leadership to the relevant research communities regarding how best to conduct research on pharmacokinetic natural product drug interactions; thereby facilitating better design of future research and ultimately better decisions regarding the concomitant use of medications and natural products.

Funding Agency: American Society on Aging
Title: Mental Health and Aging Award
Application Deadline: 10/18/19

The award recognizes outstanding career achievements in mental health and aging from ASA/Mental Health and Aging Network (MHAN) members. Nominees must have made significant contributions to the behavioral health of older adults, including dementia care, through exemplary research, education, policy planning, advocacy or behavioral health services that have had demonstrable effectiveness and are inclusive of diverse and underserved populations.

Funding Agency: NIH/NIA
Title: Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (K76 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Application Deadline: 10/22/19

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites early-stage physicians and other health professional investigators with a commitment to aging and/or aging-related diseases to apply for this award to advance their research and leadership skills in their specialty and in the broader field of aging and geriatrics research.

NIA is pursuing this initiative to recruit early-stage investigators who have begun to establish research programs and who, through this award, will be ready to assume leadership roles in their field of expertise and be poised to change theory, practice, and health outcomes related to the health of older individuals. Unlike other mentored K awards, candidates for this award must have received competitively awarded research support as a Program Director/Primary Investigator (PD/PI) at the faculty level or have otherwise leveraged faculty-level research support to develop an independent line of research. They must show evidence of leadership in the clinical or research domain.

This FOA is designed specifically for applicants proposing research that does not involve leading an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or an ancillary clinical trial. Applicants to this FOA are permitted to propose research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor. Applicants proposing a clinical trial or an ancillary clinical trial as a lead investigator should apply to the companion FOA (RFA-AG-20-011).

Funding Agency: NIH/NIA
Title: Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (K76 Clinical Trial Required)
Abstract Deadline: 10/22/19

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites early-stage physician and other health professional investigators with a commitment to aging and/or aging-related diseases to apply for this award to advance their research and leadership skills in their specialty and in the broader field of aging and geriatrics research.

NIA is pursuing this initiative to recruit early-stage investigators who have begun to establish research programs and who, through this award, will be ready to assume leadership roles in their field of expertise and will be poised to change theory, practice, and health outcomes related to the health of older individuals. Unlike other mentored K awards, candidates for this award must have received competitively awarded research support as a Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) at the faculty level or have otherwise leveraged faculty-level research support to develop an independent line of research. They must show evidence of leadership in the clinical or research domain.

This FOA is designed specifically for applicants proposing to serve as the lead investigator of an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or a separate ancillary study to an existing trial as part of their research and career development. Applicants not planning an independent clinical trial, or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial led by another investigator, must apply to companion FOA RFA-AG-20-010.

Funding Agency: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)
Title: Crazy 8 Initiative
LOI Deadline: 10/1/19
Full Application Deadline: 1/20/20

The Crazy 8 Initiative Award will fund research into innovative and rigorous approaches that directly address the most intractable issues in pediatric cancer research today. This award is designed to coalesce cross-disciplinary cores of scientists working collaboratively in order to accelerate the pace of new cure discovery. The proposal should address a topic that is responsive to at least one of these four pediatric cancer research themes.

1. Developmental Origins of Pediatric Cancers; 2. Drugging Currently Undruggable Pediatric Cancer Drivers; 3. Developing Novel Immunotherapies; 4. Discovery and Development of Novel Pediatric Cancer Drug Targets

It is expected that successful applications will address one or more of the eight disciplines that formed the basis of the Crazy 8 initiative. 1. Embryonal brain cancers; 2. High grade gliomas; 3. Fusion positive sarcomas; 4. Fusion negative sarcomas; 5. Leukemias; 6. Neuroblastoma; 7. Big data; 8. Catalyzing clinical trials

Image Science, Engineering, & Technology

Funding Agency: Simons Foundation
Title: Simons Investigators in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems
Internal Deadline: 9/20/19
Application Deadline: 10/31/19

The Simons Investigators program aims to provide a stable base of support for outstanding midcareer scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term investigations of fundamental questions in their fields. The intent of the program is to support these scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing new research directions, providing leadership in the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists. Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: Simons Foundation
Title: Simons Investigators in Mathematics, Physics, Astrophysics and Computer Science
Internal Deadline: 9/20/19
Application Deadline: 10/31/19

The Simons Foundation's Mathematics and Physical Sciences division invites nominations for Simons Investigators in Mathematics, (Theoretical) Physics, (Theoretical) Astrophysics and Theoretical Computer Science. The Simons Investigators program aims to provide a stable base of support for outstanding midcareer scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term investigations of fundamental questions in their fields. The intent of the program is to support these scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing new research directions, providing leadership in the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists. Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: NSF
Title: Critical-Zone Collaborative Network
Internal Deadline: 8/9/19
Application Deadline: 12/2/19

NSF seeks proposals to establish an adaptive and responsive research network that supports investigations of the Earth's Critical Zone. This network will consist of two components that will work together to advance knowledge, education, and outreach in this convergent science:

1)Thematic Clusters of fixed or temporary locations will conduct basic research on significant, overarching scientific questions concerning the structure, function, and processes of the Critical Zone. These U.S.-based Clusters could include existing observatories engaged in collecting environmental data, other monitoring locations that have been in operation for extended periods of time, and new sites that will support the scientific goals of the Cluster;

2) A Coordinating Hub that will oversee the compatibility and archiving of the data resulting from the Thematic Clusters, coordinate outreach and community-building activities, support the use of network facilities by outside researchers, and plan for infrastructure needs of the network. This solicitation invites proposals for either of the two components: 1) Thematic Cluster or 2) Coordinating Hub.

The Thematic Clusters will carry out interdisciplinary research on scientific questions and manage part of the network infrastructure; the Coordinating Hub will serve as the national center for the network. The infrastructure of the network will be accessible to other research teams pursuing research in the Critical Zone. Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: NASA
Title: ROSES 2019: Planetary Major Equipment and Facilities
Preliminary Application Deadline: 10/22/19
Application Deadline: 1/22/20

The Planetary Major Equipment and Facilities (PMEF) program element allows proposals for the purchase or development of new or upgraded non-flight analytical, computational, telescopic, and other instrumentation to be used in investigations in Planetary Science Division (PSD) research programs.

For a proposal to be relevant to PMEF, the instrument must enable or enhance PSD-funded research in at least one of the "Target" program elements listed in Table 1 of this program element (See notice). In addition, PMEF proposals are allowed from NASA Centers to support activities conducted under the Internal Scientist Funding Model (ISFM), provided that the activities are demonstrated to be relevant to one of the non-ISFM program elements shown in Table 1.

Funding Agency: TXDOT
Title: Call For Research Ideas/Problem Statements
Research Ideas Deadline: 9/2/19

TxDOT Research and Technology Implementation Division is seeking to select the most valued and innovative research ideas for its Fiscal Year 2021 Research Program. The ideas should address significant transportation issues with the potential to result in solutions or favorable opportunities to the Department and state. It is important that we continue to focus on improvements. Our intent in our research is to deliver implementable solutions that improve safety, quality of life, and efficiency and effectiveness of our system. Some of the current areas of focus or of interest include:

  • Future resiliency improvements of our system with respect to adverse weather and environment, and that complement other systems
  • Engineering improvements that speed delivery without sacrificing safety or quality
  • Improved traffic management system
  • Predictive analytics of future transportation demands
  • Physical innovations or changes needed to accommodate autonomous and connected vehicles on our system
  • Applications of artificial intelligence to TxDOT operations
  • Changing workforce skills and specialties needed with respect to transportation changes
Social Science, Arts and Humanities

Funding Agency: Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
Title: Recordings at Risk
Internal Deadline: 12/2/19
Application Deadline: 1/31/20

Recordings at Risk is a national regranting program administered by CLIR to support the preservation of rare and unique audio, audiovisual, and other time-based media of high scholarly value through digital reformatting. Eligible media may include, but are not necessarily limited to, magnetic audio and video tape, grooved discs, wax cylinders, wire recordings, and film (with or without sound). Recordings at Risk encourages professionals who may be constrained by limited resources and/or technical expertise to take action against the threats of degradation and obsolescence. The program aims to help institutions identify priorities and develop practical strategies for digital reformatting, build relationships with partners, and raise awareness of best practices.

Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS)
Title: Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
Pre-Application Deadline: 9/27/19
Application Deadline: 3/30/20

The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (LB21) supports developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public by: enhancing the training and professional development of library and archives professionals, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and educating the next generation of library and archives professionals. All applications must designate one of the following project categories:

  • Lifelong Learning
  • Community Catalysts
  • National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives

Funding Agency: Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS)
Title: National Leadership Grants for Libraries
Pre-Application Deadline: 9/27/19
Application Deadline: 3/30/20

National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG-L) support projects that enhance the quality of library and archive services nationwide by advancing theory and practice. Successful proposals will generate results such as new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend the benefits of federal investment. This work may be achieved through proposals at various stages of maturity (exploring, piloting, enhancing, or scaling). All applications must designate one of the following project categories:

  • Lifelong Learning
  • Community Catalysts
  • National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives

Funding Agency: NEH
Title: Humanities Connections Planning
Draft Application Deadline (optional): 8/19/19
Application Deadline: 9/19/19

Apply if you have an idea for a new curricular program or initiative that you want to put into action. Planning activities include identifying the members of a planning committee and organizing the planning process; defining the rationale, design, and structure that would undergird a comprehensive and institutionally sustainable effort; and establishing potential scenarios for curriculum development. A Humanities Connections Planning grant will help create a firm foundation for implementing a curricular program or initiative.

Funding Agency: NEH
Title: Humanities Connections Implementation
Draft Application Deadline (optional): 8/19/19
Application Deadline: 9/19/19

Apply if you can demonstrate unambiguous evidence of planning, commitments from partners/ collaborators as well as your institution, and a clear intellectual rationale. These proposals must include a high level of detail in such areas as project structure and components; key topics and texts or other resources to be used in specific courses/components; and the roles and responsibilities of the individual members of the collaborative team.

Funding Agency: NEH
Title: Dialogues on the Experience of War
Draft Application Deadline (optional): 8/19/19
Application Deadline: 9/19/19

The program supports the sustained study and discussion of important humanities sources about war, in the belief that these sources can help U.S. military veterans and others think more deeply about the issues raised by war and military service. Two required components*:

*Prior Dialogues award recipients please note additional criteria in guidelines Discussion programs may take place on college and university campuses, in veterans’ centers, at public libraries and museums, and at other community venues.

  1. the convening of at least two discussion programs for no fewer than fifteen participants; and
  2. the creation of a preparatory program to recruit and train program discussion leaders
For more information about available grants, visit our Pivot system or Grants.gov.

Lindsay Lewis | University of Houston Division of Research
lrlewis@uh.edu | uh.edu/research | 713-743-0951

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