Deadline: 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 3

The Office of Research Development announces the fall 2022 Faculty Development Award, or FDA, and University Small Research Grants, or USRG, call for proposals for K-State tenured or tenure track faculty who are interested in receiving assistance in their scholarly activities and professional development.

Note: faculty must have at least some percentage of their appointment devoted to research.

The President’s Faculty Development Awards program provides support for travel to international meetings — primarily at international locations — or to meet with program officers from potential external sponsors.

The University Small Research Grants program is a seed grant program to support early research, scholarly activity and other creative efforts.

Please attend the FDA and USRG information session to hear about the changes to this semester’s application and review process based on input from the USRG and FDA focus group.

FDA and USRG Information Session

4 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Via Zoom

More details on the application requirements are available on the Office of the Vice President for Research website. 

3:30-5 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 8

The Graduate School, the Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, and the Office of Research Development will host an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, or GRFP, Information Session at 3:30 p.m. on September 8. The NSF GRFP fellowships support outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees. This session will take an in-depth look at the requirements for an NSF GFRP submission. A panel of faculty members who have served on review panels for this program will discuss tips and provide advice that you will not find in this program’s Request for Proposals. Students will also have an opportunity to talk about their research ideas with the panel. If you are serious about submitting to this program, this is a session you should not miss.

The session will be presented via zoom. A link will be sent to registrants the week before the session. 

Please register.

October 19-21

Bluemont Hotel in Manhattan, Kansas

KibbleCon is the premier pet food event of the year! There will be panel presentations by industry thought leaders, live Q&A sessions, faculty and graduate student presentations and much more. Learn more about the event on the KibbleCon website.

Attendees can register on the KibbleCon website through Monday, Oct. 17. To register at no cost, K-State faculty and staff should use the code, facultykc22. K-State students should use the code, studentkc22. Space is limited, so don’t delay!

Register to attend.

Note: If COVID-19 protocols necessitate a change to the format of the event, registrants will be notified by email.

The NSF Major Research Instrumentation, or MRI, Program serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition or development of a multi-user research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. 

This is a limited submission program with K-State only able to submit three proposals per cycle. If you are interested in submitting to this program, you must first notify the Office of Research Development by 5 p.m., September 21, 2022 at [email protected] to be part of the internal limited submission competition. 

Preproposals for that competition are due by 5 p.m., October 21, 2022.

3-6 p.m.

November 1, 2022

K-State Olathe

What are microplastics?

Microplastics are a serious crisis for human, environmental and animal health. Created by the breakdown of plastic in the environment, laundering of synthetic fabrics, and the inclusion of microbeads in cosmetics, these fine particles of plastic (smaller than 5mm) are found in streams, lakes, oceans, soil and even airborne dust.

Once in the environment, microplastics accumulate and persist for long periods of time. Microplastics can become embedded in both human and animal tissue through ingestion or respiration.

KC One Health Day will have experts in microplastics from the region share research and what we know about the impact of microplastics on humans, animals and the environment.

Register to attend.

View agenda. 

1-2 p.m.

Tuesday September 6

Please join the Build and Broaden Program to discuss questions about the program with the program director.

All meetings during office hours are 1-on-1 and will take place on Zoom.

To join, use the Build and Broaden office hour Zoom link.

9-10 a.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 7

Join BioKansas for a discussion to learn about patents, trademarks, and contracts that are critical for protecting bioscience businesses. 

Register.

4:30-6 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 8

Kansas State University Alumni Center

Leveraging Kansas’ Biosafety Expertise for Economic Development and Talent Attraction 

Kansas is a leader in biosafety as home to a biosafety level 4 research laboratory, top-notch design and engineering firms specializing in laboratory facilities, numerous contract research organizations, and academic institutions with extensive research expertise and training capacity in this area.

Join to learn how our biosafety expertise provides Kansas with a distinct competitive advantage to grow our economy, businesses, and jobs.

Register.

Bio Break

6-7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 8

This Bio Break follows the Community Forum on Leveraging Kansas Biosafety Expertise for Economic Development and Talent Attraction, organized in partnership with Kansas State University and the Greater Manhattan Economic Partnership. 

Register. 

2-4 p.m.

Wednesday, September 9

Zoom

Join this two-part informational webinar and question-and-answer session to learn more about NSF’s Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems, or POSE, program. Program directors will give an overview of the funding opportunity, discuss preparing a proposal and walk applicants through how to prepare a budget.

Register.

Noon- 2 p.m.

Thursday, September 15

Join the Synthesis Center for Molecular and Cellular Sciences, or SCMCS, program for a webinar. There will be a short presentation followed by an open Q&A session with cognizant Program Officers.

The aim of the SCMCS program is to establish a Synthesis Center for Molecular and Cellular Sciences that will create new knowledge through innovative synthesis and integration of available data. The deadline for preliminary proposals is January 13, 2023.

Register to attend.

Noon-1 p.m.

September 15

Ever wonder what happens after you submit your proposal or what happens during a panel? During this office hour, the program directors will briefly present information about the CISE proposal review process, and answer their questions. The IIS Office Hours are for researchers interested in learning about programs and policies in the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at NSF. Office Hours are designed to give current and potential investigators a window into IIS. Attendance at office hours is voluntary and designed to help investigators gain information that can help them strengthen their proposals. Short summaries will be posted after each session. Sessions will be closed-captioned.

Register in advance for this webinar.

1-2 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 27

The NSF’s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, TIP, advances use-inspired and translational research in all fields of science and engineering, giving rise to new industries and engaging all Americans — regardless of background or location — in the pursuit of new, high-wage jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Join this introductory webinar to learn more about the vision for TIP, programs/funding opportunities, and more.

Register for the Intro to NSF's Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships webinar on Zoom. 

BioKansas invites graduate students and postdocs working on writing projects to apply to participate in the Scientific Writing Program.

This virtual training program uses a project management based approach to help participants tackle complex writing projects. Scientific writing scholars develop time-efficient ways to reach their writing goals and develop professional skills - all while building professional relationships with a broad group of scientists. 

We offer an abbreviated manuscript track that lasts 4 months that is appropriate for both graduate students and postdocs. We also offer a multi-year thesis track that provides training, mentoring, and editorial support for graduate students two or more years away from degree completion. 

Explore the program.

Where the buffalo roam, endangered prairies thrive National Geographic

Half cows, entire pigs: Families are buying meat in bulk to save money The Washington Post

FAA Awards $231,000 in Grants To Support STEM Outreach Flying

Research shows social-emotional learning in schools pays off, but conservatives see a liberal agenda KCUR

You're crying, your dog is crying — but are they the same? NPR

KSU researchers make headway into curtailing rabbit disease The Mercury

Even Schools Flush With Cash Can’t Keep Up With Teacher Shortage Bloomberg

Most Kansas voters want abortion access, but their legislators may further restrict it anyway KCUR

New model sheds light on day/night cycle in the global ocean

For the first time, U.S. National Science Foundation-supported biologists at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts have incorporated the diel cycle into a global ocean model in order to investigate its effects on phytoplankton.

The study, published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, is the first to investigate how the day/night cycle affects the biogeography and diversity of these primary producers.

NSF

SARS-CoV-2 antigen levels linked to patient outcomes

The amount of SARS-CoV-2 antigen measured in the blood of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is associated with illness severity and other clinical outcomes, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Following the ACTIV-3 trial of COVID-19 therapeutics in people hospitalized with COVID-19, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed levels of SARS-COV-2 antigen in blood samples taken from study participants and assessed the association of those levels with disease progression.  NIH

Day or night — your brain is always listening

Researchers studied activity in the human cerebral cortex in response to music and other sounds. They observed vigorous auditory responses in the sleeping brain, similar in many ways to responses in the wakeful state but differing in a key component. While the waking state is characterized by ongoing feedback signals in the brain as it attends to and interprets incoming sounds, researchers found that those signals are greatly reduced during sleep. NSF

Could tiny blood clots cause long COVID’s puzzling symptoms?The Researchers are baffled by long COVID: hundreds of studies have tried to unpick its mechanism, without much success. Now some scientists, and an increasing number of people with the condition, have been lining up behind the as-yet-unproven hypothesis that tiny, persistent clots might be constricting blood flow to vital organs, resulting in the bizarre constellation of symptoms that people experience. Nature

Machine learning ecological networks

It is perhaps unsurprising that apex predators, such as whales, sharks, leopards, and tigers, also tend to be the rarest species (1). This is largely because of the imperfect transfer of energy through each level in a food chain (2), which makes these carnivores more susceptible to starvation than herbivores, detritivores, or omnivores. Their survival also depends on having a large home range for them to roam far and wide to find the mates and resources needed to sustain their populations (3). These vulnerabilities make them particularly susceptible to human activities, such as habitat loss or being targeted by hunters for their trophy status. On page 1008 of this issue, Fricke et al. (4) adopt a network-based approach to establish how humans have disrupted apex predators and other mammalian fauna over the past 130,000 years. Science

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