Center for Social Science Scholarship/CAHSS Summer Faculty Research Fellowship

The application for the 2019 Center for Social Science Scholarship/CAHSS Summer Faculty Research Fellowship with expanded eligibility criteria is now available.

To download the application, visit our website.

Deadline: Friday, February 15, 2019. 

A drop-in info session will be held Monday, December 17, 
from Noon-2pm in the Public Policy Building, room 451.

We are now accepting applications for the Center for Social Science Scholarship/CAHSS Summer Faculty Research Fellowship (SFRF). The purpose of this fellowship is to support significant social science research in CAHSS, resulting in a submittable product by December 2019.

Applications are welcome from any tenured or tenure-track faculty doing social science research in any CAHSS department. Fellows will receive a $6,000 stipend during the summer of 2019.

By December 2019, each Fellow is expected to complete an external grant or fellowship proposal OR an article, policy paper, book, or book chapter. Fellows who are preparing an external grant or fellowship proposal agree to work with MIPAR for pre-award and post-grant management assistance.

Funds for this fellowship are provided by the Center for Social Science Scholarship, the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and the Vice President for Research.

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that a revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), (NSF 19-1) has been issued.

The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 28, 2019. Significant changes include:

You are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG.

A webinar to brief the community on the new PAPPG will be held on November 27 at 2 PM EST. For additional information about the webinar, including how to register for it, visit: https://nsfgrantsconferences.com/pappg-webinar-19/.

While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on January 28, 2019, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 18-1) continue to apply. We will ensure that the current version of the PAPPG remains on the NSF website, with a notation to proposers that specifies when the new PAPPG (including a link to the new Guide) will become effective.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the Policy Office at policy@nsf.gov.

Regards,
The National Science Foundation

Dear Research Administrators,

Effective 11/08/2018 all POs associated with subawards will be closed, and the new subaward payment process will apply to all subrecipient invoices. For the next few months, all invoice communication from OSP will include a step-by-step instruction about how to complete the Payment Request in People Soft and what information/documentation needs to accompany the payment request. In addition, once transitioned out from procurement there will be no need to inform procurement about changes to the existing subawards.

To make the PO closeout period smoother, for a brief amount of time we stopped sending new invoices for processing. Once all POs are closed, we will send outstanding invoices with the note to process them promptly.

If you have any questions about the new process, please contact Jessica Holte or Michal Mielech from OSP – umbcsubawards@umbc.edu.

If you have any questions regarding Payment Request in People Soft, please contact Linda Rothfus from AP - busserv@umbc.edu.

Sincerely,

Michal Mielech

Center for Social Science Scholarship Small Research Grant Fund

The Center for Social Science Scholarship Small Research Grants are intended to provide crucial research, presentation, and travel support to UMBC full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty, lecturers, and Ph.D. students in the social sciences who have already exhausted all other available university support—including but not limited to such sources as DRIF, departmental funding, and the CAHSS Travel Fund, as well as the GSA for PhD students. The maximum award an individual may receive is $1,000 per year. Funds are limited by budget constraints, and awards will be made on a rolling basis.

Faculty or Ph.D. students wishing to apply should prepare a brief (less than one page) letter of need explaining the purpose for the funds, the precise amount of the request, and why a Small Research Grant would make a difference in the scholarly goals of the applicant. Reference should also be made to which funds the applicant has already used and why no other support is available/sufficient for this need.

Applicants should submit an email containing their application to Christine Mallinson, Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship. Include the subject line, “Small Research Grant request.” In addition, a separate email is required from the Department Chair, or in the case of Ph.D. students from the Graduate Program Director, affirming that all relevant funds have already been tapped; this email must be received before the application can be considered.

Once completed applications are received, materials will be reviewed as soon as possible, and the Director will respond with a determination on the request. All efforts will be made to provide a decision to the applicant within two weeks.

https://socialscience.umbc.edu/small-research-grant-fund/

UMBC is continuing to transition its research related processes into the Kuali system. The Proposal Submission, Awards and Conflict of Interest modules handling funding submissions and financial COI disclosures are already live. The next steps in Kuali implementation are Protocols. Protocols will replace the current paper/email based submission process for animal care and use and human subjects research. For more information of the past integration efforts, see Kuali at UMBC.

The next step of transition involves the IACUC part of the Kuali Protocols module. The Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) is in the process of configuring the Protocols module to mirror the current animal research use protocol application process. Instead of submitting paper, Protocols allows for submission of protocol applications via the Kuali cloud-based system. Investigators can expect an improvement in review processing time and more efficient communication with the staff of the ORPC. In turn, compliance committee members will experience a more streamlined process to review and ultimately approve animal research studies.

Estimated Kuali Protocols Timeline

1. Kuali inputs current UMBC IACUC forms in to system to create on-line forms – September 2018
2. Kuali creates IACUC process configuration in the system- September 2018/October 2018
3. UMBC performs form testing and IACUC process review – October 2018
4. UMBC Identifies testing groups of IACUC stakeholders (department admins, investigators, IACUC committee member) – November 2018
5. UMBC develops training manuals – November/December 2018
6. IACUC protocols Go Live – January 2019
7. IRB Scheduled for implementation in mid 2019?

Regarding #4 of the timeline, the ORPC is in search of testers to help us ensure: 1) our investigators and research team members understand the process of protocol submission in Kuali; 2) the process runs smoothly and efficiently; and 3) that approvals of animal use protocols meet the expectations of our faculty to conduct animal research. All work is done in Kuali’s sandbox environment. If you’d like to help in this effort, or just kick the tires, please contact us at compliance@umbc.edu.

The next phase of Protocol evolution involves human subjects (the IRB). Stay tuned to this page for further developments.

For training information and to sign up for classes, visit Kuali Training