We’re just ONE day away from #GivingTuesday, a national day of giving tomorrow, December 3rd. The UMBC community is working to change the world, and on #GivingTuesday, you can help them do it.

Throughout the past month, we’ve shared stories of how our students, faculty, staff, and alumni are making a difference. We took a peek at how the Engineers Without Borders group will bring clean water to Isongo, Kenya. We tapped our feet to songs that will be on the Down and Dirty Dawg Band’s new CD. And we learned about UMBC’s mission to create a more inclusive campus through LGBTQ programs and initiatives.

Here are just a few things the people involved with those projects had to say:

“Engineers Without Borders-UMBC relies on gifts to fulfill our mission of implementing environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects, while developing globally aware and internationally responsible students and engineers. We especially appreciate gifts from alumni because we believe that EWB-UMBC not only promotes projects in the developing world, but also transformative experiences for UMBC students.”

~Lee Blaney, assistant professor and advisor for EWB

“[Your support] means the world to the band. If you’re an alumni of the band and had a great experience, your donation will help ensure that the next generation of students have the same positive experience.”

~Matt Basch ’08,  ’10, Director, Down and Dirty Dawg Band

“To support UMBC as an alum is a no-brainer. As a student, I felt the positive impact [of donor support], and I want to live up to Dr. Hrabowski’s motto that of those to whom much is given, much is expected.”

~Chris Magaha ’03, donor to LGBTQ programs & initiatives

They’ve had their say. Now it’s your turn.
Will you join us in making a difference on #GivingTuesday?

Application Form Changes

The new packages will be identified with a Competition ID of FORMS-C and will include the form changes documented at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ElectronicReceipt/files/FORMS-C_Changes.pdf.

Highlights include:

• The PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental form has a new "Letters of Support from Collaborators, Contributors, and Consultants" attachment that will not be subject to a system-enforced page limit.
• The PHS 398 Training Subaward Budget Attachment form allows for up to 30 subaward budget attachments consistent with the R&R Subaward Budget Attachment form.
• Inclusion data now collected in new Planned Enrollment Report & Cumulative Inclusion Enrollment Report forms rather than attachments to existing PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental and PHS Fellowship Supplemental.

Additionally, the "Reference" form used with Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Fellowship applications for the submission of reference letters will no longer be required. Applicants can submit reference letters in whatever format they choose as long as the requested information is included.

Instructions

• All F, K, T and D submissions for due dates on or after January 25, 2014 must use the new application forms. Applications submitted using incorrect application forms will not be accepted.
  
  
• Research Training (T), Career Development (K) and Fellowship (F) Parent Announcements will be reissued under new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) numbers. All other active F, K, T and D FOAs will be updated to include a FORMS-C package with the existing announcement (i.e., no FOA number change). NIH is making every effort to have the new FOAs and packages in place 45-60 days prior to the first due date that falls on/after January 25, 2014.

• For the January 7, 2014 AIDS due date, applicants should continue to use the ADOBE-FORMS-B packages found in the old Parent Announcements or that remain available in non-parent announcement.
   
• The new SF424 (R&R) forms will be identified by a competition ID of “FORMS-C”. The competition ID field is visible in the application header information and when downloading the application package from Grants.gov. Learn more about choosing the correct forms packages at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ElectronicReceipt/files/right_forms.pdf.    

Tech firm moving to bwtech@UMBC after 29 years in Prince George's

A 31-year-old Prince George’s County tech company is moving to bwtech@UMBC, the incubator at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Potomac Photonics focuses on digital manufacturing and it provides its customers with small hole drilling, laser micromachining, 3D printing and micromarking. The company started in Alexandria, Va., and relocated to Prince George's County in 1984.

Potomac Photonics CEO Mike Adelstein describes the company as a machine shop that does really small things.

“Think of the size of a human hair follicle, it’s roughly 75 microns,” he said. “What we deal with at times is smaller than that.”

Adelstein is a 1996 graduate of UMBC and he sees the move as a potential recruiting tool. Potomac will be utilizing interns as well as graduate students for some of its work, he said. It will give Potomac a good way to try the students out and see if it would like to bring them on as full-time employees.

Meanwhile, the company can also add guidance to some of the younger companies at UMBC.

Potomac has about 20 employees and nearly $2.5 million in revenue, he said. With this move, Adelstein said it will allow Potomac to grow for the future. The company expects to hire at least five people within the next year and that’s not including interns and graduate students.

Adelstein is part owner of the company after being a part of a $1.8 million buyout in December 2012.

The move will allow Potomac to be in a more tech-centric community, he said.