Research News Roundup - April 2024 

Highlights of this month’s newsletter includes announcements, new faculty highlight stories, updates, events, tips, and news from Leatherby Libraries. Be sure to read the entire newsletter to be entered into our May raffle!

If you have any questions related to grants, compliance, industry partnerships or graduate education, join the monthly office hours – see below for time and zoom links.

Call for Applications for Associate Vice President for Graduate Education 

Applications for the position of Associate Vice President for Graduate Education are now being accepted. Applications should include an updated vitae and a cover letter describing your vision for the future of the Graduate Education Department. All materials should be submitted to Marie-Gabrielle Brooks at mabrooks@chapman.edu by noon on Monday, April 22, 2024. Finalists will be invited to offer campus presentations early May.

Visit the Office of Research and Graduate Education’s website to view the posting.

Changes in Facilities & Administrative (F&A) cost rates.

Our newly negotiated rate agreement (38.5% for on-campus activities and 13.5% for off-campus research/scholarship/creative endeavors) have been approved and posted on our website including revised budget template. These rates are effective immediately. 

Appropriations Updates for FY24

On March 3rd and March 30th, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released their FY24 appropriations bills (Consolidation Appropriation Act) that includes topline budget cuts for many science agencies (e.g., NSF, NASA), small cuts for NIH and mixed changes for the Department of Defense research programs. Contact our Sponsored Project Office early to get the support you need to write fundable grant proposals. Stay tuned for upcoming development opportunities.

IACUC Semiannual Review

On May 3, our Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) will be holding its semiannual review of Chapman’s animal care and use program, and inspection of all approved animal use areas. Reminder: Expired items should be removed from facilities regularly; solutions, dilutions, etc. need to be clearly labeled; and general cleaning should be done regularly (e.g., cobwebs, dirt, used napkins, etc.)

Current Undergrad, Grad & Early Faculty NSF Opportunities

The U.S. National Science Foundation supports numerous programs for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early-career faculty. See the short list; to learn more about all of NSF’s programs, or visit their funding search page. 

2025-2026 Fulbright U.S Scholar Program

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program's 2025-26 competition is open featuring over 400 awards offered in more than 130 countries. Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards allow U.S. citizens to teach, research, and carry out professional projects abroad. Applications are being accepted until September 16, 2024. Visit the Webinar Schedule for events throughout the competition and register to join.

Faculty Highlight! Chapman Answering Health Needs

At both the local and national levels, the university is contributing to enhancing systems of care that are already improving patient outcomes. Read more on Chapman news.

Faculty Highlight! Could your Milk be Healthier?

Widely used processing methods may affect a nutritional component of dairy products that could be critical for development, healing and bone health. Read more on Chapman news.

Kudos to Chapman Faculty Award Recipients 

Please join us in congratulating the following faculty who have received a new award in 2024. Keep up the amazing work!

Miao Zhang for "Channelopathy of KCa2.3 and Zimmermann-Laband syndrome" from The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for $434,024.

Young Woo Nam for "Structure-Function Studies of Cardiac KCa2.2 and KCa2.3 channels" from The American Heart Association for $231,000.

Christopher Bader for "Using the ARDA to Strengthen Religion Research Community: from John Templeton Foundation (through a subaward from Indiana University) for $664,186.

Stephany Cuevas for "Precarity and Education: Examining the Experiences of Central American Unaccompanied Youth in California Public Schools" from The Spencer Foundation for $ 48,951.

OLAW Update

The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) has finalized its Notice on flexibilities on conducing semiannual program reviews. Chapman has already been implementing such flexibilities.

NIH Video Submission Guidance Update

NIH has changed its guidance for videos submitted as NIH application materials (NIH NOT-OD-24-067). More information can be found on their website.

IS&T File Storage Options

IS&T’s Research Computing department has several options available for file storage. Newly added, IS&T is now offering a bulk storage solution for $50 per TB per year for Chapman users. Contact researchcomputing@chapman.edu with questions or requests.

Submitting your Thesis or Dissertation to the Library

Please share the workshops below with your graduate students.

IS&T Research Computing

Monthly Hands-on Workshops! Monday, April 15, 2024 from 230pm - 3:30pm in DeMille Hall 150, bring your laptop for one-on-one support or feel free to drop in to discuss topics of your choice. For more information please contact researchcomputing@chapman.edu.

A cloud-based, secure research environment in compliance with NIST 800-171 requirements is now available. If your research requires such compliance, contact researchcomputing@chapman.edu for a consultation and additional details.

National Institute of Health Events

NIH recently offered a 2024 Grants Policy Updates Webinar. Their Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OPERA) experts shared the latest policy updates and how institutions may be impacted.

NIH is offering a Simplified Review Framework for Research Project Grants webinar on April 17th.

Institutional Review Board Protected Health Information Workshop

Please join our Institutional Review Board (IRB) as it holds a workshop on use of Protected Health Information (PHI) for research purposes, on May 2, 2024, from 10:30 am -12:00 noon via Zoom. Kindly RSVP in order to be included in the Outlook invite. This workshop will go over all regulatory pathways on use of PHI (which now include exemption), as detailed in the IRB’s guidelines, and common scenarios.

National Science Foundation Events

NSF is offering a Workshop for Prospective CAREER Applicants to the NSF Directorate for STEM Education on May 15. Pre-registration is required.

NSF hosted a Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide Webinar. This webinar provided an overview of the changes and clarifications to the PAPPG that are effective for proposals submitted or due on or after May 20, 2024.

CHOC ABCs of Evidence Synthesis Workshop

Designed for systematic review authors and others involved in research and evidence synthesis, this one-day workshop is organized by CHOC Research and open to faculty and staff at CHOC, UC Irvine, and Chapman University. In this workshop, researchers will learn how to conduct systematic reviews and analyze high-quality research data utilizing the Cochrane Review Method. Learners will develop a roadmap for performing a systematic review using Cochrane methodology.

Visit their event page to register for this in person event. Lunch will be provided. 

A Year in the Life: What I Learnt from Using a Time Tracking Spreadsheet

Starting a tenure-track faculty position can involve an overwhelming array of responsibilities, including setting up a laboratory, teaching courses, and participating in department or college service activities. Nature follows Megan Rogers starting a new faculty role at Texas State University decided to track how she spent her time and the impact it had on work-life balance. A central takeaway: research and teaching fluctuate throughout the academic year.

The Leatherby Libraries is pleased to announce that Chapman University has joined a three-year read-and-publish agreement with Elsevier. This read-and-publish agreement covers the Article Processing Charges (APCs) (i.e., Open Access publication fees) for Chapman authors whose research articles are accepted for publication in applicable Elsevier journals during this three-year agreement from 2024-2027.

Meet the Leatherby Libraries’ new STEM Librarian, Elaine Yeung! Elaine is hosting an Introduction to R Programming series for those interested in learning more about the programming language!

Learn about the Leatherby Libraries' two open-access repositories, Chapman Figshare and Chapman University Digital Commons, and how to utilize both to store different research outputs. Our Data Services Librarian, Andrew Greenman, is hosting “Introduction to Chapman Figshare”, a virtual Library Workshop on Tuesday, April 30 at 12:00 p.m. for those who wish to know more about our newest data repository.

The Leatherby Libraries is excited to unveil a brand-new annual exhibit: Celebrating Intellectual Property Rights Across Disciplines. Our exhibit will highlight the tension between protecting creators’ intellectual property rights and allowing society the freedom to use (and benefit from) creations across a variety of disciplines. Stay tuned for this year’s installment of this new exhibit series!

SPS Pre Award & Non-Financial Post Award: The first Tuesday of every month from 11:00-12:00pm. Zoom Link.

SPS Post Award: The last Tuesday of every month from 9:30-10:30am. Zoom Link

IRB: The first Tuesday of every month from 3:00-4:00pm. Zoom Link.

IACUC/COI/Export/Import: The fourth Tuesday of every month from 3:00-4:00pm. Zoom Link.

Industry Alliance and Commercialization: The third Thursday of every month from 3:00-4:00pm. Zoom Link.

Graduate Education: The last Thursday of every month from 10:00-11:00am. Zoom Link. 

For a full schedule including quarterly and semester specific dates for additional departments and for Zoom information visit our events page.

Congratulations to Dr. Berardi from Crean College for being our April giveaway winner!

To be entered into next months drawing email our office with your favorite academic pun!

Contact our office for in inquiries using our Jira ticketing system.