Month: June 2018

The Division of Research has awarded nearly $1.9 million through its R-Initiative programs to support projects involving 67 faculty members from 27 departments.

The funding fosters cross-disciplinary, team-focused research and lays a foundation for future success with support for faculty and infrastructure investments to make that work possible.

“The R-Initiative proposals were competitive and we are pleased to invest in research across the colleges,” said Tanju Karanfil, vice president for research. “Research at Clemson achieved a lot of success in recent years, culminating in our designation as a Carnegie R1 university. We want to build on the momentum created by the faculty, students and staff to do even greater things. These R-Initiatives help us do that.”

The R-Initiative funds are part of the ClemsonForward strategic plan, representing the “R” of the REAL priorities – Research, Engagement, the Academic core and the Living environment.

The $1.9 million investment amounts to a 26 percent increase in R-Initiative funding from the previous fiscal year.

Grants were awarded under the following R-Initiative programs:

Clemson Faculty SUCCEEDS (Strategic University Challenge for Competitive Excellence and Expertise in Discovery and Scholarship) positions interdisciplinary faculty teams to successfully compete for significant external funding ($1.5 million or more) that will enhance the stature and distinction of the university in all key areas of research, scholarship and creative activities. VIEW GRANT RECIPIENTS

Clemson SEED (Support for Early Exploration and Development) provides two tiers of funding support to eligible Clemson faculty in either the initiation of research activities or the completion of a scholarly project or product. VIEW GRANT RECIPIENTS

Clemson Research Fellows provides grants to assist regular faculty, academic departments, centers and institutes in the hiring and training of qualified research faculty and post-doctoral researchers. VIEW GRANT RECIPIENTS

Clemson Major Research Instrumentation (CU-MRI) program provides financial support to researchers for the purchase of major research equipment or to replace or upgrade major research equipment that will likely impact funding, scholarship and research productivity, and the probability of increased extramural funding. VIEW GRANT RECIPIENTS

In the past four years, we have seen unprecedented growth in our research enterprise. Grant awards hit an all-time high of $109 million in the 2017 academic year, an astonishing 40 percent increase over a four-year period.

With two months remaining in the current fiscal year, we have already exceeded last year’s totals, reaching $118 million as of April 30.

This growth has been critical to our Carnegie R1 classification. Reaching that goal in 2016 was just the start, not the end. To maintain our R1 status among the nation’s top research universities, we must remain steadfast in our pursuit of funded research.

This year, our proposal submissions have softened. Increased student enrollment and added workload from the research projects we have added the past few years have undoubtedly left you with less time to prepare grant proposals. I expect to end the fiscal year with around $450 million in proposal submissions, a drop from around $560 million a year ago.

More submissions mean more opportunities to be funded, and this year, there will be opportunities. Federal budget analysts say the recently approved omnibus spending bill provides the largest year-over-year spending increase for federal research agencies since the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was a significant boon for university research.

Universities across the country will also be competing for these investments. At Clemson, we have been highly competitive and our awards have grown greatly even as total federal investments in university R&D have been relatively flat.

To help you seize this opportunity, we are investing nearly $2 million (up from $1.5 million a year ago) in our R-Initiative programs that provide seed funding and grants to support proposal submissions, the hiring of postdocs and research associates, the purchase of equipment, and other research endeavors. Read more about that here.

We have also launched Faculty Insight, an online portal that will help you identify collaborators and search for funding opportunities specific to your area of expertise. The customizable database of funding opportunities is a new, highly valuable feature in this new Faculty Insight system, which replaces the Research Expertise Discovery Suite. Please check out this new platform and see how it can help you advance your research.

Additionally, we are implementing a single-rate tuition schedule for graduate students that will reduce administrative burden and provide a competitive level of support to graduate students. One of the major benefits of sponsored awards is the support provided to graduate students in the form of graduate assistantships and tuition remission/Graduate Assistant Differential. More information on single-rate tuition is available here.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the recent Research Symposium and the organizing committee led by Brian Powell for putting together a great event. The Symposium connects researchers from across campus in hopes of sparking inter-disciplinary collaboration. We had representatives from each college and more than 40 departments participate in the various research presentations this year. Attendance has grown each year, and I appreciate your willingness to spend a day meeting colleagues and exploring opportunities to collaborate on impactful research. You can view the presentations here.

At this year’s symposium, we also recognized the university’s most accomplished faculty members with University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Awards (URSAAA). URSAAA is an exclusive award reserved for faculty members who reach the highest levels of national and international achievement in their fields. Less than 7 percent of Clemson faculty were awarded URSAAA status. View the full list of awardees and watch a video of the event here.

Thanks to all of you for your commitment to research and scholarship at Clemson University.

Go Tigers!

Tanju

The Clemson University Research Foundation welcomes Dr. Alan Alfano and Clarissa Williams to its team.

Alan will be working as a technology commercialization officer (TCO) with Clemson inventors on biomedical, bioengineering, and life sciences technologies, among others. Clarissa will serve as CURF marketing manager, working to help CURF launch new marketing initiatives.

Alan completed a dual BS degree from Towson University (molecular biology/chemistry) in 2009, and subsequently earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine (molecular medicine) in 2015. His thesis work focused on drug resistance and metastatic spread of aggressive prostate cancer. During his time as a Ph.D. student at UMSOM, Alan also completed a technology development internship with UMVentures (UMB Technology Transfer Office), where he assisted senior staff in conducting commercial analysis and targeted marketing of selected technologies.

Following completion of his Ph.D. work at UMSOM, Alan completed a post-doctoral Cancer Research Training Award (CRTA) Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute Technology Transfer Center (NCI-TTC). As a fellow at NCI TTC, Alan worked to perform a variety of invention development activities for clinicians and researchers at the NIH/NCI Center for Cancer Research. His primary subject areas of invention management/expertise include: oncology (general), experimental transplants, immunology and immunotherapeutics (e.g. novel antibodies, CARs, ADCs, RITs, etc.), vaccine development, radiation oncology, molecular diagnostics, genetics, and software/digital solutions.

Through his work in disease research, and his biotech business experience at UMB and NCI, Alan has developed skills that will enable him to learn and adapt quickly in his new role as a TCO with CURF. Please welcome him; he is looking forward to working with you!

Clarissa comes to CURF with a wealth of knowledge in branding, social media management, website development, and graphic design. Before accepting the marketing manager position with CURF, Clarissa was the training and communications coordinator at Clemson University in the Office of Sponsored Programs. While there, she redeveloped the office website, managed social media platforms, and coordinated a number of campus-wide events.

Clarissa completed a BA degree in English from Clemson University in 2013 and later received her MS in Marketing, also from Clemson University, in 2017. Through her education and years working in the marketing industry, Clarissa has developed skills that will allow her to successfully adapt to her new role as marketing manager at CURF so that she is able to build the CURF brand by increasing engagement and awareness on and offline.

Beginning mid-August 2018, principal investigators (PI’s) and faculty of sponsored projects awarded to Clemson University will see an improved method of verifying pay charged toward sponsored project and federal land grant activities. The new system, Sponsored Compensation Verification System, incorporates the exceptional feedback received by our project team from faculty, staff, and current certifiers of the Clemson Link to Employee Activity Reports (CLEAR) system. The CLEAR system is expected to be retired during late summer.

A few of the major and widely anticipated changes of the new system include:

• Reports will be produced bi-annually for approval rather than three times per year.
• The new report will represent real dollars rather than percentages.
• PI’s will approve personnel paid on a project-by-project basis rather than individually by person.
• Graduate students will no longer be responsible for approving their own reports.
• PIs will approve reports for all employees on each sponsored project for which they are responsible (inclusive of related cost-share funds 10, and 15).

Additional communications, including reference to quick guides and frequently asked question documents, will be provided to assist in the transition to the new system in advance of the systems’ launch in mid-August.  Meanwhile if you have any questions or comments, please email Tracy Walters or Karen Lantgios for additional information.