Category: VPR Message

Why do I feel so confidently that we will reach our goal to double research activity per Clemson Elevate? Because we have done it before. 

Total research and development expenditures as tracked at all institutions by the National Science Foundation (NSF) increased from $152 million in fiscal year 2013 to $287 million in FY2023, the latest year for which NSF data is available. I believe we will exceed $300 million in FY2024. 

Our growth is unmatched. Over the past decade, Clemson posted a compound annual growth rate in total R&D of 5.6 percent, a full percentage point higher than the average of all other Carnegie R1 research institutions, according to NSF data. If interested in reading more about our research activity, you can read my latest quarterly research report here.

Together, we have enhanced our research culture and posted unmatched growth. This has required a shared commitment from university leadership, deans, associate deans, department chairs, faculty, research associates, graduate students and support staff to enhance our research enterprise. I want to thank all of you. 

We know we have much work to do, and the Division of Research is working hard to support your research. Here a few important updates as we near the end of another successful semester. 

We are accepting applications for funding from numerous R-Initiative programs:

• The Clemson Faculty Succeeds R-Initiatives offers four opportunities: (1) Project Initiation/Seed Funding applications are due Jan. 15, 2025; (2) Collaborate applications are due March 5, 2025; (3) Project Completion applications are due Feb. 3, 2025; and (4) Fast Track applications are accepted any time. View details on each program here.
• The Clemson Core Incentivized Access program that offers access to research facilities is accepting another round of applications, which are due March 31, 2025. 
• Several R-Initiatives are available to support industry collaboration, including programs to support hiring postdoctoral researchers and engaging with for-profit companies. Details are available here.
• Other R-Initiative programs accept applications any time and provide support for external reviews and travel to meet with funding agencies. The full list of R-Initiative funding programs available is listed here.

For untenured junior faculty, our Office of Research Development (ORD) is accepting applications to its annual CAREER Academy, which runs in the spring semester. The Academy provides a dedicated support structure for untenured junior faculty who are planning to submit National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposals. Academy participants will complete the program with a competitive proposal to submit to the NSF. Apply here by Dec. 7. 

Additionally, numerous ORD workshops are planned this spring to help you enhance your proposals for external funding:

• Designing Effective Graphics for Grant Proposals;
• NIH and NSF Requirements for Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Mentoring Plans;
• 3-Part Series: Writing Effective Research Objectives and Specific Aims; and
• Engaging Stakeholders: Community Organizations. 

Details on these workshops are available online here, and past workshops are available to view here. ORD also provides support to Clemson faculty who are working large-scale, complex research grants that are larger than $1.5 million. To request support, click here. 

For faculty and graduate students interested in commercializing their research, Clemson joined a hub of Southeast universities that received a $15 million from National Science Foundation (NSF) to help nurture the commercialization of innovation. Our participation in this Southeast I-Corps Hub is led by the Clemson University Research Foundation. The Hub will work to identify business development opportunities for new technologies and prepare inventors for commercial success. Learn more here. 

The Office of Research Compliance (ORC) is rolling out new InfoEd request forms for the Institutional Review Board (details here) and the Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee (details here) that will streamline the submission process and facilitate faster responses for you, as well as create an accessible archive of your compliance requests. The new forms will be released in mid-December. IMPORTANT NOTE:  To accommodate the transition, the system will be temporarily inaccessible from Nov. 23 until Dec. 9 when new forms go live, so any submissions (new, amendment or annual review) that need to be filed before then must be complete by Nov. 22. 

Additionally, ORC has launched a newsletter to keep researchers abreast of timely compliance updates. Subscribe here. IACUC also plans to launch a newsletter to update faculty on animal use and care matters. Subscribe here. 

We continue to monitor changing federal regulations. On Oct. 1, the federal government released new regulations that will impact proposal submissions and award management. Of particular interest is the value of equipment and the F&A applied to subrecipients. Clemson University is in the process of negotiating a new F&A rate with the federal government, so no action is needed at this time. Additional guidance will be provided after rate negotiation has concluded. Multiple additional changes are in the new regulations (2 CFR 200). As these changes are clarified by agencies, additional information will be posted. More information is posted here.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we have hired a director of electronic research administration, a new position created to enhance and streamline services to you as we aim to double research per the Clemson Elevate strategic plan. Mike Bryant starts in this role Nov. 18. He has been with Clemson nearly 10 years, most recently as director of health care infrastructure, where he developed and implemented IT infrastructure improvements to support operational efficiencies and enhanced services to clients. Please join me in welcoming Mike to the team. He can be reached at cbryan8@clemson.edu.  

I want to thank all of you for your ongoing commitment to research, scholarship and creative endeavors at Clemson. 

Sincerely, 

–Tanju

The pursuit of scholarship and discovery through research has become engrained in the culture at Clemson University. It’s part of the fabric of our student experience, along with world-class academics and championship-caliber athletics. And, as the research enterprise grows, so do the opportunities for students. The way research enhances the student experience at Clemson will be the focus of my April Board of Trustees Report. You can view my quarterly reports here.  

The current fiscal year is again proving to be a strong one for our research enterprise. Research awards were $141 million through the second quarter, up 33 percent from the same six-month period in the prior fiscal year. I appreciate all of your great work in support of our Clemson Elevate goal of doubling research. 

I want to share a few important updates to help keep your research, scholarship and creative endeavors moving forward. 

The Research Symposium planning committee extended the deadline to March 22 for faculty to submit ideas for panel discussions around the multifaceted role of digital tools and artificial intelligence in scholarship, education and practice across different fields. The Symposium will be held May 8 at the Watt Family Innovation Center. This is a great opportunity for you to make new connections and inspire new collaborative endeavors. Your participation is essential to the event’s success. Submit your idea and join the conversation. 

We are actively tracking policy updates and new proposal requirements from federal agencies: 

• New common disclosure forms have been released for the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support sections of an application for Federal research and development (R&D) grants or cooperative agreements. 
• Effective May 20, consulting activities must be reported on current and pending documents if meeting specific criteria. 
• The National Institutes of Health issued notice in January that it is strengthening enforcement of reporting requirements for award closeouts. Noncompliance could lead to unilateral closeout and negatively affect future awards.
• The National Science Foundation has announced a revised Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide that will become effective May 20. This includes updated guidance related to foreign subawardees/consultants, malign foreign talent recruitment programs, proposal formatting and other matters.
• Additional details on each of these matters are posted to our Regulatory Alerts webpage. 

Opportunities remain available through our R-Initiative funding programs. 

Applications for the Core Incentivized Access program are due March 27; the R-Initiative provides access to core research facilities for electron microscopy, light imaging, micro fabrication, high performance computing and animal research services. 

Applications for the Doctoral Dissertation Completion Grant are due May 13; these funds support doctoral candidates in the final stages of dissertation preparation. 

Additionally, several R-Initiatives accept applications any time for funding to support industry collaboration, external reviews of grant proposals and travel to meet with funding agencies. Additional details are posted online. 

The Clemson Light Imaging Facility now offers histology services. CLIF can assist with sample fixation, grossing, embedding and routine H&E staining, and now routinely processes and sections animal tissue, plants and fish. Please contact imaging@clemson.edu to schedule a consultation and request services. 

Finally, I want to remind you of the procedure for requesting letters of support so we can process these in a timely manner and provide high-quality, professional letters to help your funding request. Please bookmark this page with instructions and a template to use for your request.  

As we push toward our goal of doubling research per the Clemson Elevate strategic plan, the volume of requests for letters of supports has and will increase. Your support of these procedural guidelines is essential to our ability to process these requests in a timely manner and provide top service to you for your pursuit of external funding. I appreciate your attention to this matter. 

Best wishes for continued success through the end of the semester. 

Dear Colleagues, 

Welcome back! I am excited for us to continue the outstanding momentum of the past several years. As you embark on another successful academic year, I have several updates to assist with your research, scholarship and creative endeavors.

We have announced the application deadlines for our R-Initiative funding programs. These investments nurture research, scholarship and creative endeavors across all disciplines by helping faculty purchase equipment, hire postdoctoral researchers, utilize core facilities and complete books, journal articles, artwork and other scholarly products. For more information, visit our R-Initiatives webpage, note the application deadlines and check back later for the calls for proposals.

Federal agencies have implemented several new policies related to proposal submissions, specifically your requirements for 1) data management and sharing plans; 2) diversity and inclusion statements; and 3) support and affiliation disclosures. Understanding and complying with these new requirements is essential to earning federal funding. We have scheduled three virtual workshops on Aug. 31, Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 to provide information. Please register for the session appropriate for your work and ensure your compliance with these new policies. 

Keeping up with changing federal regulation can be daunting, so we have created Regulatory Alerts, an all-in-one-place source of news related to grant application, management and compliance.The Regulatory Alerts webpage will be regularly updated with synopses that link to additional guidance, tutorials and other information. Content will be archived and dated and searchable by keyword for reference and convenience.

Several professional development opportunities have been planned by the Office of Research Development this academic year. These workshops help faculty find funding, write competitive proposals, understand budgeting basics and succeed after earning awards. ORD also will have its popular CAREER Academy to help young faculty earn prestigious NSF CAREER awards. A full list of ORD workshops, including registration information, is available online. 

A few additional updates and reminders: 

• Applications for the NIH Accelerator mentoring program are due Sept. 4. Program participants will work with mentees to finetune proposals to the National Institutes of Health. 
• Seed grants are available from the Media Forensics Hub for faculty doing research related to online deception and misinformation. Apply by Sept. 15. 
• The Office of Research Compliance will offer several workshops this fall that qualify for one hour of Responsible Conduct of Research training.
• The Office of Research Development publishes a weekly email of Limited Submission funding opportunities. Please subscribe if you are not already receiving the Monday email. 
• Submissions for the HOOKEd on Microscopy light micrograph competition are due Sept. 18. Entries can be submitted here. Rules are posted here. 

I wish you much success this semester in your research, scholarship and creative endeavors. If you need assistance, please feel free to reach me or my team any time. 

–Tanju

In late November, we were afforded a distinct opportunity to showcase our facilities, our capabilities, and most importantly, our people to one of the nation’s most influential scientists.

National Science Foundation director Sethuraman Panchanathan left our Greenville campus impressed with what we are building here together, particularly with our success in collaborating with industry and community partners to advance meaningful, impactful research.

“Seeing the synergistic and symbiotic systems of students, public funding and private industry happening here, we should determine how we scale activities here and use Clemson as an example all around the country,” Dr. Panchanathan said during his visit.

Use Clemson as an example.

You can hear some of Dr. Panchanathan’s remarks here and learn more about his visit here.

The visit followed a string of successes for our research enterprise that our peers are certainly noticing.

In February, we welcomed U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the Dominion Energy Innovation Center at our Lowcountry campus as she was highlighting advancements in clean energy innovation. While visiting the Clemson facility, Granholm said South Carolina had a real opportunity to be a leader in energy technology.

The same month, the chief scientist for the U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, David Gorsuch, visited Clemson to help celebrate another $22 million to support the Virtual Prototyping of autonomy-enabled Grounds Systems (VIPR) Research Center project at Clemson. Our facility and expertise made Clemson uniquely positioned for the project, he said.

At Clemson, we continue to make a name for ourselves as a top research institution, and the scholarly community is taking notice. We are building a winning culture. We are thinking big and winning big and proving that we can handle large, interdisciplinary research projects. The VIPR project involves 62 faculty members and 125 graduate students spread across 10 departments.

Clemson recently received its first Energy Frontier Research Center project from the Department of Energy, a $10.35 million grant that involves five Clemson departments and numerous partners, including two national labs.

The new USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities project marked the largest single grant Clemson has ever received from a federal funding agency – $70 million.  The project involves 29 Clemson faculty and 20 graduate students across 11 departments, as well as an impressive state coalition of 27 community partners.

We now have four NIH Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, the most active COBRE projects a university can have at one time. What a feat for a university without a medical school. We have EPSCoR projects from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. These involve dozens of faculty members and students.

And, importantly, it is not just the grants. The number of Clemson-authored journal publications has increased 42 percent over the past decade, and citations of Clemson research have increased 82 percent. Clemson faculty members have recently earned lifetime achievements awards from InnoVision, the American College of Healthcare Architects, and the Society of Wetlands Scientists, and Universities Council on Water Resources. Clemson has its first ever member of the prestigious American Philosophical Society. The Production and Operations Management Journal named a research award in honor of a Clemson faculty member. Faculty members from every college have earned national and international fellowships in their fields – art, education, architecture, health care, global studies, leisure and recreation, engineering, business, agriculture, physics, and so many more. There are too many to list but I see them and proudly report many of them each quarter to the university’s Board of Trusts.

And, we have exceptional students carrying the Clemson torch – our first Rhodes Scholar; our first Gates Cambridge Scholar; a Truman Scholar; a Hertz Fellowship recipient; and on and on.

These are only a few examples; I should apologize for unintentionally leaving others out. There are so many shining examples of great research happening at Clemson (There are nearly 1,800 research projects happening across Clemson’s footprint right now, by the way, and that’s an increase of nearly 25 percent from 2016.)

These projects and recognitions shine a light on what is possible. Keep going.

Congratulations to everyone on another successful semester. As we head into another calendar year, I challenge us all to continue to think big.

Thank you for your support of scholarship and discovery at Clemson. Have a wonderful holiday season and a restful break.

Go Tigers!

I am excited to share that Clemson was reconfirmed as a Carnegie R1 research university in January. This is the top designation Carnegie awards to doctoral universities with the highest levels of research activity.

A key goal of the ClemsonForward strategic plan, the R1 designation improves our reputation, helps us recruit the best students and faculty members, improves our competitiveness for funding, and invites world-class collaborators both from academia and industry.

Clemson has now reached R1 status for three consecutive classification cycles, moving us closer to our goal of becoming a “perennial Carnegie R1 research institution.” This success is shared by everyone at Clemson; Carnegie tracks research activity and PhD productivity across all disciplines. Despite a global health pandemic, Clemson has continued to improve in the metrics tracked by Carnegie. You can view Clemson’s performance in those metrics in my latest report to the Board of Trustees. I am proud to share that our research enterprise remains healthy. Here are few highlights from the report:

• Clemson’s research enterprise operates efficiently, with strong increases in per-capita productivity over the past eight years.
• Research awards remain strong at $76 million through the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 as Clemson faculty continue to earn high-value awards, and proposal submissions remain high at $313 million through the second quarter.

The quarterly research report also highlights numerous faculty and student achievements. In fact, three faculty members spoke during the quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees Research and Economic Development Committee to share the impact of their research:

• Rhondda Thomas, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature;
• Lior Rennert, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences; and
• Derek Dalton, Powers Distinguished Fellow in the College of Business.

You can read more about their work, as well as the work of other faculty members, in the full research report online here.

Updates from Funding Agencies

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently issued updates to proposal requirements.

National Science Foundation (NSF): On Jan. 10, 2022, NSF issued an updated list of activities that must be included in Current and Pending Support documents. This update now requires the following:

1. disclosure of start-up packages provided by an organization outside of Clemson University; and
2. a brief statement of overall objectives for each item listed on the Current and Pending document (view Item 11 on the FAQ).

National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH’s Other Support disclosure table is available here. This updated list clarifies the following:

1. disclosure of all Honoraria;
2. disclosure of mentoring support from outside organizations as in-kind Other Support “if the post-doc or graduate student is performing research activities in support of the PD/PI or other senior/key personnel’s research endeavors;”
3. effective Jan. 25, 2022, researchers must certify by electronic signature that the information provided on their Other Support document is “accurate, current and complete.” Information on creating and using an electronic signature is available here. The updated Other Support form with the signature block is available on the NIH FAQ page;
4. if foreign appointments and/or employment with a foreign institution are included on the Other Support document, associated contracts/agreements must be provided to NIH with the Other Support form; and
5. Other Support disclosure requirements apply to Just-in-Time (JIT), annual progress reports (RPPR), the final progress report, and as soon as possible when it is discovered that Other Support has not been disclosed during any of these instances

A special note on consulting activities:  Both NIH and NSF require disclosure of all consulting activities not already disclosed or approved by the university. Clemson faculty are required to disclose all outside activities as described in the Faculty Consulting Policy and the Conflict of Interest Policy, both of which are very broad, so it’s highly unlikely that consulting will need to be disclosed at all on either Current and Pending Support or Other Support documents. If you have questions about whether a consulting activity needs to be disclosed, we recommend that you consult with the Office of Sponsored Programs directly.

If you have any questions about these changes, please contact Dr. Sheila Lischwe, Director, Office of Sponsored Programs, at slischw@clemson.edu.

Thank you for all you do to support scholarship and discovery at Clemson.

–Tanju

As our research enterprise continues to grow, the scholarly community is increasingly recognizing the quality of your work and using your research to advance scholarship and discovery around the world. Those are the key points in my fiscal year-end report to the University’s Board of Trustees.

Fiscal Year 2021 was another banner year for our institutional research metrics:

• Expenditures from competitive awards increased 9 percent to $114 million in FY2021 and exceeded the ClemsonForward goal of $100 million for the third consecutive year.
• Research awards increased 37 percent to $162 million in FY2021 as funding agencies reward your high-quality proposals.
• Proposal submissions increased 4 percent from FY2020, which had been a high mark, to $762 million.

Of course, when the awards are received, it is time to do the work: conducting the research and writing the papers and books, and so forth. The scholarly community is increasingly recognizing the quality of Clemson’s research. The average annual number of peer-reviewed journal publications authored by Clemson faculty have increased 29% since 2014 and citations of Clemson authors have increased 44%. That is outstanding.

You can read my full report to the Board of Trustees online.

To help continue our momentum, we have several efforts at the Division of Research aimed at nurturing research activity and professional development. The Office of Research Development, for example, is again offering its CAREER Academy in the Spring. The CAREER Academy provides a dedicated support structure for untenured junior faculty who are planning to submit National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposals.

These awards are career catalysts and the most prestigious awards junior faculty can receive. I know, personally, my CAREER award helped to propel my research portfolio and set me up for future success. And, Clemson faculty are becoming increasingly successful earning CAREER awards, in part due to the support provided through the CAREER Academy. Clemson faculty have earned 10 CAREER awards each of the past two years. That is an incredible accomplishment.

Applications for the 2022 CAREER Academy will be accepted from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30, 2021. Additional information is posted online.

On Friday, we will welcome to campus Sue Clark, deputy laboratory director of science and technology at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to speak with you about conducting research at SRNL. As many of you know, Clemson is a member of the Battelle Savannah River Alliance recently selected by the Department of Energy to manage research at SRNL. This is a tremendous opportunity for Clemson faculty and students to conduct research at one of the nation’s premiere national laboratories.

Sue will give a 15-20 minute presentation to share tips on engaging SRNL in research collaborations and then will answer questions from attendees. The event is 9:30-11:30 am. Nov. 12 at the Watt Family Innovation Center auditorium. More information about Sue and BSRA is posted online.

Lastly, I want to remind you that Calls for Proposal for this year’s R-Initiatives are now online. As I mentioned in a recent email to all faculty, we are expanding the SUCCEEDS initiative to provide four different funding programs, including two that were formerly part of the CU SEED program and another program that is new this year. Full details on the SUCCEEDS programs are posted online.

I encourage you to review our R-Initiatives webpage, mark the upcoming deadlines on your calendars and prepare proposals to take advantage of these opportunities. I truly believe there is something here for everyone. Since we launched R-Initiatives in 2017, we have invested in research projects involving 418 faculty members spread across every college. These funds have helped faculty secure $14 million in additional external funding, acquire 20 new pieces of instrumentation, publish 10 books and 66 journal articles, and conduct 10 art exhibitions. Additionally, funds have helped 97 students earn PhDs and have assisted in the hiring of 23 postdocs and research faculty.

Thank you for continued support of scholarship and discovery at Clemson.

–Tanju

Seeing so many colleagues and the students back on campus has really been inspiring. Though I must say, all of you involved in research at Clemson have remained inspired throughout one of the most challenging years I can remember.

Consider the momentum we have maintained in fiscal year 2021:

• Competitive research expenditures increased 9 percent to $114 million, surpassing the ClemsonForward goal for the third consecutive year.
• Competitive research awards were up 37 percent from the prior year at $162 million, the highest amount for decades. Incredible. Research awards are a testament to the quality of our research ideas and our proposals. We are competing with the best research institutions around the country to earn these grant awards, and Clemson faculty continue to succeed.
• Even as you have taken on more projects, you have remained committed, submitting $762 million in proposals, an increase of 4 percent from FY2020, which also was a banner year.

I am proud of your high-quality work and commitment to the pursuit of scholarship and discovery. Let’s keep the momentum going.

To help, our Office of Research Development has launched the Successful Grant Seeking series of professional development workshops. These events – led by experienced faculty – will provide insights on working with funding agencies, writing project overviews, forming successful research teams and communicating with reviewers. The workshops will be held in-person and online via Zoom. I encourage you to take advantage.

Additionally, the Office of Research Development will be offering its Clemson CAREER Academy to help junior faculty compete mainly for NSF CAREER Awards. These are the most prestigious awards junior faculty can receive. They are highly competitive and serve as a catalyst for your research program. Only the highest quality proposals are funded. The Academy has been successfully helping faculty craft competitive CAREER proposals. Junior faculty earned 10 early-career awards two years in a row in FY2020 and FY2021. Clemson has now more CAREER award winners per tenured/tenure-track faculty than many institutions around the country. I highly encourage all eligible junior faculty to take advantage of this very successful CAREER Academy and to pursue CAREER award competitions of various funding agencies. If interested, you can learn more about our CAREER Academy during a workshop on Oct. 18 that will be held at Watt Center as well as on Zoom.

Also, we are finalizing plans for our R-Initiative funding programs. Through these programs, we have invested $6 million over the past four years in projects involving more than 400 faculty members. Faculty members from every college have received funding, and I truly believe R-Initiatives provide value for everyone. Since we launched R-Initiatives in 2017, funding has helped faculty author 10 books and 66 journal articles; hold 10 art exhibitions; acquire 20 new pieces of equipment; hire 23 postdocs and research associates; and secure $14 million in additional external funding. Additionally, R-Initiatives have supported 117 students working to complete their PhDs. You can visit our R-Initiatives webpage to view opportunities. We will update the site and notify you when Requests for Proposal are available.

Lastly, I want to introduce Rhonda Shaner Ryals. Rhonda joined the Division of Research this summer to lead the Office of Export Compliance and Research Security. Research has no boundary, and international collaboration is important to scholarship and discovery that is relevant and impactful. Rhonda will work to support successful international research collaboration while protecting the intellectual capital of university research. For the past decade, She has worked with the Office of Research Integrity Assurance at the Georgia Institute of Technology, most recently as associate director. In this role, she has completed export reviews for internationally sponsored research, evaluated research agreement terms, drafted plans to safeguard export-controlled technology, evaluated risk and identified improvements to process and policy, among other responsibilities. She has also developed and delivered training to Georgia Tech faculty and staff involved in research with export-controlled materials. Clemson will benefit from Rhonda’s experience and I hope you take time to meet her, if you have not already.

I wish you all the best this academic year and beyond. The Division of Research is here to help.

-Tanju

For the past year, I have been living my professional life through a tiny square video screen on my computer. Adjusting to Zoom was difficult at first. Feedback would ring through our speakers when we didn’t mute our microphones. We would speak at the same time and then sit awkwardly silent while waiting for the other to continue. No, you first, please.

Now, we excel at meeting virtually, but I really miss seeing you in person.

I hope we can see each other on May 4 at this year’s Research Symposium, which will be a hybrid event with sessions available on Zoom and in-person at the Watt Family Innovation Center. In-person attendance requires advance registration. Register online here. Those attending via Zoom do not need to register.

One of the highlights of the Research Symposium, to me, is celebrating our Researchers of the Year and our recipients of the University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Awards. For Researcher of the Year, each college nominates a senior faculty member and a junior faculty member who received their terminal degree within the past 10 years. We have outstanding nominees, and I want to congratulate all of them. Regardless of who wins, being nominated by your peers in your colleges is an incredible honor; and it is priceless! Congratulations! Meet the Researcher of the Year nominees here and tune in at the Research Symposium May 4 as we announce the winners.

Research momentum

This has been an unforgettable academic year. There have been and continue to be many challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those challenges make the collective accomplishments of our research enterprise even more impressive:

• Clemson total R&D expenditures has continued to increase in 2020, reaching $229 million, highest since 2013.
• Fiscal Year 2021 new research awards are up 46 percent at $117 million through February when compared to the same period the prior fiscal year.
• You are publishing more papers and being increasingly cited, a sign your work is relevant and highly regarded by the scholarly community. Published papers have increased 29 percent since 2014, and citations are up 44 percent.
• Clemson junior faculty are increasingly successful earning prestigious early career awards. So far this year, Clemson faculty have earned eight CAREER Awards from the NSF.

More impressive than the numbers you are putting up is the impact you are having. My latest report to the Board of Trustees, which you can read here, includes some examples of that impact and the significant recognition you have received.

I am inspired by your commitment and dedication to scholarship and discovery at Clemson. Thank you.

–Tanju

You continue to make big news, despite the unrelenting pressures of a global health pandemic that has uprooted all of our norms.

Consider a few examples of the major accomplishments I was able to report to the University’s Board of Trustees last month:

• The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a 10-year, $3.8 billion contract for an alliance that includes Clemson to manage the Savannah River Nuclear Laboratory near Aiken. This is the first time the lab has ever been managed separately from the Savannah River Site. Through this partnership, Clemson will be a key player in the nation’s energy, environmental, and national security research and workforce development efforts.
• Clemson faculty have earned numerous high-value awards in the past several months, including $16 million to support the development of autonomous military vehicles, $5 million to conduct specialty crop research, and $3 million for teacher development support. The diversity of disciplines earning these high-value awards is impressive.

• 

  Clemson faculty, students and alumni are earning significant national and international recognition. Clemson professor Aleda Roth had a national research award named in her honor. Two Clemson Science graduates were named among the nation’s 12 rising stars by Chemical & Engineering News. Professor Hala Nassar is one of just four professionals from across the country to be named a 2020 Fellow by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.

• In just a few months, Clemson faculty raced to validate new COVID-19 tests and establish a CLIA-certified lab that has been a great benefit to the University and the surrounding community, as well as a unique learning resource for students and an innovation hub for future Clemson research.

These are just a few examples of the outstanding work you are doing. You can read more about these achievements and others in my quarterly report to the Board of Trustees here. At the meeting, Trustee Joe Swann, who chairs the Board’s Research and Economic Development Committee, and other trustees in attendance applauded your efforts to advance research at Clemson, as did President Clements.

Despite all this great news, I know the pandemic has created hardships, both personally and professionally. I hope you will find programs at the Division of Research helpful as you advance your research portfolios. Our R-Initiative programs have invested nearly $6 million in research projects involving 250 faculty members since 2017. These programs have helped faculty from all colleges publish books, conduct art exhibits, acquire equipment and hire research faculty. We are currently soliciting proposals for numerous R-Initiative programs.

Our Office of Research Development has also developed a series of professional development workshops designed to help you advance your research. I encourage you to attend these virtual sessions, and if you have missed one, you can watch past workshops online.

Additionally, I encourage you to attend the Research Symposium May 4. This will be a hybrid online and in-person event. The event brings together faculty from all colleges and the libraries to share ideas and form collaborations. My Faculty Advisory Board is seeking ideas for symposium topics. The Symposium theme this year is “Collaborate! Global problems, human solutions.” When thinking of symposium sessions, please consider topics that will bring researchers with similar interests together to foster new collaborations. Examples of potential session themes include: AI and ethics; pandemic readiness, response, and resilience; emergent knowledge from big data research; food, energy, and water in a changing world: security and scarcity; global movements and migrations; and translating local and regional problems into a global context.

The ideas for symposium topics can be sent by Feb. 26 to Sarah White, Erin Goss and Penny Reid. I hope to see you there.

Thank you for your continued support of scholarship and discovery at Clemson.

Go Tigers!

–Tanju

Last spring, we missed one of, in my opinion, the highlights of the academic year: our annual Research Symposium.

I greatly enjoy the camaraderie the Symposium provides: meeting with faculty from other disciplines, sharing ideas, brainstorming, learning, celebrating our successes while game-planning for new opportunities. In addition to numerous interdisciplinary workshops, panel discussions and networking opportunities, we announce our Researchers of the Year and honor our newest recipients of the University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Awards. The event is a fitting end to the semester.

We launched the university-wide symposium four years ago and we have seen participation increase each year. Last year, at least 150 people attended, and we had participants from every college, including attendees from our off-campus locations. Disrupting that momentum made cancelling last year’s Symposium even more disappointing, even if it was necessary.

I am happy to report that my Faculty Advisory Board is working hard to bring back the Research Symposium in May, possibly in a hybrid online/in-person format. Please mark your calendar for May 4 and look for future updates on the Research Symposium webpage. The Advisory Board is working hard to establish an agenda, line up presenters and finalize the many details that go into such a large event. You’ll likely be hearing from the Advisory Board as they gather input on making this event a success. Please share your ideas and plan to attend in May.

R-Initiatives

The COVID-19 pandemic has been painful for all of us, the Division of Research included, and I have been working to cushion the financial sting to our own business operations without disrupting the services our office provides to you. That said, I think it is important, particularly now, to continue to support your research through our R-Initiative funding programs. We just posted calls for proposal for four R-Initiatives:

• Clemson University Core Incentivized Access (CU-CIA), which provides access to our core facilities at no cost;
• Research Fellows, which provides funding for hiring and training researchers;
• Major Research Instrumentation, which provides funds to purchase or upgrade research equipment;
• And SUCCEEDS, which aims to position interdisciplinary faculty teams to successfully compete for significant external funding.

For the R-Initiatives, we are trying to use limited resources strategically, while reducing some of the burden on you. To do that, we have lifted the cost-share requirements from some competitions this year in hopes this will provide you more opportunities to submit a proposal. However, because our resources are limited, proposals that are able to offer cost-share may receive preference. Please review details on these R-Initiatives using the hyperlinks above and take advantage of these opportunities.

Finally, I would like to commend you all again on your productivity through this pandemic. I will be meeting with the Board of Trustees Research and Economic Development Committee later this month, and you give me a lot to brag about. I will be sharing faculty features provided by each college and including numerous announcements on various awards and honors I have read on the Clemson News site. As always, my report to trustees will be posted online after the meeting.

While I am still finalizing the report and gathering data, it appears that we continue to post strong results in our research metrics, thanks to your hard work. There is much for us all to be proud of. Thank you again for your ongoing support of scholarship and discovery at Clemson University.

Go Tigers!

–Tanju