| Colleagues, I recently attended a meeting to discuss a critical research issue for our state. The meeting included two senior colleagues, a college administrator, laboratory staff, and a new faculty member from my department whom I had not met before. I was impressed by our new colleague’s bright, energetic, and creative nature. It was evident that he was thrilled to be a part of Washington State University, and I left the meeting equally enthusiastic that he had chosen us. The meeting provided him with a great introduction to WSU as we discussed how to enhance our research capabilities to assist the state and further our science. The conversation shifted from proposed agency funding to opportunities such as the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program and Murdock Charitable Trust Scientific Instrumentation grants, as well as considerations for service centers, funding research staff, and equipment upgrades. This meeting highlighted what initially drew me to and ultimately kept me at WSU: a community of talented colleagues engaged in high-impact research that matters to our state. Just like my early years, my senior colleagues were engaged in our new faculty’s success. These ideals epitomize the excellence of the land-grant mission. I realize that there are many new and enthusiastic faculty here whom I have yet to meet. I am eager to get to know you and learn about your research. In the meantime, I hope you will also find our new Research Happens Every Day program beneficial. If there are specific topics you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to reach out. Michael P. Wolcott Regents Professor Interim Vice President for Research Announcing Research Happens Every Day Research Happens Every Day. Whether in the classroom, lab, studio, field site, or in communities, WSU faculty tackle difficult problems every day. The Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships (ORAP) will be hosting events highlighting the diversity of WSU research and creative practice and providing workshops, information sessions, and other training opportunities year-round. Explore and sign up for one of the many events upcoming this semester online at Research Happens Every Day. Upcoming Events New Faculty Information Series The Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships (ORAP) is pleased to present the New Faculty Information Series, an introduction to the requirements and available resources for developing and supporting research and/or artistic practice at WSU. Over the course of three weekly Tuesday afternoon sessions from 2-3 p.m., September 24, October 1, and October 8, new faculty will learn about the grant process at WSU and the support services provided by ORAP – from finding funding, grant proposal development, to creating and maintaining compliant research and artistic programs. This series will be offered via Zoom, allowing time for attendees to ask questions. Each session is open to new faculty across all disciplines and campuses and will be recorded and accessible on the ORAP website for (re)viewing at a later date. To receive the Zoom details, RSVP for each session. For questions or concerns about this series, please contact or.orap.servicedesk@wsu.edu. “It’s not what you research. It’s how you research.” Developing an Equity-Minded Approach to Research Integrating equity into our approaches to research is an important step that we need to take more frequently and more impactfully. This presentation encourages us to locate, implicate, and disrupt existing power structures and contextual factors that perpetuate inequity in how we conduct research from setting the research agenda to designing research questions, from identifying methodologies and epistemologies to conducting the research, all the way through the dissemination and application of findings. Join us via Zoom from 11 a.m. – noon, on Tuesday, September 10. Please RSVP for the link. Nuts and Bolts of Social Sciences Grant Proposals The Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships (ORAP) will present Nuts and Bolts of Social Sciences Grant Proposals, a workshop of four-weekly sessions that will provide grant writing tools designed specifically for any faculty in the social sciences. The 90-minute sessions will take place in the Pullman Office of Research conference room in Lighty 280, and will include presentations, group discussions, take-home assignments, and peer review and feedback of proposal drafts. Participants will be provided with grant writing tools and copies of the lecture slides. Space is limited so submit your online application and a letter of support from your chair by September 15.Understand WSU’s eREX and proposal submission process and find funding with the Pivot database On Tuesday, September 17, from noon – 1 p.m., plan to bring your lunch and your laptop to the Lighty 280 conference room and work alongside Lydia Baxter-Howard, proposal development specialist in the Office of Research Advancement and Partnerships, as she provides an overview of WSU’s grant proposal submission process, including the eREX form. Then, use the Pivot database to find funding opportunities specific to your area of research, set up notifications, track funding opportunities, find collaborators, and share opportunities with your coworkers. RSVP online to attend. Hispanic Heritage Month Research Panel Hispanic Heritage Month provides a time to celebrate and honor the research contributions of the Latinx community. Join the Office of Research along with a panel of faculty in an open discussion on the research happening at WSU. Each panel member will present a 5-minute flash talk with a Q&A period to follow. Join us in person or via Zoom from noon – 1 p.m., on September 26. RSVP online to attend. Community Engaged Research Seed Grant: Tier 1 flash-talk competition On Monday, September 30, at 10 a.m., faculty from across the WSU system will present their proposed community-engaged research projects in a short 3-minute talk for a chance to recieve up to $3,000 travel grant. Come support your colleagues, learn about exciting new research underway at WSU, or possibly form collaborations! RSVP for the Zoom link. Call for Proposals Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program The Office of Commercialization is excited to announce the Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) that will begin accepting applications starting September 1! This postdoctoral program empowers our postdocs to transform groundbreaking research into the market through tailored mentorship, educational programming, and entrepreneurial resources. If you are interested in bringing your research to the market, this program is a unique opportunity that will allow you to do just that, and we look forward to hearing from you! RA and 10K Proposals Due September 10 Proposals for the RA and 10k Seed Grant Competition can be submitted through the online application form until 5 p.m., Tuesday, September 10. This program supports faculty in any track, systemwide with $10,000 and one semester of funding for a graduate research assistant to explore a new line of research or pursue a new partnership. Contact ORAP at or.orap.servicedesk@wsu.edu if you have any questions about this program.Arts and Humanities Process Grant Proposal As part of the Arts and Humanities Initiative, competitions will be held for funds to support faculty’s needs for research, scholarship, and creative activity. The grants are intended to support smaller items needed such as: materials, printing, tools, software, permissions, services (transcription or translation), event support, marketing, participant stipends, etc. Travel is not an eligible expense. Grants are open to all faculty engaged in work based in the Arts & Humanities, regardless of track, campus, or unit. We especially encourage faculty of color, queer, trans, gender non-binary, working-class and other underrepresented individuals to apply. Recipients will share a 3-minute flash talk during an event in Fall 2024. Proposals for the Fall awards are open and will be due September 20. For questions about the Arts & Humanities Process Grants, email or.orap.servicedesk@wsu.edu. Advancing human-software interactions for intelligence activities in AI-supported team decision making The Collective Judgment Formation (CJF) Collaborative Research Alliance (CRA) program is focused on basic research to create and expand theoretical and scientific understanding of human-agent interactions in AI-supported team decision making. The representative domain for the program is intelligence activities. Work within this program will require the problem space to be addressed from multiple disciplinary perspectives working in concert to discover novel knowledge and to advance our scientific foundations of (a) humans working with each other and with novel forms of software agents and (b) teams of intelligence analysts responding to novel methods that create verbose structured and unstructured content. Through this CRA, ARL seeks to partner with performers to advance the scientific state-of-the-art in human-agent systems for intelligence activities. E8 Fellowship Program in partnership with WSU WSU E8 Fellowship Program for the upcoming Fall semester offers a unique opportunity to join a growing community and angel investors and supporters committed to advancing clean technologies in promising, early-stage companies across North America and beyond. Your participation offers direct access to companies and technologies, learning opportunities in early-stage finance and due diligence, networking with investors and entrepreneurs and partners, and experience in team collaboration. Overall, the E8 Fellowship is a chance to, through the early stage and collaborative pitching and investment process, see first-hand the scope and questions that must be explored when evaluating business investments in clean-technology opportunities. For Your Information New SBDC advisor to offer no-cost advising to small businesses on the Palouse Juan Garcia, a former small business owner and advisor with the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, has joined the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) network in Pullman. The Pullman Center serves Whitman, Asotin and Garfield counties. |