May 17, 2022
News from the Office of Research

As the semester winds down, I want to turn our attention to how we can position our research, scholarship, and creative activity (RSCA) enterprise at SJSU for sustained and long term progress. Our success over this academic year demonstrates the incredible breadth and depth of talent that we have in our faculty ranks. Whether it’s contributing to a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, understanding how alcohol and stress impact parenting during a pandemic, having three early career faculty get NSF grants, or connecting Spartan artists to local community partners, Spartans are making a difference in the world through their RSCA.

Telling our stories helps to ensure that those outside of SJSU and outside academia know about our work–and can support it. A key constituency that we need to engage with in these spaces is our federal congressional representatives, who can partner with us to support SJSU priorities that impact their districts. This support can come in the form of what we traditionally call an earmark, now called community project funding, or through discretionary spending in the annual appropriations process. The appropriations process is what I want to highlight today, as SJSU is beginning to engage with our congressional representatives to take advantage of this process this coming congressional year.

Through a partnership with Community and Government Relations, the Division of Research and Innovation has published the SJSU Federal Appropriation Proposals Request for Applications, which solicits project ideas to present to our congressional delegation for this process. Applications are due June 10, 2022 to Officeofresearchapplications@sjsu.edu. A video recording of one of our workshops is available, as well as a slide deck. Please feel free to reach out to me, or to a member of my team if you have questions. We hope you will think big, and propose transformative work that leverages SJSU’s RSCA strengths, while also helping to enhance the lives of our fellow citizens.

Additionally, I want to highlight that the Office of Research has published a new internal funding opportunity — the SJSU RAPID — for RSCA projects that require a rapid turnaround due to external forces. This call is designed for RSCA projects that have a time sensitive component outside of the requester’s control where waiting for the next application cycle is not an option (e.g. work in the immediate aftermath of or preparation for a natural disaster or work in response to an urgent community need). The deadline for the SJSU RAPID opportunity is rolling. Visit the InfoReady Portal for full details.

Finally, in June there will be no mid-month newsletter from the Office of Research. We look forward to continuing to see the impressive and important RSCA you are leading.

Happy Summer!

Richard Mocarski
Associate Vice President for Research

The coming of a new Division of Research and Innovation has brought about changes and increases in the types and depth of RSCA supports at SJSU. Visit the new SJSU Research Development Grant Lifecycle web page to learn more about all the RSCA support units available to assist you in planning, funding, and executing on a specific RSCA project.

The Final Research Development  Grant Getting Workshop

of Spring 2022

The MSI/HSI Programmatic Grants workshop is the final RD Grant Getting workshop of this semester, and it has broad appeal to all RSCA engaged faculty at San José State University! SJSU is considered a minority-serving institution (MSI) because it is both a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). Several federal agencies have programs that fund activities designed to enhance the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of underrepresented minorities (URM). Come to this workshop to discover how to leverage our MSI/HSI status in your grant applications.

MSI/HSI Programmatic Grants: Wednesday, May 25, 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

NSF Releases New Regional Innovation Engines Initiative

The National Science Foundation just released a new major initiative: Regional Innovation Engines. This program catalyzes and fosters innovation ecosystems across the U.S. to advance critical technologies, address national and societal challenges, foster partnerships across industry, academia, government, nonprofits, civil society, and communities of practice, promote and stimulate economic growth and job creation, and to spur regional innovation and talent.
While priority locations for these engines will be U.S. geographic regions that do not have well-established innovation ecosystems, SJSU faculty should be thinking of areas in which our region and expertise could fill a unique gap and where we can partner.

Congratulations to our

36th Annual CSU Student Research Competitors

Huge congratulations to SJSU student researcher Justice Wattree  from the College of Humanities and the Arts, who won first place in the Annual CSU Student  Research Competition for his project entitled “The Two‐Front War: Self‐Help, and Black Health Activism during The Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS, and COVID‐19.” The faculty mentor for his project was Humanities and English and Comparative Literature Lecturer, Erik Johnson.
Congratulations to all of our SJSU student researchers who competed in this year's competition. Visit the Student RSCA Competition Finalists 2022 web page to view the complete list of all student projects that went to the 36th Annual CSU Student Research Competition.

More RSCA in Five Faculty Short Talks Coming in AY2022/23!

The first two events for the AY2022/23 RSCA in Five: Faculty Short Talks series will be held on Friday, October 7, and Friday, December 2, 2022 and will likely focus on Data Science and Community Engaged Scholarship respectively. More details to follow soon!

AFOSR Air Force Fiscal Year 2023 Young Investigator Program (YIP)
Amount: ≤ $450K | Deadline: June 6, 2022

CA 2022 Coastal Resilience Solicitation
Amount: Dependent | Deadline: June 13, 2022

Cottrell Scholars
Amount: $100K | Deadline: July 1, 2022

ED Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad (FRA) Fellowship Program
Amount: $25K-$40K | Deadline: July 13, 2022

NEH Public Humanities Projects
Amount: $75K-$500K | Deadline: August 10, 2022

NSF Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP HI)
Amount: $1M-$2M | Deadline: July 15, 2022

NSF Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines
Amount: $1M-$160M | Deadline: September 29, 2022

CalHum California Documentary Project NextGen Grant
Amount: $15K | Deadline: March 1, 2023

USDA-NIFA Equipment Grant Program (EGP)
Amount: $25K-$500K | SJSU Deadline: May 20, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: June 15, 2022

USDA-NIFA Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program
Amount: $30-$750K | SJSU Deadline: May 20, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: June 6, 2022

NASA EONS 2022: MUREP Aerospace Academy (MAA)
Amount: $1M-$5M | SJSU Deadline: May 27, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: June 20, 2022

NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program: Instrument Acquisition or Development
Amount: $100K–$4M | SJSU Deadline: May 27, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: January 19, 2023

NSF Regional Innovation Engines Broad Agency Announcement
Amount: $1M-$160M | SJSU Deadline: May 27, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: June 30, 2022

NSF Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC)
Amount: $6M-$8M | SJSU Deadline: June 3, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: August 1, 2022

NIH | Director's Early Independence Awards (DP5 Clinical Trial Optional)
Amount: $250K | SJSU Deadline: June 3, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: September 2, 2022

NSF Resilient & Intelligent NextG Systems (RINGS) - Virtual Organization
Amount: $1M | SJSU Deadline: June 3, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: August 1, 2022

NSF LSAMP National Coordination Hub and Louis Stokes Community Resource Centers (LSAMP Hub & LSCRCs)
Amount: $3.5M-$5M | SJSU Deadline: June 24, 2022 | Sponsor Deadline: January 9, 2023

Biomedical Research Facilities (C06 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Amount: ~$3M–$8M | SJSU Deadline: July 1, 2022 | Anticipated Sponsor Deadline: 
March 24, 2023

RSCA Tip of the Month

International Travel
With the end of the semester in sight, it’s time to start planning summer RSCA activities. For many, these activities may include international travel. Visit the International Travel Guidance web page on the  Research Compliance website for a complete list of what you need to know before you go.

Research Integrity Tips
The NSF Office of the Inspector General has released a comprehensive report containing a summary of plagiarism investigations over a 10 year period and recommendations for how institutions can foster a culture of research integrity.

While reusing your own work isn’t considered plagiarism in the traditional sense, it is unacceptable in many venues and can even run afoul of copyright law. The Text Recycling Research Project has created a list of best practices to ensure that your reuse is ethical, appropriate, and legal.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Madalyn Radlauer and Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts, Rhonda Holberton both received this year's prestigious SJSU Research Foundation Early Career Investigator Award (ECIA) at the 2022 Celebration of Research. The  ECIA recognizes tenure-track faculty members who have excelled in research, scholarship and creative activity at an early point in their careers.

Professor Radlauer's research focuses on organometallic and inorganic catalysis with synthetic macromolecular structures, essentially attempting enzyme catalysis without the enzyme. Professor Holberton's research involves both the studio practice of "making" as an artist, and collaborative projects involving other artists, engineers, writers, and scholars that continually redefine the limits of artistic production and interdisciplinary collaboration. Both professors involve students in their research.

New Research Awards

College of Business
Hilary K. Nixon, Kezban Yagci Sokat — Business, Dean's Office: Not on Transit (NoT) Project | Sponsor: Santa Clara Transit Authority

College of Health and Human Sciences
Peter Allen Lee — School of Social Work: BHWET Integrated Behavioral Health MSW Stipend Program | Sponsor: UC Berkeley 

College of Humanities & The Arts
Selena Anderson — English & Comparative Literature: Center for Literary Arts — City of San José Take pART | Sponsor: City of San José

College of Science
Dustin Carroll —  Moss Landing Marine Laboratory: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) | Sponsor: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Karen A. Singmaster  —  Chemistry: Re-establishing Nuclear Science Research at SJSU | Sponsor: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Abraham Wolcott  —  Chemistry: LEAPS-MPS: Electric Field Sensing with Nitrogen Vacancy Centers and Chemical Tuning of the Diamond Host | Sponsor: National Science Foundation

College of Social Sciences
Darwyyn Deyo —  Economics: Institute for Justice Senior Research Fellow Project | Sponsor: Institute for Justice

University Library
Kathryn Blackmer Reyes — University Library: Reviving Humanities Public Programming with East Side Dream: The Untold Story of East San José | Sponsor: Social Science Research Council

VP/Provost Academic & Student Affairs
Vincent Del Casino, David Parent —  Provost's Office:  Project Engineering Success: Increasing Hispanic Student Success in Engineering at San Jose State University, San Jose City College & Gavilan College | Sponsor:  U.S. Department of Education

Elena Klaw — Undergraduate Studies: CaliforniansForAll College Service Program | Sponsor: California Volunteers