- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) within the U.S. Department of Energy, advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment.
On February 13-14, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ, ARPA-E will host a workshop entitled “The Energy-Smart Farm: Distributed Intelligence Networks for Highly Variable and Resource Constrained Crop Production Environments”.
Meeting projected demands for fuel, food and fiber in the 21st century requires a transformation that will sustainably double crop productivity in the face of competition for arable land and fresh water and increased exposure to climatic shocks. This workshop will convene experts in the biological, physical and computational sciences to explore emerging opportunities in advanced sensing systems for energy-smart agriculture. The overall challenge is to monitor the physical, environmental and biological conditions that limit growth at high spatial and temporal resolution throughout production cycle and to identify interventions that relieve those constraints. Should this become a funding opportunity, teams will be asked to develop innovative technology suites and decision support tools that maximize sustainable economic returns by conserving resources and energy, increasing yield, and gathering critical data for life cycle analysis and participation in environmental service markets.
Technologies of interest are intended to support the development of fully-integrated, low-cost sensor networks with connectivity standards for user-friendly, turn-key solutions in highly-variable, resource-constrained environments. Specific interests include:
- Sensors:a range of biological, chemical, and mechanical sensors (e.g. CNT, photonic crystal, etc.) that have potential to be downscaled with minimal precision sacrifice and can withstand a wide range of conditions.
- Low-cost, small-scale computing “at the edge”: High-resolution distributed data generation, local computation and secure transmission of information in remote locations.
- Wireless sensor networks: Overcoming technical barriers in secure, reliable, and energy-efficient connectivity and coordination.
- Multiscale, multimodal sensor deployment and integration: Data fusion techniques to register remote-sensor, point-sensor, genomic, weather, and other data for broad-acre usage.
- Analytics and Machine Learning: Algorithms to optimize yields in practice; user-friendly interfaces; permissioned management and secure data transmission on the farm and through product delivery to the supply chain.
Target outcomes include:
- The identification of specific technical barriers to the development and adoption of the aforementioned tools at acceptable cost to growers.
- Realistic timeframes and technical metrics for successful prototypes.
- New professional relationships among disparate technical communities in the biological, chemical, engineering, and computational sciences, which could form the basis for teaming opportunities.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, you may apply to attend by sending an email to ARPA-E-workshops@hq.doe.gov stating your interest in attending. See additional details at the following event website: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=workshop/energy-smart-farm-distributed-intelligence-networks-highly-variable-and-resource
Registration instructions will be sent to potential attendees who have provided complete information and as space permits. Advance registration is required for entry to the workshop.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)
- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is hosting SciComm, a conference dedicated to understanding and promoting effective communication of science to diverse audiences – including students of all levels as well as the general public – across all venues. The conference will take place from March 23 – 25, 2018 on the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The conference has six key areas of focus:
- Informal STEM Learning: Engaging students and the general public through informal activities conducted outside of the classroom.
- Science Communication Research: Discovering the best methods to ensure that your audience engages with and retains scientific communications.
- K-12 STEM: Supporting the effective dissemination of scientific information and investigative skills in K-12 classrooms.
- Disciplinary-Based Education Research: Facilitating student comprehension and retention of scientific concepts.
- Science and Media: Enabling collaboration between scientists and science communicators in today's dynamic media environment.
- Broader Impacts: Helping scientists determine the best way to expand the reach of their work.
The event will feature numerous activities:
Friday, March 23rd
- Professional Development Workshops: AAAS, Portal to the Public (PopNet), Improv for Scientists (Friends of Joe's Big Idea) and Summing-up Your Science in 90 Seconds
- Student Lightning Talk competition on the following topics: climate change, vaccines, evolution. NPR's Joe Palca and Maddie Sofia will judge and participate in feedback and discussion following talks.
- Evening Film Festival
Saturday, March 24th
- Keynote address by Dr. Jacqueline Gill from the Climate Change Institute. Dr. Gill applies an interdisciplinary approach combining paleoenvironmental reconstructions from lake sediments, modern field ecology, and modeling. She is also the co-host of the Warm Regards Podcast.
- Morning of talks on topics encompassing Informal STEM Learning, Science Communication Research, K-12 STEM, Disciplinary-Based Education Research (DBER), Science and Media and Broader Impacts.
- A special question and answer panel with local NPR and NET staff on the theme CRISPR and the News.
- A Community Science Festival - an opportunity to engage the public (or yourself) in hands-on science activities.
Sunday, March 25th
- Keynote address by NPR's Joe Palca, NPR Science Contributor, founder of Joe's Big Idea, and former president of the National Association of Science Writers.
- Morning of talks on topics encompassing Informal STEM Learning, Science Communication Research, K-12 STEM, Disciplinary-Based Education Research (DBER), Science and Media and Broader Impacts.
Registration includes your choice of two workshops on Friday the 23rd and two full days of talks and activities on the 24th and 25th.If you are interested in participating in the workshop, you may complete registration at the following link: http://nescicomm.com/registration/. The cost to attend is as follows:
- Regular Admission – $130
- Students/K-12 Teachers – $40
Please forward this blog announcement to any colleagues and K-12 teachers who may have interest.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)
- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the 2018 Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funding opportunities. The program supports projects addressing global health and development challenges related to:
Innovations in Immunization Data Management, Use, and Improved Process Efficiency
Within this call to promote the effective use of timely and relevant data to drive programmatic performance, and thus increase the number of children vaccinated globally, the Foundation is looking for innovative ideas in the following specific areas:
- Innovative ideas for improving the measurement approaches for immunization data (e.g., process, equity, coverage indicators) with a focus on data use by program managers, triangulation across data sources, and methods to measure and quantify data use.
- Novel approaches for improving process efficiency that will lead to improved quality of service delivery.
Affordable, Accessible, and Appealing: The Next Generation of Nutrition
The Foundation desires to advance innovative technologies to enhance the availability and accessibility of affordable, nutritious foods for low-income consumers, working within the key constraint that these innovations must be relevant to market-based food systems in low and middle-income countries. Overall, our target population is young women, mothers, and children from 6-23 months of age. Accordingly, the proposed technologies funded must not undermine exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life.
Tools and Technologies for Broad-Scale Disease Surveillance of Crop Plants in Low-Income Countries
The goal of this topic is to solicit innovative tools and technologies for crop pests and disease surveillance over large geographic regions in low-income countries. The Foundation is looking for tools and approaches that have the potential to transform crop pest and disease surveillance globally, with a focus on low-income countries. Ideas that result in increased coverage of geographic area will be prioritized over ideas that increase diagnostic accuracy. Ideas that are applicable or adaptable to multiple crops and diseases/pests will be prioritized over ideas that are specific to only one crop or pathogen. Because the focus is on low-income countries, successful proposals will take into account small-scale, difficult-to-reach, intercropped farming systems with multiple pests and diseases.
Grants will be awarded in the amount of $100,000, and successful projects will be eligible to receive follow-on funding up to $1 million. The program requests innovative idea concept papers (limited to two pages) by May 2, 2018. No preliminary data is required.
Other Grand Challenges grant opportunities are as follows:
- Grand Challenges: Campylobacter spp. Transmission Dynamics in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
- Grand Challenges Explorations – Brazil: Data Science Approaches to Improve Maternal and Child Health in Brazil. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
- Grand Challenges Explorations – India (Round 4). Application deadline is March 31, 2018.
- Misk Grand Challenges: Activating Global Citizenship: Building the Next Generation of Global Citizens for the Global Goals. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
- Misk Grand Challenges: Reinventing Teaching and School Leadership: Preparing the Youth with the 21st Century Skills Needed for a Knowledge Economy. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
- Grand Challenges for Development: Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge. Application deadline is April 12, 2018.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)
- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
Starting this month, Contracts and Grants will begin featuring a blog series, ANR ADVISE$, aimed at sharing effective grant-writing practices and perspectives across the organization.
This first blog posting highlights advice from Dr. Jeremy James.
Dr. James joined ANR in 2012 as the Director, Sierra Foothill Research & Extension Center (SFREC). In this role, Dr. James has successfully conducted a number of federally funded projects related to rangeland management. We recently inquired with Dr. James to find out how and why he has had such grant writing success.
"In my experience, there are a couple of lessons I have learned around grant writing. Below I outline my top 5 points that seem to be useful to me:
1. No two proposal development processes are the same. Understanding early on everything you can about the program can be really helpful, including why the program exists, what they have recently funded, how the review process is handled, as well as program budgets over the last few years.
2. Just like everything else, relationships are key. Usually calls for proposals have very short time windows giving you almost no time to assemble a team. Having an established network of colleagues that could mobilize quickly around an opportunity can be helpful.
3. Researching potential calls for proposal ahead of time can be useful. Many programs put out a regular annual call for proposals. If you find one that fits your research interests you can began to work on solidifying ideas and collaborations way ahead of the call, sometimes years ahead if preliminary data are required or helpful.
4. Being able to stylize your most important ideas is helpful. Often the research ideas we propose to pursue in a research proposal are not that easy to describe. If you can stylize your idea or main concepts in a sophisticated way it could really help reviewers understand the value of what you hope to do.
5. Remembering it is not about you, it is about them. Here the “them” refers to the funding program and the proposal reviewers. While as researchers we bring the expertise to funding agencies, the proposals are there to address funding agency needs and goals and the panel reviewers help to make sure the agencies are best meeting their goals. Structuring your proposal with this in mind can help connect what you offer to the program."
We greatly appreciate Dr. James sharing these important five points on planning and developing a successful grant proposal.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)
- Author: Kathleen P Nolan
Dear Colleagues,
The University of California, Davis is hosting Interdisciplinary Research Catalyst: Conversations in Community & Citizen Science, a workshop dedicated to a full day of learning, discussion, and networking activities amongst faculty members and researchers, sponsored by the UC Davis Office of Research, Strategic Initiatives Group. The event will take place on Monday, May 7th at the Manetti Shrem Museum.
Confirmed keynote speaker is Dr. Raj Pandya. Pandya is the Program Director of Thriving Earth Exchange, an initiative of the American Geophysical Union, focused on helping volunteer scientists and community leaders work together to use science, and a Founding Board Member of the Citizen Science Association.
Attendees will also learn about funding opportunities, build collaborations, and explore how you can incorporate citizen and community science into your research as a powerful tool for science, outreach, and engagement.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, you may register to attend as well as receive additional updates about the agenda: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/irc-conversations-in-community-and-citizen-science-tickets-43941303622
Register today as space is limited.
Thank you.
Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)