Research Announcements

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is Soliciting Proposals in Response to the RFA from the NIGMS CoBRE Program

Deadline Extended!  The internal competition for a new Phase I CoBRE has been extended to December 1, 2018 for consideration of submission January 2020.  Please contact Paula Turpen in the office of research if you have questions.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is soliciting proposals from UNMC faculty in response to the Request for Applications (RFA) from the National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program

NIGMS has issued an RFA announcing the 2019 rounds of COBRE competition. UNMC has a long history of competing successfully for these $10 million awards and is now eligible to submit an application for a new COBRE grant. Only one proposal may be submitted per eligible institution per fiscal year. The eligible institution is responsible for selecting and approving that project before it can be submitted.

One of the principal mechanisms of IDeA support for research is the COBRE grant, which supports thematic, multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity. This is accomplished by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program.

NIH-funded investigators with expertise central to the theme of the grant proposal lead these centers. The centers promote collaborative, interactive efforts among researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills and expertise.

In some instances, COBRE support facilitates the development of new, disease-specific research centers or augments the capability of existing centers. Researchers supported through COBRE are expected to compete independently for external peer-reviewed grant support.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research evaluates potential UNMC proposals for COBRE grants and is currently soliciting outlines of prospective projects that could be developed into full-scale COBRE proposals for the January 2020 deadline.

Senior scientists are encouraged to submit a two-page outline of their proposed project that summarizes how they propose to address each of the COBRE components, which can be downloaded here. Outlines should follow this template format.

These two-page summaries are due to Deb Hawkins on December 1st.

From these summaries, UNMC deans and directors (or their designates) will identify the project to develop into a full COBRE proposal for submission by January 2020. Questions can be directed to Paula Turpen at 402-559-6162

User-Fee Voucher Program for UNMC Advanced Microscopy Core Facility Announced

The Nebraska Center for Cellular Signaling is pleased to announce that funding through a voucher program is available to support usage of the UNMC Advanced Microscopy Core Facility. The facility encompasses microscopes with live-­cell capability as well as a new, state-­of-­the-­art Zeiss ELYRA PS.1 super-­resolution microscope capable of Super-­Resolution Structured Illumination Microscopy (SR-­SIM) and single-­molecule localization techniques such as direct Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (dSTORM) and Photoactivatable Localization Microscopy (PALM). We support an applications specialist whose job is to promote the use of super-­resolution techniques so that a broader swath of the research community uses dSTORM or PALM.

Further information about the core facility and its capabilities may be found on our main website:
https://www.unmc.edu/vcr/cores/vcr-­cores/confocal-­microscopy/index.html

Purpose: The goals of this voucher program are to encourage and support usage of the microscopes by investigators for projects (1) to help acquire preliminary data for external grant applications that would use the core facility and (2) to promote utilization of microscopy in their research by users who are new to the technology.

Description: Vouchers in amounts up to $2,500 per project will be made on a competitive basis for a one-­year duration. These funds will not be allocated directly to the investigators’ laboratories, but would instead be held in an account by the Core Facility to be expended as needed to subsidize usage
fees for the Core for the applicable projects.

Eligibility and Qualifications: The voucher program is not limited to current NCCS investigators, but is available to any faculty members holding tenure ­leading appointments at UNMC, UNO, UNL or Creighton University. Individuals with transient commitments to or from their institutions will NOT be eligible; thus, post-­doctoral fellows and visiting professors and investigators with no more than adjunct appointments are not eligible.

Proposal Requirements: Submit a one-­page description of the entire project in the format of an NIH R-­type specific aims page accompanied by an NIH-­style Bio-Sketch of the Principal Investigator.  Include a cover letter summarizing your past experience with and the usage of microscopy in your research. Be sure to justify your proposed hours of use of the core facility relative to the requested funds. Blanket requests for $2,500 without a thoughtful projection of your likely needs will be given low priority for funding. In addition, you should state how your intended use of the voucher program would either enhance an ongoing project or improve the likelihood of acquiring external funding for a new project. The Executive Committee of the Core Facility will evaluate the proposals and awardees will be notified by email when decisions have been made.

Deadline for receipt of proposals: April 21, 2017
Earliest possible date vouchers would be available: May 15, 2017

For further Information:
Keith Johnson: 402-­559-­3890, kjohnsonr@unmc.edu
Rick MacDonald: 402-­559-­7824, rgmacdon@unmc.edu