Research Revealed: Meet Your Support Team

August 2019 | Information & Support for the BU Research Community

Insider Insights

  • Attend the annual Research Open House on Wednesday, September 18 to meet the staff who support your research and learn the ins and outs of securing and managing funding, conducting research, and sharing your work with critical audiences.
  • The case for decluttering your research lab (University of Houston)
  • Ideas for tackling writer’s block in academia (Science)

Find Funding

  • Dimensions is a database available to BU faculty and staff that provides integrated analysis of the research and funding landscape by searching grants, patents, clinical trials, policy documents, and publications. Learn more, sign up for an upcoming webinar, or make an appointment with BU Libraries Digital Scholarship Services for an overview of how to use this service to further your work.
  • Last year, 62 percent of BU’s federal funding came from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which places a few key limitations on the amount of funding researchers can receive. Review this new resourcefrom Federal Relations to learn if there are NIH institute policies in place that may affect your next proposal.

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Manage an Award

  • Business Warehouse (BW) reports are a wealth of information for BU grant administrators. If you’re new to BW reporting, or just looking to do something different, check out this how-to guide on the most common post award financial reports. Don’t miss, for example, the popular Budget vs. Actuals report, for details on expenses, commitments, payroll, and budget.
  • A new rule that would require scientists to register basic studies of the human brain and behavior funded by the NIH in a government database of clinical trials has been further delayed. The enforcement date, originally extended to September of this year, has now been pushed to September 24, 2021.
  • Financial administrators, there’s still time to sign up for After-the-Fact Review Training on Wednesday, September 25, which covers how to review posted transactions, plus other tips on grant and gift fund centers.

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Conduct Research

  • BU investigators conducting research with people—from clinical trials to secondary data analysis—work with BU’s institutional review boards (IRBs). The IRB office on the Charles River Campus holds open office hours on Mondays and Thursdays from 11:30 am to 1 pm at 25 Buick Street, Room 157. Stop by to discuss your IRB questions with one of the IRB analysts. The Medical Campus IRB office holds drop-in hours weekly on a rotating schedule. 
  • The Charles River Campus IRB also welcomes a new director this month. Pamela Richmond joins BU with 15 years in IRB administration, most recently as the Director of IRB Operations and Research Compliance at Hebrew SeniorLife. Pamela can be reached at pamelajr@bu.edu or 617-358-6345.

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Promote Your Work

  • Ready to spread the word about your work? There are more effective methods than a press release. Consider hosting an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on Reddit—an organic and fun way to promote your research and generate media interest. Andy Andres, Senior Lecturer, Natural Sciences & Mathematics (CGS), reached an audience of 82,000 discussing the science and objective analysis of baseball.
  • BU Public Relations offers individual and group training sessions to prepare faculty and staff for print or broadcast interviews. Learn moreor reach out to pr@bu.edu.
  • Technology Development is seeking nominations for the 2019 Innovator of the Year Award through Friday, September 20.
  • TEDMED, the independent health and medicine edition of the TED conference, will be held in Boston in March 2020. Learn more about the conference, including how to attend and nominate a speaker.

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Notes & News

  • Technology Development announced nine faculty winners of the 2019 Ignition Award, which provides $75k in seed funding to support early-stage projects with clear commercial and medical potential.
  • Professor Danielle Citron (LAW) gave a TED talk on the growing problem of deepfake technology.
  • Associate Professor Michael Dietze, Earth & Environment (CAS), was featured in Science for his field-leading work in ecological forecasting.
  • Associate Professor Wen Li, Astronomy (CAS); Assistant Professor Michelle Sander, Assistant Professor Sahar Sharifzadeh, and Assistant Professor Lei Tian, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG); Assistant Professor Brian Walsh, Mechanical Engineering (ENG); and Assistant Professor Ting Zhang, Mathematics (CAS), received CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation.
  • Associate Professor Stephanie Curenton, Education Leadership & Policy Studies (Wheelock), was named to the inaugural class of the National Black Child Development Institute.
  • Associate Professor Margaret Beck, Mathematics & Statistics (CAS), received the J. D. Crawford Prize from the Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics.
  • Professor Matt Cartmill, Anthropology (CAS), received the Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
  • Professor Mark Grinstaff, Biomedical Engineering (ENG) and Chemistry (CAS), received two R01 grants from the NIH: $2.7M to develop a biodegradable nanoparticle to deliver a chemotherapeutic agent to peritoneal tumors, and $2.2M to evaluate a drug-loaded surgical buttress to prevent local cancer recurrence.
  • Professor Jonathan Woodson, Director of the Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy, was published in the August military health issue of Health Affairs.

Useful Links

  • Prepare a Proposal: Resources to help navigate proposal requirements from both the sponsor and the University.
  • Proposal Review: When and how to send your final proposal to Sponsored Programs for review and submission.
  • Gifts vs. Agreements: How to determine if funding from a foundation or industry sponsor is a gift or sponsored agreement.
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