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Welcome to our ORI newsletter. Inside you’ll find lots of useful information about opportunities, policy changes, and exciting events like our spring 2020 convocation. This year's spring convocation could be called "Humans of Kalamazoo" as it highlights both the new public health collaboration occurring across WMU and our colleagues in the humanities and arts through partnership with the University Center for the Humanities.  Please stop by the Fetzer center to participate and learn. In addition to a lot of good news it’s important to be aware of the recent cases in the news of undue foreign influence particularly as relates to federally funded researchers. WMU has established a task force that is looking across the University at our policies and procedures to ensure that we meet all federal reporting requirements as well as providing information to faculty and staff on how to manage international interactions.  One critically important point is to always disclose all outside funding you receive on any grant application. In addition if you have questions about your foreign interactions we encourage you to talk to your department chair, our colleagues at HIGE or myself as we are all happy to assist in reviewing any potential concerns you may have.  You can expect more information soon from our partners in this work which includes HIGE, general counsel, the graduate college, government affairs, business and finance, the Provost’s office and advancement.  Information is available on our website , and as always our goal remains to be an internationally engaged university that provides the information and support needed for international collaboration to continue to flourish at WMU.

2020 Spring Convocation, March 10 
The Office of Research and Innovation along with The Office of the President is pleased to announce this year's Spring Convocation will be on Tuesday, March 10, from 9 to 2 p.m. at the Fetzer Center. There are two symposiums that will be taking place from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Dr. Lofton Durham, College of Fine Arts and Dr. Ann Miles from the College of Arts and Sciences will chair “On Being Human:  Recent Work in the Humanities and the Arts”.  Dr. Mark Kelley, College of Health and Human Services and Dr. Georgiana Fisher, College of Arts and Sciences will chair “Connections to Public Health”.  This year’s Fulbright Workshop will be from 9 to 10 a.m. with individual advising sessions from 10 to noon.  The Faculty Research and Creative Activity Awards Poster Presentations will be in the Lobby of Fetzer from 11:30 to 12:30 p.m.  Please check our website for possible updates as the event draws closer.                                                       

Spring 2020 ICD Program Update 
The Spring 2020 introduction to Customer Discovery program started on January 31, with 9 teams: 3 tech teams, 2 from WMU and 1 from MSU; 3 student teams; and 3 community teams. ICD training provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn about the customer discovery interview process and then to practice it gathering information from their startup's potential customers. This course will encompass two main concepts for commercialization, namely value proposition and customer segmentation. There is no registration cost for a team to attend this program.  The course is a joint sponsorship with �鶹��ýӦ�� Technological University and Western �鶹��ýӦ�� University. 

Monroe-Brown fund recipient and project: 
The Monroe-Brown Foundation Entrepreneurship Fund has awarded $75,000 to WMU faculty member; Dr. Muralidhar Ghantasala for establishment of startup company that will license a torque sensing technology for trucks and cars from WMU. This technology will create more efficient vehicle shifting providing significant fuel savings. This award is provided through the Technology and Innovation Advancement.

Summer Salary Worksheet now available for 2020 
You can now access the summer salary worksheet for faculty summer grant pay.  It can be located in our forms section of our website and filled out once HR opens the submission period for summer salary.

Fall ecrt Confirmation Period Opening Soon
The fall (August 15th-December 31st) ecrt pre-review period is now open.  Please refer to Grants and Contracts website for step by step instructions.  Before clicking the pre-review button, please make sure all payroll, direct or cost share, for the project is reflected.  If not, please contact Grants and Contracts.  Pre-review will need to be completed prior to the opening of confirmation, which is scheduled for February 11th.

NSF Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide 2020 
NSF has issued a revised version of the NSF . The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due, and awards made, on or after June 1, 2020. Several changes to requirements for proposal documents including the biographical sketch, current and pending support and the project description will be of interest to faculty and staff submitting proposals to NSF.  Please go to our website for more information.

A full is available from NSF.

Graduate Research and Creative Activities Poster and Performance Day 
The Graduate College is pleased to announce that the 2020 Graduate Student Research and Creative Activities Poster and Performance Day will be Thursday, March 26 from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the East Ballroom, Bernhard Center, on main campus. This event provides an opportunity for WMU graduate students to promote university scholarship and advance our discovery mission. Students engaged in research will present visual poster displays outlining a research project of their choosing. Students engaged in creative scholarship will perform a selection of their choice. Faculty judges will critique their work, and prizes for the highest scores will be provided by the Graduate Student Association. All are invited to attend this free event to see first-hand the amazing scholarship of our graduate students.  

Library Skills Day 
The University Libraries are hosting Library Skills Day on Tuesday, Feb 18^th, designed to help students, faculty, and staff upgrade their knowledge and skills with the resources and services of the University Libraries.  Sessions are focused on two different tracks, students and faculty, and designed to provide information to help achieve success with coursework and research.  Details are available at .

Compliance Summit: "Creating a Culture of Compliance" 
The WMU Compliance Committee is hosting a Compliance Summit "Creating a Culture of Compliance" on February 28, 2020.  Three speakers are currently scheduled, Bronwen Taylor, Stryker Chief Compliance Officer; Melissa Rix, Compliance Officer from Gibson Financial; and Traci Gauthier, Compliance Officer with Greenleaf Trust.  Details are available at this link.  

All Human Subject Research Protocols must be emailed 
Beginning March 1, all human subject research protocols submitted to the WMU IRB must be emailed to this email address .  A signed hard copy will no longer be required. In addition, the application, protocol outline, and consent document templates, found at this link, must be used for all IRB submissions.  When submitting the application, you may use an electronic signature or sign, scan, and attached the signature page as a separate document. Should you have questions, please contact the associate director research compliance at 269-387-8293 or via email to Julia Mays.

Also:
Single IRB-of-Record (sIRB) - IRB oversight for most federally-funded collaborative research projects located in the U.S. will be required to use a single IRB (commercial, academic, or hospital-based) starting January 20, 2020.  See 45 CFR 46.114(b).     

Keep Us In the Loop 
ORI is very interested in hearing about the accomplishments of our faculty in the area of research and creative activities.  For example, we are starting a wall with copies of journal covers highlighting the work of our faculty, students and staff.  If your work has been featured please print a high-quality 8 1/2 x 11 inch copy of the cover, sign it and send it to me for inclusion on the wall.  In addition, we love to hear about awarded fellowships, notable awards outside of the University, Honorary Society Memberships and special activities that we can highlight.  It's easy for us to know grants, but it's very important for us to highlight all of the achievements at WMU.  Don't forget, the Provost would also like copies of your books!       

Reminder: 
The next Discovery Acceleration Workshop titled "Resubmissions" will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 18th, in Brown Hall room 3025, noon to 1:30 p.m.  Dr. Terri Kinzy, Vice President for Research and Innovation and Dr. Heather Petcovic, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will share their experiences and insights with resubmitting proposals. Visit this link for more details.                               

Upcoming events to watch for more information   

• 2019-2020 Discovery Acceleration Workshop Series Information
  • Resubmissions - February 18, noon - 1:30 p.m. 3025 Brown Hall.                                                 
• WMU Compliance Summit - February 28, 2020 - go to this link for more information.

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