The OSU Training Portal is available to faculty and staff, and located in your my.oregonstate.edu dashboard, by clicking the “Training” tab in the top right corner. Discover and search for trainings, webinars and more – all geared towards OSU employees. Bookmark https://my.oregonstate.edu/employee/training so you can return to it often. Do you have an upcoming learning opportunity geared towards OSU employees? Reach out to hr.training@oregonstate.edu to learn how to add your event to the portal. 

Please share with early career faculty and/or invite them to join our listserv.

https://lists.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/cos-research-employees

Preapplications are required and there is a webinar on January 10^th. 

U.S. Department of Energy Announces Early Career Research Program for FY 2024

Awards Will Support Outstanding Early Career Scientists at Universities, National Laboratories, and Office of Science User Facilities

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it is accepting applications for the 2024 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers. The program will support over 80 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions, DOE national laboratories, and Office of Science user facilities.

“The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is delivering scientific discoveries and tools needed to keep the U.S. science and technology enterprise at the forefront. Early career researchers are key to driving the nation’s innovation engine,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Director of DOE’s Office of Science. “The Early Career Research program allows scientists to push the frontiers of knowledge to close major scientific challenges, and as needed, to gain experience working across large scientific facilities at the department’s national laboratories and user facilities. This program offers a unique opportunity to propel the careers of promising early career researchers.”

To be eligible for the program, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility. To address special circumstances and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for a second year the Office of Science is extending the eligibility window for this competition from 10 to 12 years for all applicants. Awards to an institution of higher education will be approximately $875,000 over five years and the minimum request for awards to a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility will be approximately $2,750,000 over five years. 

DOE’s Office of Science is the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Early career researchers may apply to one of eight Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Biological and Environmental Research; Basic Energy Sciences; Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics; Nuclear Physics; Accelerator R&D and Production; and Isotope R&D and Production. Proposed research topics must fall within the programmatic priorities of DOE’s Office of Science, which are provided in the program announcement. Funding will be competitively awarded on the basis of peer review.

Pre-applications are mandatory and are due on Tuesday, January 30, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Applications will be due on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Only those applicants that receive notification from DOE encouraging a formal application may submit full applications.

A webinar on this opportunity will be held on January 10, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Please register here.

Further information can be found on the Office of Science funding opportunities page.

My name is Borna, and I am a student volunteer with Conversations to Remember, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, dedicated towards combating loneliness and isolation felt by senior citizens. We are very interested in partnering with you to have your students volunteer with us to help these seniors. Our virtual visit program matches 2-3 college students with residents of long-term care, assisted living, and memory care communities for virtual video visits. These residents have been suffering from isolation, and your students could really brighten their days just by speaking with them. We provide training to the students in the program about the best ways to interact with the seniors, as well as additional support throughout their service. Since these visits are virtual, your students can do it without any travel. This is both convenient, and allows more of the volunteers’ time to be spent volunteering, rather than commuting to their volunteering location. We provide this program free of charge to seniors across the country, and have students from around the country as well. We would very much like to partner with you, and hope that your students would like to volunteer to help our seniors.

Typically, students volunteer 1-2 hours per week. Each call lasts up to one hour, based on the senior’s attention span and mood on each day. We expect students to volunteer for approximately 16 weeks, so that they can build a friendship with the senior. This does not need to coincide with the start of a semester, as we have new seniors starting all the time, and train new volunteers weekly. The students are matched based on the times that they’re available, with a senior who is available at the same time, and they will have a regular, weekly appointment for their visit. Students wishing for more visits or other opportunities that allow them to volunteer more hours can be accommodated with different ways to volunteer, such as assisting us with our social media, call support, or outreach.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you have about the program, or to look through our website, at https://conversationstoremember.org. Your students can register to volunteer by filling out a volunteer interest form on our website. If you’d like a flyer to tell your students about us, you can find one here.

Regards,

————————–

Borna Golbarg

Conversations to Remember, a NJ Nonprofit Corporation
Telephone: 862-243-5331
www.ConversationsToRemember.org

Keck Foundation’s Interests for Its Research Grants 

For science/engineering projects and medical research projects, the Keck Foundation seeks to support projects likely to lead to new models or breakthroughs in fundamental science, engineering, and medical science. (The Keck Foundation is not interested in applied science.) 

A successful Keck Foundation proposal in either category could lead to the creation of a new field of research, development of new instrumentation that facilitates observations and the science of the previously unobservable, or discovery of knowledge that challenges prevailing perspectives and paradigms. Proposals should provide new and transformative answers or approaches to underlying questions in fundamental science and should address issues that seem unsolvable, unattainable, or intractable. 

The Keck Foundation funds proposals that are necessarily high-risk projects that push the edge of the field(s) and present unconventional approaches to intransient problems. The Keck Foundation does not fund projects that represent the “next logical step” in research or applied research. The Keck Foundation also prefers projects that do not qualify for funding from—or, better yet, have been previously rejected by—federal agencies, such as NSF and NIH, due to the proposed project’s high-risk nature. 

The ideal concept paper would attest to a previous federal agency’s declination due to the high-risk nature of the proposal in spite of high reviewer scores in federal agency proposal submissions. Successful proposals should hold promise of a significant breakthrough or new discovery in science, engineering, or medical research.

The bi-annual internal limited submission for Keck Foundation research grants is open in InfoReady and due on January 3, 2023 @ 11:59 pm.

Join Academic Technologies and Office of the Registrar from 2-3 p.m., Dec. 7, for a 30-minute overview on the new Final Grades tool in Canvas. Faculty will learn how to export their final course grades from Canvas into a Banner-ready Excel format. We will have time after the overview for Q&A. Please register using OSU ONID email. Questions? Email us at Canvas@oregonstate.edu

The Dr. MLK Day of Service will take place on Jan. 13. This event is an opportunity to honor Dr. King’s legacy through volunteer service. A light breakfast, snacks and hot lunch will be provided to participants. Check-in and meals will be held in the Horizon Room of the Memorial Union. Project times and locations vary; see the registration page for details. Community Engagement & Leadership will provide transportation to and from service projects. Register here: beav.es/cel.

The OSU Alumni Association is making spirits bright with “Festive Connections: Navigating Networking During the Holiday Season,” 4 p.m., Dec. 14. Executive recruiter Nick Poloni, ’15, unwraps the secret for helping you “sleigh” your networking game during this most wonderful time of the year. Register for this engaging and informative webinar for free at ForOregonState.org/AskAlumni.