• NAE Establishes $1M Sustainability Prize
• New NineSigma RFPs

The National Academy of Engineering has established the Grainger Prize for Sustainability. A $1 million award will be granted to the individual or team with the best plan for development of a community scale or household scale water treatment system to remove arsenic from the arsenic-contaminated groundwater found in many developing countries. The system must have a low life cycle cost, be technically robust, reliable, maintainable, socially acceptable and affordable, be manufactured and serviced in a developing country, and must not degrade other water quality characteristics. With this prize, the NAE/Grainger Foundation hopes to engage the American engineering community in the effort to find a solution to this massive public health problem. Proposals due June 2006. Full details, timeline and instructions available on the NAE/Grainger Challenge website.

New NineSigma RFPs

NineSigma works with companies in search of innovative solutions from R&D institutions. New RFPs from NineSigma are now available in the following areas: automotive / manufacturing; chemistry; engineering / materials; packaging and consumer products; and in a variety of new applications and markets including the future of "imaging" markets and nanoparticles in product development. Up-to-date RFP announcements from Nine Sigma are posted on the Corporate Funding page of the Research Area website. ILED provides support services for your Nine Sigma proposal. Contact Marla Michel or Karen Hayes (545-2706) for more information.

• Research Leadership Recipients Announced
• UMA Awarded Professional Development Grants

The first-round of Research Leadership in Action (RLA) awards were announced by the Vice Provost for Research on June 1st, 2005. Awards totalling $57,000 were made to four top proposals from Polymer Science and Engineering, Art, Art History and Psychology. Award recipient details can be found on the RLA awards page.

A second round of RLA funding will be available in the fall and proposals are now being accepted for the Nov. 1st deadline. For more information, visit the RLA website or contact Karen Hayes, program administrator (545-2706).

Four UMass Amherst-led technology projects received funding this cycle from the Professional Development Grant (PDG) Program sponsored by the UM President's Office Information Technology Council (ITC). Awards were made to the School of Education (Making Sense of School Data with Tablet PCs) Asian Languages and Lit (Integrate Technology in Chinese Character Teaching and Learning), English Department (Conference on Writing, Teaching, and Technology, K-College: what has tech done to the idea of writing and teaching writing?) and the Dubois Library jointly with UMass Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell libraries (University of Massachusetts Digital Image Database, Phase I: Developing System-Wide Standards for Descriptive Technical Metadata). The four projects, totaling about $25,000 of the $99,138.00 awarded, were among the 12 proposals funded this year. A complete list of grant recipients will be posted at the President's Office ITC site soon. Professional Development Grants have been awarded by the President's Office yearly since 1995 and faculty from all 5 UMass campuses are eligible to apply. The Grants support the effective use of technology in curriculum development, instruction and learning assessment. To learn more, visit the PDG website or contact Mark Schlesinger in the President's Office at (617) 287-7137.

• PVLSI Honored by State Industry Group

The Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI) was one of five regional recipients of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Achievement Award. The industry group, which boasts more than 7,600 member businesses, made the awards as part of the non-profit group's 90th anniversary celebration. The celebration focuses on achievements by leaders and institutions in business and industry, and their contributions to the Massachusetts economy over the past 90 years. PVLSI, a partnership between UMass Amherst and Baystate Health Systems, was honored for improving the business climate of Massachusetts through contributions that have made an impact on the economic vitality and strength of the community, region, or state. To read more about PVLSI, visit their website.

• Bioinformatics SIG, June Meeting
• Clean Energy SIG, June Meeting

The second meeting of the Bioinformatics Special Interest Group will be held on Thursday, June 16 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm 151 Computer Science building, UMass Amherst. Guest speakers will be Dave Wilson, Vice President of Software Engineering at Protedyne in Windsor, Connecticut, and Oliver Brock, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, UMass Amherst. Mr. Wilson will be speaking on "Integrating a Laboratory Information Management System into Closed-loop Cherry Picking" while Professor Brock will talk on "Computational Methods for Protein Structure Prediction in the Context of the Protein Structure Initiative." All those interested in bioinformatics and related computational aspects of biology are encouraged to attend. Please RSVP to Carol Nalesnik, Regional Technology Corp, (413) 755- 1301.

In related news, top researchers from across New England gathered in Lowell on April 29 for the Third UMass Bioinformatics Conference. Speakers from UMass Amherst and the rest of the University system gave presentations on their work at the intersection of computer programming, mathematics, biology and chemistry. The Lowell conference follows the recent launch of the Western Massachusetts bioinformatics Special Interest Group, based at UMass Amherst. For more information, visit the Western Mass SysBio SIG wiki.

Clean Energy SIG, June Meeting

The second meeting of the Clean Energy and Sustainable Technology Special Interest Group will be held Thursday, June 23 from 4-6pm at the BankNorth Conference Room, 1441 Main St. Springfield. The objective of the group is provide a forum for furthering development of the technologies, products, and services to the clean, renewable, and sustainable technology domain. The SIG is part of the Regional Technology Council's Technology Enterprise Council. "We are gathering interest and support in the region, and have an opportunity to impact the future of clean energy in our region and beyond," said SIG Chair Janus Ternullo. A great strength of the SIG is the diverse array of knowledgeable, skilled and talented people involved. Please contribute your knowledge, take a moment to fill out SIG Directory Survey and Resource Survey. The upcoming June meeting will focus on identifying primary areas of interest and pursuing them in a managed way. The public is welcome, but pre-registration is required. Contact the RTC to register (Carol Nalesnik, 755-1301).

• TEI Launches Interdisciplinary Environmental Program

The Environmental Institute (TEI) kicks off a new interdisciplinary program designed to spur ongoing research within three key environmental areas: Climate Change; Environmental Contaminants; and Environmental Modeling and Monitoring. Funding comes from the Department of Energy and will be used to create sustainable programs based on new external funding. The centerpiece of this strategic initiative is the Environmental Fellow Program that links research with interdisciplinary activities in each thematic area. Interdisciplinary Faculty Groups work with the Environmental Fellows to identify critical research needs, develop research proposals that result in new external funding; and provide a forum for identifying and responding to new and emerging needs. Pending availability of funds, this model will be expanded in future years to include additional thematic areas and critical research needs. Visit the TEI website for a description of the Postdoctoral Environmental Fellow positions. Review of applications will begin July 1 with a target start date of September 1. Contact TEI at 545-2842 for more information.

• Sponsored Research Activity Searchable Online
• Participants Wanted for Electronic Submission Pilot Test

The world of UMass Amherst research activity is now searchable online through OGCA's sponsored research custom query web page. UMass Amherst attracts over $100 million in externally sponsored research each year, making it one of the nation's Research Extensive institutions. Visitors to the OGCA custom query page can access twenty-five years of UMass Amherst research history. Research activity can be queried by investigator name, academic department, title keyword or sponsor name. Get to know the world- class research underway at UMass Amherst. Try OGCA custom query today.

Participants Wanted for Electronic Submission Pilot Test

UMass Amherst is participating in the initial pilot for electronic submission (system to system) for our proposal development software (GAMS) via Grants.gov. Participants are needed for this important benchmark. Some of the agencies with programs coming up this summer are: Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Deptartment of Commerce. The Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts are also agencies that use Grants.gov. All investigators planning proposals to any of these federal agencies after June 1 are eligible to participate. To get involved, please send an email to Leanne Every with information on the sponsor and due date of your submission.

• TinkerPlots Software Licensed to Key Curriculum Press
• UMA Grants Exclusive Patent Rights to Chlamydia Vaccine

Software developed by the UMass Amherst Statistics Education Research Group has been licensed to Key Curriculum Press, a business that provides the educational community with alternative mathematics materials. Tinker Plots, developed by Professor Cliff Konold and Senior Software Engineer Craig Miller, is a software construction set of basic operations (stack, order, separate) that allows students to build their own plots to analyze data. Initially developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, TinkerPlots is designed for integration into classroom mathematics lessons in grades 4-8. In addition to the license to Key Curriculum Press, TinkerPlots is endorsed by the Parents' Choice Foundation and licensed for use in all schools in the Canadian province of Ontario. Did you know that UMass Amherst has more than 200 technology cases under management, many of which are available for license? To learn more, visit the CVIP website or contact Michael Jaremchuk (413) 577-6121.

UMA Grants Exclusive Patent Rights to Chlamydia Vaccine

BioVeris Corporation announced today that it has entered into an option agreement with UMass Amherst for exclusive patent rights to a unique vaccine candidate for Chlamydia, the most frequently reported infectious disease in the United States. Under the agreement, BioVeris acquired a first option for exclusive rights to commercialize products for possible use in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all Chlamydial infections, including the disease, Chlamydia. "We continually seek partnerships with leading universities and research institutions when we believe their research has significant potential commercialization opportunities in either diagnostics or vaccinology," said Dr. Richard Massey, President and Chief Operating Officer of BioVeris. Dr. Lloyd H. Semprevivo will lead an alliance of scientists at UMass Amherst. "My colleagues and I are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with the premier group of vaccinologists at BioVeris," said Semprevivo. Read MassHighTech for details.

• Timely Proposals Have Better Chance of Success
• May Grants/Contracts

* Used by permission of Dorothy Spurlock, Director of Research and Sponsored Programs, Office of Research, University of Toledo. Originally published in NCURA E-News, 1/13/05.

May Grants/Contracts

Lloyd H. Semprevivo
Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Sponsor: BioVeris Corporation
Title: Synthesis and Testing of Chlamydia GLXA- Protein Conjugate Vaccine
Total Award: $600,000

Victor R. Lesser
Computer Science
Sponsor: Honeywell International Inc
Title: DARPA / IPTO Coordinators Program
Total Award: $326,575

Joseph F. Connolly
Human Resources
Sponsor: Franklin County One-Stop Career Center
Title: The Franklin/Hampshire BEST Employer Partnership
Total Award: $256,851

Dragoljub Beka Kosanovic
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Sponsor: MA Division of Energy Resources
Title: Northeast Regional Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CHP) Applications Center
Total Award: $150,000

Frank L. Caruso
Cranberry Experiment Station
Sponsor: Coop State Res, Educ and Ext Service
Title: Use of Molecular Genetics to Reduce Pesticide Dependence in Cranberry Production
Total Award: $141,676

Helene Cunningham
School of Nursing
Sponsor: MA Board of Higher Education
Title: Use of Simulation Technology in Nursing Education
Total Award: $56,951

Kathy G. Rubin
Dean-School of Engineering
Sponsor: National Institute of Standards and Tech
Title: NIST Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURF)
Total Award: $13,969