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As always, please contact us with your questions, article
suggestions and feedback.
| Campus Welcomes New CVIP Director |
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UMass Amherst Commercial Ventures and Intellectual
Property Director Nick DeCristofaro brings to campus
years of patent process experience and an infectious
enthusiasm for technology commercialization. A PhD
graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, DeCristofaro has 55 patents and 30
publications to his credit. He claims that, “for me it
was always thrilling to see a new technology work,
but even better to see it commercialized.”
During his 30 year career as a materials scientist and
business leader with Allied Signal and Honeywell Intl.,
he’s had first hand experience navigating the
sometimes turbulent waters of the patent application
process. “The CVIP staff has been through the
patent and licensing process,” he says, “and we’re
here to help inventors get through it with a strong
patent and a licensing strategy that maximizes the
university’s IP value.”
To researchers experienced in the peer review
process of academic publishing, patenting may seem
unfamiliar, even intimidating. “A primary goal of
CVIP,” says DeCristofaro, “is to make the unfamiliar
less intimidating.” He’s quick to point out that the
process isn’t formulaic; each technology and market
is unique. CVIP works cooperatively with the
inventors to craft a strong patent application, which
necessarily includes the iterative process of
application rejection, revision and
resubmission. “Inventors should embrace the
rejection process,” he explains, “because rejections
(and subsequent revisions) actually help build
stronger patents that are more resistant to
challenges.”
Once a patent is secured CVIP continues working
with the inventors to implement a successful
licensing strategy. DeCristofaro emphasizes that this
commercialization process is a collaborative effort
between the inventor(s) and CVIP, which also draws
on the resources of university external liaison and
relations offices. “We engage in a dialogue, using
our technology licensing experience and market
awareness to help inventors answer essential
questions that will determine the type of license to
pursue or whether to spin-off a new venture.”
“This university will always be in the business of
generating knowledge,” he concludes, quoting NSM
Dean George Langford. “As we look to the future, it
is also our responsibility to convert that knowledge
into products and services of value to society.”
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| Funding Opportunities |
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RLA call for Proposals--Deadline Nov.
1
Applications are now open for Fall 2005 Research
Leadership in Action (RLA) grants. The RLA, a new
internal grant program launched earlier this year by
the Vice Provost for Research, is designed to support
faculty interested in showcasing leadership in their
field of research and scholarly activity. RLA grants
provide support for highly visible campus events,
such as conferences, professional meetings and
performances that bring together researchers,
industry, government and the public. Awards ranging
from $5,000 to $25,000 are distributed twice
annually, in the spring and fall.
More details, including the RFP, application, past
recipients and FAQs are available at the Research
Leadership in Action website. Applications
should be submitted to Martha
Martin (545-5270). For more information,
contact Karen
Hayes, (545-9586) program administrator.
NineSigma
New RFP announcements from Nine Sigma are posted
on the Corporate Funding page
of the Research Area website. See also the new white
paper, “Selling Your Innovation” for guidance
from NineSigma on how to write a winning proposal.
ILED provides support services for your Nine Sigma
proposal. Contact Marla
Michel or Karen
Hayes (545-2706) for more information.
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| Biomedical Collaboration Opportunity |
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Market your Research at MEDi 2005
Are you a faculty researcher interested in developing
industrial collaborations in the medical technologies
area? ILED, in conjunction with the Regional
Technology Corp. will be co-sponsoring a booth this
October at MEDi 2005 --a conference and exposition
where medical technologies, life science research and
industry converge. The event, held on October 25 &
26 at the new Connecticut Convention Center in
Hartford, will focus on the invention, development
and commercialization of new medical technology.
More than 2,500 medical and industry professionals
are expected to attend and will be looking for
opportunities to collaborate and partner with health
care/biomedical research institutions, scientific
research labs and universities. If you are interested
in having your research represented at this event,
contact Karen
Hayes, (5-9586), ILED, before October
1. For more information on MEDi 2005 go to
www.medi2005.com. Those interested in
attending
can get an early bird discount by registering online
before September 15th.
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| Resources for Researchers |
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Struggling with Proposal Preparation?
Use ‘GAMS’
OGCA is offering pre-award GAMS (Grant
Application Management System) for proposal
preparation. The pre-award component of GAMS is a
web-based database that offers 3 major
functions:
1. Budget preparation according to sponsor and
institutional guidelines: this eases the burden on the
principal investigator and helps to ensure that the
appropriate fringe benefit rates, salaries, and indirect
costs have been applied.
2. The option to generate proposal forms to print and
submit via OGCA once a budget is complete: for
Federal sponsors with specific form sets, the
proposal
prints to the appropriate forms, while the GAMS
generic form set works well for other sponsors.
3. System-to-system electronic proposal submission
for select Federal programs: several UMass Amherst
proposals have been successfully submitted
electronically through an NIH Commons pilot program.
The Commons program is now accepting electronic
submissions of all R01, R03 and R21 proposals. As
other Federal sponsors gear up to receive proposals
through Grants.gov, we hope to begin using GAMS
for
these submissions as well.
To become a GAMS user or for more information on
the how GAMS can help you in proposal preparation,
please contact Leanne
Every (545-0698).
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| Events (New Faculty, SIGs, Workshops & Symposia) |
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Research Services Intro for New Faculty
Sept. 22
More than 30 new faculty members will be
participating in the annual "Research Services
Orientation" on Thursday, September 22 from 12-2.
In addition to the opportunity to mingle with other
new faculty members, attendees will get the "lay of
the research landscape" from senior Research Area
personnel. The informal format is designed to
familiarize new faculty with the people who can help
them become productive researchers. Services to be
introduced include those related to sponsored
activities, compliance, human and animal subjects,
intellectual property, industry and state liaison, and
research development.
If you're new to campus and haven't yet signed up,
please connect with Bev
Strakose (545-5283). Department chairs and
heads are invited to attend, too.
Proposal Development Workshops for New
Faculty, begins Oct. 19 or 20
The Office of Research Affairs offers a series of
workshops on “Critical Skills Essential for Proposal
Success.” Workshops will cover a range of proposal
development topics including: how to recognize
promising grant opportunities; your funding
qualifications; the steps of proposal development;
effective techniques for planning and costing a
project; how to increase the creative elements of a
proposal; as well as how to present your case
persuasively and get a proposal submitted with days
to spare. Faculty are invited to attend the
three-workshop series on either Tuesday mornings,
(9:00-11:00 am Oct. 19, 26 and Nov. 2) or
Wednesday
afternoons (2:00-4:00 pm Oct. 20, 27 and Nov. 3).
Workshops will be held in the Research Administration
Building (rm. 104). For more information or to
register contact Bev
Strakose (545-5283).
Special Interest Groups, September Events
Clean Energy SIG Meeting Sept. 15th
”Discovering Clean Energy in your Community” is the
theme of this month’s Clean Energy
SIG event. Chris
Mason, executive director of the Northeast Sustainable
Energy Association (NESEA) will discuss
several NESEA initiatives including the annual Green
Buildings
Open House to be held in October. The
meeting will be held from 4:30-6:30pm September
15th at Western Massachusetts Electric Company's
training facility on Route 9 in Hadley. Come learn
more about the growing number of citizens who are
putting clean energy and green building practices to
work in your community. This event is open to the
public. Please register.
Computational Biology SIG Meeting Sept.
15th
Software enthusiasts and those interested in learning
about informatics issues related to genomics and
genetics are encouraged to attend this season’s first
Computational
Biology SIG meeting, which will feature the
perspectives of two bioinformatics experts. Bob
Handsaker, local consultant for the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard, will present “The
Broad Institute Genetic Analysis Platform.” University
of Toronto Assistant Professor Michael Brudno will
discuss “Alignment of Whole Genomes: Algorithms
and Tools.” The event will be held September 15 at
5:30 pm in the
Computer Science building at UMass Amherst.
This
event is open to the public. Contact Carol
Nalesnik (755-1301) to register. Pizza and
beverages will be served.
Medical Device Industry: Careers and
Opportunities Sept. 22nd
The I-91 Corridor of western Massachusetts and
Connecticut is home to nearly 300 medical device
companies that collectively employ 15% of New
England’s entire medical device manufacturing
workforce, according to a 2004
report produced by the Biomedical Engineering
Alliance and Consortium
(
BEACON). The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers
(ASME) Hartford Chapter invites you to learn more
about the regional medical device industry and career
opportunities in biomedical engineering and device
manufacturing on September 22 at the Rensselaer at
Hartford. BEACON president and biomedical engineer
Joseph Bronzino will discuss career opportunities and
provide an overview of the regional medical device
industry’s potential to drive economic growth in the I-
91 Corridor. For details, visit ASME online. Registration is required.
UMass Symposium on ePortfolios Sept.
23rd
Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are a promising
vehicle for fulfilling long held learning and
programmatic objectives. However, this versatility
harbors potential confusion, as faculty and
administrators try to sort out how to use ePortfolios,
how they should be deployed, who controls them,
what technologies are required, and what kinds of
support must be provided. Presenters include Trent
Batson (Prof. of English, U. Rhode Island), a leader in
conceptualizing and employing ePortfolios; Diane
Goldsmith, Dean of Planning, Research, and
Assessment at Connecticut Distance Learning
Consortium, a prominent employer of ePortfolios; and
faculty from UMass Dartmouth (Jen Riley) and
UMass Lowell (Judy Davidson), who will report on
pilot projects in ePortfolios. Attendees will be invited
to deliberate on where, on and across campuses, we
go from here. The all-day event (lunch included) will
be held at the UMass President's Office Collaborative
Services Facility in Shrewsbury. Please register by
Sept. 19 by sending an email to
eportfolio@umassp.edu with your name,
department and
campus, or call 508-856-5203. For more information,
contact Mark
Schlesinger, Associate VP for Academic
Technology (617-287-7137).
Colloquium on University eRepositories Sept.
29th
University eRepositories are digital collections
that capture and preserve the intellectual output of
a university community. The changing nature of
scholarly communication requires that we examine
new ways of gathering, archiving, and disseminating
our scholarly research. Universities and research
centers throughout the world are actively planning
the implementation of electronic institutional
repositories. Are repositories the answer to the
problems in the existing scholarly journal publishing
system? You are invited to attend a discussion on
this topic entitled, “University eRepositories:
Solutions for the Scholarly Community” to be held in
the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union on
September 29 from 3-4:30 pm.
Ann Wolpert (MIT Director of Libraries) and Nancy Fried Foster
(Lead Anthropologist, Co-Manager of Digital Initiatives Unit at U.
Rochester) will lead the discussion. For more
information contact Leslie
Schaler (545-0162), UMass Amherst Libraries.
Microsoft to Give One-Note Presentation
Sept. 30th
Looking for a better way to capture, organize,
find, and share information? Then plan on attending a
free presentation by Microsoft Productivity Advisor,
David Norris, on Microsoft One-Note, the
software that combines the freedom and flexibility of
paper notes with the efficiency and power of digital
organizational tools. One-Note allows users to
capture, organize, and reuse notes on laptop
computers, desktop computers, or Tablet PCs. The
talk, sponsored by Microsoft and the campus
Tablet PC Community of Practice group will
take place at 11:30 am, September 30th, in 108
Isenberg School of Management. To register, send
mail to
jungy@english.umass.edu no later than
Wednesday, Sept.
21.
One-Note, along with hundreds of other
Microsoft tools, platforms and server technologies, is
available free to all UMass faculty, staff and students
through the Microsoft Developer's Network Academic
Alliance (MSDN-AA) program. Download the software
here.
More information on the One-Note
presentation or
the Tablet PC Community of Practice, contact
Gino
Sorcinelli, ISOM.
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| Awards Spotlight |
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Cross-Cultural Collaboration Nets
$130,000 More from Microsoft
Professor Gino Sorcinelli in the Isenberg School of
Management and his colleagues at University of
Ireland, Galway, have received a second round of
support from Microsoft to further implement their use
of ConferenceXP (CPX) technologies in a
multicultural, collaborative academic environment.
The $130K in funding, which comes from Microsoft
Research’s Learning Sciences and Technology group,
will be used to upgrade the AV capability in ISOM
G12 to support a CPX environment and to further
research and course deployment on both the UMass
and Galway campuses. Professor Sorcinelli delivered
the first successful implementation of the course in
spring 2005. That work was supported by an initial
gift
from Microsoft as well as supported by Hewlett
Packard and Gateway. To learn more about the CXP
project, click here.
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| In the News |
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Find Campus News Faster
The UMass Amherst News
Office has launched a database-driven website
with expanded search functionality. The new
configuration allows visitors to “power search” news archives by
category (news releases, news source, or daily
summary) and to narrow the search by date range or
type of news (e.g. athletics, college, events,
research, student life and more). The powerful
keyword search function makes it easier than ever to
find campus news fast.
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| August Grants/Contracts Snapshot |
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Shaw L. Hsu
Polymer Science and Engineering
Sponsor: Environmental Protection Agency
Title: FDP - New England Green Chemistry
Consortium
Total Award: $484,700
Robert E. Levin
Food Science
Sponsor: Coop State Res, Educ and Ext Service
Title: Seafood Safety
Total Award: $406,508
Ramesh Sitaraman
Computer Science
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: (NeTS-NBD) Next-Generation Content Delivery
Networks: Algorithmic and Architectural
Challenges
Total Award: $377,321
Dimitrios Maroudas
Chemical Engineering
Sponsor: University of California Santa Barbara
Title: Collaborative Research: ITR/AP: Enabling
Microscopic Simulators to Perform System-Level
Analysis
Total Award: $300,000
Patricia Wadsworth
Biology
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Title: Mechanisms of Microtubule Dynamic
Turnover
Total Award: $290,106
Jennifer Foster
School of Nursing
Sponsor: Health Resources and Services
Administration
Title: Expanding the Boundaries of Women's Health: A
Collaborative Advanced Practice Nursing Program
Serving W. MA.
Total Award: $257,523
Petrus L. Veneman
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
Sponsor: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Title: Coastal Maine, Resource Habitat, Database &
Technical Analysis
Total Award: $231,500
Frank L. Caruso
Cranberry Experiment Station
Sponsor: Coop State Res, Educ and Ext Service
Title: A Reduced Fungicide Strategy for Management
of Cranberry Fruit Rot
Total Award: $187,970
Elizabeth Bertone
Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Sponsor: Rexall Inc
Title: Diet and Lifestyle Factors and Prevention of
Premenstrual Syndrome
Total Award: $136,946
Mitchell T. Mulholland
Anthropology - Archaeological Services
Sponsor: Northeast Utilities Co
Title: Archaeological Intensive Survey for the
Proposed Connecticut River Bank Stabilization
Northfield and Gill, Massachusetts
Total Award: $63,802
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Nick DeCristofaro, Director
Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property
70 Butterfield Terrace
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
(413) 545-1587
ndecristofaro@research.umass.edu
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