Announcements

The Office of Research and Engagement, in collaboration with the Controller’s Office and A&F systems, is pleased to announce the fall 2023 Research Administration Core Curriculum Training Program.

Register now through Workplace Learning and Development (WLD).

The goal of this program is to offer a comprehensive overview of research administration for new staff, as well as members of the campus community looking for a refresher or interested in learning new job skills. The program is broken down into six core topic sessions that will be presented by various content experts. More detail and program descriptions.

 

As we begin the new semester, faculty and departments may find that some international students are encountering challenges getting to the U.S. due to consular service suspensions or delays. The Office of Research Compliance (ORC) would like to remind you of guidance related to United States Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) country-specific regulatory programs that restrict the remote delivery of courses and other forms of instruction by U.S. institutions of higher education. Such comprehensive regulatory programs currently restrict our ability to deliver remote instruction to students and other audiences from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and occupied regions of Ukraine.

Under these regulations, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is prohibited from “exporting” online or remotely delivered graduate level courses to nationals of those countries when they are outside of the U.S., whether they are in their home country or elsewhere. In other words, unless such students are physically present in the U.S., UMass Amherst is prohibited, by OFAC regulations, from enrolling them in graduate courses remotely. These restrictions apply to courses and content being delivered remotely due to visa-related circumstances as well as to programs originally intended for remote delivery, such as online graduate degree programs, webinars, and virtual conferences. The regulations also prohibit the delivery of instructional content through webinars and participation in virtual conferences to or in the sanctioned countries. In addition to considering country-based restrictions, we must also screen remote international students and scholars against restricted-party lists issued by OFAC and other government departments and agencies. The penalties for violating OFAC regulations are severe and may include, among others, significant monetary penalties and disqualification from receiving Federal research funding.

If you are or become aware of any courses or presentations intended for remote delivery to international students or other audiences outside of the U.S., it is critical that you notify the Office of Research Compliance in advance so that we can ensure that remote participants are not from (or located in) an OFAC comprehensively-sanctioned country or on a restricted-party list before the program begins.

Should you need assistance with analyzing a circumstance for compliance with OFAC or other regulatory restrictions, please contact the ORC at rescomp@research.umass.edu or 413-545-5283 and we will be happy to help you.

The Office of Pre-Award Services (OPAS) will be closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 4, 2023. Any proposals that are due on this day need to arrive at OPAS no later than 9 a.m. on August 28, 2023 and final documents need to be finished by 9 a.m. on August 31, 2023 to comply with the 5-day review procedure. All proposals due on this day will be submitted prior to the office closure. Please make adjustments to your routing calendars accordingly.

Animal Care Services (ACS) is pleased to announce it is rolling out an updated animal ordering procedure using a Kuali Build smart form to enhance and improve the process. The new form will provide ACS the ability to receive orders from investigators through the Build interface; easily and quickly route the purchase request to the IACUC office for concurrence on approved census; and document ACS submission and confirmation of the order to a vendor. This process will be more efficient than the existing Adobe form and email process currently in use, since it will gather orders through a central portal, archive important information regarding the order, reflect order status, and allow data retrieval and reporting. The new form was developed and tested with participation of faculty investigators.

The new Build form will go live on September 1, 2023 and will be accessible from a link posted on Research & Engagement’s Research Administration Forms page. The existing Adobe form for animal ordering will no longer be accepted as of that date. For questions or assistance, please reach out to the ACS staff at animalorders@umass.edu.

Michael Malone, currently vice chancellor for research and engagement, has been named to serve as interim provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. A national search for a permanent provost will be launched in the new academic year.

In a joint message to the campus community, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and Chancellor-Elect Javier Reyes said, “During this transitional period, Dr. Malone’s extensive knowledge of our community and his commitment to excellence will be invaluable in sustaining the progress and momentum that UMass Amherst has achieved over the past decade. He places a high value on working with colleagues across campus and making decisions in a collaborative fashion to chart our path forward.”

Malone has served UMass Amherst with distinction for more than four decades as a teacher, researcher and administrator. He joined the university’s chemical engineering faculty in 1980 after earning his Ph.D. from UMass Amherst. He went on to become dean of the College of Engineering and was subsequently appointed vice chancellor for research and engagement in 2009. He was also the first Ronnie and Eugene M. Isenberg Distinguished Professor of Engineering, a position devoted to enhancing interdisciplinary teaching and research among the fields of management, engineering and science. Under his leadership as vice chancellor, the university has greatly strengthened its research infrastructure, sponsored funding and impactful results, with a special emphasis on translational research.

At UMass Amherst, his honors include the Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus’ highest honor for classroom instruction; the Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship; and the Outstanding Senior Faculty Award and the General Electric Outstanding Teaching Award, both given by the College of Engineering. He was a visiting scientist at the DuPont Company in 1984 and 1993-94. In 2004, he was named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Dr. Michael Esmail has been appointed as the new Director of Animal Care Services at UMass Amherst, effective July 10, 2023. Esmail will lead the operational management and administrative direction of Animal Care Services and will provide leadership and direction in policy development and implementation of the program. He will work closely alongside Dr. J. Paul Spurlock who will remain in the role of Attending Veterinarian.

Esmail comes to us from Tufts University where he is a Senior Staff Veterinarian. He has extensive experience working in university settings while providing leadership and support to veterinary staff and researchers. He has worked with numerous animal models and brings strong experience working with the IACUC committee. Esmail says, “I see the position of an animal program Director as managing support and strongly advocating for animal program staff, physical facilities/equipment, animal program researchers, and of course, primarily, the animals.”

Esmail completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship/Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency in 2015 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after completing his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 2012 from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University. 

UMass search committee chair Laura Vandenberg said, “The committee and the many members of the UMass community that met with Dr. Esmail during his campus visit were impressed with his knowledge, collegiality, and professionalism. I am confident that he will bring these traits to the role of Animal Care Services director. We are very excited to have Dr. Esmail join the Animal Care Services program and the Research & Engagement community.”

Posted 5/22/23

In anticipation of the upcoming 60th anniversary (2024) of the State-to-State cooperation between the University of Massachusetts and the Universities of Baden-Württemberg, the university is providing small travel grants of up to $3,000 for researchers to do short-term visits to university campuses in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The intent of the mobility program is to establish new research collaborations or strengthen existing partnerships.

Faculty members and librarians at UMass Amherst who are interested in working more closely with partners at any of the nine research universities in Baden-Württemberg and who wish to become actively involved in the state-to-state program can apply for funding.

The application deadline is June 9, 2023. Application and more information.

Posted 4/19/23

Dear Colleagues,

The Provost and my office, in collaboration the Chancellor, have established the Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Research Awards (LIRA) program . LIRA will offer seed funds totaling up to $400,000 to support integrated team efforts to develop large-scale initiatives. The goal of this program is to empower creativity; to promote equitable collaborations, especially those that foster diversity, equity, and inclusion; and to attract substantial external funding. Preference will be given to projects that address large-scale societal problems, with potential for significant impact. The program will provide professional cohort-based training to awarded teams on integrative teaming, equitable collaboration, and budget planning, and research development support for ideation and proposal development. LIRA topic areas should be well aligned with campus strengths, including, but not limited to, strategic emphasis areas, such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Sustainability; Healthy Aging; Society and Technology; and Data Science. The Provost and VCRE will soon announce another seed funding opportunity – the Interdisciplinary Faculty Research Awards (IFRA). IFRA will focus on these same areas of emphasis, but will target faculty teams at the earliest stages of collaboration who may not be targeting external funding.

Due date for LIRA applications is May 8, 2023 at 5:00 p.m.

The LIRA program has two tracks:

• Track 1 - Integrative Team Development awards up to $30,000. Track 1 supports the development of integrated team research, often spanning multiple disciplines, leading to proposals for significant extramural funding of $1 million per year or more for at least 3 years. Track 1 awards will support integrative team development and may support research to demonstrate the viability of the concept.

• Track 2 - Center Development awards up to $60,000. Track 2 supports the advancement of integrated teams, often spanning multiple disciplines, with a vision for a large, center-level grant proposal leading to external funding of $3 million per year or more for at least 5 years. Track 2 awards will support teams with pre-existing collaborations among participants.

The Office of Research Development will hold a virtual LIRA informational workshop on April 11, 2023, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. for potential teams to help them determine their level of team readiness and provide guidance on writing a successful application to the LIRA program. Register here.

Request for Proposals (RFP) can be found here.
 

Sincerely,

Mike Malone
Vice Chancellor for Research & Engagement
University of Massachusetts Amherst
(413) 545-5270
Assistant: Christine A. Burnett, caburnett@research.umass.edu
 

Posted 3/10/23

The Office of Research and Engagement, in collaboration with the Controller’s Office and A&F systems, is pleased to announce the spring 2023 Research Administration Core Curriculum Training Program.

Register now through Workplace Learning and Development (WLD).

The goal of this program is to offer a comprehensive overview of research administration for new staff, as well as members of the campus community looking for a refresher or interested in learning new job skills. The program is broken down into six core topic sessions that will be presented by various content experts. More detail and program descriptions.

We also offer Kuali Proposal Development group Zoom trainings through WLD.

For on-demand Kuali training for individuals via Zoom, please email to ra-training@umass.edu.

Posted 2/14/23