In this issue

Research highlights  |  Innovation spotlight  |  New awards
Unsung heroes  |  Faculty kudos  |  Recognition roundup
Research development  |  Nuts & bolts  |  Events

Led by KU Engineering Professor Mark Shiflett, ERC EARTH will reimagine the process for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems across the globe — developing sustainable, accessible and equitable refrigerant technologies and practices through research, education and innovation that will improve quality of life and combat climate change. 

A $500,000 Forging Opportunities for Research, Growth & Entrepreneurship (FORGE) grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce will help KU create software, infrastructure and financial mechanisms needed to bridge the gap between academia and industry, growing the state’s economy while enhancing the university’s teaching and research missions. 

Through a five-year, $10 million grant, KU will partner with other institutions to develop a process to convert agricultural leftovers and municipal solid waste that would otherwise pile up in landfills into nutrients for farmland and sustainable ingredients for manufacturing everyday products.

The Spencer Museum exhibition examines the importance of fashion and adornment to historical and contemporary culture as expressions of tribal, personal, political and collective identity through four overarching themes: resilience, representation, resistance and relations.

Lin Liu, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is using Kansas soybean byproducts to improve batteries, which are necessary to transition to a future powered by renewable energy sources. 

Parker Rhinehart, doctoral candidate in the department of ecology & evolutionary biology, looks to the fossil record to analyze the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period of intense climate change that dramatically altered the evolution of life on Earth. Studying this may help predict how the ecosystem will adapt to climate change in the future.

Have you ever wondered what happens after you disclose an invention? Or how your ideas might eventually become a product? Maybe you have a great lead on a company that’s interested in a discovery made from your research. If so, you might also be wondering what to do next.

At the KU Center for Technology Commercialization, our licensing professionals are here to help. Our team’s resume boasts three PhDs, two JDs, a certified licensing professional, and a couple of registered patent attorneys for good measure. That’s a lot of know-how in your corner. This month, we’d like to introduce you to our tech transfer team of experts, including two new hires who recently joined up as Jayhawks.

KU researchers are studying AI’s role in writing education, observing plant-microbial interactions in soil, improving cancer immunotherapy, investigating challenging eating behaviors of children with autism, and more — all with the aid of external funding awarded in July.      

Behind every successful award are teams of KU research development and administration staff who help investigators identify opportunities, prepare and submit complicated proposals under strict deadlines, and then help manage finances and compliance for funded projects. They are the unsung heroes of KU research, greasing the wheels of innovation and discovery.

In each issue of KU Discoveries, we shine a spotlight on a staff member deemed particularly outstanding by colleagues. Click the button below this month's story to nominate a deserving candidate from any unit on campus.

Nhan Reed | Grant Manager | Achievement & Assessment Institute 

Developing rapport with investigators is key in many positions supporting research, and this is especially true for grant managers. When it comes to building relationships with KU researchers and external partners, Nhan Reed is lauded by her colleagues.

Reed is a grant manager at the Achievement & Assessment Institute, which partners with agencies to improve the lives of children and adults through academics, employment, career advancement and building healthy environments. Reed has been at KU since November 2015 and at AAI, which is one of KU’s 11 designated research centers, since August 2022.

“Nhan’s greatest strengths are her customer service skills and dedication to her team and the institute,” said Georgianna Correll, director of finance & administration at AAI. “Nhan routinely goes above and beyond to provide the highest level of service to internal and external stakeholders and approaches every encounter with patience and grace.”

Submitting proposals for external funding is a daunting task that can determine the availability of millions of dollars and the viability of an investigator’s research portfolio. PIs are under immense pressure to submit near-perfect applications. Reed recently helped a researcher who revised more than a dozen iterations of a draft for a federal proposal. Colleagues said Reed was a key player in getting the proposal across the finish line.

“Nhan not only managed each new draft with care, but also skillfully navigated the interpersonal dynamics involved,” said Megan Reinardy, AAI grant coordinator. “She ensured the proposal was submitted with time to spare and proactively identified strategies to streamline the drafting process in the future, all while fostering positive relationships with everyone involved.”

Reed treats all partnerships with similar care. She recently provided assistance for an external partner because she recognized the long-term benefits of building relationships for the university, even though KU was only tangentially involved in the project. Colleagues also note that Reed advocates for the team she leads and works with others in AAI on professional development and recognition.

"Nhan is always positive and caring; her light shines brightly, and everyone benefits from it,” Correll said. “Regardless of what Nhan may be working on or going through, you will always see her with a smile on her face and a kind and gentle tone to her voice.”

KU faculty can now find information about external achievement awards on the newly published Office of Faculty Recognition & Awards website. The site offers general advice about why awards matter, ways in which the office can assist with support for nominations, and a table that lists KU faculty who have been acknowledged by various outside organizations with recognitions designated as “prestigious” or “highly prestigious” by the National Research Council. Highly prestigious award counts are among several key indicators the AAU uses to evaluate the strength of its member and prospective institutions.

Also available on the website are examples of award pathways that demonstrate possible avenues to targeted highly prestigious awards, such as membership in national academies. The pathways reflect previous awards some researchers around the country garnered before achieving the highly prestigious awards to which many scholars aspire.

“With more than 200 such awards, it’s useful for my office to become knowledgeable about a dozen or so, which will allow us to provide better-informed support for nominations,” said Robin Lehman, director of faculty recognition & awards. “The list of targeted awards is not exclusive, however; nominations for other highly prestigious awards, as well as external awards without a prestigious designation, will also be supported through collaborations between Faculty Recognition & Awards and academic units.”

The website will be enhanced and updated periodically as additional resources are produced. If you have received a prestigious/highly prestigious award and don’t see it reflected in the table of KU recipients, please contact Robin Lehman so your name can be added.

The Spotlight on Faculty Excellence program, formerly called Salute to Faculty Excellence, has expanded this year to include the Edwards and Medical Center campuses. The program is a partnership between the Offices of Research, the Provost’s Office and KU Athletics to recognize outstanding faculty who demonstrate excellence in research, scholarship and creative activity. Honorees have contributed significantly to society, their disciplines and the local and/or university community — and they have demonstrated a commitment to developing future leaders in their fields through mentoring.

This year’s honorees, who will be announced when plans are finalized, were selected from nearly four dozen nominations by administrators in schools and research centers. Each honoree will receive individual recognition at a KU football, volleyball, men’s basketball or women’s basketball game. Last year’s pilot program recognized seven faculty for their outstanding research.  

There will be some minor changes for the 2024-25 cycle of this award program designed to help new faculty accelerate their scholarship and start building a sustainable research program soon after their arrival on campus.

Visit the NFRD website on or after Sept. 1 to learn more and apply.

Please join University of Kansas colleagues to learn from former National Institutes of Health program directors now working with The Conafay Group how to reformulate NIH proposals into proposals suitable for the Department of Defense's medical research and development programs.

Reformulating NIH Proposals for the DOD
Friday, Sept. 13 | 12 – 1 p.m.
Register on Zoom

This webinar will explore the unique priorities and operational needs of the DOD, and strategies for aligning research proposals accordingly. Attendees will gain insight into the DOD medical research enterprise and how to tailor proposals to meet agency-specific requirements, enhance chances of securing funding and contribute to advancing military medical research.

Questions? Please contact Gabriel Nehrbass at gabriel.nehrbass@ku.edu.

RESEARCH INTEGRITY

Emails from the myDisclosures system – sent from disclose@certify.ku.edu – will be distributed by Sept. 7, asking you to complete your disclosure profile update. Sept. 30 is the due date to submit your disclosure profile update in myDisclosures. 

Helpful reminders: 

RESEARCH ADMINSTRATION

The National Institutes of Health has announced that they will adopt the common forms for biographical sketch and current & pending (other) support to be used with all applications and research performance progress reports (RPPRs) by May 25, 2025. 
 
This mirrors the National Science Foundation, which began requiring the common forms in May 2024. Like NSF, NIH will require the use of Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) to complete the common forms to produce digitally certified PDFs for use in application submissions. Unlike NSF, the NIH will also require all senior/key personnel to enter their Open Research & Contributor ID (ORCID ID) on the NIH common forms and link their ORCID ID to their eRA Commons profile. 

NIH is in the process of revising its forms and instructions to include detailed guidance on completing the common forms. In the interim, it is recommended that individuals who are currently serving as PI, co-PI or key personnel on active NIH awards or on pending or planned proposals take the following steps to prepare for when these requirements take effect: 

Pre-Award staff are already familiar with the use of SciENcv to complete the NSF Common Forms, so they can assist you with questions about that system as they arise. We expect that NIH will be providing additional resources as they are developed and we will share these with the KU research community when they become available. In the interim, we encourage NIH researchers to start preparing as early as possible for these changes. It is not advisable to wait until the new guidelines go into effect. 

The Science & Technology Policy Institute, with funding from the National Science Foundation, is seeking survey feedback to assess the efficacy of research security training modules sponsored by NSF and its federal partners. Your feedback will help NSF improve the modules. You will not be identified by name; your answers will be aggregated with others before being reported to NSF. The survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete. NSF has requested this survey be completed by Sept. 30. 

This is your opportunity to provide feedback about training modules that will likely be required of some, if not all, participants in federally funded research in the near future.  

If you have questions or need assistance, please email STPI at RST_survey@ida.org.  

Questions? Comments? Content suggestions?
Mindie Paget  |  Office of Research  |  mpaget@ku.edu

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