June 17, 2026

Recently, the federal government, through the Office of Management and Budget issued proposed rulemaking to OMB proposed revisions, which is the playbook that research institutions must comply with as federal grant recipients. The proposed revisions represent a major overhaul of federal financial assistance regulations, with significant consequences for research institutions. The proposed changes would expand agency and executive discretion in funding decisions, increase the authority to suspend or terminate awards, impose new restrictions and unallowable costs, restrict international collaboration and largely eliminate fixed amount awards, collectively raising administrative burdens, compliance risks, and costs for research organizations. 

Kansas State University will be coordinating responses to this rulemaking through the Council on Governmental Relations, or COGR, a unified voice for U.S. research universities. The Office of the Vice President for Research will be the coordinating lead for the submission of comments collected from the K-State community. If you wish to provide a comment to this rulemaking, please submit your brief comment no later than June 29 to research@k-state.edu. Your comments will inform the OVPR’s response submitted to COGR.

The serials crisis refers to the long-running mismatch between the rising cost of scholarly journal subscriptions and the budgets universities have available to pay for them. Because journals, databases, and books are essential to research, teaching, grant writing, and publication, libraries have historically worked to absorb steep annual price increases and preserve access for their campuses. Over time, however, subscription costs, especially for bundled “Big Deal” packages from major commercial publishers, have risen faster than library budgets, forcing universities to make difficult choices about what they can sustain. For PIs at K-State, this is not simply a “library budget” problem. It affects what faculty, students, and collaborators can read, cite, teach from, and build on. This is on top of Open Access fees and Article Processing Charges, especially under Hybrid Open Access journals, which means that at an institutional level, publishers charge for both the publication of research, and its access.

K-State Libraries is here to help. Our Content Development team and the Open Publishing Exchange are working on this problem from both directions: negotiating for the best possible access to the scholarly literature while helping K-State researchers share their own work in more open, durable, and visible ways. Here at K-State, common solutions include open access publishing agreements that may reduce or waive article publishing charges for eligible K-State authors, Green Open Access deposit through K-State Research Exchange (K-REx), and Diamond Open Access publishing through New Prairie Press. We are also expanding support for citable research outputs beyond the traditional article, including datasets, code, protocols, workflows, and other research objects. Learn more about K-State’s open access agreements, New Prairie Press and K-REx. Each of these services will continue to grow to support K-State research. 

Further Reading:
Thibeault, J. (2026, March 9). The ever-present library doomsday machine: The story of the ongoing serial crisis and the quest for open access to stop it. Creative Commons: We Like to Share.
Bergstrom, T. C., Courant, P. N., McAfee, R. P., & Williams, M. A. (2014). Evaluating big deal journal bundles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(26), 9425–9430.
Ancion, Z., Borrell-Damián, L., Mounier, P., Rooryck, J., & Saenen, B. (2022). Action Plan for Diamond Open Access. Zenodo. 

We encourage faculty, students, and post-docs in bioscience and biomanufacturing to attend the Midwest Bio Research & Industry Conference – Kansas (BRICK), taking place August 4-5, 2026, at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park, KS. Additional information is available on the event website. BRICK is an exciting opportunity to showcase your research, connect with scientists and industry professionals across the region, and engage with the growing Kansas City bioscience community. Please note that trainee (student and post-doc) registration is free.

Day 1 features cutting‑edge scientific and applied research presentations from regional universities, institutions, and innovating companies, highlighting emerging technologies, translational research, and commercialization pathways. Day 2 transitions into a dynamic industry trade show, focused on the biomanufacturing and CRO/CDMO sectors, offering exhibitor booths, live engagement, and direct access to decision‑makers and partners.

Abstract submissions for the Midwest Bio Research & Industry Conference – Kansas (BRICK) are due by June 19 for consideration for an oral presentation. The deadline to submit an abstract for a poster presentation is July 15. Please note that trainee (student and post-doc) registration is free.

Additionally, the BRICK Networking Lunch will provide valuable opportunities to interact with academic and industry leaders while expanding your professional network. 

In addition, trainees who participate in BRICK will be eligible to compete for a KC RiBS Travel Award. There will be 3 travel awards, 1 for each category: undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs.

To be considered, participants must:
1. Submit an abstract
2. Participate in the networking lunch and obtain all 6 passport stamps
3. Attend both days of the conference
4. Bring a business card and CV/resume

Once abstract registration closes, the organization will reach out to all trainee participants to ensure they are signed up for the networking lunch and have all information necessary to comply with the requirements for KC RiBS Travel Award eligibility.

We strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to present your work, build connections, and engage with the broader biomedical and biotechnology community.

Registration is available here. We look forward to seeing you at BRICK!

The National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program provides support for the acquisition of a multi-user research instrument that is commercially available through direct purchase from a vendor, or for the personnel costs and equipment that are required for the development of an instrument with new capabilities.  It is also a limited submission program, with the number of proposals K-State can submit typically restricted to three. If you are interested in applying to this program, you must notify (working title, team list, track submitting to, short synopsis) the Office of Research Development by 5 pm on July 14, 2026, via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu. 

A confounding factor is that the program’s website says that this year NSF will be issuing a new RFA for the MRI program, but it is not clear when this will be released or what changes might be made.  Even with this uncertainty, we have decided to continue with our typical internal limited submission process so that we will be in the best position to move forward when an RFA is finally released.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mary Lou Marino at mlmarino@ksu.edu.

NSF webinars & office hours:

This report defines the most pressing technical hurdles in advanced AI adoption today. Developed in collaboration with eight leading frontier AI companies and over fifteen Chief AI Officers from the Department of War (DoW) and the Intelligence Community (IC), it outlines the concrete challenges that the research community must address.

Read the full report here.

Congress appropriated $1.27B in FY26 funding for CDMRP through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 signed into law on February 3, 2026. CDMRP is releasing its FY26 research program funding opportunities and hosting four webinars for the program areas. These meetings will be recorded. Live attendance as well as the recordings can be viewed using the same links provided below.

June 24, 12-1 p.m. Topic areas: Autism, Bone Marrow Failure, Combat Readiness, Epilepsy, Hearing Restoration, Orthopedic, Reconstructive Transplant and Spinal Cord Injury.
July 8, 12-1 p.m. Topic areas: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Joint Warfighter Medical, Kidney Cancer, Neurofibromatosis, Parkinsons, Prostate Cancer, Rare Cancers and Toxic Exposures.

We are currently recruiting peer reviewers with expertise in agricultural economics, finance and insurance in addition to agricultural resilience, soil science and natural resource management for the Resilient Agriculture Finance and Insurance Research Collaborative, a joint initiative of FFAR, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.  

The purpose of this program is to accelerate the development of finance and insurance innovations that enable farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses to invest in practices, technologies and production systems that improve farmer resilience to adverse events that affect their operations.

Qualified reviewers with expertise relevant to the submitted full proposals will be asked to review up to three proposals in August of this year. In appreciation for completing a review, an optional honorarium is available to eligible, non-government employees. 

To participate and receive more information, please complete the following two-minute form by June 26.