Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

From the 11/17/2009 issue of Chronicle of Higher Education:

Top public and private universities teamed up with members of Congress today to launch a new Web site and related efforts to highlight the role of the multibillion-dollar economic-stimulus legislation in fostering research both on and off campus. The centerpiece of the program is a Web site, ScienceWorksforUs, which uses a map and other means to draw attention to research in all 50 states that is being supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was enacted last February and directed $21.5-billion toward scientific research. The initiative is being sponsored by the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and the Science Coalition.

This year ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) is sponsoring THREE competitions – two for undergraduates and a new competition for Master’s level students!

The purpose of these competitions is to highlight the best student research papers using quantitative data.  The objective is to encourage students to explore the social sciences by means of critical analysis of a topic supported by quantitative analysis of a dataset(s) held within the ICPSR archive and presented in written form.

• The winner of each competition receives $1,000 cash and the paper will be published.
• Deadline for submission is January 31, 2010.

More information, submission guidelines, and promotional posters are found by visiting the competition website.

The CRISP database which provided a searchable database of biomedical research projects funded by NIH was retired on October 31, 2009. For many years, CRISP was one of the most common ways for the public, faculty, and researchers to find information on NIH research programs. The CRISP system has been replaced by the RePORT Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) tool.

<submitted by Tania Bardyn>

The Rural Assistance Center (RAC) is a comprehensive information portal created by the Department of Health and Human Services which provides access to a full range of available programs, funding, and research about rural communities. The site is available at http://www.raconline.org.

RAC users are a diverse group of community-based organizations, researchers, local government officials, state government offices, and national organizations dedicated to improving the access quality and financial viability of rural and human service delivery systems. RAC offers a variety of services to help inform decisions affecting rural health and human services. All services are provided free of charge. This article covers the details about some of these services. (more…)

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences are pleased to announce the availability of the 2009-2010 Charles Donald O’Malley Short-Term Research Fellowships to further investigation into the history of medical thought and healing practice and art from the earliest times to the recent past. Two fellowships will be awarded, each of which carries a grant of up to $1500 to defray travel and residence costs for research conducted at UCLA special collections libraries between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010.The award commemorates the work of Charles D. O’Malley, Ph.D. (1907-70), the Vesalian scholar and first full-time chair of the Department of Medical History at UCLA. O’Malley pioneered the study of the history of medicine at UCLA and facilitated its growth.Applications must be received on or before May 15, 2009. Questions about the fellowships may be directed to Russell A. Johnson by email, phone at 310.825.6940, or fax at 310.825.0465.

The National Institutes of Health posted an archived  Web Seminar this week regarding the application process for core facilities improvement projects and construction, renovation and repair improvement projects, being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (”ARRA” or “Recovery Act”). This seminar is the archived version of a previously scheduled session held on March 16th.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA” or “Recovery Act”), Pub. L. No. 111-5, appropriates $1B for grants or contracts under section 481A of the Public Health Service Act to construct, repair or renovate existing non-Federal research facilities.  Two related FOAs for construction, renovations and repairs to extramural facilities have been released in response to the Recovery Act (Accessed on March 16, 2009 at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-RR-09-009.html).

If you are interested in viewing the NIH Webinar, slides and a FAQ document are also available at the above seminar page.

“The date is November 24th, 2008. You have just started a job as an analyst working on the President-elect’s health care transition team. The director of the transition team has asked you to draft a memo to flesh out the health priorities for the new Administration on a major health policy issue…”

This is the topic for KaiserEDU.org’s Second Annual Student Essay Contest (open to undergraduates and graduate students). Want to win $1,000? How about $500? If so, write a 800 word essay on health priorities and submit it online by March 17, 2008 at 5pm EST. Check out KaiserEDU.org’s essay contest page for more details.