KED faculty bulletin

ASU faculty, staff, and students are invited to the 4th annual Grants, Research, and Sponsored Projects (GRASP) conference, Sept. 7-8, 2022. Join some of our most experienced research support staff as they discuss topics including:

• best practices for creating engaging and persuasive research proposals
• teams and technologies available to help prepare and conduct research
• available support for entrepreneurial endeavors
• and more topics, tips, and tools focused on the ASU research community

The conference topics span many aspects of the research life-cycle. This ensures that no matter what your research experiences are, you will receive valuable insights and new skills to help take your research to the next level. Presentations this year are focused on walking through common research activities that will help researchers achieve their research goals.  

The GRASP conference has been a valuable resource for faculty researchers since 2019. You can find previous GRASP conference recordings, additional upcoming research focused events, example proposals, and additional on-demand resources from your Research Academy home page.

GRASP is hosted by ASU's Knowledge Enterprise and ASU research support teams.

ASU’s newly upgraded FEI Titan Environmental TEM imaging system offers 80 kV and 300 kV operating voltage under both TEM and scanning TEM mode. The installation of the state-of-the-art Gatan imaging filter (GIF) continuum system and K3-IS direct electron camera now allows high-speed video recording of material structure dynamics at millisecond and atomic levels. Using the highly sensitive K3 camera, the instrument can easily and quickly measure very weak electron energy loss (EELS) data, offering fast, low-noise sample elemental mapping.

Benefits of the upgrade:

• Connect you with research partnership opportunities.
• Help you bring your research to a larger audience.
• Discuss best practices for creating engaging and persuasive research proposals.
• Introduce new technologies available to help you conduct your research.

A Protochips electrical heating and biasing holder is available for users on the microscope for in-situ experiments. The microscope is fully back up and running, and users and researchers are welcome to submit a training request to get started. Consultation and service requests are also available.

Arizona State University is pioneering innovative pathways in health care education and research. ASU’s new Health Futures Center is a state-of-the-art facility that will support interdepartmental research and collaborative programs. Home of the Mayo Clinic and ASU Alliance for Health Care, the campus will facilitate leading-edge research discoveries, improve patient care through innovation, and transform medical education to enhance health outcomes at individual, community and national levels. The center will house ASU’s College of Health Solutions, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute. The Health Futures Center is the first of several buildings in what is anticipated to become a thriving hub of medical research and development in the Southwest. 

ASU is also adding a new campus to its Innovation Zones portfolio with the addition of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. The campus is attracting experts in precision medicine, genomics, molecular medicine, cancer research and health care analytics. The site is attracting an impressive number of health care and research-related companies as tenants. Entities in and around the campus include the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, Northern Arizona University Allied Health Programs, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Dignity Health, Banner Health and Valleywise Health.

Incoming faculty members in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences have the opportunity to get a jump start on developing their research programs by participating in ASU New College’s Commit to Submit program. Now entering its third year, the program is comprised of a series of training exercises intended to orient new faculty to the ASU research ecosystem.
 
“This program allows faculty to hit the ground running with grant writing while also orienting them to ASU’s culture of research,” explains Lara Ferry, dean of research and strategic initiatives in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.  

The main goal of the program is to help new faculty submit their first grants within 18 months of arriving at ASU. And, it’s working. 

“Since we launched this program, all of our new faculty are submitting their first grants sooner, and we’ve seen a significant uptick in the overall number of grant proposals submitted and awards issued — we nearly doubled submission rates last summer,” says Ferry. “It’s inspiring, seeing enthusiastic faculty members focused on research, collaboration and transdisciplinary work.”
 
Commit to Submit includes an introduction to all of ASU’s support services for faculty researchers and delves into flows, processes, grant planning and resources. Participants will also create and submit a one-pager to a grant program officer, as well as develop a three-slide presentation deck and an elevator pitch — essentially creating a tool kit for basic grant writing.
 
“It’s a rapid lift,” explains Ferry. “It’s taking a new attitude toward research, reenergizing existing faculty and getting new faculty researchers into centers university-wide so they immediately have colleagues and connections.” Adds Ferry, “We’re collaborating across schools, colleges and campuses, and we solicit participant input and feedback as well. A significant focus is on planning — for example, you can’t submit overnight, a grant funding proposal needs at least six months of advanced preparation. We’re working to orient faculty to ways we can help them in these efforts in terms of creating timelines and road maps.”
 
Ferry invites ADRs and research administrators from across the university to connect with her if they want to implement parts of the program in their own divisions. She also invites questions, comments and input. Lara Ferry can be reached at Lara.Ferry@asu.edu.

ASU faculty are invited to join researcher support teams and keynote speaker Sally Morton, executive vice president, ASU Knowledge Enterprise, for GRASP 2021, a three-day virtual conference focused on innovation and collaboration. We’ve created a dynamic and informative virtual conference designed specifically to help you advance your work and research career. Join some of our most experienced research support staff and faculty as they:

• Connect you with research partnership opportunities.
• Help you bring your research to a larger audience.
• Discuss best practices for creating engaging and persuasive research proposals.
• Introduce new technologies available to help you conduct your research.

This conference is a great opportunity to learn more about ASU's Knowledge Enterprise and the researcher support teams that are here to help our talented faculty reach new levels of access, impact and success. The conference will consist of 25 unique sessions that span topics throughout the research lifecycle. This ensures that regardless of prior research experiences, you’ll gain valuable insights and new skills to help take your research to the next level.

GRASP is hosted by ASU's Knowledge Enterprise and ASU researcher support teams. 

Dates: Sept. 7–9, 2021