Most often termed Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), research integrity encompasses elements that cut across all academic disciplines: authorship, mentoring, conflict of interest, research misconduct, data management, collaborations, and peer review. Unless you teach an entire course on RCR, you likely are not fully aware of all aspects of these RCR elements – and that puts both you and your students at risk. If you supervise graduate students, publish scholarly work, and/or do peer reviews, you must educate yourself and your students. The fact that every one of UM’s research misconduct hearings has involved ignorance of best practices, by both junior and seasoned faculty, demonstrates that RCR awareness is limited.

How can we promote a culture of Responsible Conduct of Research at UM?

Teaching and mentoring our junior faculty and our postdoctoral and graduate students is the best way to increase awareness of the values and strategies for the right ways to approach scholarly activities. ORSP’s RCR survey last fall demonstrated that this already occurs in some labs, classrooms and departments – at some level. However, RCR education is not uniform across the University and is insufficient, because cases of plagiarism, authorship disputes, failed collaborations, and data ownership often arise from all departments and disciplines. Most agree that there is an urgent need for some uniform basic education for all involved in research and creative activities.

Proposal and Award Activity

UM faculty and staff submitted 23 external funding proposals and received 26 external funding awards during March 2010. For a complete listing, see the Monthly Report.

Faculty Travel Support

In March, $3,000 was awarded through the ORSP's Faculty Travel Support program to help support research-related travel. The program provides funds for UM faculty members to take part in development activities that will lead to new or extended research, scholarly or creative work, but typically does not support travel to a conference for presentation of completed work unless the request includes specific development activities beyond the conference itself.

Speaking of COS

Speed Up Your Search Setup

Check out the “Options” section of your COS Workbench — there you can set certain preferences that will allow you to conduct future funding searches faster. Just log onto your COS Workbench, click the “Options” link under “Your Saved Funding Searches,” and then fill out the page as much as you’d like. Note that the “Options” page also allows you to control which COS Keywords are viewable by others using COS Expertise. After you’ve saved your options, clicking on the “Add a Search” link from your COS Workbench will always start any new funding search with the criteria you’ve just saved.

• COS User Training Sessions

Don’t know about COS?

Check out our COS page, the January 2005, September 2006, and March 2007 newsletter articles, and/or the COS home page. COS is for all UM faculty in all academic disciplines and research areas.

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Exploritas K. Patricia Cross Doctoral Research Grant ~ Deadline April 30

Elderhostel invites applications for the Elderhostel K. Patricia Cross Doctoral Research Grant from doctoral candidates researching lifelong or later-life learning. This $5,000 grant is awarded annually to a student in various disciplines including, but not limited to, psychology, education, gerontology, cognitive studies, neuroscience, leisure studies, aging and social work. Because the selection committee requires an abstract and description of current research, applicants must already be engaged in dissertation research. International graduate students are welcome to apply.

Elderhostel, founded in 1975, is a not-for-profit organization providing educational opportunities through travel for older adults across the United States and in 90 countries around the world. The Exploritas K. Patricia Cross Doctoral Research Grant was created to support future leaders in the field of lifelong learning. Exploritas is the new program name of Elderhostel, Inc.

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Mississippi New Venture Challenge ~ June 3 in Jackson

The Mississippi Technology Alliance will present the Third Annual Mississippi New Venture Challenge on Thursday, June 3, 2010 at the Marriott in Jackson. Companies in three divisions will present their business plans as they are judged by some of Mississippi's top entrepreneurs and investors. Winners in each category will vie for cash prizes and recognition at the Third Annual Innovator’s Hall of Fame Gala. The audience for the competition will include investors, service providers and other professionals, and the general public is invited.

Cash prizes of $5,000 for First Place, $3,000 for Second Place and $2,000 for Third Place will be awarded in three categories:

• Student Only Division: Team is made up entirely of students.
• Pre-Revenue Division: Team represents a company that is in the pre-revenue stage.
• Commercial Division: Team represents a company that is post-revenue.

The deadline for applying is Friday, April 30, 2010.

• More Information