Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Transforming the Present, Discovering the Future
Workshops and Training
2020-2021 Schedule
January 2021: Searching for Funding Opportunities: Grant Forward February 2021: Writing Winning Proposals to NSF – Written for the reviewers! March 2021: Proposal Odds and Ends: NSF, NIH, and USDA proposal document requirements: biosketch,
conflict of interest, and current & pending April 2021: Patents, Licensing, and Commercialization Basics
ORSP also offers sessions on topics such as an introduction to extramural funding,
budget development, and collaborative projects. By request, we can also develop sessions
tailored for individual departments or colleges. Please contact us if you would like
to schedule a training opportunity (research@mtsu.edu; 615-494-7669).
ORSP Workshops & Upcoming Events
Searching for Funding Opportunities: Grant Forward Friday, January 22nd, 2:00-3:00 pm
Presented via Zoom by: Casey Penston, ORSP Program Assistant RegisterZoom information will be supplied via email upon registration. MTSU has an institutional subscription to GrantForward, a search engine for funding
opportunities. Anyone with an MTSU email address can create an account. The system
allows individuals to use automation (by uploading CVs or online publication lists)
to create researcher profiles. Users can also manually add additional interests to
their profile. By creating a saved search, users can automatically receive emails
notifications of funding opportunities on a daily or weekly basis. Casey Penston,
Program Assistant to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will provide a
guided tutorial of the GrantFoward site via Zoom and take questions from participants.
Writing Winning Proposals to NSF – Writing for the reviewers! Tuesday, February 9th, 12:00-1:00 pm Hybrid event: Zoom/WPS room 102
Presented by: Dr. Hanna Terletska and Dr. Gregory Rushton
Understanding what peer reviewers look for and need to know when evaluating your grant
proposal is a fundamental element of grantmanship. In this workshop, two of MTSU’s
consistently successful grant writers will share lessons learned from their experiences
as proposers and as reviewers with the National Science Foundation. Dr. Hanna Terletska,
Assistant Professor in Physics and current NSF CAREER Award recipient, and Dr. Greg
Rushton, Director, TN STEM Education Center will present key points and take questions
in-person and via the web in this one-hour workshop.
Expert Panel
Dr. Hanna Terletska, Physics and Astronomy
Dr. Hanna Terletska is an Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department
at Middle Tennessee State University. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from the Florida
State University (2011), and her B. Sc. from Ivan Franko Drohobych State University
in Ukraine. Before joining MTSU in Fall 2017, she had several postdoctoral trainings:
at the University of Michigan (with the Simons Foundation collaboration postdoc fellowship),
Brookhaven National Lab, and Louisiana State University. Dr. Terletska’s research
is on computational studies and modeling of novel quantum materials. She is currently
the PI on two NSF grants, including the NSF CAREER grant and the NSF OAC grant. Since
her arrival to MTSU, she has been a reviewer for the NSF, DOE, NSF XSEDE, and ORNL
CNMS programs.
Dr. Greg Rushton, Director, Tennessee STEM Education Center
Dr. Greg Rushton, Director, Tennessee STEM Education Center - Greg Rushton is Director of the TN STEM Education Center (TSEC) and Professor of Chemistry
at MTSU. He has held faculty appointments previously at SUNY-Stony Brook on Long
Island and Kennesaw State University, just north of Atlanta. He earned his undergraduate
degree in chemistry at the University of Southern California, and graduate degrees
in science education and physical organic chemistry at the ‘other’ USC in South Carolina.
His group has current projects in both K-12 STEM education and in higher education,
which are funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences,
and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Proposal Odds and Ends: NSF, NIH, and USDA proposal document requirements: biosketch,
conflict of interest, and current & pending March 2021(date and time TBD)
Presented via Zoom by: Dr. Ginger Rowell, Dr. Greg Rushton, and Dr. Samantha Cantrell (Registration Available Soon) Zoom information will be supplied via email upon registration. Several of MTSU’s more frequent federal sponsors have recently adopted new format
and content requirements for supporting documents in your grant proposals. The presenters
will review current requirements for NSF, NIH, and USDA.
Patents, Licensing, and Commercialization Basics April 2021 (date and time TBD)
Presented via Zoom by: Laura Arneson, Patent Attorney, Mueting Raasch Group, and Jeffry Porter, ORSP (Registration Available Soon) Zoom information will be supplied via email upon registration. Commercialization of the outcomes from research and other scholarship is an important
part of the university creative enterprise. Understanding the processes and options
involved in intellectual property development, protection and commercialization strengthen
scholars’ ability to being to fruition their contributions to their field and society.
The presenters will discuss the basics of protecting and commercializing intellectual
property.
Previous Workshops & Trainings with Materials
2019-2020
Support Your Students with SAGE Research Methods
Tuesday, June 9, 10:00-11:00 am and Thursday, June 11, 2:00-3:00 pm
Presented via Zoom by:Patrick Cox, Field Editor at SAGE Publishing
Are you on the lookout for new digital content to help students better understand
how to design a research project or use various research methods? Would you like new
digital books, videos, and tools to develop research methods courses? Are you conducting
research for publication? If so, SAGE Research Methods (SRM) is the essential tool
for you and your students! With SRM, faculty can quickly get SAGE books, journal articles,
video, datasets, and more into students hands no matter where they are.
SAGE Research Methods provides an online collection of videos, books, cases, practice
datasets, and research tools that supports researchers at all levels across the social
sciences and STEM disciplines. It enhances student success in learning research methods,
aids researchers in the application of research methods, and supports faculty in teaching
research methods. In this session SAGE Field Editor Patrick Cox will pride in-depth
instruction on the SRM platform and demonstrate how this resource can support faculty
and students through every step of the research process.
Expert Panel
Patrick Cox, SAGE Field Editor
Patrick Cox is former faculty member and occasional online instructor who now spends
his days at SAGE working with faculty on connecting the right resources with the instructors
and students who need them, always mindful of pedagogy, meeting students’ needs, and
faculty members’ busy schedules.
Writing Grant Proposals and PRF Funding Opportunities for PUIs Webinar
Tuesday, April 28, 1:00-2:00 pm
Nancy Jensen, the Leader of the Office of Research Grants at ACS and program officer
for the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) grant program, focused on the proposal writing
and evaluation process and highlights funding opportunities specifically for PUI investigators
in the PRF grant program. In this free, interactive broadcast, the participant discovered
proposal writing tips, what proposal reviewers desire to know about your project as
well as behind the scenes knowledge of the reviewer evaluation process and specifics
about the PRF grant programs for PUIs. Topics:
Basic tips for preparing a competitive research proposal
What is involved in the proposal evaluation process
Details regarding PRF's Undergraduate Research (UR) and Undergraduate New Investigator
(UNI) Grant Programs for undergraduate institution
Getting the Most from ACS Publications: A discussion on how to get published, gain
exposure, and enhance science learning at MTSU
Friday, April 17, 1:50-2:45 pm
Presented via Zoom by: Tammy Hanna, Ph.D., Director, Professional Development & Education, American
Chemical Society (ACS)
Expert Panel
Tammy Hanna, Ph.D.
Tammy completed a B.S. in Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry
at Cornell University with Paul Chirik, and a post-doctoral appointment at UC Berkeley
with Chris Chang. After a 3.5-year appointment as a Chemistry Instructor and Director
of the Welch Summer Scholar Program at Texas Tech University, Tammy joined ACS Publications,
where she is currently Director of New Product Innovation.ne Corps.
LaunchTN Virtual Workshop: SBIR/STTR Federal Research Grants - A Deep Dive
Friday, April 3, 12:00-3:00 pm
Get in-depth exposure to federal grant funding opportunities and learn of resources
specifically available to Tennesseans. More detailshere.
Author Workshop: How to Write a Great Research Paper, Use and Share Your Data Responsibly,
and Get Published
Wednesday, March 4, 12:00-1:00pm
James E. Walker Library, Room 348
In this workshop David will discuss identifying the right journal, navigating data
repositories, structuring your article, data reuse and publication, understanding
the peer review process, open access publishing, publishing ethics, how to get your
research noticed, and responsible sharing.
Expert Panel
David Parsons, Former Publisher
David Parsons from Elsevier is the former publisher of Data in Brief, an interdisciplinary Elsevier journal that enables researchers to
share and find research data sets. David has more than twelve years of experience in editorial and marketing roles
in academic publishing, and also recently received his MS in Data Science from Syracuse
University.
On Friday, February 21, ORSP and the Honors College will host Kim Williams with the
US Fulbright Scholar program. Ms. Williams will visit MTSU to present two informational
sessions – one specifically for students, and one for faculty interested in the Fulbright
program. Both sessions will take place in Honors 106.
Working with Federal Sponsors - NSF, DOE, and USDA
Dr. Song Cui, Agriculture- Dr. Song Cui is an Associate Professor in the School of Agriculture at Middle Tennessee
State University. He received his B.S. in Agricultural Science from Lanzhou University
(China) in 2006, and his Ph.D. in Crop Science from Texas Tech University in 2011. He
is a broadly trained agronomist with expertise in big data algorithms, crop physiology,
forage production, simulation modeling, soil and boundary layer flux (CO2, water vapor,
and greenhouse gases) measurements, and large-scale agroecosystem studies addressing
issues such as water sustainability and climate change. Particularly, Dr. Cui is
interested in integrating machine learning techniques into advanced agronomic research
domains, including remote sensing, bioinformatics, meta-analysis, and plant growth/ecological
modeling. Furthermore, as a field agronomist by training, Dr. Cui enjoys conducting
variety trials and cropping system research on various row, forage, and specialty
crops in different agroecosystems.
Dr. Cui has authored and co-authored more than 25 high-impact journal articles since
2013. He has served as reviewers for more than ten peer-reviewed journals and had
reviewed more than 20 journal articles in the past five years. Furthermore, Dr. Cui
has served as the Principal Investigator for more than $1.9M externally funded research
projects (mainly from USDA-NIFA) since 2013. Collectively, He has involved in more
than $7M collaborative projects nationwide. Dr. Cui is currently serving as the Chair
of the Airborne and Satellite Remote Sensing Community of the American Society of
Agronomy. Meanwhile, he is also serving as the Elected Secretary of Southern Branch
of the American Society of Agronomy, will move on to serve as the Vice President in
2021 and President in 2022. Dr. Cui has served as an external grant reviewer panelist
on six external funding programs since 2013, including four USDA-NIFA sponsored competitive
funding programs. Dr. Cui frequently mentors undergraduate and graduate student research
projects and teaches courses including Forage Crop Production, Field Crop Production,
Crop Ecophysiology, and Agricultural Statistics and Data Analysis.
Dr. Greg Rushton, Director, Tennessee STEM Education Center
Dr. Greg Rushton, Director, Tennessee STEM Education Center - Greg Rushton is Director of the TN STEM Education Center (TSEC) and Professor of Chemistry
at MTSU. He has held faculty appointments previously at SUNY-Stony Brook on Long
Island and Kennesaw State University, just north of Atlanta. He earned his undergraduate
degree in chemistry at the University of Southern California, and graduate degrees
in science education and physical organic chemistry at the ‘other’ USC in South Carolina.
His group has current projects in both K-12 STEM education and in higher education,
which are funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences,
and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Whether overseeing a student research project, thesis, or dissertation; or preparing
your own work for publication or dissemination, SAGE Research Methods (SRM) can help
with every step of the research process. Join us for a custom training session to
learn more about this online collection of resources designed to support beginning
and advanced researchers looking for the best methods to use in their research. In
this session, you will learn more aboutSRMand its content – including dictionary and encyclopedia entries, book chapters, full
books, journal articles, and the complete Quantitative Applications in the Social
Sciences (Little Green Books) and Qualitative Research Methods series (Little Blue
Books) – and how these resources can help you in your teaching and with your research.