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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1. Research Capacity Expansion Grants, Pre-Proposals Concept Paper Deadline: March 7, 2008
2. REMINDER: Make Sure to Use the Current Version of the Routing and Endorsement Form
3. SPAR Office Providing Workshops on Using COS for Funding Searches in February
4. SPAR Office Providing Workshops on Budget Building
5. Faculty Research Committee Grant Application Deadline: March 14, 2008
6. NEH Grant Program to Support Digital Research and Training
7. Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia
8. DoD Begins Recruiting for National Language Service Corps Pilot
9. Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

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1. Research Capacity Expansion Grants, Pre-Proposals Concept Paper Deadline: March 7, 2008

Pre-Proposal Concept Paper Deadline:  March 7, 2008
Final Proposal Deadline:  April 4, 2008
Award Date:   May 9, 2008

The Research Capacity Expansion Grants provide the opportunity for new and existing research teams to broaden their research capabilities by increasing the capacity to do research.  Broadening capacity may mean increasing the workforce by hiring post doctoral associates or individuals who qualify for appointments in the Research Professor Series.  It may mean supporting advanced doctoral students in their final years of assistantship support or adding large-ticket special purpose equipment to the laboratory.  It may mean cost-sharing with the department or college on any of these or other items that serve the purpose of increasing research capacity.

Research Capacity Expansion Grants will be available in amounts up to $50,000 and will be used to facilitate the development of research clusters and/or internal and external collaborative partnerships.  In exceptional situations, projects may request funding in excess of $50,000, but must provide adequate and convincing justification.  In no case will the level of funding exceed $75,000.  Because the expectation is that external funding will be obtained, these grants are non-renewable beyond two years.
 
Number of awards and award amounts will be determined based on the merit of the science, the projected results within the 12-month time frame, and the contribution the project makes toward strengthening BGSU’s ability to compete for state funding and/or federal support.
 
Complete guidelines are available for download from the SPAR web site:
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/spar/forms/Internal-Forms.html#RCE_TIE

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2. REMINDER: Make Sure to Use the Current Version of the Routing and Endorsement Form

All grant submitters are reminded that the University Routing and Endorsement Form was revised in July 2007 to comply with a number of federal regulations. The revision also included a completely revised form and process for Potential Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure. Only the current form will be accepted during the proposal routing and endorsement process. The form is available at the SPAR web site:
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/spar/forms/Internal-Forms.html

To ensure that you are using the correct forms that incorporate the most recent revisions, always download a new form from the web site. Please destroy any old version you may have saved on your desktops.

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3. SPAR Office Providing Workshops on Using COS for Funding Searches in February

During the month of February, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research will provide workshops on using COS for funding searches. COS is one of the leading funding search technologies available, and used by nearly 1,000 institutions of higher education worldwide. The COS database includes funding sources to support research, instruction, public services, performing arts, the humanities, travel, conferences, and much more.

All workshops will take place in the SPAR Conference Room, 108 University Hall;
Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
Monday, February 25, 2008, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Seating is limited, so anyone interested in attending is encouraged to register as soon as possible by contacting the SPAR office at either

spar@bgsu.edu
or
419-372-2481

For additional upcoming workshops, see the SPAR web site:
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/spar/SPAR%20Workshops.html

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4. SPAR Office Providing Workshops on Budget Building

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research will present "Budget Building" on February 21 and 27, 2008. The workshop will address the processes and documentation required for the submission of all requests for external funding.

Both sessions will take place in the SPAR Conference Room, 108 University Hall.
Thursday, February 21, 2008, 2 - 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 2 - 3:30 p.m.

Seating is limited, so anyone interested in attending is encouraged to register as soon as possible by contacting the SPAR office at either

spar@bgsu.edu
or
419-372-2481

For additional upcoming workshops, see the SPAR web site:
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/spar/SPAR%20Workshops.html

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5. Faculty Research Committee Grant Application Deadline: March 14, 2008

The Faculty Research Committee is accepting applications, due Friday, March 14, 2008 for the following programs:

Faculty Mentoring and Enrichment Program

Scholars Assistance Program
    Bridge Funding
    Research Travel Grants
    Research in Difficult-To-Fund-Areas
    Small Grants for Unanticipated Expenses

Guidelines and application forms are available at the SPAR web site:
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/spar/FRC/

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6. NEH Grant Program to Support Digital Research and Training
 
 Deadline: April 9, 2008
 
 The National Endowment for the Humanities' ( http://www.neh.gov/ )
 Digital Humanities Initiative has announced Institutes for Ad-
 vanced Topics in the Digital Humanities, a new grant program to
 support national or regional (multi-state) research and training
 programs on approaches in humanities computing.
 
 The program is designed to bring together humanities scholars,
 graduate students, computer scientists, and others to learn new
 tools and technologies and to foster relationships for future
 collaborations in the humanities. Partners and collaborators may
 be drawn from the private and public sectors and include appro-
 priate specialists from within and outside the United States.
 Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities may be
 hosted by colleges, universities, learned societies, centers for
 advanced study, libraries or other repositories, and cultural or
 professional organizations. Projects that will be held more than
 once and at different locations are permissible.
 
 Possible topics and areas to be addressed might include: text
 encoding, electronic editing, and publishing; e-literature; tex-
 tual analysis and text mining; immersive and virtual environments
 in multimedia research; 3-D imaging technology, including laser
 scanning; creativity, culture, and computing; digital image
 design; information aesthetics; computer gaming and the human-
 ities; high performance or supercomputing and the humanities; and
 advanced Geographic Information Systems applications.
 
 Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities grants
 may not be used for digitization of collections; support for
 workshops on routine computer applications from which little new
 knowledge about techniques or approaches in the digital human-
 ities will emerge; the development and presentation of courses or
 programs that focus on the skills and knowledge required to
 preserve, digitize, or catalog humanities collections (such as
 training in digital scanning); graduate programs in the digital
 humanities; or programs that are not regional (multi-state) or
 national in scope.
 
 Awards normally range from one to three years and from $50,000
 to a maximum of $250,000 each.
 
 Any U.S. nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
 is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and
 tribal governments. Grants are not awarded to individuals.
 
 Visit the NEH Web site for complete program information.
 
 RFP Link:
 http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011198/neh

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7. Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia

The Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia (SRL) is a program for scholars to conduct advanced research in this field.  Associates are given full access to the collection and resources of the University of Illinois Library, the largest Slavic collection west of Washington, DC, and are able to seek advice from the reference librarians of the Slavic and East European Library. 


The following persons are eligible to apply to the Summer Lab:

• Faculty or graduate students at a university or college who are teaching and/or doing research on the region.
• Individuals who have a PhD and are doing research on the region, even if this expertise is not being used in current employment.
• Individuals working in an area of government, NGOs or business related to the region, regardless of academic training.
• Librarians specializing in the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian field.

• Research Area: Scholars conducting policy relevant research on the countries of Eurasia and Southeastern Europe. Under U.S. Department of State regulations, scholars whose research focuses on any EU member state­Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania­must be doing comparative research that includes a non EU member state of Eurasia or Southeastern Europe in order to be eligible for funding.
•  
• Policy Relevance: All applicants requesting housing grants must state the policy relevance of their research. For junior scholars policy relevance can be envisioned in fairly broad terms; however, State Department regulations require that senior scholars cannot be funded unless their research is clearly policy relevant. Click on proposal information on the side bar for more information on the issue of policy relevance.