Grant News from Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Dear Faculty and Administrators,
This message is an overview of some of the grants that have been obtained by institutions of higher education in Oklahoma during July and August. We hope you enjoy seeing your colleagues' creative work.
One big event in July was the annual Summer Grant Writing Institute, 40 faculty members and 11 mentors working together to complete grant proposals requesting over $5 million for programs of research and development on 17 campuses in Oklahoma. The accomplishments were great, and the participants and mentors gave a great deal of energy and expertise to the event. You may want to apply for the 2011 Grant Writing Institute next August 1-5!
If you received this newsletter from a friend and want to receive you own copy, or if you want to include your own grants in the next issue, send a jpeg photo and a message to [email protected].
Sincerely,
Linda Mason
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Carl Albert
State College Trio Grant
Carl
Albert State College received a Department
of Education TRIO Student Support Services (SSS)
5-year grant for $436,824 per year for a total of $2,184,120. Kim Hughes is the
Project Coordinator who manages the program and supervises the SSS employees at
both the Poteau and Sallisaw campuses. Michelle White is the TRIO
Director who oversees all seven TRIO programs at Carl Albert State
College: SSS, Two Talent Search, two Upward Bound, Upward Bound
Math/Science and Educational
Opportunity Center.
Grant writers Deborah Herr Cummings and Rita Thomas wrote and submitted the
grant. The
Student Support Services program is designed to assist low-income, first
generation and/or disabled college students through tutoring, advising,
financial assistance and other important services to assure they successfully
complete college and earn a degree. |
OCCC Asbestos Grant Oklahoma City Community College is among institutions to receive
funds for asbestos removal from one of its building sites, $200,000 in Brownfields grant
money for the removal of the hazardous building material from the OCCC Capitol
Hill Center, the college's satellite campus on SW 5th Street.. Jessica Martinez-Brooks, the Director of Community Outreach
and Education, plans to offer more classes in the building after the
renovation is complete. Classes
in contaminant free portions of the Capitol
Hill Center
are being offered in bilingual Spanish-English formats and serve the adult
education and job readiness needs of the community's diverse members. |
Wal-Mart Gives Rose State Grant
A grant from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will finance free water
treatment operator training this fall at Rose State College's Oklahoma Environmental
Training Center. The center estimates the grant would provide tuition for
about 100 participants. Training will include classes for entry-level
certification and for incumbent training classes for the A, B, and C operator
certifications. Tuition will also be waived to municipalities who register
employees. The state-approved certification program will be offered to meet the
state's growing needs for water treatment specialists. Bill Clark is
coordinator of environmental training at Rose State. |
OSU-OKC Grant Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City is one of seven
colleges nationwide to receive a $25,000 grant from the Metlife Foundation and Civic
Ventures' Encore College Initiative for helping adults over 50 prepare for
health and education careers.
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RedlandsMetLife Grant
Redlands Community College
received a grant from the International
Longevity Center
funded by MetLife for $15,000 to deliver on-demand access to web-based
non-credit training for Oklahoma family caregivers and provide assessment utilizing existing
organizations and personnel in each county in a budget neutral manner. Redlands will be working
closely with the OK Department of Human Services - Aging Services Division
(Home & Community-Based Services) to develop the Family Caregiver Training
program.
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NSU Grants
Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center - Dr. Fritz Laux
received $50,162 to gather tobacco price data to help with Oklahoma cigarette tax policies. INBRE Junior Investigator Award
Dr. Jessica Martin received $115,261
from INBRE to provide examples of marine siderophore
structures by screening open-ocean fungal strains for the iron-binding
compounds under conditions of iron limitations. It will isolate the iron-binding from the open-ocean fungal strains then
determine the structure(s) of siderophore(s) produced by open-ocean fungi using
amino acid analysis, NMR and mass spectrometry.
INBRE Junior
Investigator Award - Dr. Cindy Cisar received $124,977 from INBRE to
determine if coliform bacteria in a freshwater ecosystem that received effluent
from a waste water treatment plant act as an environmental reservoir of
antibiotic resistance and to assess the impact these bacteria may have on the
spread of antibiotic resistance and, ultimately, on human health.
Project I'm Ready - Dr. Pamela Louderback received $972,337 from IMLS for a
3-year project to develop specialized curriculum and information literacy
resources for school librarians to improve student success in racially diverse
and economically disadvantaged schools and communities in northeast Oklahoma communities
with high percentages of Native American populations.
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Bioassessment
Dr. Amy Smith received $51,100 for
the 8th year to provide necessary personnel to complete the work of
picking biological samples (fish & macroinvertebrate), properly preserving
biological samples and delivering the picked samples to representatives of the
commission.
GEAR UP Grant
Dr. Kay Grant received
$116,307 from GEARUP to provide tutorial and other services intended to raise
the educational aspirations of Tulsa
disadvantaged middle school students who are historically under-represented in
post-secondary education programs.
SSS - US Department of EDUC - Ms.
Connie Wright receiveda $297,920 Trio Grant for Student Support Services from the US
Department of EDUC to provide counseling, tutoring, and enrichment services
to NSU students who have academic need to complete their degree. Ms. Wright
has been directing this program since its inception in 1993. |
NWOSU Receives Grants INBRE Faculty Mini-Grant - Dr. Cornelia
Mihai (pictured), Assistant Professor of Chemistry, received $24,731 for biomedical
research. Alva Tourism Grant - Dr. Tim Maharry,
Associate Professor and Chair of math and Computer Sciences and Dr. Cynthia
Pfeifer-Hill, Professor of Biology and Chair of Natural Sciences, received
$5,000 to enhance opportunities for Heartland BEST, a national robotic
competition hosted on the NWOSU campus. Masonic Social Sciences Endowment Grant - Dr. Aaron Mason received $100,000 to create the NWOSU-Masonic Institute for Citizenship Studies to
support the department's cultural heritage lectures, the presidential lectures,
the Civic Education Fellowship Program, and other departmental projects and
programs. Rural Health Projects, Inc. Grant - Andy Fosmire, Executive
Director of Rural Health Projects and NWAHEC-Enid campus, received $285,000 to provide
simulation equipment for the nursing department at all three branch campuses. |
UCO NSF Noyce Grant
The
National Science Foundation awarded $73,898 to the University of Central Oklahoma and Elizabeth Allen and Bill
Pink for Planning for the Robert
Noyce Teaching Fellowships/Master Teaching Fellowships(TF/MTF) in a program
that will improve secondary science teachers' content knowledge and enhance
their ability to work in an urban setting.
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ECU NASA Grants
The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program has awarded 16 ECU students scholarships and research stipends ranging from $350 to $2,000.
Students are Justin Gates of Sulphur, a junior biology major, and Stacey Halsey of Ada, a senior biology
major. Two sophomores received scholarships, Noelle Hurt of Stratford,
in political science, and Shelby Sayre of Chandler,
mathematics. Junior scholarships went to Bethany Beachel
of Henryetta, chemistry; Amber Cannon of Collinsville,
cartography & geography; Rosa Denton of Porum, early childhood education;
Jessica Pitts of Alton, Ill., mathematics; and Lindsy Polk of Hugo,
biology. Seniors receiving scholarships are Anita Bural of Norman, early
childhood education; Kellie Eiland-Wright of Shawnee, mass communications;
Felicia Goure of Holdenville, biology; Natalie Isaacs of Konawa, accounting;
Matthew Payne of Wanette, physics; Kristen Thompson of Elmore City, physics;
and Ann Watson of Pauls Valley, cartography/geography and biology.
The
Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium includes four charter institutional affiliates
(The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Cameron
University and Langston
University) and four regional
institutional affiliates (ECU, Southeastern
Oklahoma State
University, Southern Nazarene
University and Southwestern
Oklahoma State
University). The
consortium also includes two academic affiliates (Application Engineering
Program, Center for Spatial Analysis), two industrial affiliates (Frontier
Electronic Systems Corporation, Science Applications International
Corporation), one city government affiliate (Norman Economic Development
Coalition), and five informal science education affiliates (Kirkpatrick Air and
Space Museum at Omniplex, STARBASE Oklahoma Inc., K20 Center, Space Explorers
Inc. and Tom Stafford Air and Space Museum). Under the National
Space Grant
College and Fellowship
Program, funding may go toward undergraduate research and scholarship, campus
and community projects, conference travel, visits to NASA Centers of
Excellence, and financial assistance.
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Langston University Softball Field Grant
Langston University broke ground Wednesday on a
regulation size softball field at T.G.
Green Park, just east of the campus. Construction is funded mostly through a Community Partnership and
Revitalization Initiative as part of an $800,000 Historically Black Colleges and Universities grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. The town of Langston
contributed an $8,000 match.
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OUHSC Grants
Prevent Blindness - The Oklahoma
Health Sciences
Center has been awarded
two grants from Research to Prevent Blindness: $100,000 to Gregory L. Skuta, Edward L. Gaylord Professor and chairman of the
Department of Ophthalmology and president and CEO of the Dean McGee Eye
Institute to support research into the
causes, treatment, and prevention of blinding diseases. John D. Ash received a $60,000 RPB Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award, which supports mid-career
scientists who hold primary positions within departments of ophthalmology and
who are actively engaged in eye research at medical institutions in the United States.
Ash is one of 108 scientists at 44 institutions who have received the award. Ash's
project is focused on discovering methods to preserve vision in patients with
retinal degeneration by preventing or delaying the death of retinal neurons
including photoreceptors.
Talley Research Awards - The Harold Hamm
Oklahoma Diabetes
Center has received 4 diabetes research awards from Britani
Talley Bowman in honor of her father, William "Bill" W. Talley III, a Hobart
native and University
of Oklahoma alumnus. Each
award provides the junior researchers with up to $45,000 to help make a project competitive for funding at the
national level within 18 months. The recipients are Madona Azar, Junping Chen, Zhongchao Han
and Xin (Sarah) Zhang, all of the OU
College of Medicine.
Cancer
Research Program Development Awards - The University of Oklahoma Cancer
Institute has awarded five scientists who are studying prostate and ovarian
cancer. The competitive grants, which total $175,000 for two cancer research
projects, were funded privately from donations collected during a birthday
fundraiser in September in honor of Oklahoma
City businessman Gene Rainbolt. The recipients
are Ralf Janknecht, Hsueh-Kung Lin and Michael Ihnat, OU College of Medicine,
who are studying prostate cancer at the molecular level to find new drug
targets, and Joan Walker and Kathleen Moore, OU College of Medicine, who with
other researchers will seek to identify biomarkers for predicting response,
prognosis, screening and early detection of cancer.
OU Tulsa Health Records Grant - Dr. David Kendrick
of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
and the Greater Tulsa Health Access
Network (Greater THAN) received a $12 million grant
and national pilot status for implementation of an 11-county electronic medical
records system. All major health providers in the region collaborated toward the
common goal and brought Tulsa's
effort to the forefront nationally.
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OSU Grants
Research
on Voles - Oklahoma State University researcher Alex Ophir, assistant professor, Department of Zoology has been awarded a grant
for $349,175 to better understand
the monogamy and other social behaviors of prairie voles, a rodent found
throughout the Midwest that exhibits certain
behaviors similar to humans. The research, funded by the Eunice Kennedy
Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the
National Institutes of Health, could contribute insights for better
understanding autism and human bonding, as well as causes of dysfunctions in
social attachments.
Video connects OSU and Iraqi Doctors - Several doctors at
Kadhamiyah Teaching Hospital in a dangerous section of Baghdad speak by video with doctors at OklahomaState
University College
of Health Science in Tulsa using Oklahoma's OneNet telecommunications systemin continuing weekly teleconferences in which OSU specialists will provide expertise, hear medical cases and help Iraqi doctors plan medical interventions for their patients.
The Tulsa-Baghdad connection is the
brainchild of Dr. Anil Kaul, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology
at the OSU medical school. He is on sabbatical serving as senior public health
adviser for the U.S. State Department to help evaluate the war-torn country's health
care structure and identify priority needs. Kaul, a native of India, found
that many Iraqi medical textbooks are outdated and up-to-date information is
scarce. OSU has a sophisticated telemedicine system that allows specialists in Tulsa to consult with
doctors in rural areas via real-time audio and video. Kadhamiyah hospital is
the country's second largest with 655 beds, and many patients have rare or
difficult medical conditions as a result of inadequate hygiene, nutrition or vaccinations.
OSU Veterinary
Center - The Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and
William Barrow, Sitlington chair in
infectious diseases, professor of veterinary pathobiology andthe Oklahoma State University has been awarded a five-year grant from
the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases/Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The
award, Broad-spectrum Antifolates for
Treatment of Drug Resistant Bacillus Anthracis, is a multidisciplinary
partnership grant including the Department
of Veterinary Pathobiology, the OSU Department of Chemistry, collaborators
at Sapient Discovery in San Diego, Calif., and Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental
Research Institute in Albuquerque,
N.M. Co-investigators are Christina Bourne and Phil Bourne, both with the center's Department of Veterinary Pathobiology;
Darrell Berlin and Richard Bunce, both with OSU Chemistry; Kal Ramnarayan, Sapient;
and Michelle Valderas, Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research
Institute.
NASA Grant
- Steve Marks, professor in the OSU College of
Education, has
received a $7.5 million grant to
collaborate with NASA to improve the use and effectiveness of online learning
technologies in kindergarten through 12th-grade education, higher education,
and in informal settings such as museums. The NASA Distance Learning Network will emphasize learning in STEM
disciplines, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This project
will enable NASA's science and engineering excellence potentially to reach
every American with access to the Internet.
Henrickson Grant
to OSU - Robert
Henrickson has given $50,000 to the College
of Agricultural Sciences and Natural
Resources at Oklahoma State University.
Henrickson, born in 1920 in Hays, Kan.,
made the gift on his 90th birthday. Through the Pickens Legacy Scholarship
Match, a $100,000 scholarship endowment will be created for food science
students inside the animal science department at OSU. Henrickson was a
professor within the department for 30 years.
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OCU Grants
Chesapeake gives OCU $5M - Chesapeake Energy
Corp. has created the
Chesapeake Presidential Scholars program, which is funded by a $5 million
gift from the oil and gas company. The five-year program will provide up to
$25,000 a year in tuition for 17 students. McClendon credited Martha
Burger, Chesapeake's
senior vice president for human and corporate resources, with
coming up with the idea for the program. Burger, who earned her master's degree
from OCU in 1990, said she wanted to do something to help her alma mater.
OCU's Kramer School of Nursing - Oklahoma
City University's Kramer School of
Nursing will offer up to 28 new stipends this fall for graduate students after
receiving an advanced nursing education grant for $26,795, awarded by the Health
Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. Susan Barnes, OCU
associate professor of nursing, said Oklahoma
has a particular need to increase graduate education among nurses because of
its educator shortage and a shortage of nurses with advanced degrees in the
clinical setting.
OCU Grant to Establish Computer Center
- Oklahoma City University will spend more than $2 million to
create an Intergenerational Computer
Center that will expand broadband access in the surrounding community. The
university received a $1.4 million federal broadband stimulus grant from
the Department of Commerce for the
project and will provide $747,000 in
matching funds. The center, which will be open to the public, will feature more
than 110 workstations located in four computer rooms and in a mobile classroom
that will travel around the community. Numerous classes will be offered to
address the interest and needs of residents from preschool age through
retirement. Computers will also be available for individual use. University
faculty members and students, as well as local volunteers, will provide
training in basic computer skills, using the Internet, work force training,
math and reading skills, professional development for teachers, language
instruction, health and wellness, consumer protection and more. Project
partners include United Way
of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma Association of Youth Services, Boys and Girls
Clubs of Oklahoma County, Sunbeam Family Services, Positive Tomorrows, Oklahoma City School
District and Smart Start Oklahoma.
OCU Energy Management Speaker Series - A $150,000 grant from
the Karl and June Martin Family
Foundation will establish a new speaker series focusing primarily on energy
at Oklahoma City University's Steven C. Agee Economic
Research and Policy Institute. The June Martin Energy Management Speaker Series
will feature energy presentations including estimates of demand and how that
demand will be met. Oklahoma is an energy
state and the gift from the Martin
Family Foundation affords the Meinders School of Business the opportunity
to bring nationally recognized energy experts to Oklahoma City to address some of the most pressing
energy issues the world faces. Martin
Family Foundation Trustee Joe Womack said the foundation's primary purpose
is to provide quality experiences and scholarships for college students
studying the petroleum industry. The grant will fund scholarships for students
working at the economic research and policy institute located within OCU's Meinders School
of Business.
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TU Fuel Research in Algae
From autotrophics
to automobiles. That could be the motto of the University of Tulsa's
growing research program aimed at turning various strains of algae into fuels
that can power cars and trucks in the not so distant future. Members of a TU
Department of Chemical Engineering team believe they've latched onto a "green
crude" better than ethanol or other types of biofuel feedstocks. Geoffrey Price, professor, department
chairman and team members used a $1
million grant from Sapphire Energy,
Inc. for 3 years to research algae, and now have a $750,000 federal grant to continue. The nation's biggest integrated
oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., also
is putting its money where the algae to fuels market may be someday. The
Irving, Texas-based energy giant is spending at least $600 million in a venture with Synthetic
Genomics Inc. to develop the biofuel. Exxon Mobil also looks at
algaeto-fuels as a way to limit carbon pollution and boost energy production
and profits.
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SWOSU New Director of Sponsored Programs
Dr. Lori Gwyn is the new director of the office of sponsored programs at Southwestern Oklahoma State
University in
Weatherford. Gwyn replaces Anita Blankenship, who recently retired from SWOSU. Gwyn earned her doctorate and master's degrees in chemistry from the University of Missouri
in St. Louis.
She is also a graduate of SWOSU where she received her Bachelor of Science in
chemistry. Gwyn is a Newkirk
High School graduate.
Before coming to SWOSU, she served as a chemist at Danlin Industries
Corporation in Thomas and served four years as a postdoctoral research
associate at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. The office of sponsored programs promotes and facilitates scholarly activity
at SWOSU by supporting and administering all activities involving extramural
(external) and intramural sponsored programs. In 2009, the office coordinated
$6.5 million in various activities. |
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MASONIC GRANTS - The University of Central Oklahoma Foundation received a $100,000 gift from The Masonic Fraternity of Oklahoma to establish the Masonic
Endowment for Transformative Learning, which will support a project that
fosters transformative learning experiences for UCO students, helping them
become productive, creative, ethical and engaged citizens and leaders. Grand Master of Masons Charles Belknap said
supporting UCO fits the organization, as the Freemasons have been a proponent
of public education for decades. John Logan,
executive director of the Masonic Charity Foundation, said the endowment is
one of six gifts - all going to regional universities in Oklahoma : Northwestern, Southwestern, Southeastern and Northeastern Oklahoma State Universities and East Central University.
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Stimulus
Grants to Create 1,000 Jobs
Oklahoma groups are seeking up to $3 million to train and employ "green"
workers. The money is part of $6 million
in a federal stimulus grant awarded to Oklahoma
to train 1,000 workers in emerging industries such as energy efficiency and
renewable energy. Eligible are consortiums composed of a state training entity,
at least one Workforce Investment Board and employers. Groups expressing
interest can then submit detailed plans this fall for possible award by year's
end. The stimulus funding also is going to green jobs training centers across
the state, including at Tulsa Community College, the state's CareerTech sites and
the University of
Oklahoma's Lean and Green
Institute. A Center of Excellence for Energy Innovation at Tulsa Community College's
northeast campus will serve as a regional model for sustainability and a
resource hub for emerging energy technologies, best practices, innovative
curriculum and training opportunities. |
Federal Government Awards $50-Million in Innovation Grants
Job
training and work-force-development efforts will be among the main
beneficiaries of the new Social Innovation Fund grants. The Corporation for
National and Community Service announced 11 grants-ranging in size from $2-million to $10-million each-to
intermediary organizations, which will in turn award money to nonprofit groups
working in the areas of economic opportunity, youth development, and healthy
habits. Both the grant makers and the nonprofit groups are required to provide
matching funds, which so far total $74-million and are expected to exceed
$150-million.The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, in New York, received the
largest grant, $10-million over one year, which it will distribute to up to 10
youth-development organizations in urban and rural areas in California, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
and other states yet to be determined. The grants will be aimed at 9- to
24-year-olds, to improve their academic skills, work-force readiness, and
prospects for avoiding high-risk behaviors, such as criminal activity. |
EDGE Grants
In
2003, nearly 2,500 Oklahomans participated in a statewide planning project
called EDGE - Economic Development Generating Excellence. The goal was to
brainstorm long-term strategies for strengthening Oklahoma's economy. One key action item was
to transform Oklahoma
into the "Research Capital of the Plains," by creating a $1 billion
endowment to support research and by the transfer of innovation and technology
to create private-sector jobs. Even though the EDGE endowment is still
significantly shy of its $1 billion goal, this farsighted program is having a
positive impact on our state. This
fall, the EDGE endowment is preparing to make its third round of funding to
applicants who have brought forth amazing innovations across a broad segment of
industry sectors, including agriculture, information technology, energy and
biotechnology. Sixty-two pre-proposals were submitted for the program, with 12
finalists now vying for their share of this year's $6 million distribution. The
competition for EDGE funding grows more intense every year. In addition to the
endowment, a new EDGE program was launched this year to fund early stage
projects in Oklahoma.
With the goal of moving ideas from concept into something more
tangible and viable, the Innovative Idea Program initiative supports
beginning projects for one year at a maximum level of $25,000. This year, 6
innovative ideas were selected to receive IIP funding from a field of 48
applicants. |
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