April 20 Campus Convening on Climate Change, faculty successes, and timely announcements

Dear Colleagues:

Below you will find several important announcements from the Office of Research and Innovation, as well as a sampling of success stories from across campus, to fill you with Spartan pride.

My staff and I are committed to supporting your continued innovation and research success. Please contact our office if we can assist you in any way.

Best regards,

Douglas A. Gage
Vice President for Research and Innovation

Campus Convening on Climate Change: Our Planet, Our Food, and Our People - Wednesday, April 20

Implementation activities for the MSU Strategic Plan 2030 are now underway, and we have begun to focus our research agenda around the Strategic Plan pillar “discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact.”

Climate change is an issue that MSU is uniquely qualified to address and has been outlined as one of the first areas of action in the 2030 plan. Our response to the crisis will require research and innovation around energy, mobility, migration, communication, social justice, economics, ethics, and much more.

Faculty, staff, and students from all disciplines are invited to attend a full-day campus convening on Wednesday, April 20, at the Henry Center (virtual options will also be available). This engaging day of activities will allow for broad input to discuss the scope to which MSU can make meaningful contributions. Goals for the day include identifying interdisciplinary programming and partnerships, then developing a roadmap and timetable for moving forward.

Note: this is the first meeting in a series to address climate and other research priorities.

Please visit the event page for more details and registration and be sure to share this information with colleagues in your respective areas who would have interest in attending.

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Hear more about the discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact goal in this recent podcast with university leaders.

Announcements

ORA Changes Name to ORRS; Emphasizes Support Mission

The Office of Regulatory Affairs is now the Office of Research Regulatory Support, or ORRS.

According to Assistant Vice President for ORRS, Laura McCabe, “The new name better reflects the unit’s ongoing mission to support MSU’s innovative and expanding research enterprise and to enhance the success of MSU researchers.”

ORRS is composed of eight regulatory teams who are available to support faculty, students, and staff to conduct research that is safe, protects research subjects, and meets all local, state, and federal guidelines.

Over the next several weeks, campus users of ORRS services will notice the new name reflected on websites, email addresses, letterhead, and other communications.

Administrator Writes Opinion Piece on Research Regulations

J.R. Haywood, assistant vice president for Research and Innovation, recently penned an op-ed “A Collective Approach to Reducing Regulatory Burdens,” featured in the American Physiological Society’s Physiologist Magazine. Haywood comments on several ideas for improvement and challenges us to think about novel approaches to achieve the outcomes of research subject protection, laboratory safety, and compliance, without a negative effect on research.

New Leadership at the University Research Organization

In case you missed last week’s announcement, John Albrecht, professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, has been appointed to the position of executive director for the University Research Organization (URO). Please read the full announcement to learn more about Dr. Albrecht’s qualifications and his ideas for gaining new interest in the URO.

Inaugural HARP Large-scale Development Grant Awarded to Documentary Filmmaker

Safoi Babana-Hampton, associate professor of French in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the HARP large-scale development grant for her project titled "Spectral Visions of the Atlantic: A French Caribbean Odyssey of the Black Voyage." Funding in the amount of $100,000 will support the production of a documentary film. View the full announcement to learn more about her project.

The 2022 HARP development grants also recently were awarded to 12 scholars. Please read the full announcement for details and congratulate your colleagues.

Visit the internal grants page to learn more about HARP.

Woman of color with glasses in a black top and pink jacket

New MSU Foundation Professor

Deborah Johnson, professor of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Social Science has been appointed as an MSU Foundation Professor . Dr. Johnson has worked at MSU for the last 23 years conducting outstanding research on racial-ethnic development in children and families. Johnson is also the first and current director of the Diversity Research Network (DRN), a faculty-serving entity meant to address scholarly support and facilitate community-building and collaboration among scholars of color and researchers interested in diversity populations. Congratulations!

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Researcher Awarded Competitive Program Project Grant

Stephanie Watts, professor in Pharmacology and Toxicology, was recently awarded a $13.5M NIH program project grant to explore multiple projects around perivascular adipose tissue and vascular system function. Congratulations to Watts and her team for their hard work and dedication on this winning proposal – we look forward to the outcomes of their research.

Program, training, and new center grants will be very important tools for growing the research enterprise as we work toward achieving the goals of the 2030 plan. Please contact the Office of Research and Innovation if you have any questions or need assistance.

Faculty Excellence

MSU faculty continue to be recognized for their research excellence through inclusion in international societies and receipt of highly prestigious honorifics. The headlines below include a sampling of recent awards. For more success stories, please visit the Announcements page on our website. Also, be sure to send your good news to r esearch@msu.edu for inclusion.