R&DC 2007-08 Annual Report is In!

The Research and Development Center’s 2007-08 Annual Report is already available.

As expected and due primarily to the weak local economy, the amount of external funds decreased 17.5%. Most of this decrease came from private and local government funds, with corresponding 41.4% and 40.5% decreases as compared with last year; federal funds fell 11.4%.

On the other hand, there was 16.7% increase in proposals being submit-ted by our faculty: 245 this year versus 210 last year. This was accompanied by an increment of 39.2% in the total amount of external funds requested by our researchers submitting proposals through the R&D Center.

Indirect costs recovered increased by 11.3%, while institutional cost sharing and seed money funding went up by 14.2% and 148%, respectively (the latter due to the Bio Science and Engineering Initiative).

For the second straight year, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received more external funding than any other UPRM depart-ment: $3.4M. The other departments or programs rounding up the top-ten honor roll are: Physics, Marine Sciences, Civil Engineering, Biology, Chem-istry, Chemical Engineering, Sea Grant, Geology and Mathematical Sci-ences. Of these, only Physics (51.7%) and Marine Sciences (17.6%) had an increase from last year’s funding.

University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez PO Box 9001

Mayagüez, PR 00681-9001

RESEARCH AND DEV ELOPMENT CENTER

sults in significant economic losses. Iden-tification of factors that selectively en-hance or decrease fat accumulation would create opportunities to develop practical methods to enhance beef quality and (or) reduce waste.

Current Project: The student enrollment in the College of Agricultural Sciences of UPRM has been stagnant for at least the last five years. Conversely, the enrollment of students in other Colleges within UPRM, for example, the science component of the College of Arts and Sciences, has consis-tently increased over the same time period. As UPRM is the only Land Grant Campus where the University of Puerto Rico grants agricultural sciences bachelor degrees, it is imperative that we improve the recruitment and retention of food and agricultural sci-ence students. In the last 20 years the Ani-mal Sciences have entered the genomic era, where molecular biology techniques are essential, but the Animal Science curricu-lum at UPRM has not changed accordingly. Therefore this project’s objective is to im-prove the quality of science education in the

Graduated from: Michigan State Univer-sity Started Working for UPRM: Oct. 2007 Recent Project: Promoting Student Re-cruitment and Retention in the Animal Sci-ence Discipline by Enhancing Molecular Biology Scientific Instrumentation for Teaching, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grant Program ($250,000). Research Interests: I am interested in understanding the intrinsic differences between adipose (fat) depots in bovines (cows) and how these differences relate to the adipogenic capacity (ability to accumu-late fat) of the particular depots. Marbling, the adipose tissue embedded within skele-tal muscle, is usually associated with beef palatability by consumers. Therefore, beef producers are motivated to feed animals for long periods to attain highly marbled carcasses. Unfortunately, as producers fatten animals to meet these consumer demands, excessive subcutaneous fat re-

Animal Science Department by providing its students with a state-of-the-art teaching facility for molecular biology. This labora-tory will facilitate (1) student recruitment and retention by modernizing the depart-ment image, (2) design and implementation of new courses that target the modern issues of animal agriculture, and (3) provide stu-dents with hands-on learning experiences that will increase satisfaction with the Ani-mal Science curriculum and improve reten-tion. The Agricultural Extension Service will assist us in our recruitment campaign by disseminating the existence of the pro-posed facilities and changes in the Animal Science curriculum to more than 8,000 prospective high school students in 139 selected schools in all the 78 counties of Puerto Rico.

Meet Our Researchers: Guillermo Ortiz-Colón (Animal Science)

Phone: 787-831-2065 Fax: 787-831-2060

E-mail: cid@uprm.edu

Contact: Yuri Rojas— Director

y_rojas@math.uprm.edu

http://cid.uprm.edu http://blogs.uprm.edu/cid

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved a $475,200 Extramural Asso-ciates Research Develop-ment Award (EARDA) to UPRM’s Research and Development Center to establish and institutional-ize a Proposal Develop-ment Unit (PDU) for the purpose of enhancing the number and quality of pro-posals developed and sub-mitted by UPRM research-ers. The Principal Investi-gators are Dr. Marisol Vera and Prof. Yuri Rojas, Asso-ciate Director and Director of the R&D Center respec-tively.

The three long-term goals are: (1) increase the number of UPRM profes-sors doing research in NIH-related areas, (2) increase the number of proposals—

new and resubmissions—submitted to NIH; and (3) strengthen the quality of the proposals being submit-ted to NIH by UPRM re-searchers. To achieve these goals, five objectives have been defined: (1) establish-ment of the PDU, (2) the training of the PI as change agent and administrator of the PDU, (3) establishment of an evaluation plan to monitor the enhancement of the institutional capacity in research administration, (4) support of pilot projects in NIH areas of interest, and (5) institutionalization of the PDU.

The PDU will be mod-eled after the successful Proposal Development Office (PDO) of the Uni-versity of Kentucky (UK), a key partner in the initia-

tive. Another collaborator is the Ponce School of Medicine, whose Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, José Torres, is a former EARDA grantee himself and has agreed to serve as a mem-ber of the Advisory Board. The other members of the Board are Kathy Grzech, Associate Director of UK’s PDO, Alfonso Latoni, NIH mentor, and Mildred Chap-arro, UPRM’s Dean of Academic Affairs.

$1/2 Million EARDA Grant to R&DC from NIH

ORE gets an A+ from its clients Since 2007, the Office

of External Resources (ORE) started to collect feedback from the community who received services such as budget review and proposal submission. An e-mail is sent with a link where they voluntarily grade the service and anonymously express

their comments. So far, 74 responses have been re-ceived; most of them are very pleased with the ser-vices provided by the office. Their comments are shared with the office’s personnel as a way to drive towards excellence in customer satis-faction and to see areas for

improvement: 92% of re-spondents completely agree the transaction was done in a reasonable amount of time; 97% completely agree the service and attention offered were satisfactory; and 96% completely agree transaction was completed in a satisfac-tory manner.

The new Bio Processes Pilot Plant, could be a collaboration

Intellectual Property Presentation 2

Franklin Carrero’s Lab 2

Quick Quiz 2

NCURA is Coming 3

WAPA-TV Channel 4 Covers UPRM Research 3

Meet Our Personnel: Purchasing Office 3

Meet Our Researchers: Guillermo Ortiz-Colón 4

Inside this issue:

Mío

CID

/ M

y R

&D

RE

SE

AR

CH

AN

D D

EV

EL

OP

ME

NT

CE

NT

ER

Volume 2, Issue 2

January 2009

the role of myopodia, highly animated micro-processes extending from each muscle cell, prior to neuromuscular synaptogenesis. The photo shows Carrero surrounded by four of his research students.

Dr. Franklin Carrero, Assistant Professor of Biology, and his re-search team had an open house last semester in his laboratory. His re-search program is to understand the in vivo molecular and cellular dy-namics having an impact on the proc-ess of synaptogenesis, using the fruit fly as a model. In his lab he studies

Mariluz Frontera-Fernández (shown in the picture), from the

University of Puerto Rico Office of Intel-lectual Property, and Carla Ferrari, one of the very few lawyers specializing in this subject in Puerto Rico, gave a presentation last October 21st in the R&D Center. They talked about the University’s policy on intellectual prop-erty, the track re-

cord of patents from UPR research-ers.

Ferrari, who got her Biology undergraduate degree at UPRM before going on to study Law and specialize in IP, talked about fed-eral and local laws which are appli-cable to the university setting, in-cluding graduate studies, research and publications.

This presentation, as well as oth-ers which are being planned, work towards the R&DC long term goal of establishing a technology trans-fer office at UPRM, with emphasis in capacity building, demonstrative projects and commercialization.

nized that strict application would restrict a procuring agency’s ability to meet its needs, so it established sev-eral exceptions: unreason-able cost, quantity/quality, use outside the USA, in-consistent with the public interest, trade agreements.

It applies to all contracts

QUESTION

What is the Buy American Act?

ANSWER

The Buy American Act establishes a general preference for domestic arti-cles, materials, and supplies. Passed during the 1930s, the act was designed to protect the American worker by sav-ing and creating jobs. Congress recog-

for public use for the acquisi-tion of supplies or for ser-vices involving furnishing of supplies for use within the USA. The regulations do not apply to articles, materials or supplies the award value of which is less than or equal to the micropurchase threshold, currently $2,500.

Page 2

Biology’s Franklin Carrero Hosts Open House in Lab

Intellectual Property Presentation Held at R&D Center

Quick R&DC Quiz (from NCURA’s Regulations and Certifications Compendium—2007)

MÍO CID / MY R&D VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2

algae to p r o d u c e e n e r g y , and coral colonies in danger.

The airing of the series was followed by an interview of R&D Center Director Yuri Rojas during the morning show Noticentro al Amanecer. In it Rojas high-

lighted UPRM’s focus on areas such as the biosciences.

You can watch the series using the following link:

http://www.wapa.tv/noticias.php?nid=20081008104333

During the week of October 8-11, 2008 local TV Channel 4 (WAPA-TV)aired a three-part special on UPRM’s marine research, titled Los Tesoros de Isla Magueyes (The Treasures of Ma-gueyes Island). Running for a total of over 13 minutes, the specials focused on the research facilities on the island, spe-cial investigative equipment, as well as the biorefinery project which uses marine

UPRM will be hosting the National Council of University Research Adminis-t r a t o r s ( N C U R A ) w o r k s h o p “Fundamentals of Sponsored Project Administration” (SPA I). The two-and-a-half day workshop will be held on cam-pus from Wednesday, July 29th to Friday,

July 31st, 2009.

All R&D Center research administra-

tors will be attending; hence the Center will be partially shutdown during those dates. Other UPRM research administra-tors, as well as from other UPR units, and nearby universities are welcome to par-ticipate.

SPA I provides participants with a broad overview of the various aspects involved in sponsored projects admini-stration, including preparation and review of proposals, negotiation and acceptance of awards, financial and administrative management, closeout and audit, as well as relevant compliance issues. The ses-sion is targeted specifically to: proposal development personnel, sponsored pro-jects administrators, grant and contract accountants, research compliance admin-istrators, and others with newly acquired

responsibilities in sponsored projects administration.

As of publication date, the three in-structors in charge will be David Mayo, Associate Director of Sponsored Re-search at the California Institute of Tech-nology and current NCURA President; Pat Hawk, Assistant Director of the Of-fice of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance at Oregon State University; and Bruce Morgan, Assistant Vice Chan-cellor for Research at the University of California—Riverside.

For additional information, please contact Ruth Montalvo at UPRM R&D Center’s Administration Office at 787-833-2895 or 787-832-4040 ext. 5203, or e-mail her at rumontalvo@uprm.edu.

are received in a timely fashion.

Last year, a total of 1,221 orders were issued in the amount of $4,961,126. Laboratory equipment was by far the highest investment category, with $2,431,891, with equipment leas-ing a far second ($567,979).

The Purchasing Office has four employees. Shown in the picture are, from left to right: Bárbara Harrington, Administrative Assistant II; Edda Lar-racuente, Supervisor; and Daisy Cruz and Félix Caro, Purchasing Agents.

The duties of this office include submitting all purchase orders re-quested by investigators. They follow up on those orders and verify that they

Page 3

WAPA-TV’s Noticentro Covers UPRM Research

NCURA is coming, NCURA is coming… to Mayagüez

Meet Our Personnel: Purchasing Office