Updates from the Office of Research

November 2023

Surkar to Participate in TIGRR

Dr. Swati Surkar, assistant professor in Dept of Physical Therapy, was accepted to participate in the Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research workshop (TIGRR) in January 2024.

The workshop provides one-on-one grantsmanships skills. The selected mentees come prepared to work on a grant proposal for submission to the NIH, VA, NIDILRR, and other agencies funding rehabilitation research.

The TIGRR program has resulted in many junior investigators receiving NIH and other NIH-level research funding. Dr. Surkar previously participated in the program and had success as a result– she submitted an application shortly after and it was funded (R03HD107644).

Snodgrass Awarded Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

Taylor Snodgrass, PhD student in the Rehabilitation Sciences PhD program, working under the direction of Dr. Jamie Perry has been awarded an NIH/NIDCR F31 Predoctoral Fellowship.

The title of her grant is: Evaluating Velopharyngeal FunctionDuring Phonation in Children Utilizing Static MRI.

For this award she will seek to describe the typical movement of the velopharynx in children without a history of cleft palate or hypernasal speech, as this could be used for comparison to children with hypernasal speech and can benefit surgical planning for children with hypernasal speech.

Artificial Intelligence Resources

At one of the summer series research sessions, we had some discussion about AI use in research. On a recent email thread with colleagues, a colleague at Chapman University shared a link to their AI guidelines and resources.

Build UP Trust Challenge Prize Competition

NIH is wanting to learn (and award) strategies for increasing participation in research with underserved populations. I know many of you engage in the community and you are successful with recruiting diverse populations.

They have an FAQ about the challenge that provides a lot of information and overview of it.

There are three steps to the challenge:

• Step 1:  Assessment – making sure you are eligible.
• Step 2: Registration – this involves creating an account and needs to be completed by 5:00pm EST November 14
• Step 3: Submission – it includes your pitch, the problem you are tackling, your team and solution and a video capturing your solution. Due date is 5:00pm EST December 5

** If you plan to apply, be sure to let Jessica Miller in the CON-CAHS Research Hub know as this will need to route through eTRACS. **