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Research Office Newsletter Spring 2009
Montana Tech and Montana IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) (March 26, 2009) Montana Tech is gearing up for the Montana IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) II Project expected to begin May 1, 2009, pending funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Montana INBRE program is comprised of 15 higher education institutions across the state. The program seeks to increase health-related research and promote student research opportunities to foster student development in biomedical sciences. Montana Tech’s portion of the project is expected to be over one million dollars in research funding over five years, depending on the final grant award from NIH. The upcoming INBRE II cycle will include 26 research projects, with three projects at Montana Tech. Funding for each project is divided up over the 5 years of the program.
Montana Tech’s pending INBRE projects are:
Interactions of Climate Change, Infectious Diseases, and Reservoir Ecology, Principal Investigator Amy Kuenzi (Biology) - $400,000
The Phage Pipeline: From Dirt to Genomics, Middle School through Graduate School, Principal Investigator Marisa Pedulla (Biology) - $500,000
Novel Antifungal Agents from Acid Mine Waste Microbes, Principal Investigator Andrea Stierle and Co-Principal Investigator Donald Stierle (Chemistry) - $125,000
According to Montana INBRE, more than 200 faculty researchers participate in the statewide network along with undergraduate and graduate research students. Participating Institutions in INBRE are:
Blackfeet Community College, Browning
Carroll College
Funding for the previous Montana INBRE Program was provided by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources grant #P20RR16455.
For more information about Montana INBRE, visit www.inbre.montana.edu
MBMG 2009 Research Seminar SeriesEach Spring the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology hosts a Seminar Series featuring a variety of presentations from both on campus faculty and professionals in various fields. Seminars are each Thursday at 4 PM in Room 101 of the Chemistry and Biology Building on the Montana Tech campus. Contact Peggy Delaney or Colleen Elliott in the Bureau for more information.
Tech's Biology Department Restoring Native Plant Diversity on the Butte Hillby Richard Douglass  The reclamation and remediation of the Upper Clark Fork River Basin, after more than a century of ecological abuse, is an unprecedented and absolutely historic event. What is done in the basin will provide a model for restoration activities world wide.
Much has been done in stabilizing disturbed sites and isolating mining related toxic chemicals. However, the goal is and should be to return the damaged areas the environment to as close to its original state as possible. Our project’s aim is to assist in the remediation of damaged areas by providing ways to restore native plant diversity and hopefully reduce the need for continued weed spraying.
The advantages of restoring plant species diversity are many but include a more stable plant community, resistance to weed invasion and increased wildlife habitat, not to mention enhanced esthetic values.
Project Summary
Tech’s Biological Sciences Department is working to restore native plant diversity to Butte and the Summit Valley after more than a century of mining damage to the ecosystem. The $958,000 project is funded through grants from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Resource Indemnity Trust Fund, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Project Directors are Drs. Richard and Kriss Douglass with Plan Specialist Krystal Weilage.
The project will collect native plant seeds and cuttings from the Butte Hill for propagation. Some small patches of native plants remain, but the number is insufficient for the plants to complete with grasses and other weed species. Butte-Silver Bow and volunteers from Butte’s Native Plant Society have identified several native species that will be grown for the project.
A new greenhouse is under construction on the Tech campus where the plants will be grown. Native plants will be put on prepared sites in the area and monitored over the next several years to determine plant success.
Unfortunately there are no “off the shelf” “cookie cutter” techniques proven to be fail proof in increasing species diversity. We plan to use proven techniques for plants already living on the Butte Hill such as seed collection from forbs and shrubs to produce seed orchards to increase the availability of these plants for future reclamation projects. We are using cuttings to increase the availability of shrubs for out planting and to produce seed orchards in existing and future reclaimed areas. We also plan to use a novel technique of producing dispersal islands from which a greatly enhanced diversity of plants can move into already reclaimed but simple plant communities. Many of you have seen our forb sods. The sods can be used in new reclamation in many applications.
We also propose to continue work on trying to slow what many ecologists consider a train wreck of continuous weed spraying which, in many cases, only serves to simplify plant communities. Dr. Callaway from The University of Montana is leading the weed resistant plant community aspect of this study.
We feel, given the millions and millions of dollars spent and to be spent in repairing the damage done by mining, that it is vitally important to explore new and novel ways of attaining the goal of restoring native plant diversity. Many new approaches may fail but with even minor “breakthroughs,” the probability of success in restoring native plant communities will be greatly enhanced.
This project is supported by the Natural Resource Damage Program and major facilities (new greenhouse and tissue culture lab) have been provided by the Resource Indemnity Trust Fund administered by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Grants.gov Warning: Submit Early to Avoid System Delays!Grants.gov has been experiencing extreme system slowness due to the large number of users submitting proposals. This problem is expected to get worse as submission of economic stimulus package proposals begins. Many institutions are experiencing timeouts and multiple errors when attempting to submit research proposals.
If you are preparing a proposal to be submitted through Grants.gov, please notify the Research Office as soon as possible. It is imperative to submit the final proposal to Grants.gov several days in advance of the deadline, in order to fix errors and work through the system problems. Proposals submitted on the deadline date may not be completed in time causing you to miss the agency’s deadline, and some agencies will not accept late proposals even if it is a result of Grants.gov issues.
Associate Vice Chancellor's Corner
The year has been full of wonder and excitement so far. The economic meltdown, no doubt caused by the ongoing global warming, has brought many opportunities. Congress has placed a very large bet on the research community and allocated $3 billion of new research money to the NSF and $10 billion of the same coin to the NIH to name a few. As I am telling folks, this represents a once in a lifetime opportunity (at least I hope it is once in a lifetime) for the research community across the country to bring their best ideas forward. The Research Office is distributing the information it receives and is making special services and workshops available over the next several months to maximize your chances of success in capturing some of these opportunities.
As a retrospective on FY 2008, our new annual report is now available on the web at www.mtech.edu/research/highlights/research_reports.html. Some of the highlights are noted in other sections of this newsletter. A particular statistic I find extremely encouraging is the continual rise in the amount of grant funds requested by the faculty and staff. Last year the value of your submitted grants exceeded $25,000,000, up from $15,000,000 four years earlier. This represents a lot of hard work by a lot of people. My congratulations.
 Finally I need to say a sincere thank you. The Undergraduate Research Program continues to grow due to the commitment of our faculty mentors, the interest of our students, and the dedication of the steering committee. The committee is headed by Courtney Young. He has served as a member of the committee for twelve years and has been the Chair for the past eight years. He has announced he will relinquish the Chairmanship at the end of this year. I want to say for myself and the over 400 undergraduate students who have participated in the program under his direction – THANKS. You will, most definitely, be missed.
Montana Tech Research By the NumbersIn March, the Research Office released the Research, Graduate Studies and International Programs Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2008
Research Funding data was analyzed and compared to previous years to determine the ‘health’ of Research at Montana Tech.
For more information, check out the full Annual Research Report for 2008 online at www.mtech.edu/research.
Total Awards by Fiscal Year
Grant Writing Activity Success
Papers, Publications & PresentationsThe Research Office monitors faculty publications as one way of tracking scholarly activity on campus. All publications are self-reported by the authors. The chart below illustrates the number of papers in press, presentations, and published works submitted to the Research Office over the past 5 years. This data includes Research Faculty and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Click here to view the publications list for 2008.
Papers, Publications and Presentations by Year
New Fringe and Indirect Cost Rates: Effective September 1, 2008See Indirect Cost and Benefits on the Policy and Procedures page for the most up-to-date rates.
New Funding August 2008 - March 2009John Metesh and Tom Bowler, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Montana Pole Site Services 2008-2010, $1,598,523 from Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) 10/1/2008—9/30/2010
Corby Anderson and Jay McCloskey, Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing: Navy ManTech Project: Fuel Cell Design and Manufacturing Technology Development, $1,490,250 from Edison Welding Institute/US Navy 9/15/2008—9/11/2009
Ted Duaime, Michael Kerschen, Nick Tucci, John Metesh and Marvin Miller, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Butte Mine Flooding Long-Term Monitoring Program, $225,580 from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) 11/1/2008—10/31/2009
Marvin Speece and Curtis Link, Geophysical Engineering: Use of a Land Streamer for Basement and Water Table at Gable Gap, $150,596 from the Department of Energy (DOE) 9/18/2008—9/30/2009
John Metesh, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Yellowstone Controlled Ground Water Area Long-Term Monitoring Program, $140,752 from the National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park 5/1/2008—4/30/2009
Corby Anderson and Jay McCloskey, Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing: CAST: Enhancement of Montana Coal to Support Future Expansion, Sodium Removal Technology Development, $125,496 from the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies 6/1/2008—11/1/2009
Jay Gunderson, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Resource Assessment of Deep Coals in Eastern Montana: Potential Targets for Commercialization by In-Situ Gasification, $119,360 from the Montana Department of Commerce/Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology (MBRCT) 9/1/2008—8/30/2009
Butch Gerbrandt, General Engineering; Rich McNearny, Mining Engineering; and Curtis Link, Geophysical Engineering: Mouat Institutional Control Re-evaluation $77,282 from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), 8/22/2008—8/30/2009
Corby Anderson and Jay McCloskey, Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing: MBRCT: Enhancement of High Sodium Coals—Sodium Removal Technology development, $60,055 from Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology 9/1/2008—9/1/2009
Martha Apple, Biology; and Xiaobing Zhou, Geophysical Engineering: The Influence of Intensive Carbon Events and Leakage of Sequestered CO2 on Plants, $48,479 from the Department of Energy (DOE)/Montana Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
Mary North-Abbott, Petroleum Engineering: Environmental Responses to Carbon Mitigation Through Geological Storage, $48,479 from the Department of Energy (DOE)/Montana Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
Amy Verlanic, Technical Outreach: Pathways from Peaks to Plains Grant (Title II Tech Prep of the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006), $42,467 from the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education/US Department of Education 8/1/2008—6/30/2009
Theresa Seccomb, Technical Outreach: 2008-2009 Montana Campus Corps Stipended Award Program, $37,772 from Office of Community Service/The University of Montana 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
Amy Verlanic, Technical Outreach: Montana Campus Compact FY 09, $37,722 from the University of Montana 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
Jeff Braun, Computer Science: Supercomputing Study, $35,000 from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development 6/30/2008—6/30/2009
Rick Douglass, Biology: Butte Native Plant Propagation EPA/BSB, $31,700 from Butte-Silver Bow County/Environmental Projection Agency (EPA) 12/1/2008—12/1/2009
Peggy Delaney, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: National Geological and Geophysical Preservation Program Phase II, $31,481 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
John Metesh, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Yellowstone Controlled Ground Water Area CUT Well Abandonment, $29,700 from the National Park Service 10/1/2007—9/30/2008
Tom Patton and Luke Buckley, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: MBMG GWIC Web/Data Structure Modifications, $29,296 from Atlantic Richfield Company 8/18/2008—3/31/2009
John Metesh, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Yellowstone Controlled Ground Water Database Administration $27,658 from the National Park Service/Yellowstone National Park 10/1/2008—9/30/2009
Tom Patton, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Joint Funding Agreement for Water Resources Investigations (Streamgaging and water-quality sampling in Blacktail and Silver Bow Creeks), $24,210 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) 0/1/2008—9/30/2009
Gary Icopini, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology; and Steve Parker, Chemistry: Organic Wastewater Chemicals in Ground Water and Blacktail Creek, Summit Valley, Montana, $12,210 from the Montana Water Center 3/1/09—2/2/2011
Jon Reiten, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Irrigation Development Program in Richland County, $10,000 from Richland County Conservation District 10/1/2008—10/10/2010
Brian Smyth, Electrical Engineering: Impedance Noise Identification and Compensated Synchronous Detection System Support of the Advanced Energy Storage Program, $7,318 from Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA) 1/23/09—5/31/09
Allison McIntosh, Nursing: Montana Geriatric Education Center: Partnerships Under the Big Sky – Year 2, $7,069 7/1/2008—6/30/2009
Ted Duaime and Nick Tucci, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: MBMG Fisheries Investigations on Silver Bow Creek, $6,495 from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks 8/1/2008—8/31/2008
Tom Patton, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Joint Funding Agreement for Water Resources Investigations (Continuous monitoring of water levels in ten wells), $5,775 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) 10/1/2008—9/30/2009
Amy Verlanic, Technical Outreach: Contracted Services Agreement RYO Correctional Facility, $2,415 from RYO Correctional Facility 10/18/2008—5/30/2009
Annette Kankelborg, Technical Outreach: Montana Campus Compact Campus Corps (non-stipended) AmeriCorps Program 2008/2009, $1,790 from Montana Campus Compact/The University of Montana 9/1/2008—8/31/2009
Justin Ringsak and Matt Vincent, Technical Outreach: Engaging High School Students in World Water Monitoring Day, $1,500 from Montana Department of Environmental Quality 8/1/2008—7/31/2009
Tom Patton, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology: Joint Funding Agreement for Water Resources Investigations (Continuous monitoring of water levels in nine wells), $920 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) 10/1/2008—9/30/2009
Did you know? Tips and TricksAll Montana Tech Employees have to fill out a Conflict of Interest Declaration Form. Find the form and details at http://www.mtech.edu/research/policies/policies_and_procedures.html
Only the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) can submit grant proposals and sign contracts on behalf of Montana Tech. Dr. Joseph Figueira, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research is Montana Tech’s AOR.
You need a login and password to upload documents to the National Institutes of Health eRA Commons. Contact the Research Office to get signed up.
Make sure you are using the correct version of Adobe Reader when working on a package for Grants.gov. Using an unsupported version of Adobe Reader will result in corrupt files. All computers working on a package MUST USE THE SAME version of Adobe Reader. Check the Grants.gov software page for compatible versions. http://www.grants.gov/help/download_software.jsp
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