NSF GRFP 2018-2019

[CL001]

I think it is a great idea to share our topics, I have been clicking the NSF GRFP refresh button non-stop for a couple days now. I should be working on my research proposal for my comprehensive exam though... 

My research is centered around herpes simplex virus 1 (cold sore virus). It is a life long infection and cycles between two stages an active and latent stage, during the course of infection it impacts different types of cells. My focus is on looking at the cellular and molecular level how HSV-1 utilizes its viral proteins to hijack the host cellular systems and I will be comparing an infection in epithelial cells, where the active stage occurs, and in neuronal cells, where the latent/quiet phase occurs. 

[KayChem2019]

2 hours ago, cullenish said:

Okay so I'm starting to get a bit neurotic with refreshing the fastlane website for that maintenance update, so I need a distraction.

This whole thing is about celebrating creative people and creative ideas, so let's do that before our ideas are assigned a monetary value (or the lack thereof)!

SO, what were everyone's proposals on? Or if you know you'll be doing a different project than what you applied with, what is that?

I applied with a project looking at how European Mennonite communities may affect jaguar habitat use, but I'll actually be using the NSF funding for brown bear - black bear spatial interactions!

 

Interesting! My proposal was on discovering new bioactive secondary metabolites from species of marine algae that haven't been really investigated. Based on my literature review, they show some promise. I plan on testing potential pharmaceutical applications, but I also want to see if the newly discovered compounds can serve as insect pest deterrents or a sort of biopesticide.

[cullenish]

2 hours ago, Mataharii said:

 

2 hours ago, DrBillyBeans said:

 

2 hours ago, jjvamd47 said:

 

1 hour ago, CL001 said:

 

9 minutes ago, KayChem2019 said:

 

I swear the stuff you guys are doing is just insane. All my work is basically "lol where are the fluffy animals????" meanwhile you guys are saving lives and improving the world hahaha

 

 

[EndoSpecto]

Great idea for a stress avoider/distraction!

I've been stalking this forum for about a month now... I was REALLYY hoping today would be the day it went down for maintenance, but I figured I'd join the chats. I think we are at least close.

My project is on anthropogenic pressures on wildlife gut microbiome with black bears as my model species. I was definitely more of a field-rat before this so its been fun getting more lab experience/ bioinformatic skills.

Edited April 1, 2019 by microbearpoo
didn't include quote! sorry

[EndoSpecto]

I'll figure this out eventually...

Edited April 1, 2019 by microbearpoo

[jays1519]

Has anyone asked the NSF today when we will hear back? I already know the "early april" claim

[DrBillyBeans]

2 hours ago, jjvamd47 said:

Cool, we are in similar fields! Did you apply under environmental engineering or bioengineering (or biosciences?). I couldn't decide but went with environmental engineering, although I probably should have done interdisciplinary between bio and environmental engineering. What school will you be attending?

I've been working on a lab focused on microbial community engineering for biological nutrient removal and carbon recovery (I work on nitrogen removal currently). My proposal was about creating metabolic models for a halophilic (salt-loving) microbe and using these models for the construction of a synthetic halophilic microbial ecology for the conversion of organic waste (food waste in the project, because our lab already works with that) to value-added chemicals (succinic acid in the project) in a non-sterile, seawater-based bioprocess. 

I actually applied under biological sciences. There wasn't really an engineering component to my proposal and I applied to mostly microbiology programs. I ended up accepting an offer from the Northwestern Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Northwestern doesn't have a traditional micro program and luckily I took enough math and comp sci in undergrad to squeeze in. 

Your project sounds interesting, similar to the freshwater microbial ecology studies I might work on. It's fascinating what we are learning about microbial communities and increasing our ability to harness these systems will be important in the coming decades. 

[DrBillyBeans]

36 minutes ago, cullenish said:

I swear the stuff you guys are doing is just insane. All my work is basically "lol where are the fluffy animals????" meanwhile you guys are saving lives and improving the world hahaha

 

 

??? Don't sell yourself short! We need to understand our charismatic mega fauna too! I'm an ecologist at heart. Your research is often extrapolable to micro systems and communities and vice versa.

[Epigenetics]

So... do we think tomorrow's the day?

[cullenish]

7 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

So... do we think tomorrow's the day?

No maintenance notification on the fastlane website so far, and last year that went up around 10am EST the day before results were posted. Based on that, it doesn't look like they're coming tomorrow. Who knows though! 

[Epigenetics]

Just now, cullenish said:

No maintenance notification on the fastlane website so far, and last year that went up around 10am EST the day before results were posted. Based on that, it doesn't look like they're coming tomorrow. Who knows though!  

True, but I think we already had that maintenance window last week when they updated the winners page to 2019?

[cullenish]

3 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

True, but I think we already had that maintenance window last week when they updated the winners page to 2019?

Everything I've seen about previous years indicates a maintenance period immediately precedes posting of the results. It could certainly be changed up this year, but I don't know why they'd update the site with the results but not release them. I'd bet that last update was just structurally preparing the website for the upload. 

[Ryleigh Moore]

Where does one check for the maintenance updates at? 

 

[empress_empiria]

https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

 

This page is down for me. Is this a sign?

[cullenish]

Just now, Ryleigh Moore said:

Where does one check for the maintenance updates at? 

 

I'm checking two places: recent advisories and research.gov, where you log into your fastlane account. Not sure where the update will be announced, but I figure it'll pop up at one of these places.

https://fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp?t=1

https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do

Anyone have other ideas for where it might be posted?

[Ryleigh Moore]

Just now, empress_empiria said:

https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

 

This page is down for me. Is this a sign?

It is down for me too!

 

[kwisco]

Just now, empress_empiria said:

https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

 

This page is down for me. Is this a sign?

I thought that too, but it seems that one of the links from the GRFP homepage is just down. 

Here is the link to the award list that I am able to see.

https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

[empress_empiria]

Just now, kwisco said:

I thought that too, but it seems that one of the links from the GRFP homepage is just down. 

Here is the link to the award list that I am able to see.

https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

ah cool thank you!

[cullenish]

Just now, Ryleigh Moore said:

It is down for me too!

 

I think this might be an invalid link - how are you getting to that page?

https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

This should take you to the same place and it works fine for me.

[Ryleigh Moore]

Just now, cullenish said:

I think this might be an invalid link - how are you getting to that page?

https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

This should take you to the same place and it works fine for me.

I was getting to it via a google search... The link you have is working for me. Darn! haha

Edited April 1, 2019 by Ryleigh Moore

[cullenish]

If this goes anything like previous years, the site won't just go down without warning. There should be a little message somewhere saying in a few hours the site will go down. 

[kwisco]

11 minutes ago, cullenish said:

If this goes anything like previous years, the site won't just go down without warning. There should be a little message somewhere saying in a few hours the site will go down. 

Yes, exactly! Looks like this (as someone kindly posted earlier)

On 3/22/2019 at 5:13 PM, caha9192 said:

Is this a sign??

 

[DesertWolverine]

I think they changed the URL for the GRFP from FastLane to the new research.gov, which they plan to eventually replace FastLane with. Not sure if this affects the maintenance notification stuff, however.

[caha9192]

26 minutes ago, empress_empiria said:

https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

 

This page is down for me. Is this a sign?

This has been like this for two weeks or so!

[avargs]

I'm not sure if someone else has mentioned this, but I've heard rumors that the announcements will be later than normal this year. The review process was kind of a mess because of the government shutdown - my advisor is reviewing in other fields and he said that they'll likely have to delay announcements. I could be wrong though!

I do know that, at least in the fields that my advisor reviewed, they did not do a conference call with all the reviewers. That's a deviation from previous years - normally your reviewers read and rate them independently and then discuss on the phone. Those phone calls were scheduled during the shutdown so they all got cancelled. Not sure if any of them got re-scheduled, but it didn't sound like it to me.