VPR Announcements

If you have long wondered what El Nino and La Nina are, what they do and how they’re different, you might have enjoyed being a student in teacher Colleen Mullin’s class at Fort St. James Secondary School. Her students had the pleasure of hearing an explanation from a specialist in the subject—Dr. Richard Dewey from the University of Victoria.

Dr. Dewey was the first UVic virtual researcher to go ‘on call’ as part of UVic’s participation in the Virtual Researcher on Call (or VROC) pilot program. VROC links researchers with BC students in Grades 5–12 through video conferencing. The goal is to help teachers communicate scientific discovery and academic research to their students by connecting them—in real-time—with scientists, researchers and experts within the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health.

On June 8, Dr. Dewey explained the concepts of El Nino and La Nina to the Fort St. James students, and answered questions about their effects on weather, biodiversity, and climate change, as well as questions about careers in oceanography. A clip from the session is available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHcluf_cQXY

Dr. Dewey is Associate Director, Research with VENUS. VENUS, the coastal network of the Ocean Networks Canada Observatory, is a cabled undersea laboratory for ocean researchers and explorers. Further information about VENUS is available at http://venus.uvic.ca/.

The VROC pilot program is part of the BC Year of Science. It runs to the end of June and is funded by the BC government. For more information, visit: http://bcyearofscience.wordpress.com/ or http://www.vroc.ca.

For more information about how UVic is putting research to work, please contact Dale Anderson, UVic Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator at 250-472-4377 or kmcoord@uvic.ca.

The Office of Research Services has organized an NSERC “committee reviewers” meetings in order for faculty, grants facilitators and associate deans of research to hear about reviewers’ experiences while serving on panels. Bring any questions that you may have for the reviewers!

The structure of the meeting has been designed so that each reviewer will speak 5 to 10 minutes about his/her experience as a reviewer.  After which there will be a question and answer period.  We anticipate that by learning what issues come up when applications are reviewed, faculty members may be in a better position when preparing proposals. 

NSERC Committee Reviewers Meeting
Date:          Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Time:         1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location:  Harry Hickman Building (HHB), Rm 110      

On May 3, the University of Victoria presented its 2011 Craigdarroch Research Awards to seven individuals for their research achievements.

To find out who they are go to UVic - Media Release and to The Ring

Effective May 1, 2011, Dr. Michael Miller began a five-year term as Associate Vice-President Research (AVPR) and Dr. Rachael Scarth assumed the non-academic position of Associate Vice-President Research Operations (AVPRO). Both had been serving in an acting capacity since September, 2010.

Please read more about their appointments by clicking on their names.

Internal UVic deadline – May 3, 2011
External deadline – May 15, 2011

The 2012 Killam Research Fellowships Competition is now open http://killam.canadacouncil.ca/default.asp

Please refer to:
- the Killam application guidelines: http://www.canadacouncil.ca/NR/rdonlyres/1A445BE7-AA5D-499F-8296-B8B2347C72DF/0/PRG16bE0211.pdf
- the Online application system http://killam.canadacouncil.ca/welcome.asp

Please note these are research-time release fellowships intended for outstanding scholars, normally  at the full professor level.  You may not apply if you have already held a Killam fellowship,  retired or on sabbatical. The fellowships are awarded annually from the following areas without any priorities:

• Humanities
• Social Sc.
• Natural Sc.
• Health Sc.
• Engineering, and
• Interdisciplinary areas within these fields
 
Candidates for a Killam Research Fellowship must contact the Killam Program at killam@canadacouncil.ca  to obtain a user name and password. In addition to this information, the applicant will receive a PIN number. This PIN will serve to identify the applicant to the Killam Program upon submission of the applicant’s CV from the Common CV Web site.
  
The application will be submitted electronically and universities will approve the applications.

How to Submit Your Application for UVic Internal Approvals, and to the Canada Council

Please follow these steps to secure internal University authorizing signatures, and to ensure that the Canada Council receives your electronic application before their May 15, 2011 deadline.

1) Complete and submit your electronic application on or before May 3, 2011. Note: the application is automatically forwarded electronically to the Office of Research Services (ORS).

2) Submit a hardcopy of your application of your applications, as well as a completed Research Application Summary Form (http://www.uvic.ca/research/conduct/forms/index.php) signed by you, your chair and dean, to the Office of Research Services (Rm B202, Administrative Services Building) by May 3, 2011. Once reviewed and approved, the Office of Research Services will approve and electronically submit the final proposal to the Canada Council by the external May 15 deadline.

Contacts at the Canada Council:
Kelly Rodrigues, Killam Administrative Assistant
Email: kelly.rodrigues@canadacouncil.ca
Tel. 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free within Canada) or 613-566-4414, ext. 4083

Luisa Guglielmo, Killam Program Officer
Email: luisa.guglielmo@canadacouncil.ca
Tel. 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free within Canada) or 613-566-4414, ext. 4086

Contacts in the Office of Research Services
Tammy Lipson, Grants Office (Pre-Award)
Email: grants@uvic.ca
Telehphone: 853-3103

Dailene O'Neill, Research Programs Liaison
Email: resprog3@uvic.ca
Telephone: 250-472-4986