Biophysical Society - July 2014 Newsletter

11

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2014

JULY

involved in collaborations, it will allow the investi- gator to describe their specific role in the described work. Each of these descriptions can be supported by listing up to four relevant peer-reviewed pub- lications. In addition to the descriptions of their contributions, researchers will be able to include a link to a full list of their published work in a pub- licly available digital database. NIH will survey both the applicants that respond to the pilot RFAs as well as those who participate in the review of responsive applications to collect feedback on the modified biosketch. NIH plans to roll out a modified Biosketch for all applications in FY 2016.

in the promotion and tenure process. The report also concluded that convergence efforts can also be informed by economic, social, and behavioral science and humanities research on establishing interdisciplinary cultures, supporting team-based science, and revising STEM education and training. At the national level, the report calls on experts, funding agencies, foundations, and other partners to identify key problems whose solution requires convergence approaches, to address barriers to convergence as they arise, to expand mechanisms for funding convergence efforts, and to coordinate efforts of federal agencies. At the local level, leaders and practitioners who have fostered a convergence culture in their organizations and laboratories should develop partnerships with other institu- tions, helping to nurture their convergence efforts. While using different language, the report echoes the calls of the Society’s Bridging the Sciences Initiative that called for funding at the interface of the life, physical, computational, and mathematical sciences. The initiative resulted in a demonstration program created at the NIH and NSF in 2005 for research at this interface. To read the full report, go to http://www.nap.edu/ openbook.php?record_id=18722. In an effort to allow researchers to highlight ac- complishments and not just list publications, the NIH is piloting a modified Biographical Sketch (Biosketch). The new Biosketch format being pi- loted on a limited number of RFAs will extend the page limit from four to five pages and it will allow researchers to describe up to five of their most sig- nificant contributions to science along with the his- torical background that framed their research. This description can outline the central findings of their work, the influence of those findings on their field, and how those findings may have contributed to improvements in health or technology. For those NIH Piloting Alternative Biosketch

Wiki-Edit Contest Expert in your area? Share that knowledge with the world! The Biophysical Society is sponsoring the second annual Wiki-Edit Contest with the aim of improving Wikipe- dia content on biophysical topics. Choose a topic and create or edit an article by July 15. Six winners will receive a $100 cash prize, membership and registration for 2015 BPS meeting in Baltimore, a “Barnstar” award fromWikiProject Biophysics, and a dinner with other BPS wikipedians at the Annual Meeting. Visit www.biophysics.org and click 'Awards' then 'Contests.'