Welcome to the new semester! This is my fourth blog post about the Discovery Space in the Global Futures Lab. (You can go back to read my introduction, my description of elements of the GFL organization, and my “stone soup” approach to our current challenges if you missed them.)
This blog is going to be a bit more operational than the prior ones, but it includes lots of information that you will need to keep up with your opportunities and, alas, responsibilities.
First, we have a wonderful new tool developed by Michelle Schwartz (she who sends the GFSS Bulletin) that allows you to share your new achievements or successes – our GFL dashboard for reporting accomplishments. Please give it a test-drive to report new publications, grants, honors, and other activities, and do send any feedback on the platform to Michelle – all feedback is welcome.
Second, I want to continue to ask that, if you haven’t yet, please respond to the survey about the reorganization of the focal areas. We want to get them up and running again as soon as possible, and we need more feedback from Global Futures Scientists & Scholars about what focal areas beyond the extant ones they would like to see developed and to participate in.
Third, I want to update you on various issues related to indirect costs. As you are likely aware, the current administration has been attempting to reconfigure the relationship between the federal government and universities across several dimensions, including what is variously known as indirect costs, overhead, or facilities and administration (F&A). (Keep up with KE’s assessment of current policy changes here, behind sign-in).
Unilateral proposals to reduce F&A rates across the board to 15% are more or less on hold, but there are ongoing efforts led by higher education organizations to articulate a new policy for Congress to take up that would be more transparent, effective and FAIR. Within ASU, the redistribution of indirect cost recovery to units (RID) and individuals (IIA) has been reconfigured: Both RID and IIA distribution had been put on hold, and temporary rules for IIA spending had been issued. Now, RID distribution will continue at a lower rate. IIA will continue to be withheld, but the extraordinary rules have been removed and investigators are free to spend any distributed IIA as usual. It is a little difficult with WorkDay to learn what IIA you may hold in your account, but here is the way to do it. Most individual researchers will not have the IIA resources to make much progress with it, but I encourage you to find colleagues to pool your resources and create some interesting activities or programming. This is the kind of “stone soup” thinking I want to encourage.
In addition to expanding opportunities through collaborations, you can attempt to create new and more substantial opportunities through working with ASU’s Office of Government and Community Engagement to propose requests for programmatic funding, report or bill language, and congressionally directed spending (earmarks). OGCE will be holding two sessions to provide additional information and answer questions:
- Wednesday, August 27, 2025, 9:00–10:00 AM (Register here)
- Thursday, August 28, 2025, 2:00–3:00 PM (Register here)
Recordings will be available. To submit a request, please use this form.
The internal deadline for submitting requests for FY27 is Friday, October 24, 2025. This deadline allows time for the Federal Relations Team to review submissions, work with university leadership on prioritization, and prepare materials for engagement with the Arizona congressional delegation.
According to Ira Bennett, faculty engagement lead in KE’s Research Engagement Office, ASU’s comparative advantage in such proposals – as well as in other competitive domains – is a technology positive approach, a willingness to work with the private sector, and a solutions orientation.
Finally, a reminder to complete your research security training, which was mandated by the CHIPS and Science Act and is required by NSF, NIH and DOE.
To access the training:
- Log in to your CITI Program account by using SSO “Log In Through My Organization” option.
- Scroll down and select “Add a Course.”
- Choose the “Research Security” category.
- Select one of the following approved courses:
- Research Security Training (Combined) – ~1 hour (Recommended)
- Research Security Training (Full) – ~4 hours, interactive
- Research Security Advanced Refresher – 8 modules, ~4 hours.
Thanks for your efforts to comply! And thanks for all your efforts on behalf of GFL and ASU!