Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2025-42

Announcement

Office of Research Open House

and

Faculty Research Advisory (FRAB) Board Meeting

October 28, 2025; 2.00 PM – 3.30 PM; Agile Strategy Lab

(Light refreshments will be served.)

RSVP: Please register here for the OR Open House by October 21, 20025
 

The mission of the Office of Research is to facilitate and enhance the NJIT research, innovation and entrepreneurship enterprise towards maximizing research impact for faculty and student success.

The Office of Research (OR) invites all faculty and research staff to meet with the research office staff to discuss support services to NJIT community engaged in the research, innovation and entrepreneurship (RIE) enterprise, and current research funding trends, challenges and opportunities.

The research office will host an open house on October 28 from 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm during which the senior vice provost for research will provide an overview of current strategic plan initiatives designed to enhance the NJIT collaborative research and innovation enterprise and OR staff from all of the units within the research office will be available to discuss the services they provide, listen to faculty feedback and answer your questions and queries. 

OR Open House Agenda

2:00 PM - 2:20 PM:    The NJIT Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Enterprise

Atam Dhawan, Senior Vice Provost for Research

2:20 PM - 3:30 PM:    Conversation Stations: Representatives from each unit within the office of research will be available to discuss specific issues with attendees.

• Pre-award Services (Jesus Novoa, senior director, and Theresa Walton, assistant director)
• Post-award Management (Mariel Diaz, executive director, and Brenda Garcia, assistant director)
• Research Compliance (Robert Rasmussen, director of export controls, and Raju Tamot, assistant director for research compliance)
• Intellectual Property and Tech Transfer (Sherie Dodson, associate director)
• Office of Research Leadership (Shawn Chester, associate vice provost, and Eric Hetherington, associate vice provost)

Please join us for an open discussion and information session on research and innovation funding, services and related topics.

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Open Access Week Events 2025 @ NJIT for Faculty | October 20 - 24, 2025

An exciting lineup of activities has been planned, including pop-up tables, interactive games, and passive programs, along with special webinars and talks. Visit the Open Access Events page to explore the full schedule.

Tuesday, October 21 | 2:00–3:00 PM (EST)
 

Virtual Panel Discussion – Who Owns Our Knowledge?

Hear directly from representatives of ACM, Elsevier, MDPI, and Springer Nature as they discuss Open Access publishing, authorship, and how Read & Publish agreements are shaping the future of scholarly communication.

[Register]  (Recording and slides will be emailed to all registered participants.)

Panelists

• Megan Vance, ACM
• Ryan Siu, Ph.D., MDPI
• Vadim Sobolev, Elsevier
• Valencia Bradley, Springer Nature
• Matthew Giannotti, Springer Nature

Facilitator:

• Dr. Annie Chatterjee, Open Access & Scholarly Communications Librarian, NJIT

What You’ll Learn

• How NJIT’s Read & Publish agreements support Open Access publishing
• How major publishers view the future of Open Access and sustainability
• Ways publishers identify and prevent predatory publishing
• How AI is influencing scholarly communication
• How to participate in NJIT’s Open Access initiatives

Wednesday, October 22 | 10:00 AM–3:00 PM (EST)
 

In-Person Open Access Vendor Fair – Van Houten Library Lobby

Meet publisher representatives, explore Open Access resources, enjoy giveaways, and see live demos showcasing NJIT’s publishing opportunities.

NSF: NSF National Innovation Corps Teams (NSF National I-Corps (TM) Teams) program; Accelerating Research Translation (ART)

NIH: Forecast: Bioengineering Research, Innovation and Technology Education (BRITE) Program (R25); BRAIN Initiative: Theories, Models and Methods for Analysis of Complex Data from the Brain (R01)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Biological Technologies; Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026

Department of Energy: Magnetic Acceleration Generating New Innovations and Tactical Outcomes (MAGNITO)

NASA: ROSES 2025: B.4 Space Weather Science Application Research-to-Operations-to-Research

Energy announces roadmap for fusion science and technology: The Department of Energy is amping up its funding presence in fusion energy generation through private sector collaboration and by leveraging artificial intelligence, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday morning. Speaking during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, Wright both announced the release of the department’s Fusion Science & Technology Roadmap and unveiled the corresponding fusion policy priorities Energy plans to adopt. Federal government support for private sector innovators at an infrastructure and financial level will be pivotal to that effort. The goal stated in the roadmap — which was called for as part of the agency’s 2024 fusion energy strategy — is to scale public infrastructure that supports the private sector’s fusion operations in the 2030s.

“We need the commercial efforts, but we need the labs,” Wright said, referring to the 17 U.S. national laboratories. “I am passionate about the critical nature of our natural labs and investment in those.” In addition to increasing federal participation in scaling the U.S. fusion sector to commercial viability, Wright underscored the role AI — which he called “a tremendous enabling technology” — is set to play in advancing the fundamental science required to scale fusion energy production. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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AI export control bill passes Senate as NDAA amendment: On Thursday, the Senate voted 77-20 to pass the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which included an amendment setting export controls for artificial intelligence-tailored semiconductor chips.  Initially introduced by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., as a separate bill, the Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence Act of 2025 mandates that major chip manufacturers exporting their products from America prioritize U.S.-based customers in their sales. The goal of the bill is to ensure the U.S. can lead in AI system development and deployment by avoiding supply constraints.  Included in the manager’s package of noncontroversial amendments to the fiscal year 2026 NDAA, the GAIN Act stipulates that chip manufacturers working to sell their products abroad will also be required to fulfill all outstanding U.S.-based orders, not offer an advantageous price abroad and not sell to competing countries.  “The GAIN AI Act is simply an American first amendment to the NDAA defense bill,” Banks said on Steve Bannon’s podcast in September. “It’s very simple: it says you can't export American-made chips to China or other adversarial countries if there is a backlog or demand for those chips in the United States first.” More information is posted on the NextGov website.