Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2025-43

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.)
 

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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The New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project

Request for Applications (RFA)

Overview and Goals:

Enacted through state legislation in 2016, the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project is designed to enable and promote population health research that leads to improvements in the health, safety, security, and well-being of New Jersey residents as well as improvements in the cost-efficiency of state government programs in these areas. The overarching concept of the iPHD is that programmatic data are much more informative when they are linked across program areas (e.g., health, social services) than when they remain in isolation from one another. Under the direction of a ten-member Governing Board, the iPHD Project is in, but not of, the New Jersey Department of Health. The Project is administered by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

This Request for Applications (RFA) seeks proposals from research institutions for use of data from the Integrated Population Health Data Project (iPHD) for projects that advance the purpose of the iPHD and its research priorities. The iPHD project seeks a diverse pool of applicants; all institutions are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants must submit a Letter of Intent to the iPHD by November 12, 2025. For more information, please visit our website.

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Recent NJIT Patents Issued by US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Patent Title:   INDOOR PLACE PREDICTION

NJIT Ref No.:  23-011

Inventor(s):     Cristian Borcea / Wen-Ling Hsu / Xiaopeng Jiang / Pritam Sen / Manoop Talasila / Qiong Wu

Patent Application Status:  Issued Patent

Patent Issue Date: 10/21/2025

Patent No.:  12,452,828

Technology Licensing Status: Available; Jointly Owned

Due to federal government shutdown, there are no new FOA posted. The most recent postings are listed below. 

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

Industry groups push to keep open-source measures in annual intelligence bill: A coalition of industry groups and former officials is asking Congress to preserve measures in the annual intelligence community authorization bill that support the use of open-source intelligence in U.S. spy agencies, according to letters first seen by Nextgov/FCW. The missives are undersigned by firms like the Babel Street and the ANDECO Institute, which sell risk and threat intelligence services derived from commercially or publicly available information that’s not necessarily gathered through more covert means available to spy agencies. Graphika, which performs social media network analysis to identify disinformation campaigns, is also a signatory.

The measures, housed in Title 6 of the House Intelligence Committee’s version of the fiscal year 2026 Intelligence Authorization Act, are also supported by the OSINT Foundation, a professional association of open-source practitioners in the U.S. intelligence community. Former officials are also signatories, including Kristin Wood, who served as a deputy director in the CIA’s Open Source Center.  Open-source intelligence, dubbed OSINT, is the collection and analysis of publicly available data — like social media posts, news reports or satellite imagery — to generate insights that support national security and law enforcement decisions. The Title 6 measures, in essence, aim to further legitimize the use of OSINT in day-to-day intelligence work, going as far as to require spy agencies to appoint senior officials responsible for managing and coordinating their OSINT activities. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Bipartisan House bill seeks to equip small businesses with AI: A new House bill will mandate that the federal government help small businesses across the U.S. adopt artificial intelligence solutions that benefit their operations.  The AI for Mainstreet Act, introduced by Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., specifically tasks the Small Business Administration to work through its Small Business Development Centers and offer guidance on AI adoption. The bill requests the SBDC’s offer “information, guidance, and training” for qualifying enterprises interested in using AI for business operations support. Use cases the bill mentions include helping small businesses leverage AI systems to plan for unexpected circumstances; protecting data and intellectual property; and improving cybersecurity and regulatory compliance efforts. The SBA would also be mandated to conduct outreach efforts in a bid to understand the major concerns small businesses have regarding AI. More information is posted on the NextGov website.