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In my instructions to faculty for their annual reporting, yes, underlined and all in the email:
IMPORTANT: In years prior, results reporting was only screened by the Office of Research. Now NIFA is now reading these results and if they find deficiencies, they will defer the report back to you for more information. This has already happened on some of last year’s results. In light of this, reports with inadequate content or overly scientific language in the areas requiring non-technical language will be sent back for revisions as not to receive NIFA rejections.
The three responses I've received so far make my ass itch since they're primarily copy/paste of the prior year reports with tiny updates. The last guy I just couldn't. It was 100% sciencey science to the science degree. So I replied with this:
Good morning George,
Aside from the "During this period" section, this is a copy/paste of the prior year report and also has very little non-technical language in the section marked "Briefly describe in non-technical terms"
So that NIFA doesn't bounce the report back like they did a few reports this last year, can you give a sentence or two for me to insert that a lay-person could understand to summarize what this update means?
During this period, we discovered that the PA phosphatase contains a novel region that controls the modification of the protein’s phosphate groups that controls cellular location and enzyme function. We also discovered regions within the regulatory subunit of the phosphatase complex that controls enzyme phosphate removal. These findings may lead to new ways to control PA phosphatase function in lipid synthesis.
Thanks
Diane
I get this response:
Diane,
How about this:
During this period, we discovered that a small portion the PA phosphatase enzyme controls its ability to be modified with phosphate groups, thus affecting the enzyme location and function. We also found conserved portions of the protein component of the phosphatase complex that removes phosphates from PA phosphatase. These findings may lead to new ways to control enzyme function in lipid synthesis.
Oh yeah, totally understand that. Yep, and so will Congress, who determines our funding. Dude, seriously?
IMPORTANT: In years prior, results reporting was only screened by the Office of Research. Now NIFA is now reading these results and if they find deficiencies, they will defer the report back to you for more information. This has already happened on some of last year’s results. In light of this, reports with inadequate content or overly scientific language in the areas requiring non-technical language will be sent back for revisions as not to receive NIFA rejections.
The three responses I've received so far make my ass itch since they're primarily copy/paste of the prior year reports with tiny updates. The last guy I just couldn't. It was 100% sciencey science to the science degree. So I replied with this:
Good morning George,
Aside from the "During this period" section, this is a copy/paste of the prior year report and also has very little non-technical language in the section marked "Briefly describe in non-technical terms"
So that NIFA doesn't bounce the report back like they did a few reports this last year, can you give a sentence or two for me to insert that a lay-person could understand to summarize what this update means?
During this period, we discovered that the PA phosphatase contains a novel region that controls the modification of the protein’s phosphate groups that controls cellular location and enzyme function. We also discovered regions within the regulatory subunit of the phosphatase complex that controls enzyme phosphate removal. These findings may lead to new ways to control PA phosphatase function in lipid synthesis.
Thanks
Diane
I get this response:
Diane,
How about this:
During this period, we discovered that a small portion the PA phosphatase enzyme controls its ability to be modified with phosphate groups, thus affecting the enzyme location and function. We also found conserved portions of the protein component of the phosphatase complex that removes phosphates from PA phosphatase. These findings may lead to new ways to control enzyme function in lipid synthesis.
Oh yeah, totally understand that. Yep, and so will Congress, who determines our funding. Dude, seriously?