BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
11
JULY
2014
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
/
openbook.php?record_id=18722.
NIH Piloting Alternative
Biosketch
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
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.
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
and click
'Awards' then 'Contests.'
