University Research Council

November 18, 2010

Meeting Summary

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Report from the Office of Research

Allen DiPalma, Director of the Office of Research, and Michael Ranieri, the Office’s Assistant Director of Information Technology and Training, discussed changes to the Office of Research’s operations.  InfoEd, the University’s electronic grant-management software, is being configured to support these changes.  Mr. DiPalma and Mr. Ranieri focused on:

• The Material Transfer Agreement InfoEd Module.  The Office is creating a web interface, through which University users can submit electronic material transfer requests.  Office staff hope to reduce the data entry burden, improve administrative transparency, and shorten processing time.
• The Proposal Development InfoEd Module.  The Office will provide a mechanism to facilitate electronic proposal development, routing, and submission.  It will both improve administrative efficiency and reduce administrative errors.  Office staff are working with several departments to test this module.

Mr. DiPalma also discussed changes to Office administration, which will enhance efficiency, increase accountability, and improve communications.  Many of these adjustments are driven by changes in the research climate, such as increases in grant submissions, federal regulations, and principal investigators’ administrative burdens.

Multidisciplinary Projects

The Provost’s Office is exploring three multidisciplinary topics: how to apply immunology models to cybersecurity, how to minimize the complexity of manufacturing models, and how to use social networks to enhance problem solving.  Teams are meeting regularly to work on the projects.