University Research Council

December 17, 2008

Meeting Summary

Multidisciplinary Grant Award Report

Richard Schulz, Director of the University Center for Social and Urban Research, reported on the status of his multidisciplinary grant project.  Individuals from six departments and several interdisciplinary centers participate in the project, which focuses on suffering.  Dr. Schulz and his team developed a comprehensive measure of suffering that they are using in preliminary studies.  The project has received external funding from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Mind-Body Institute.

Dr. Schulz recently recruited Joan Monin to work as a postdoctoral fellow on the project.  Dr. Monin is studying the manifestation of suffering in older individuals with musculoskeletal conditions. She discussed her experimental studies on spouses, one of whom habitually experiences pain.  Dr. Monin tests whether the caregiver in the relationship experiences excessive emotional distress when the spouse performs a potentially painful task.

Report from the Office of Research

Allen DiPalma, Director of the Office of Research, provided an update on InfoEd, the University’s internal grants management program.  His office will purchase InfoEd’s technology transfer suite.  The suite will help reduce the time required to process material transfer agreements.  It will take six-to-eight weeks to integrate the suite into the existing system.  The Office of Research will offer University-wide training in the use of the software.

Miscellaneous

Council members also discussed:

  • The NIH and conflict of interest issues
  • Multidisciplinary research programs at the University of Chicago