December 5, 2007
Meeting Summary
Report from the Office of Research
Allen DiPalma,
Director of the Office of Research, discussed the University’s internal grants
management program. The Office of
Research was charged three years ago with developing an electronic,
cradle-to-grave proposal development process (known as Electronic Research
Administration or eRA). The Office selected InfoEd
from several potential providers and purchased two modules – a proposal
tracking module and a proposal development module.
The proposal tracking module allows
Office of Research staff to record, track, and report on research in a manner
that reflects how research is actually conducted at a major research
institution. Proposal tracking will replace legacy systems and allow tracking
of entire projects instead of individual funding increments. Eventually, proposal tracking will be
interfaced with several other University databases to allow for greatly
enhanced reporting and administration. The
module currently is operational.
The proposal development module
allows for the creation, review, and submission of grant applications and
contracts via a powerful web interface. This module will enable investigators
to electronically route a proposal through the University's internal signature
process and will ultimately allow them to submit the proposal electronically to
the sponsoring agency. The Office of
Research currently is testing the module in select departments.
NIH Funding
Council Members discussed the increasing
competition for NIH grants. From 2001 to
2006, funding rates for all grant proposals decreased from 32 percent to 20
percent, while funding rates for newly submitted R01 grant proposals decreased
from 26 percent to 16 percent. Heightened
competition may negatively affect new investigators in the health and biological
sciences due to these investigators’ reliance on NIH funding for support.
Transformative Research Programs
Council Members discussed NSF and NIH
transformative research programs. Transformative
research is defined as research driven by ideas that have the potential to
radically change our understanding of an important existing scientific or
engineering concept or lead to the creation of a new paradigm or field of science
or engineering. The NIH fosters
transformative research through the NIH Roadmap Initiative, and the National
Science Board, the NSF’s governing body, approved a motion to enhance support
of transformative research at the NSF.
Miscellaneous
Council members also discussed: