UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
COUNCIL
DR. GEORGE E. KLINZING, CHAIR
MINUTES -- JANUARY 18, 2001
The meeting was called to
order at 2:35 p.m.
ALLOWABLE RESEARCH
EXPENDITURES -- JOHN ELLIOTT AND MARK STOFKO
John Elliott, Director of
Internal Audit, and Mark Stofko, Director of Research
and Cost Accounting, provided further details and answered questions regarding
the enclosed annotated handout on allowable research expenditures. Both
emphasized the importance of compliance with federal regulations and established
University policies as well as detailed documentation in the financial
management of research awards. Do not hesitate to contact them if you
have any questions.
MINUTES
No changes were requested
to the minutes of the December 14, 2000 meeting.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
The committees reviewing
the Commercialization of Inventions and Copyright policies are working closely
with the Office of General Counsel in considering changes to these
policies. It is anticipated that revised language for both policies will
be presented to the Council soon for review and approval.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR
OF THE OFFICE OF RESEARCH - MICHAEL CROUCH
- On December 22, Congress passed a budget for Health
& Human Services which included a 13% increase for NIH institutes
across the board.
- NIH announced new salary caps and higher prorata salary support.
- New fringe benefit rates were approved on January 10.
- The Office of Research has undergone three to four
staff transitions this past year. Thus, the turnaround time for
non-deadline items is longer, and Crouch requests your patience,
particularly throughout February, which is a peak cycle in processing
grants.
Please consult the Alerts
section of the Office of Research web page (http://www.pitt.edu/~offres/alerts.html)
for further details of these and related announcements.
ANNOUNCEMENTS - GEORGE
KLINZING
- The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, in collaboration with Aberdeen, is taking the lead in
soliciting applications for the Department of Defense High Performance
Computing Modernization Program. Awards of up to $200,000 each will
be granted in topics such as Computational Structural Mechanics,
Signal/Image Processing, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and seven
others. Details are provided in the attachment.
- Klinzing is still seeking suggestions of researchers
to serve on a panel for a workshop on grantsmanship
to be held in April.
- The deadline for receipt of applications for the
Central Research Development Fund Small Grants Award Program is Monday,
February 5.
- Bob Lowman will conduct a workshop on ‘Interdisciplinary Team Building and Research’ on Tuesday,
March 13.
- The Office of the Provost and Council on Academic
Computing are soliciting applications for High Performance Network
Connections. While all parts of campus cannot yet access these
connections, the Provost’s Office and the Council hope to fund
approximately six grants of $25,000 each to promote the development and
use of advanced computer networks in fulfilling the research and teaching
missions of the University.
- The Briefing with Federal Agencies for University
faculty in the areas of Social Sciences and Humanities is confirmed for Monday, March 19, 2001. A full day is planned with half-hour
presentations by representatives from NSF, NIH, USAID, the Department of
Education, and World Bank. George Leventhal
of the Association of American Universities will be the guest speaker at
the buffet luncheon. Please refer interested faculty to Klinzing for
inclusion on the attendees list.
NEW
BUSINESS
No new business was
discussed.
The meeting adjourned at 3:35
p.m.
cc: Elizabeth Baranger,
N. John Cooper, Gerald Holder