University Research Council

February 13, 2007

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 discussed problems related to defining, conceptualizing, and measuring suffering.  He and his team developed a comprehensive measure of suffering that they are using in preliminary studies.  He also discussed the implications of this research.

Report from the Office of Research

Allen DiPalma, Director of the Office of Research, discussed the transition to the federal government’s Internet-based, grant-application site, Grants.gov.  Proposals that will be submitted via the site must be delivered to the Office of Research 10 days prior to the submission deadline.  During the most recent round of submissions, faculty members submitted 84 grant applications via the Grants.gov website.  Researchers experienced few problems.  Fifty-two of these proposals were submitted to the NIH.  The NIH now requires that all R01 proposals be submitted electronically.  The NIH will transition to electronic submission for other types of grants at later dates.

The Office of Research continues to provide instruction on how to use Grants.gov.  Additional information on training sessions can be found on the Office of Research’s website.

Mr. DiPalma discussed several other issues:

  • Effort reporting on NIH and NSF grants
  • Coordinating limited submission proposals
  • Formatting rules on government proposals

Miscellaneous

Council members also discussed:

  • Central Research and Development Fund
  • Multidisciplinary Small Grant Program
  • Department of Energy, NIH, and NSF funding
  • Fringe-benefit rates for graduate students
  • Federal agency funding trip for the social sciences and education