February 21, 2008
Meeting Summary
Report from the Office of Research
Debra Evansky, from the Office of
Research, discussed the University’s grant-management procedures. The Office continues to develop and test the
University’s internal grants management software. The proposal tracking-module already is up
and running. It captures all relevant
pre-award and immediate post-award information.
Beta testing of the proposal-development module continues. This module will enable investigators to route
a proposal electronically through the University's internal processes and, ultimately,
allow them to submit the proposal directly to the sponsoring agency.
Faculty members are submitting
grant proposals to the federal government’s Internet-based, grant-application
site, Grants.gov, at a greater rate than they have in the past. Since December of 2005, University
researchers have submitted almost 1500 proposals via the site. The Office of Research continues to educate
members of the University community in the use of Grants.gov and other proposal-submission
processes via research administrators training forums and Grants.gov training
forums. Faculty members’ use of NSF FastLane is increasing as well. The Office may develop a training program for
NSF FastLane.
Ms. Evansky also mentioned several
other issues:
Effort-Reporting Requirements
Council members discussed the effort reporting
requirements associated with federally funded grant proposals. The University developed an internet-based,
educational module entitled “Responsible Conduct of Research – Effort Reporting
Guidelines,” which will help educate University researchers about these requirements.
Publication and NIH-Funded Projects
The NIH will require that all investigators, whose
research is funded by the NIH, to submit articles arising from NIH-funded
projects to PubMed Central. Authors must submit an electronic version of
their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts no later than 12 months after the
official date of publication.
URC Funding Programs
Application deadlines for the URC’s
Central
Research Development Fund
and Multidisciplinary
Small Grants Program
are approaching. The due dates for
applications are February 22 and March 14 respectively. URC members will evaluate the proposals.
Federal Agencies Trip
This year’s federal agencies trip will take place
on March 16 and 17. Faculty members from
engineering and the science departments will travel to
Miscellaneous
Council members also discussed: