University Research Council

May 2, 2007

Meeting Summary

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Central Research Development Fund

Fifty-nine faculty members submitted proposals to the Central Research Development Fund. Ten of 16 proposals from health science disciplines were funded, nine of 20 proposals from engineering and science disciplines were funded, and eleven of 23 proposals from humanities and social science disciplines were funded.

Council members discussed the new electronic submission and review process. Overall, they were pleased with the online process, but they suggested several changes to the electronic procedures. Proposed modifications included:

• Enable committee chairs to change reviewers after applications initially are assigned to a reviewer
• Send an automatic e-mail with review instructions when an application is assigned to a reviewer
• Capture the reviewers’ qualitative comments within the evaluation sheet as opposed to separately
• Enable reviewers to examine the application as a single document rather than in parts

Council members also proposed changes to the application and review procedures:

• The application should be altered so that it is more consistent, i.e., all applicants should address the same or similar issues in the same sections
• Applicants should both write for a broader audience and describe the proposed project’s broader impact and significance
• Committee chairs should consider a reviewer’s expertise when assigning applications to be reviewed.
• Review sheets should link quantitative ranges to the qualitative comments in order to make comparisons between reviewers more uniform

Miscellaneous

Dr. Klinzing summarized the Council’s activities during the previous academic year. Council members discussed issues that the Council can address during the upcoming academic year. They asked whether the University can create a mechanism through which faculty members can determine other faculty members’ research interests. Existing research-interest databases, such as the international Community of Science database and the Health Science Schools’ Faculty Research Interest Project (FRIP), were mentioned. Unfortunately, records in these databases must be updated by individual faculty members, who are often too busy to do so. Council members may discuss the issue with Rush Miller, Director of the University Library System, in order to determine whether his staff can develop a searchable database of recent faculty publications.

Other areas of interest included:

• humanities funding
• animal-based research
• cutting-edge research
• purchasing procedures