Meeting Summary
Provost Jim Maher delivered the
Council charge. He asked the Council to:
The Provost also asked the Council to consider how the
University can best harness its research resources, human and otherwise, so that
it can define research questions for the nation. He wishes to create a process through which
the University can identify future, cutting-edge research questions and the
individuals at the University who are best equipped to address them.
Report from the
Office of Research
Allen DiPalma, Director of the
Office of Research, discussed the Office’s new electronic research
administration system. The system’s
first module will be launched in November.
This module will permit investigators and administrators to track
proposals. The second module will
support integrated proposal writing. It
should be launched one year from now.
External research sponsors are introducing increasingly
restrictive language into grants and contracts.
Office of Research staff often must address limitations on intellectual
property and conflicts with University policies. The additional effort required to resolve these
issues increases the time required to process grants and contracts.
The Office of Research will sponsor a forum on September
16 that will deal with material transfer agreements (MTAs). The Office is concluding an increasing number
of MTAs – approximately 800 MTAs
have been negotiated this year. In order
to more efficiently process these agreements, Office staff has developed a
checklist of compliance issues that must be addressed prior to signing an
Miscellaneous
George Klinzing, Vice Provost for Research, reviewed some
of the issues that the Council addressed last year. Topics of discussion included: