University
Research Council
2006-2007 Activities Report
THE PROVOST’S CHARGE
On October 13, 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.
COUNCIL RETREAT
Members of the Council met on May 2
to create an agenda for the upcoming academic year. Areas of interest included:
FACULTY RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
Central Research Development Fund
Fifty-nine faculty members
submitted proposals to the Central Research Development Fund.
Applications were evaluated by one of
three Council subcommittees, whose members specialize in the health sciences,
the sciences and engineering, and the humanities and the social sciences. 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.
Multidisciplinary Small Grant Program
The Council sponsored the third
annual Multidisciplinary
Small Grant Program.
The program is designed to enhance opportunities for the University’s
faculty to engage in multidisciplinary research, scholarship, and creative
endeavors. The program encourages
faculty members with different skills and training to address complex problems
that span the humanities, social sciences, engineering, physical sciences,
and/or the biological and health sciences.
The Council funded one of the nine proposals. David Waldeck, a Professor in the Department
of Chemistry, will be the principal investigator on the project, which is
entitled Development of Pallet Arrays for High-Throughput Screening of Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity.
Federal Agency Briefing Trip
Sixteen members of the University
of Pittsburgh’s and seven members of Duquesne University’s social science and education
faculty, as well as nine grant administration and other staff, participated in
this year’s annual federal agencies’ briefing trip. Representatives of NSF, NIH and several other
health-related agencies, USAID, the Department of Education, the American
Psychological Association, and NASULGC spoke at the March 19 meeting. The speakers provided information on
discipline-specific research programs, agency contacts, and proposal review
criteria. They also discussed
undergraduate research programs, joint research and educational programs, and
teacher education programs.
CENTRAL RESEARCH
Council members previously decided
to simplify the Central Research Development Fund’s proposal submission and
evaluation process. They suggested that
CRDF proposals be submitted, distributed, and reviewed electronically.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY SMALL GRANT PROGRAM REPORTS
Work Discretion, Job Crafting, and Turnover in the Child Care Industry
Carrie Leana,
Professor in the Katz Graduate School of Business, is the lead investigator on
a multidisciplinary small grant project that deals with work discretion in the
childcare industry. Professor Leana has compiled data on childcare providers in five
types of preschool institutions in
Multidisciplinary Research Program on Suffering
Richard Schulz, Director of the
OFFICE OF RESEARCH
Allen DiPalma,
Director of the Office of Research, frequently reported on the activities of
the Office. Milestones and achievements
often were announced. The following is a
breakdown by area:
Electronic Research Administration
The Office of Research released the
first module of the University’s internal grants management program, which uses
InfoEd software, during the summer. This
module captures all relevant pre-award and immediate post-award
information. The second module will support electronic reporting and
tracking capabilities. The Office of
Research currently is implementing this module.
Grants.gov
The Grants.gov, the federal
government’s new Internet-based, grant-application site, is designed to improve
access to federal funding programs. Twenty-six
federal agencies eventually will require investigators to submit grants via
Grants.gov. The Office of Research
offers a training program that teaches faculty and staff how to utilize the
site. The Office sponsors computer-based training and a monthly open
forum. Departments and schools can
request more targeted training.
The NIH is transitioning to the
Grants.gov system more quickly than most agencies. The NIH now requires that some (including R01)
proposals be submitted via the site. The
University requires applicants to submit their proposals to the Office of
Research 10 days prior to the NIH’s deadlines. During the most recent round of submissions,
faculty members submitted 84 grant applications via the Grants.gov
website. Fifty-two of these proposals
were submitted to the NIH. Researchers
experienced few problems.
Miscellaneous
Other topics of discussion
included:
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Undergraduate Research
Sheila Rathke, Assistant Provost
for Strategic and Program Development, discussed undergraduate research at the
University. The University is
coordinating and publicizing undergraduate research to a greater degree than it
has in the past. Ms. Rathke is
developing an informational campaign to highlight the quality of the
University’s undergraduate academic programs and to define these programs
vis-ŕ-vis the University’s peers. Target
audiences include current and potential students, students’ parents, faculty,
and alumni. The University possesses
several advantages compared to other schools: the University is relatively
small in size for a comprehensive research university; it offers undergraduate
students access to medical school researchers; and it possesses a low
student-teacher ratio.
Technology Transfer and Academic Research
Carey Balaban, Professor in the
Department of Otolaryngology, discussed issues related to technology transfer
and academic research. He contrasted the
traditional role of scientist as scholar with the developing role of scientist
as entrepreneur. Scientists are more
involved in entrepreneurial activities because they now conduct more
translational (as opposed to pure) research.
Marketable goods often are the outcome of this research. Traditional academic norms, which are
expressed via unrestricted information dissemination and scientific
collaboration, now frequently conflict with business-oriented norms, which are
expressed via “collegial” nondisclosure agreements, conflict-of-interest
guidelines, and intellectual property policies.
MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES
Members of the Council discussed
several recurring issues during the academic year. These issues included:
Fringe Benefit Rates
The current fringe benefit rate for
the University’s graduate student employees is 50 percent of a graduate student
researcher’s salary. Council members
discussed the relationship between the fringe benefit rate, University
finances, and faculty research within the context of potentially reduced
federal funding for academic research
The Bayh-Dole Act
The Bayh-Dole
Act, also known as the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act,
awards control over intellectual property to organizations that discover novel
devices and products via federally funded research. The Act applies to
MEMBERS
|
Chair |
George E.
Klinzing, Vice Provost for Research |
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|
Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
Kay Brummond |
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|
Susan Gilbert |
|
Graduate |
John Mendeloff |
|
Graduate |
Stephen Wisniewski |
|
Office of the Provost |
Nicole Constable, FAS |
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|
Hidenori Yamatani,
Social Work |
|
|
Mary Marazita |
|
|
Peyman Givi |
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|
Mike Lovell |
|
|
Rory A. Cooper |
|
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Michael Lewis |
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Brian Davis |
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|
Anuradha Ray |
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|
Chuanyue
(Cary) Wu |
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|
Dexi Liu |
|
|
Gregory L. Page |
|
|
John Mullennix |
|
University Senate |
Juan Manfredi, FAS |
|
|
Carol Redmond, GSPH |