University of
Pittsburgh
University Research
Council
2011-2012
Activities Report
THE
PROVOST’S CHARGE
On October 13, Provost Patricia Beeson delivered
the Council’s charge. She asked Council
members to:
FACULTY
ASSISTANCE
Brainstorming
Sessions
The Provost’s Office and the URC sponsored
two brainstorming sessions, during which humanities and social sciences faculty
members discussed how to apply for funding in these fields. The session on humanities funding took place
on January 31, and the session on social sciences funding took place on
February 8.
Central Research
Development Fund
Sixty-four 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. Nine of 19 proposals from health science
disciplines were funded, nine of 21 proposals from engineering and science
disciplines were funded, and 10 of 24 proposals from the humanities and social
sciences were funded.
Federal
Agency Briefing Trip
On Monday, March 26th, the Office of the
Provost sponsored a series of briefing sessions during which representatives of
federal agencies discussed opportunities for research funding. Twenty-six members of the University of
Pittsburgh’s and three members of Duquesne University’s science and engineering
faculty, as well as three grant administration and other staff, attended. Representatives of NSF directorates and
divisions, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the NIH, and
other organizations spoke. The speakers
provided information on discipline-specific research programs, agency contacts,
and proposal review criteria.
Multidisciplinary
Projects
The Provost’s Office and the URC convened
teams to explore three multidisciplinary research projects: quantum information
science, synthetic biology, and engineered materials. Each team was subsequently funded. Two newly assembled teams are now discussing
several additional topics: wisdom and aging and sustainability and energy.
OFFICE
OF RESEARCH
Allen DiPalma, Director of the Office of
Research, discussed a number of items that are related to the Office’s
operations:
·
An Office of Research portal is now
located on my.pitt.edu. It provides
links to information that researchers and research administrators regularly use.
·
The Office continues to solicit
evaluations of its operations from research administrators and faculty members.
·
The Office is developing a research
administration certificate program that will be geared to administrators.
·
Many proposals still arrive late so
Office of Research Staff do not have time to
trouble-shoot them.
He also
discussed several miscellaneous issues:
·
OMB’s A-21 task force is discussing how
to reduce the administrative burden associated with completing the form.
·
Those ARRA grants that had been
scheduled to go beyond September 30, 2013, must be completed prior to that
date.
·
The salaries of secretaries and clerks
are usually treated as indirect costs, not charged as direct costs, except
under special circumstances.
INFORMATION
SESSIONS
Department of
Environmental Health and Safety
Jay Frerotte, Director of the Department of
Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), discussed his department’s
activities. He described EHS Programs as
a set of tools to prevent contamination of cultures and/or reagents, loss of
experimental integrity, personal injury, and environmental release. EHS programs establish safety controls (i.e.
engineering control, personal protective equipment, and SOPs) for biohazardous material, chemical hygiene, physical hazards,
lasers, and ergonomics. Mr. Frerotte
also discussed recent accidents at Texas Tech and UCLA.
Export
Controls
Allen DiPalma, Director of the Office of
Research and the University’s Export Control Officer, discussed export
controls. Exports are defined as the transfer
of controlled technology, information, equipment, software or services to a
foreign person in the U.S. or abroad.
Export control laws are devised to: restrict exports of goods and
technology that could contribute to the military potential of adversaries;
prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, or chemical);
prevent terrorism; and ensure compliance with U.S. trade agreements and trade
sanctions against other nations.
Internal Audit
Department
John Elliot, Director of Internal Audit,
discussed his office’s operations. The
Internal Audit Department’s mission is to provide assurance and consulting
services that improve the University’s operations. It helps the University to accomplish its
objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and
improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance
processes. The Internal Audit Department
provides valuable support in maintaining the confidence of the University’s
constituencies by performing independent and objective reviews and by reporting
to administrative and academic officers on their findings so that corrective
actions can be initiated.
Open
Access
Rush Miller, Director of the University
Library System (ULS), discussed open access.
Open access is a family of copyright licensing policies under which
copyright owners make their works available publicly. A growing number of publishers have adopted these
policies and now allow placement of authors’ publications in an institutional
repository. In the University of
Pittsburgh’s case, articles will be made available via D Scholarship@Pitt. The ULS established the Office of Scholarly
Communications and Publishing, which will deposit the scholarly works on behalf
of University authors. The Office will
gather bibliographic information about each work, record this information in D
Scholarship, and seek permission from the publisher to deposit the author’s
paper in the repository.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
GRANT PROJECT REPORT
Matthias Grabmair, a graduate student
researcher in the Intelligent Systems Program, reported on the status of a
multidisciplinary grant, which is entitled Automating Comparative Analysis of
Public Health Statutory Frameworks. He
is working with Kevin Ashley, Professor in the School of Law; Patricia Sweeney,
Assistant Professor in the Graduate School Public Health; and Rebecca Hwa, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer
Science. They are comparing how states’
laws governing agents in the public health system either facilitate or frustrate
each system’s ability to plan for and respond to public health
emergencies. The principal investigators
have focused initially upon Pennsylvania.
They will later attempt to replicate their results with a study of
statutory law in California.
MISCELLANEOUS
Council members discussed several other
issues. They included:
Conflict of
Interest Policy
The U.S. Public Health Service published a
new policy that will require the University to revise its conflict of interest
policy. Revisions will primarily affect
NIH-funded investigators. The policy
will be altered in the following areas: the definition of a financial conflict
of interest; remuneration from outside non-profit organizations; changes in the
threshold for reporting remuneration; the timing of updated disclosures; and training
requirements.
Research
Internship Program
Many universities, the University of
Pittsburgh included, cannot recruit enough talented individuals to support the
staffing requirements of upper level research administration. The Office of the Provost is developing a
program to rectify this situation. The
goal of the program is to train individuals in research administration so that
they can subsequently assume research-related administrative jobs at the
University. Interns will rotate through
the Health Sciences, the Office of Research, Finance/Accounting, and school
departments.
Star
Metrics
The University will participate in Star
Metrics, a multi-agency venture led by the National Institutes of Health, the
National Science Foundation and the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy. There are two phases
to the program. The first phase will use university administrative records to
calculate the employment impact of federal science spending through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act and agencies' existing budgets. The second phase
will measure the impact of science investment in four key areas: economic
growth, workforce outcomes, scientific knowledge, and social outcomes.
Council members also covered:
·
Academic analytics, a provider of
academic business intelligence data
·
The University’s module on research
integrity
·
NIH reporting
·
The new NIH salary cap
·
The intellectual property policy
·
Conflict of Interest forms
·
The Middle States evaluation
·
State-level funding cuts
·
The President’s 21st century
grand challenges
·
A NIST-sponsored manufacturing
initiative
MEMBERS
|
Chair |
George E. Klinzing, Vice Provost
for Research |
|
|
|
|
Representing
the |
|
|
School
of Arts and Sciences |
Stephen Carr |
|
|
Walter Carson |
|
|
Jana
Iverson |
|
|
Jonathan Rubin |
|
GSPIA |
Louise
Comfort |
|
Graduate
School of Public Health |
Stephen
Wisniewski |
|
Office
of the Provost |
Carrie Leana, KGSB |
|
|
Hidenori Yamatani, Social Work |
|
School
of Dental Medicine |
Charles
Sfeir |
|
School
of Engineering |
Richard Debski |
|
Kent Harries |
|
|
SHRS |
Nancy Baker |
|
School
of Information Sciences |
Michael Lewis |
|
School
of Law |
David Harris |
|
School
of Medicine |
Charles McTiernan |
|
Christopher O’Donnell |
|
|
Jennifer Woodward |
|
|
School
of Nursing |
Annette Dabbs |
|
School
of Pharmacy |
Dexi Liu |
|
University
of Pittsburgh at Bradford |
William Schumann |
|
University
of Pittsburgh at Johnstown |
Steven Stern |
|
University
Senate |
Sanford Asher, SAS |
|
Carol Redmond, GSPH |
|