Research Council

Voting members present: Ed Brook, Jeff Hatten, Colin Johnson, Siva Kolluri, Katie Linder, Arun Natarajan, Ron Reuter (remote), Deb Rubel
Voting members absent: Chris Akroyd, Shan de Silva, Amy Koehlinger, Andriy Morgun, Hong Moulton, Kyle Niemeyer, Carlos Ochoa, Rob Stone
Ex-Officio members present: Research Office – Staci Simonich
Guests present: Susan Emerson

Standing Rules

Discuss, finalize and vote on attached, revised Standing Rules.

• Other documents must be consistent with the Standing Rules.
• Standing Rules language would lead one to think that the Council reviews all funding proposals, which is not correct.

Action: All present were in supportive of the proposed revisions; Siva will request a formal vote via email.

RERF Announcement and Evaluation Criteria

• Announcement
• Application Form

The Research Office is seeking feedback on the RERF Announcement and Evaluation Criteria. The current announcement and the application are attached for review. Council members will review and revise the RERF application during the meeting.

• Susan Emerson has the ability to determine how much funding, who is funded, and how funds are distributed related to the RERF.

Discussion Items for Provost Feser

• There is a need for professional grant writers, as well as those who can assist with graphics.
  • Some colleges already provide grant writing assistance, but not necessarily a professional grant writer.
  • One emphasized that assistance is needed from the college since that individual would be more familiar with the college programs.
  • How to increase the amount of funding received by the institution?
  • Incentive programs have the ability to raise research to the next level. Is $400,000 an appropriate level for an institution like OSU; if not, how does OSU obtain additional funding to enhance basic infrastructure
  • Need to promote high risk, impactful research – suggested to include receiving credit on Promotion and Tenure dossiers if one attempts to secure multi-million dollar grants, even if they are ultimately not successful in securing funding.
  • How to focus on limited strength areas, or should faculty be allowed to drive what they are good at? Need to determine areas that would impact focus areas.
    • Strategic Plan 4.0 (SP 4.0) is where the areas can be identified; Research Council members should read the plan carefully before talking with Provost Feser to determine what more needs to be included in the plan related to Research.
  • What is the OSU leadership research vision for 10 years from now?
  • Discuss funding for undergraduate research, which doesn’t support many undergraduate students.
    • One member asked Staci if the dollars spent on undergraduate research could be tracked.
    • Where does OSU place related to research when compared to peer institutions?
  • There are pockets of excellence – how should they be advertised to make OSU well known in those areas both nationally and internationally? One way would be to invite high profile researchers and opinion-makers to OSU as speakers on a regular basis.
    • European universities have funding to bring in speakers; it’s challenging that OSU does not have this advantage, which makes it difficult to reciprocate. It’s a way to bring internationally renowned experts to OSU campuses.
    • A donor may, potentially, support this concept. Currently, philanthropy is directed almost exclusively at colleges – there should be a way for the University leadership to direct funding to research.
  • It’s trickier with OSU-Cascades since they have their own funding and would be trying to secure overhead back to their campus.
  • There are limitations when needing matching funds for large grants.
  • Many grants require indicating what resources are funded at the institution. There is an immediate need to have this information readily available to include in grant proposals.

Discuss Research Council Priorities and Actionable Items

Each member is welcome to suggest actionable items for the Research Council to engage the Research Office to make the life of research faculty a little easier.

Research Office Limited Submission Guidelines

• How should applications be handled? Determine the best process.
• There are times when the deadline is too short to request assistance from the Research Council.

Action: Susan will share the list of awards for which the Research Office is responsible.

OSU Centers and Institutes/Core Research Facilities Fair Recap

• Siva felt that the fair was valuable. He suggested holding open sessions or collaborative efforts with the various groups once per month.
• Susan reported that 35 different centers, institutes and facilities participated on November 16. Although there was quite a bit of advertising, including a flier, there were still research faculty who were not aware of the Fair, but who would have liked to participate. The Research Office now has a viable list of the various groups.  

Action: Susan will distribute a follow-up survey to the participating centers and institutes to determine whether there is support for another event. Based on the amount of support from the survey, Susan will work on logistics for a 2019 Fair with a sub-committee of interested individuals.

Access to Grant Forward

• Grant Forward is a database to which the Research Office subscribes and which may assist in identifying project grants. Information about Grant Forward has been included in Research Office newsletters, and is available online at https://www.grantforward.com/index.

iRIS

• iRIS is OSU’s new Research Conflict of Interest Program (RCOI) disclosure system. It is a program into which the Research Office can feed information such as grant dollars, expenses, etc., and will allow them get a better idea of what undergraduates are being paid on grants.  
• One noted that it is more difficult to determine the FTE of faculty working with undergraduate researchers.

Next meeting – Week of December 3

• Vickie Nunnemaker will distribute a request for availability to determine a meeting during the week of December 3.
• Topics will include:
  • RERF
  • Research Office Limited Submission Guidelines  

Minutes prepared by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff