Council of Research Associate Deans
December 20th , 2012
101 Walter Library
1:30-3pm
Attendance: David Johnson, Sven-Ulrik Gorr, Tom Hays, Brad Hokanson, Mos Kaveh, Clarence Lehman, Alex Rothman, Beth Virnig, Tim Mulcahy, Frances Lawrenz, Peggy Sundermeyer
Discussion:
Announcements and Updates
· SPA workload rebalancing – see handout
o List on first page shows departments that have changes
o You’ll see an announcement coming out soon
o Changes are effective 1/7/13
· PHS COI Training
o 1381 have completed
o List of the last 157 who haven’t – see handout
§ SPA is not tracking down those with peach color at this time
§ Various assoc. deans have noted that these are current researchers, Pamela will look into further
· Clarence Lehman: Why a research university?
o Looking to represent the idea in a sentence or two
o See handout
o All the items are somewhat repeating the same concept
o Has heard that President Kaler also gets the question, “Why graduate education”
o We need to be able to deliver, for the legislature, etc. a good, concise explanation
o The list that he’s put together is for your consideration, editing, and expansion
International Research Supports
(Stacey Tsantir)
· Global Operations
o Increase access to info for researchers abroad
o Want to be able to offer advice to faculty
§ Break down infrastructure barriers
· History: EOUS
o Employment Outside the U.S.
o Working committee trying to provide assistance
o Realized no one had as much expertise as was needed
o EOCC recommends looking for a “concierge service”
o Resulted in hiring High Street Partners
§ 12 month retainer
§ 10 hours/month advisory services – check in time
§ To do a project, we get a bid from them and decide whether or not to work with them
§ Website: www.hsp.com
· Global Operations
o Looked at peers for ideas
o What is the best internal structure?
o Who are the local experts who can help?
o How do we assure internal capacity building?
o How will we know if the effort is succeeding?
· Formed advisory team made up of representatives from many departments
o Working with a few test studies to see how it could work
· Also have a sub-working group focused on working in China
· Also a sub-working group working to put together a handbook for employee hiring best practice
· Evaluation
o Hired external evaluator
o Ran 9 test cases
o 7 went to High Street
o Covered a wide variety of issues: tax, legal, HR, etc.
o The project launched last October and is now welcoming requests
§ .edu/operations/
§ Or contact Stacey directly: Stacey Tsantir, , 5-5107
· Remember to contact GPSA early!
· Consider budgeting for possible costs
· Also working to create a public webpage of answers to common questions and highlight common potential issues
· Comment: Would also be helpful to have a list of warnings/typical challenges to look out for and include info on who to contact for help
· Associate deans want to make sure to communicate this info to faculty as much as possible
· Also let Stacey know if you have any ideas of other groups she can present this information to, or any other ways to spread the word
Infrastructure Strategic Process
(Frances Lawrenz)
· Looking to create a more planned, routine process for funding research infrastructure
· See handout regarding data that’s been gathered from the recent survey
o Nearly half of infrastructure areas serve users from five or more colleges
o Only 53% of research areas are ESO’s or ISO’s
· Survey also asked about financial concerns
o How to respond to increasing demand and changing technology demands
· Personnel questions seem to show fairly stable personnel/employees
o This data may have been influenced by those with turnover not responding
· Will send list of nonresponders to associate deans to try and get more responses
· Also let OVPR know if they have missed some infrastructure
Research Safety Program
(Craig Moody )
· Research safety officer program started in 1999
· Meant to deal with inconsistencies among departments
o Also run training
o Provide regulation updates
· April 2009 work group formed – charged to develop principles for operational safety
o Research professionals expand on duties of research safety officers – technical support
· Associate deans can get involved
o Work on larger scale cross college issues
o Look at problems that are more ongoing
· In 2012 hired research safety manager, Joe Klancher, and 3 more research professionals
(Joe Klancher)
· Primary focus is protecting researchers and students working in labs
· Want to be consultative – help establish safety performance and provide tools and resources – work with administrators to solve problems
· Elements of new program:
o Research safety manual
o Risk based auditing program
o Professional consultation
o Train the trainer (hiring training coordinator)
§ Online training modules for front line staff
o Risk assessment
o Incident investigation and analysis program
· Looking to associate deans to champion safety in their colleges and be a point of contact for the program
o Would like to see safety committees in each of the colleges
o Sounding board for new ideas/policies if needed
· Lab safety audits
o Educate and train personnel
o Augment supervision
o Instill accountability for safety & compliance
o Build safety advocates
o Need to identify dept/administrative contacts to send lab safety reports