Research Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
February 15, 2017
Opening welcome to new council member Andy Burton, who replaces Chris Webster and meeting guest Peter Larsen.
Update: ADVANCE Matrix Process for University Programs (AMP-UP) program - Pete Larsen Peter participates on the red team for AMPU-UP which has been discussing research proposal submission and funding statistics. Data were analyzed for National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health (NSF & NIH) proposals. Michigan Tech has a lower than average success rate across the nation. The intention of the team was to provide internal proposal reviews prior to submission to the agency, and is seeking input on how to provide a new review process to the faculty. The Michigan Tech Research Institute has an internal review model, which has proven to be beneficial. During a working session MTRI staff present their proposal and must convince their peers of the proposal’s merit. This vetting process is also successful in obtaining new thoughts and ideas. If the proposal is not internally approved, it does not go further in the submission process. In this MTRI model. all staff have a vested interest in every proposal submitted. The council agreed that some sort of review process either formal, or informal would be beneficial. There would need to be an incentive for faculty to participate on these review teams, and they cannot feel threatened by the process within their departments. .A deeper analysis of these NIH and NSF numbers should also be completed, as the NIH activity has been increasing on campus, also does the data indicate that the successful proposals had a pre-submission review? It was noted the research centers and institutes would be a good sector to begin using this process to improve their proposal success rate. This would be a new concept for those in the academic sector, and a culture of cooperation from the department chairs would be a key component to faculty members feeling confident in participating.
For additional information visit the AMP-UP web page: AMP-UP
Update: Faculty Workload Survey/Focus Group - Tammy LaBissoniere (handout)
Faculty workload survey/focus committee (a RAC subcommittee) reviewed the COGR faculty workload survey. The group felt there was not enough information from the Michigan Tech data provided, so they developed a three question survey to assist them in their workload analysis (see handout). With this information, solutions could be implemented to alleviate the administrative workload for faculty. It was suggested the questions could be shortened and thought provoking examples could provide them with ideas. By providing specific questions with examples, it would prompt faculty to link their answers to incidents or events, and we would not be collecting opinions, resulting in cleaner data. This survey will need the departmental chairs support to be successful. Since the research culture is complex, it may be best to take a focus group approach. Focus groups work well for this type of activity, as the issues are clarified, and you get more detail on the issues. The departments would designate a liaison to the focus group, and report their findings from their faculty members. This approach would alleviate the anxiety for faculty to answer the questions. One example is how faculty get frustrated because they don’t know who to go to when they need assistance on award management, thus they complete tasks themselves. These same faculty might not want to point out the problem staff or lack of staff, but would give this information to their liaison, and remain anonymous. The staff should also be included in this process, as they are the interface for problems. Tammy will move forward and keep the council updated on this process.
Update: Faculty Fellow - Dr. Yoke Khin Yap (handout)
Dr. Yap provided a summary of his experience as a faculty fellow of economic development and technology commercialization. A discussion about activity #2 from the handout was conducted by the council and the revenue generated by tuition and fees versus those generated by sponsored research is 2.4 times higher, which would imply the need for securing more research funding. The council was intrigued by this statistic and discussed the source and analysis of data to understand how it was derived. They realized that this is benchmark by excluding the revenue from medical services of these peer universities. Dr. Reed justified that annual research revenue per faculty at MTU is about half of those from many research intensive institutes. A seminar series was provided to faculty from several disciplines, and a series of discussions made a few revelations that faculty is not well informed about the value we place on technology commercialization. Tenure-track faculty were concerned their involvement in technology commercialization would affect their evaluations. A list of five recommendations was also provided, which Dave Reed will discuss with the appropriate VP for Research staff.
Discussion: Research proposals and improvement of the submission process - Shane Mueller
The proposal process is cumbersome due to the lack of an electronic signature routing system. It would be beneficial to update this process to utilize a portal to route and save documents. The council was updated by Jason Carter, who informed them about the recent action taken by the VP for Research office to collaborate with Information Technology and provide salary support for an EAS staff member to analyze and improve our electronic processes, with one goal of improving our workflow. The electronic cost share form will be the first focus with a roll-out target date of May 1st. Updates will be provided to the council as we make strides to improve these processes.
Board of Trustees Research Report 2nd Quarter FY 2017 - Dave Reed (Handout)
The report was provided to the council. If you have any questions, please send them to Dave Reed, or Cathy Jenich.
Meeting adjourned. All documents pertaining to this meeting will be shared with the council members via the Google drive, including a Federal Demonstration Partnership meeting report provided electronically by Larry Sutter.