Saturday, October 19
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Session Code |
Session Title |
Speaker(s) |
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM
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WS6 |
Strategic Networking is Key to Success as a Leader in Research Administration
Research Administration was most likely not a conscious and direct career path for you, but rather one where you indirectly landed in the field through a circuitous route, building your research administration skills along the way. Now, as a senior leader in research administration it is important to build those interpersonal relationships and connections necessary to propel your unit’s vision and goals and to move your own career forward. Networking sharpens your performance and creates opportunities. To be a success, you cannot be a lone ranger in research administration. Strategic networking must be a part of your every-day life. The first half of this workshop will focus on defining the professional benefits of networking, understanding networking styles, identifying opportunities to network, and developing strategies for forging those valuable relationships and connections required for your professional success in research administration. During the interactive part of the workshop, you will have an opportunity to assess your own networking style and comfortability, develop a personal brand statement to use when networking, and practice the networking tips and strategies presented during the workshop.
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Jennifer Woodward
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WS7 |
Managing Core Facilities
The management of core facilities is a vital, yet challenging role for research administrators. Core facilities are small businesses with all of the risks and twists of any shop struggling to meet the demands of its customers and the cost and performance standards of its competition. This workshop will take the audience through the process of starting and managing a core facility. It will begin with an assessment of the need for the facility through the cost accounting of rate setting to the monitoring necessary to sustain a viable business. It will demonstrate the tools used by the Cancer Center to support a core facility including the rate setting worksheet, the electronic Shared Resources Database used for utilization and financial management, and the Business Plan which annually updates the needs and performance of the facility. The Workshop will be highly interactive, with presentations interspersed with audience feedback, opinion and experiences. The workshop session will be presented by Sonia Ashley, Cancer Center Director of Business Operations and Ira Goodman, Cancer Center Associate Director for Administration. Sonia has over 30 years experience in accounting and over 19 years with the Cancer Center. Ira has been involved with cancer centers and core facilities for over 30 years.
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Ira Goodman, Distinguished Faculty
Sonia Ashley
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WS8 |
Negotiating Clinical Trial Agreements with Industry
This workshop will provide a comprehensive review of the key issues faced by academic institutions when negotiating clinical trial agreements with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, with specific in-depth focus on the following provisions: publication rights, ownership of intellectual property, confidentiality, indemnification and study subject injury.
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Karen Mullin
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9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
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WS1 |
Fundamentals of Research Administration & Management
This workshop, intended for individuals with fewer than three years' experience, is designed to give newcomers to research administration a big picture of the profession. Topics covered will include finding funding opportunities, orienting new faculty to the research environment, pre- and post-award administration, proposal development and submission, review and award negotiation, administrative and fiscal regulations, accountability and risk management, and research, fiscal, and professional ethics.
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Dara Little, Distinguished Faculty
Jennie Amison, Distinguished Faculty
Kimberly Page
|
WS2 |
Leading Wholescale Change and Surviving to Achieve Success
Over the past two years the University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research under took a major whole scale change called the Clinical Trials Transformation. Clinical trials are a high priority and research is a key differentiator for any university. Being able to bring in, retain, and support leading-edge talent requires an adaptive robust infrastructure. Moving from traditional department-based support models to business units organized around various science schematics is something few institutions with a similar scope and breadth of research have tried. This presentation will describe leading this initiative and panel members will discuss the specific environments and unique challenges they faced in applying strategies to leading change. Panel members will analyze and identify what success looks like and the barometers needed to measure progress across the cycle of change. We will delve into the challenge, process,roles, and reactions.
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Barbara Munsey
Cynthia Bower
Kathryn Keeley
Mollie Bodin
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WS3 |
Everything You Need to Know about Research Financial Compliance
This workshop will focus on how research administrators can manage reduction of administrative burdens, using the notion that a research administrator's main objective is to help advance the science - where the objective can be achieved while protecting the institution, in the least intrusive/minimal burden pathway that does not create further obstructions. This workshop will also discuss how, in the rapidly, ever changing world of research compliance, it has become difficult to know what to comply to and/or with. As auditors become more savvy, research administrators are being tested more so than ever, regarding: a) knowledge of the regulations and required action; b) knowledge of your operational internal controls and how they map to rules; c) evidence that the controls are consistently applied throughout the institution. This workshop will discuss real strategies and tactics, including use of streamlined electronic tools/examples in order to comply with a breadth of research compliance topics.
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Jeremy Forsberg
Lisa Mosley
David Ngo
Paul J. Coleman
|
WS4 |
Understanding the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
This workshop will provide attendees an understanding of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and how it drives the federal contracting process. Attendees will understand how to navigate the FAR and a method to negotiate and document federal contracts both as a prime recipient as as a subcontractor.
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Sarah Jaeschke
Tim Linker, Distinguished Faculty
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WS5 |
CFRA Body of Knowledge Review
This is a full day workshop for persons interested in taking the Certified Financial Research Administrator exam sponsored by RACC. This session walks participants through the entire Body of Knowledge for the exam, in addition to offering attendees some "insider tips" and other best practices to help them be successful.
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Jeffrey (Jeff) Ritchie
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1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
|
WS9 |
Trailblazing Teambuilding: Techniques for Creating a Purpose-Driven Leadership Team
The process of building a great team -with high team morale and strong engagement- begins with building a great leadership team. Developing an incredible leadership team doesn’t have to break the budget but it does require a strong vision, excellent communication, a good deal of time and consistent effort. We will focus on connection, purpose, motivation, understanding, and accountability amongst your teams. The purpose of this workshop is to provide participants tools to develop a strong leadership team on any budget. A leadership team is most effective when there is a united front amongst its leaders and a unified, trusting, and high-performing leadership team WILL impact the individual contributors at the organization in a positive way. Leaders will behave in a way that employees will model and ROI for the organization is high. With a GREAT leadership team, the organization experiences better productivity and the strategic vision becomes the reality.
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Jodi Ogden
Yaw Frimpong
Laura Gatewood
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WS11 |
Clinical Research? Where do I begin? A Complete Guide to Facilitating a Clinical Trial
Clinical Research: All research that involves patients or PHI, or clinical testing or procedures, or drug/device diagnostic testing in humans or any planning/lab/clinical service in support of such clinical research. We will demonstrate how to initiate a clinical trial from pre- award Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement to post award financial management.
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Karen Roz
Carlos Braxton
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Sunday, October 20
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Session Code |
Session Title |
Speaker(s) |
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM
|
LL3 |
FREE: Policy Life Cycle: Policy Making in a Research Enterprise
This Learning Lab has been sponsored by CUNY School of Professional Studies, Gold sponsor of SRAI. Registration required.
This learning lab is designed to introduce the current and future leaders of a research enterprise to the entire life cycle of policy-making, starting with problem identification and agenda setting, and concluding with policy monitoring and evaluation. Numerous stakeholders across and outwith a research organization are involved in the various steps of making and implementing policy decisions. The workshop will begin with an introduction to each of these steps. This will be followed by small group exercises in the identification of stakeholders and challenges associated with each step of the policy life cycle within the learners? Organizations, as it relates to a given internal or external policy. Finally, the small groups will present their results to the group at large for a plenary discussion and feedback. Please come prepared with a policy topic related to the governance of research that you may use for group exercises.
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Farida Lada
Annedorte Vad
|
WS16 |
Developing Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Emotional intelligence has come to be seen more and more as a critical underpinning of success on and off the job. It has become even more important as work environments have become increasingly diverse and have brought together differences that can be challenging. However, despite its importance, most individuals don't know much about emotional intelligence or how to develop that aspect of themselves in the workplace. This workshop will discuss fundamentals of emotional intelligence, the understanding of tools to function in the workplace, and how to develop others to be more successful in their jobs.
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Timothy Schailey
Erin Bailey
|
WS17 |
Proposal Development: Pre-Award Overview
Pre-award research administrators are often called upon to provide training and to assist investigators with all aspects of proposal preparation and, therefore, need to have a basic knowledge of all the steps in the process. This workshop will cover the different types of proposals; how to read and interpret proposal guidelines; sections of the proposal: summary/abstract, problem/need statement, goals & objectives, methodology, evaluation, personnel, institutional resources, and timeline; and the importance of organization and presentation. While budget development is a key component of proposal preparation, that topic is the focus of a separate ½ day workshop so will not be covered in this session. We strive to make my presentations as interactive as possible, so the session will incorporate hands-on individual and small group activities, and will encourage all participants to contribute their experiences and ask questions throughout. The intended audience is new pre-award research administrators who wish to gain a thorough understanding of the proposal development process.
|
Peter Hoesing
Anne Schauer, Distinguished Faculty
|
WS18 |
Designing a Training Program for Your Institution: Techniques, Tools and Tips
Accessing and identifying your organization’s training needs at the beginning is important for designing and preparing educational materials that will achieve the desired learning outcomes. In order to be effective, both training and facilitation take deliberate planning and leader-participant engagement. While you don’t have to be an expert speaker or facilitator, you do have to connect with participants in order to engage them through content and processes. This workshop will take participants from design aspects to delivery and will include a behind-the-scenes look into tips, tools and techniques used by presenters in order to effectively lead participants through training objectives. These simple techniques will help trainers, speakers and facilitators approach their next learning session with confidence.
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Roseann Luongo
Debra Schaller-Demers, DistinguishedFaculty
Tolise Dailey
|
WS19 |
Fostering a Compliance Mindset - Building Internal Controls
Over the past few years, Compliance has risen to a significant level of importance in the research community. Increased regulations, competition and the day-to-day demands of managing various strings attached to sponsored agreements often leave Research Administrators with minimal time to develop and maintain adequate compliant programs within their offices. Furthermore, OMB 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance) requires that recipients of federal funds provide a reasonable assurance that internal controls exist in several areas related to managing federal awards. This mandate further hinders Administrators’ ability to support investigators with adherence to institutional policies and practices and federal regulations. This half-day work workshop will assist Administrators with developing or enhancing an existing compliance program throughout the award life cycle. Participants will understand the key elements needed to foster a compliance mindset, examine the guiding regulations, explore strategies to developing compliant offices, discuss ways to overcome the challenges, and explore examples of adequate compliance programs. Participants will also be introduced to the concept of internal controls, as defined by the Committee of Sponsoring Organization (COSO) by the Treadway Commission and the Greenbook issued by the Comptroller of the United States.
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Debra Murray
Marchon Jackson
|
WS21 |
Kirschstein NRSA Workshop: NIH Research Training Grants and Fellowships
As Dr. Seuss wrote, “Oh, the places you’ll go! Your mountain is waiting so get on your way.” If you need help climbing that mountain to NRSA funding success, this session will ensure you are confident and surefooted in keeping your trainees and fellows on the safe path to funding. This interactive workshop will focus on issues specific to grants awarded under the auspices of Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, specifically Individual Fellowships (F's) and Institutional Training Grants (T32's). Scale new heights with an overview of the Kirschstein-NRSA Guidelines, recent and anticipated changes and navigate the mandatory electronic submission process for applications and forms.
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Brett Hodgkins
Lisa Moeller
Christina Fleming
|
WS22 |
Research Administration Career Planning: Taking a Personal Inventory
When clarifying career goals, it is important to start with a personal inventory. However, many are unsure of how to even begin. This half-day workshop will lead participants through the process of a personal inventory and will provide tangible take-aways to help define and achieve their career goals.
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Sikirat Tijani
Tammy Good
|
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
|
WS12 |
A Guide to Clinical Trials Administration
Clinical trials are a rapidly changing field in research administration. For this reason, they require careful preparation and oversight. Many of the skills needed to administer more traditional investigator initiated, grant funded research projects can be adapted to managing clinical trials. This workshop will examine the basics of clinical trial administration from recruiting subjects to archiving records, explore the differences between industry and federally funded studies, highlight special concerns and discuss best practices for managing clinical trials.
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Bruce Steinert, Distinguished Faculty
|
WS13 |
It's About the Money
This workshop examines key issues related to budget development, review, and monitoring, and explores the research administrator's role in service to the sponsor, institution, and investigator. Special attention will be paid to assessing project costs, including personnel, consultants, equipment, supplies, travel, subcontracts, total direct cost, income, F&A, MTDC vs. salary and wage base, and cost sharing. Also, sponsor guidelines, institutional policies and the financial precepts of 2 CFR 200 will be covered. "Why do we have to do this?' and "Where are the guidelines that say that?" are key questions that will be answered throughout the workshop.
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Kris Rhodes, Distinguished Faculty
Lee Stokes
|
WS14 |
Introduction to Research Law
The "theory of everything" (TOE) is a hypothetical theory studied in physics; its intent is to fully explain and link together all known physical phenomena. The Introduction to Research Law workshop is similar to TOE in that it attempts to explain and link together all known issues of research administration. Legal issues arise throughout research, starting with intellectual property issues, continuing through contract and grant matters and living on in post research licensing, "derivative works disputes" and post-clinical trial liability questions. This workshop is for new research administrators who need a "boot camp" approach to recognizing the legal issues that they will face daily.
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David King, Distinguished Faculty
J. Michael Slocum, Distinguished Faculty
|
WS15 |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fundamentals
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fundamentals provides a foundation in grants from NIH. As NIH is the single largest federal grant-awarding agency, the program is perfect both for someone new to research administration and for research administrators expanding their knowledge of federal funding agencies. The curriculum, a full-day workshop, provides an overview to the procedures and policies essential to preparing successful applications to and managing grant awards from the National Institutes of Health.
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Dede Rutberg
Rebecca Wagenaar-Miller
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1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
|
LL1 |
FREE: Effort Reporting: Where We Have Been, Where We Are Now, and Options for the Future
This Learning Lab has been sponsored by Cayuse, Platinum sponsor of SRAI. Registration required.
In an environment of changing effort reporting methodologies, reassessment of your effort reporting process is highly likely. Has your current process kept pace with the requirements while reducing the administrative burden on your researchers?
We will cover the exciting origins, evolution and latest developments in effort reporting including alternatives to traditional effort reporting including project payroll confirmation. We will take a holistic perspective from effort proposed, effort awarded and reporting on effort from the investigator, administrator and sponsor points of view.
Bring examples of your challenges in effort reporting and we will share some best practices for your scenarios as well as cover a few case studies that illustrate the challenges and possible solutions. You will leave with tools and insights to ease the pain of the effort reporting process.
|
Jason Porter
Anita Mills
Patricia McNulty
|
LL2 |
FREE: Stepping Stones to Becoming a Peer-Reviewed Journal Author
This Learning Lab is free of charge for SRAI members. Registration required.
This Learning Lab’s goal is to demonstrate how research administrators can develop scholarly articles that could be published by a professional journal. The presenters will cover topics such why research administrators should publish scholarly articles, barriers to publishing, incentives to publish, formatting of scholarly articles, choosing a topic, performing literature reviews, tips on writing productivity, and resources available to aid in the writing process. This Learning Lab is for research administrators at any level who aspire to author a manuscript for a peer reviewed journal that describes a professional activity that advances the conduct of research administration. Participants should bring a list of ways they have already contributed to the research administration field (e.g., through their area of expertise, through conference presentations, etc.) so that by the end of the session, they can envision how to build on those efforts to develop a peer reviewed journal article.
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Ira Goodman, Distinguished Faculty
Sandra Justice
Nathan Vanderford
Dhanonjoy Saha
Jennifer Taylor
|
WS23 |
Training Programs for the Non-Trainer: A Practical Guide to Developing Training with the Learner in Mind
How can you build a training program that not only meets organizational needs and ensures compliance, but also provides an opportunity for application and interaction in the classroom? What do learners need to truly engage in training and retain and apply content after they leave? In this half-day workshop, you’ll identify best practices for creating an effective training program that meets organizational and learner needs – and helps ensure compliance. Learn how to assess training needs, identify and implement appropriate training methods, develop content with the learner in mind, and evaluate outcomes. This interactive session will include case studies, small-group discussions, self-reflection, feedback on specific challenges participants face, and maybe even a game or two!
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Marley Thrasher
|
WS24 |
Proposal Budget Development: Building a Basic Grant Budget
Are you new to pre-award or do you feel overwhelmed when a PI contacts you for help developing a budget? Then let us help you not only understand the fundamentals of creating an effective budget for both federal and private grants, but also give you tips and tricks for creating time-saving templates. We will discuss effort and the considerations needed to account for the NIH salary cap, the benefits of a detailed travel budget, and calculating the correct F&A base. Additionally, translating the budget to the budget justification will be discussed.
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Matthew Anderson
Victoria Mothershed
Erin Bhagvat
|
WS25 |
Research Funding from Everything Except Extramural Grants. AKA: Diversifying Your Portfolio
We are so focused on large extramural grants, that we often overlook the other sources of research funding, including: philanthropy, foundation grants, research contracts and internal grants. This workshop follows the principal of diversifying your portfolio and looks at these other sources of research funding and the nuances of these opportunities. Participants will take closer looks at these other sources of funding and learn how to better position their institution to not put all their proverbial eggs in one basket. We’ll cover finding the funding, applying for, and managing these different pots of gold. We’ll also cover a variety of different internal funding mechanisms that could be started at your institution, if you don’t already have them.
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Kevin Titus, Distinguished Faculty
|
WS26 |
Uniform Guidance – Understanding the Basics and its Impact
The Uniform Guidance (UG) is one of the most important sets of regulations governing federally sponsored awards. Our organizations use the UG to set compliance standards and define our policies and procedures. Understanding these rules and regulations is vital to the success of any Research Administrator in performing their job and providing the support our Principal Investigators need to excel in their fields of study. This workshop will provide a detailed overview of the Uniform Guidance, including discussion of the administrative requirements applicable to grants and corporative agreements, the cost principles applicable to all awards and the audits that are required to ensure we are compliant with all of these rules. Storytelling, open dialog, and a few case studies will help make this seemingly dry topic come alive for the participants.
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Ann Holmes
Denise Clark
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WS27 |
9 Months Later: Experience of Living with the New Common Rule for Research Administration and Compliance Staff
After 8 years of waiting, in January 2019, the new Common Rule for Research With Human Subjects went into effect – we survived! Thus cementing a new environment for protection of human subjects in research. This session explores how the research community -especially research administration and compliance staff- implemented, lived with, and prospered within this new environment. Discussion will be focused on the changing landscape HRPPs face and how HRPPs adapted to these changes, focusing in on changed policies, procedures and processes. Panelists will discuss how their institutions responded to this changing landscape and invite attendees to share challenges, opportunities, missteps and successes.
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John Baumann
|
WS28 |
A "Big Bang" Approach to the Practice of Research Administration and Management
In the ever-changing face of research and its regulatory environment, where the unexpected, like government shutdowns and campus emergencies, is the norm, how can we prepare for the next hot topic? Supervisors are constantly challenged to motivate staff each day to deal with late proposals, rush negotiations and award setups, one-off invoicing for industry awards, but also to be prepared for the next crisis, like providing continuity of service during a weather event. How do you rally the troops to rise to the occasion by turning a dire situation into an opportunity to excel? We all know that the characters on The Big Bang Theory were not totally out of the realm of possibility. We have all dealt with a Sheldon Cooper.
The content of this workshop will span all of the areas of the practice of research administration including leadership development (delegation of responsibilities), research administration staffing and management (knowing how to mobilize emergency operations), research and faculty development (enabling PIs to be proactive), innovation and economic development (using data to predict impact downstream), and integrity and stewardship (strategic planning as a means of practicing good stewardship). This half-day workshop will utilize a case study based on challenges from the hit series, The Big Bang Theory. Come prepared to learn, laugh and lament.
All registered attendees may participate in this workshop. In order to receive credit for the PRAM certificate, attendees must complete this application and be accepted before the meeting.
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Marianne Woods
Cynthia Hope
Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Distinguished Faculty
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Monday, October 21
|
Session Code |
Session Title |
Speaker(s) |
10:30 AM - 10:50 AM
|
M100A |
Quick Talk on Career Stages: Pathway to Research Administration (PTRA) Internship Project: A Journey Through Steps to Build a More Robust RA Workforce
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
Pathway to Research Administration (PTRA) is an internship-to-career program focused on building a robust workforce to meet growing service demands and constant changes to Research Administration at UC Berkeley. The RA job is getting more challenging as it is a holistic position that requires a combination of technical skills breadth in institutional knowledge, and most importantly, core competencies. The program’s goal is to develop skills and knowledge, resulting in matriculating the interns into full-time Research Administrators (RA). As the RA workforce is gradually decreasing due to retirement and job market competition, it is important that this program is implemented to establish a pipeline for the RA workforce. This Quick Talk will focus on the problems of the shrinking RA workforce that UC Berkeley is facing and how this RA internship program came about as a case study.
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Artawood Chitamitara
David Wolf
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10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
|
LC1 |
The One Person Grants Office: Doing It All and Getting It Done
Working in a predominately undergraduate institute presents unique challenges to research administrators. Often, the research administrator is the only person on campus who understands the complexities of the grants world. Duties and responsibilities range from pre-award to close-out, with everything in-between. Managing the everyday workload can be overwhelming to even the most efficient person. This Learning Cafe will bring together research administrators who work in small grant offices to discuss how they manage to get everything done. Newcomers, as well as seasoned individuals, are welcome to share their ideas and gain helpful tips with others working in similar institutions.
|
Nancy Cruikshank
|
M101 |
What’s So Different about Research Management Leadership?
Research management leaders such as research office directors and managers, are often dealing with very brilliant people such as supreme scientists, physicians, academics with the highest level of degrees - which can be intimidating. Research managers are often influencing people over whom they have no direct line management and indeed, in some cases, where there is no culture of line management. At the same time, within their own institutions, research and its management is often seen as a secondary issue to the “real” administrative issues like finance, HR, estates, IT etc. Research managers must therefore be skilled advocates for research management with other senior administrators within their own organizations. To rise through the ranks (as many research managers do), and have an impact on both very intelligent researchers, and senior administrators, research managers must hone a very special skill set. It takes inner strength and confidence to rise to a level where top professionals will listen and learn.
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Mark Hochman, Distinguished Faculty
Debra Schaller-Demers, DistinguishedFaculty
Ian Carter, Distinguished Faculty
|
M102 |
Post Submission to Award Acceptance
The Central Pre-Award Office is responsible for dealing with a variety of issues that arise after proposal submission and lead to acceptance of the award. The pre-award administrator should be able to deal with Just in Time requests, Post Submission Materials requests, Non-standard terms and conditions, compliance, and special situations - such as faculty leaving, applications submitted to an incorrect FOA, change in consortia, budget revisions and missing sections. This session will discuss how to navigate these areas with both your sponsors and your faculty.
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Deborah Maloney
Katie Knight
|
M103 |
Working with and Understanding Industry/University Partnerships
This session will explore the challenges and benefits to industry/university partnerships. It will not only explore the challenges and differences but provide Research Administrators form both sides a better understanding of each other and how to get to the end goals quicker with that knowledge. Going beyond the basics, the presentation will also explore ways to reach further than just research to create campus wide impacts and long lasting benefits. By the end of the session, everyone will understand how to move things forward in our partnerships quicker, easier, and with less headaches for all.
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Alex Delavan
Marcos Garza
|
M104 |
If You Don't Know Where You are Going, You Will End Up Somewhere Else: How to Manage a Project When You Are Not a Project Manager
Are you thinking about a project or have you been required to spearhead a project in your department, school or institution, but lack formal project management experience? Are you unsure where to start, who to involve, and how to get your project off the ground? If you answered “yes" to any of these questions, then this session is for you. This “how-to” session will focus on identifying key areas of project management for research administrators who have little experience in project management. The session will also help participants identify the skills and tools needed to manage projects of all sizes.
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Tammeka Banks
Christine McClure
Erin Menzies
|
M105 |
Is a Shared Research Administration Model Right for You? Exploring a Collaborative, Creative, and Contemporary Approach to Research Administration
The purpose of this session is to share information with the Research Administration community (staff/managers) on how to identify the need for, and engage in the creation of a shared services model. Specifically, this session will describe the model implemented in the Duke University School of Medicine and discuss how university leaders identified the need for such a resource. It will also explain how this model was conceptualized, planned and executed, paying special attention to the drivers of success. This session will also highlight various challenges and successes during the early phase of implementation, and will elaborate on the current structure employed by Duke that has led to success. Special attention will be given to the critical task of recruiting and hiring candidates who are best suited to support this model.
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Chelsea Penumarthy
Dana Sanders
Deborah Martin
|
M106 |
Subrecipient Monitoring - The Basics
The session will review the requirements for subrecipient monitoring under OMB Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200. Topics under this session include: institutions policies on UG, risk assessment, risk mitigation, subrecipient monitoring, and more. This session will be interactive and encourages participants to share ideas from their respective institution.
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Regnier Jurado
Donna Kiley
|
M107 |
Effective Fiscal Management of Industry Clinical Trials
Effective fiscal management, and ensuring appropriate personnel effort is applied to clinical trial project accounts, is highly challenging. In this course, attendees will learn about Children's Hospital Los Angeles's experience to implement processes to better manage these accounts. Attendees will learn how to increase revenue through better invoicing practices to ensure all applicable invoiceable expenses are requested and collected, learn how to implement a residual funds policy, and learn how to perform a close out analysis to ensure all appropriate payroll is charged to the project.
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Karen Niemeier
Tigran Garoian
|
M108 |
Institutional Risk Assessment and the Review of Subject Injury Language for Clinical Trials
Reviewing and negotiating subject injury language in the clinical trial agreement (CTA) and ensuring its congruency in the informed consent form (ICF) can present challenges such as (1) determining the appropriate language for the situation and the negotiation of that language with the Sponsor, (2) assessing the institutional risk of acceptance of such language, as well as compliance with Institutional policies and guidelines, accreditation standards (i.e., Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), (4) and the Medicare Secondary Payer provisions. Virginia Commonwealth University has implemented a streamlined workflow process utilizing standard subject injury language templates and in conjunction with the OnCore clinical trial management system have developed task lists to document the subject injury language review process and ensure not only that the CTA and ICF are congruent but that it also occurs in a timely manner for submission to the Institutional Review Board. This process establishes a level of consistent communication between schools, study teams, OnCore management and the Office of Sponsored Programs highlighting the importance of collaboration and underscores the need for a clear understanding of how subject injury language impacts Institutional risk, study participants and compliance with applicable law.
|
Melanie Wiggins
|
M109 |
Research Integrity Investigations at the NSF Office of Inspector General
The Office of Inspector General, National Science Foundation (NSF), is responsible for investigating allegations of wrongdoing associated with NSF proposals and research. This includes allegations of fraud and violations of research integrity such as plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, violation of peer review confidentiality and human subject’s rules violations. This presentation will provide insights into recent cases as well as trends our office is seeing in matters that are being brought to our attention. We will also discuss ongoing special projects in our office.
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Rachael M. Allbritten
|
M110 |
Public Access Policy: Accelerating the Delivery of Tomorrow's Advancements
This session provides an overview of how grant-funded publications are managed to ensure an accurate and up-to-date list of publications (bibliography) that meets the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requirements for grant applications, progress reports, and public access. It also provides an overview of setting up My National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), My Bibliography, adding new publications, linking My NCBI account to an Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons account and grants. This will be a hands-on session. Please bring your laptop or electronic device to connect directly with My NCBI.
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Erin Bailey
Timothy Schailey
|
M111 |
Adventures in Podcasting - Where It's At: I've Got No Turntable and Two Microphones
In January 2017 I launched a monthly podcast at U of T Mississauga (UTM): VIEW to the U, An Eye on UTM Research. At its most basic level, the mission for this podcast is to cover UTM research and profile UTM researchers. Our office wanted to provide new and fresh content, with a bit of a departure from print but also something slightly less involved than video. The podcast genre has become an incredibly popular medium that can be accessed anywhere, and showcasing research and researchers in this way has the potential to attract students, trainees, and possible collaborators, it can keep alumni connected, as well as elicit outside attention from funders or media looking for a new story. Is a podcast project in your future? This session will speak to some of the surprises, snags and successes I've encountered along the way.
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Carla DeMarco
|
M112 |
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance
On December 26, 2013, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued final guidance on federal grants: 2 CFR 200. The new guidance - a sweeping consolidation of decades of OMB circulars, guidance, and the "common rule" on grants management - will replace ALL the current OMB Grant Circulars and will have a significant impact on how grants are awarded, administered and audited. This session will provide a brief history of the process used to develop the Uniform Guidance and will outline key changes put forth in the new Guidance that will impact your institution. Where possible, agency perspectives will be incorporated into this session.
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Gil Tran
|
M113 |
Introduction to Doing Proposals with National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA)
Thinking about doing a proposal to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and not sure where to start? We'll provide an overview of the objectives and organization of NASA that affects the types of funding supported. Then we’ll review some of the common submission requirements (plus some variations), and discuss some of the unique things you may come across if you are not familiar with NASA proposals or the NSPIRES system. We’ll also touch on some possible award acceptance and post award issues that might be beneficial to know about as you contemplate doing proposals with NASA.
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M Fran Stephens, Distinguished Faculty
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10:50 AM - 11:10 AM
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M100B |
Quick Talk on Career Stages: Research Administration - Evolution from Job to Profession
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
This Quick Talk will explore data gathered through the RAAAP and through CARA to shed some light on how we -research administration- got to where it is today. There is no doubt that there has been change to the role and importance of research administration, in particular over the last 20 years. Drawing from the data noted, as well as my own observations and experiences, I will look to have a conversation about the journey from 'job' to 'profession'. My hope is that those in attendance would share their own stories.
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Jennifer Shambrook, Distinguished Faculty
Cindy Kiel, Distinguished Faculty
Deborah Zornes
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11:10 AM - 11:30 AM
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M100C |
Quick Talk on Career Stages: Preparing for Promotion - Be Ready When Opportunity Knocks
Getting a promotion is a career achievement to be proud of. But often, the duties of the new position don’t match what you were doing in your old position. How, then, can you prepare for the next step in your career? What do you need to learn that is possibly beyond the scope of your current job that will allow you to be successful not only when applying for a new job but once you are the successful candidate. This Quick Talk will review these career development questions and more.
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Sally Gray
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1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
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LC2 |
Establishing and Managing Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) Chapters
Do you have SRAI Chapter pride? Do you know the close camaraderie that a Chapter can provide? Are you interested in learning how to build and effectively run a SRAI Chapter? During the summer 2018 board meeting, the Board of Directors responded to the membership’s request and established a new Chapter Council. What is the Chapter Council you ask? The Chapter Council is a dedicated group of research administration enthusiasts who have served as elected officers and know and love the camaraderie that chapter membership offers. The Council seeks to serve as a resource and sounding board. The Council is not an oversight body, rather it is simply a place to share ideas. Who should attend? The Chapter Council is open to current chapter officers, interested past chapter officers, those considering running for office, and also new chapter interest groups.
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Tim Linker, Distinguished Faculty
Lisa Walker
Angela Behrend
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M201 |
Gamification to Interview Candidates, Train Employees, and Build Effective Teams
In the high stress field of research administration, high employee turnover rates often result in frequent interviews, onboarding of new employees, and changes to team structure and function. Traditional techniques may not always identify the best candidates for the team or transition new hires into efficient and effective teams. Games and other interactive tasks provide a creative opportunity to identify best-fit candidates, train employees for new responsibilities, and build productive teams for high impact goals.
In this session, audience members will have the opportunity to volunteer for a team-based activity demonstrated live during the session.
Session Objectives:
- Consider ways to incorporate games and other scenarios into interview, training, and team-building procedures
- Assess the advantages and disadvantages of a live team-building example
Attendees will identify opportunities to improve candidate selection and team development and brainstorm additional ways to leverage scenario-based training to increase its value and impact.
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Julie Oestreich
Racheal Hendershot
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M202 |
Keep the Wheel Turning: Why Everyone Needs to be on the Same Page and How to Get Them There
Faculty, administrators, accountants and so many more rely on each other to keep the research wheel turning. When one spoke is out of place, it can create stress, irritation, missed opportunities and even mistakes. It is important that everyone make an effort to follow timelines, guidelines and policies, but that is easier said than done. This session will provide examples of the varied results of not following the rules, and how each situation could have been different. Additionally, the session will provide insight and suggestions on how to encourage those who may unintentionally create chaos and want to do things right, and how to effectively work with those that never will.
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Amy Cook
Emily Everette
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M203 |
"Grant Training for Dummies" - Working with Faculty on How to Successfully Submit a Proposal
This case-study will outline three successful techniques implemented by the presenter on working with both new and senior faculty members in the submission of grants. Case studies will cover the following three topics: (1) working with faculty affairs and departmental offices to gain face to face access to faculty who are often difficult to get in front of or reluctant to meet with the research office, (2) Creating an in-house grant writing workshop for faculty that ultimately leads to the submission of a grant, and (3) developing faculty-led training sessions where seasoned senior faculty at your institution present to junior faculty or faculty who have never submitted a proposal to a particular funding agency.
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Michael Marino
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M204 |
Innovative Ways to Establish Collaborative Partnerships with Industry
There is increasing pressure on all universities to increase the volume and depth of collaborations with industry. This can be challenging, especially where universities are in competition with each other. This case study will demonstrate how the University of East Anglia has taken a novel approach to increase collaborations both locally and nationally, and provide specific tools and techniques that can be applied in any setting. The case study is also underpinned by 3 theoretical frameworks drawn from the UK and US which will be evaluated, thus providing a basis for audience members to transfer the subject of the session to their own local environments. The session will address not just the work undertaken but also address what worked well and what didn't, how the approach can be developed further and the skillsets required for success. The delivery method will be a presentation with a Q and A afterwards. A similar presentation was given at a national UK conference and the candidness provided was welcomed by those in attendance. The 3 frameworks referred to above and which will be covered are: Tomas Coates Ulrichsen's Capabilities for Knowledge Exchange, UK, The Corporate Engagement Process from Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO) and the Partnership Continuum developed by Wayne C Johnson, Former VP for University Relations as Hewlett Packard (HP).
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Helen Lewis
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M205 |
Creating Vibrant Research Administration Teams, No Matter the Culture, Priorities and Personalities
Managing a research administration office can be a challenging but highly rewarding experience. No matter the size of your office, significant departmental efficiencies can be realized by developing a vibrant team of research administrators that enhance your organization’s goals and culture. Drawing upon their individual experiences, this session, led by seasoned research managers from the University of Michigan, will give insight into setting up a cohesive research administration office and how to hire the right team for the job at hand. Tips for setting team culture for your staff, discussions of unique ways of managing your team, and pitfalls experienced along the way, will be shared. Attendees will be encouraged to provide examples from their own experiences to enrich the discussion.
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Nicholas Prieur
Melissa Karby
Teresa Herrick
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M206 |
How to Drive Research with Data
Research metrics provide an invaluable and objective tool to measure the state of both research and research administration in real time at an institution. Over the last two years, Jodi Ogden, Vice President, Research Operations at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and her team developed a centralized, standardized and regular metrics reporting system to evaluate the output and effort of both research investigators and research administration team support. This concurrent session will go through the strategic developments put in place to optimize the management and production of research metrics as well as key benefits to a research administration department once a standardized metrics reporting system has been established.
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Laura Gatewood
Matt McPeck
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M207 |
How to Prepare for and Survive an Audit
The research administration regulatory environment continues to expand. Many research administrators are tasked with addressing internal audits, annual Single Audits, sponsor audits or "reviews", state audits and Office of Inspector General (OIG) audits. Join presenters from an R1 University ("highest research activity" rating) who recently survived a National Science Foundation (NSF) OIG audit. This session will evaluate trends in recent audits and analyze established processes that help the university to meet audit requirements. The discussion will also identify tips and tricks throughout the life of a research award that allow administrators to proactively prepare for an audit.
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Trudy Riley, Distinguished Faculty
Jennifer Camp
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M208 |
Post Award Administration for Departmental Administrators
This session will cover all aspects of Post-Award administration starting with the beginning of the Post-Award process, review of award notices and set up of the project within a departmental financial system through the end of the process, assisting the Research Finance Office with the analytics of the final financial report. The presenters will include Post-Award Directors from both an Institute of Higher Education and a Hospital, who will identify industry best practices. They will present valuable tips on how to control the grant activity and communicate essentials to both the Principal Investigator and the Central Finance Office.
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Suzanne Locke
Robert Cohen
Karen Renaud
Shacey Temperly
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M209 |
Impacts of the New Common Rule for International Research
New definitions, expanded exemptions, and changes of processing mechanisms embodied in the revised Common Rule, as promulgated in 2017, resonate with some of the needs in collaborative research conducted subject to and also beyond the scope of the regulations at 45 CFR 46. The Common Rule also offers a tested baseline for the ongoing development in foreign jurisdictions of standards for human subjects protection that meet expectations of dignity in local contexts, and make effective use of limited resources. This session is intended to cover some the new opportunities, challenges, and unresolved issues embodied in the Common Rule as revised.
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Robert McLaughlin
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M210 |
Navigating the Organizational Impact of Recent Changes in Federal Regulation & Policy
Despite all of the talk of deregulation, organizations are struggling to manage a seemingly endless stream of new and modified Federal rules, policies, and requirements. This presentation highlights recent regulatory and policy actions (e.g., revised Common Rule, Certificates of Confidentiality (CoC), clinical trials transparency, Genomic Data Sharing) and the impact on organizations’ oversight and management of research. While many responsibilities are being shifted away from federal agencies and local IRBs in an effort to streamline procedures and decrease investigator burden, organizations are facing increasing responsibilities without any corresponding increase in support. For example, federal policies for the automatic issuance of CoCs decrease burden on investigators and federal agencies associated with the application process and have the potential to streamline study start-up; but organizations are left with new responsibilities for determining when a CoC is in place, for internal controls, and for downstream notifications. Likewise, single IRB review is intended to ease burden and facilitate study start-up; but organizations now must negotiate and maintain compliance with the terms of multiple IRB reliance agreements, have mechanisms to track research and ensure compliance outside of the existent local IRB structure, and support external IRBs by providing local context information, auditing, etc. Attendees will be encouraged to share experiences and strategies.
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Karen Christianson
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M211 |
A Brief History of Human Research Protections and Ethics – from Nuremburg to St. Kitts
It is easy to become lost and burdened with regulations which were originally designed to protect us from repeating research abuses of the past. We can easily forget that history and why the system of research protections in place today exists in the form that it does. In this session we will take a tour through the history of research, the foundations of the Belmont Report, and explore the ethical underpinning of our research ethics review systems. We will also explore contemporary research ethics issues. For those new to research, a good history lesson goes a long way to a greater understanding of why the research oversight process exists and how it came to be structured the way it is.
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James E. Riddle
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M212 |
Data Here and There and Everywhere
Data concerns are at the heart of research whether it be how it’s obtained, collected, stored, analyzed, shared, or destroyed. Data informs the outcome of what researchers worked to solve. These data points can be critical elements that are sensitive or harmful when not protected in certain environments or situations. Many regulations and ethical considerations have to be considered when planning, conducting, and storing research information. This information may need to be shared according to regulations, contracts, grant requirements, or publishing guidelines. As responsible research administrators, it is important to understand that research participants trust us with this information when enrolling in research or coming to our institutions for their education or healthcare. Sometimes these individuals are not even aware information is used for research. Protection of this data is of utmost importance, not only for institutional compliance, but to be ethical and considerate of those that are contributing to research. We will review the regulations and ethical principles that impact research in a healthcare or educational setting as well as those issues that need to be considered when we share information between institutions or with private entities.
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Tonya K. Edvalson, Distinguished Faculty
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M213 |
NIH Grants Review Policy for Grants to Foreign Institutions, International Organizations, and Domestic Grants with Foreign Components
This session will review the NIH Grants Policy Statement Chapter 16 – Grants to Foreign Organizations, International Organizations, and Domestic Grants with Foreign Components and its requirements. This session will cover pre- and post award topics like application requirements, terms and conditions, payment process, post award management and closeout.
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Satadbi Raychowdhury
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M214 |
National Science Foundation -- Update
This session will cover new developments at NSF – programs, policies, people and budgets. NSF staff will provide a comprehensive review of what is new and developing at NSF. Learn about current and future NSF budgets, agency priorities, and involvement in electronic initiatives, including advances with proposal submission modernization and Research.gov. NSF staff will also discuss upcoming changes to the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG).
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Samantha Hunter
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3:00 PM - 3:20 PM
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M300A |
Quick Talk on Teamwork and Paperwork: Everything I Know about Being a Successful Research Administrator I Learned From My Mother
Mothers universally pass along life lessons to their children. As a child, we may interpret those messages as silly or bothersome (especially when she repeats them over and over); however, I discovered many of them have served me well as a research administrator. For example, my mother always insisted that I wear clean underwear. Come learn how that message and more are directly relevant to my life as a research administrator.
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Kim Carter, Distinguished Faculty
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3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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LC3 |
Team Building as Succession Planning at a PUI
In today’s mobile world of employment and the growing retirement of senior research administrators, it has become critical to look to the future and ensure continuation of necessary activities when Sponsored Programs loses an employee. PUI’s are especially hit hard since many offices are already lean in depth and number of personnel. This Learning Cafe will provide ideas and strategies that are helpful to ensuring services and oversight continue when vacancies of any level of staff occur. Come share your experiences and ideas of building a team environment within and beyond the OSP to ensure your institution can continue necessary activities to protect and support research.
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Pamela Whitlock, Distinguished Faculty
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M301 |
Make Your Own Grass Greener: Collaborative Activities between Offices of Research
This session will provide numerous examples of collaborative activities to support research development, as organized between academic offices of research in a particular geographical area. Representatives from four central and western New York universities will discuss their individual and combined efforts to organize and host multiple institutional activities that support, among other research-related efforts: institutional and faculty relationship building with funder, competitive application development, professional development for research administrators, and inter-institutional networking activities for faculty and research administrators. Participating panelists represent members of an informal but vibrant network of six graduate institutions, who are actively planning collaborative activities to enhance their individual and combined competitiveness in the sponsored research arena.
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Christina Leigh Docteur
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M302 |
University Administration Support Program: New Research and Education Activities One Year Later
The University Administration Support Program in Research Management supports the development of international fellows from Africa and Eurasia in the United States. Eligible applicants must be employed by a participating institution, participate in a 6 week fellowship in the United States, and be in a position in the home institution to influence research related programs and practices. Host institutions must provide working space and be willing to participate in regular interactions with the fellow. The goals, structure and process of participating in the program, from the fellow and the host perspective will be described. An overview of potential activities during the fellowship will be detailed, as well as benefits to participating in the program. New research and educational activities at the fellow’s institution will be presented as a case study example.
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Hryhoriy Dmytriv
Sara Myers
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M303 |
Getting an Award: It is More than Finding a Suitable Funding Opportunity
In the complexity of modern times, various factors such as fierce competition, stagnating or insufficient federal funding flow, stricter compliance requirements, global complexities, and greater organizational policy/accountability are making the grantsmanship process highly challenging. Finding a suitable Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is the first major stepping-stone towards developing and expanding scientific research. Getting an award demands much more investment, including effective strategizing, which must involve team building, and thorough planning. Our experience demonstrates that deficiency in knowledge of funding resources, and lack of clarity in planning, are making grant-application process quite difficult, especially for the early-stage investigators. Research administration can play a vital role in securing and broadening institutional research, by assisting faculty members and scholars in multiple ways: Helping to navigating the funding world; establishing the team; and drawing the grant road-map. In this session, we will discuss the details of these functions. We will primarily focus on the following aspects: (1) how identifying the right FOA can be a game-changer; (2) what should be the major points of considerations while developing the research team (e.g. advisor, collaborator, and/or co-mentor); and (3) and how to strategize for the next steps for receiving funding.
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Anindita Mukherjee
Dhanonjoy Saha
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M304 |
Framework for an Internal Grant Review Program
Obtaining NIH funding is difficult, especially for new and early stage investigators. Therefore, it is beneficial for applicants, as well as institutions, to have formal internal review programs. The Johns Hopkins Department of Neurology’s Internal Grant Review Program (IGRP) assists applicants in submitting the best possible application to the NIH, and has improved department funding rates. This session will examine the program at Johns Hopkins, and its framework will be used as the model for others to implement in their division, department, or institution.
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Cherie Marvel
Heather Thomas
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M305 |
Grants & Contracts Accounting for Pre-award Administrators
Post-award accounting begins with the proposal and contract negotiation stages of the award life cycle. Understanding aspects of pre-award and post-award builds a well-rounded research administrator. Join presenters to identify terms and conditions that have an impact on the post-award administration process. Describe how to prepare pre-award research administrators to identify circumstances that may have a financial implication. Know when to ask and who to ask even if they don't have the answer.
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Jennifer Camp
Jorge L. Vazquez
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M306 |
2018-19 OIG Awardee Audit Highlights
This session is a summary of recent audit findings from NSF, HHS, and other major federal agencies. The session will primarily focus on educational institution findings, but it is also important to know about some of the other major findings that have fiscal, criminal, and civil implications. We will talk about what led to these findings and how to prevent and manage the associated risk.
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Kris Rhodes, Distinguished Faculty
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M307 |
Conducting Research Across Borders: Issues in Research Administration and Compliance
While there are challenges to oversight of intranational research collaborations, they pale in comparison to those faced when participating in international research collaborations - including but not limited to those arising from different cultural, regulatory, and institutional contexts. But, then, so do the opportunities. This session is designed to explore the various challenges that institutions face when conducting collaborative international research. Panelists will address a variety of issues that may arise regarding international research how they have addressed them.
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John Baumann
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M308 |
SBIR/STTR: The Big Challenges with Small Businesses - A University Perspective
SBIR and STTR projects can provide valuable research and financial opportunities to the small business and the universities with whom they collaborate, but they but they also present a unique set of challenges. From Conflicts of Interest and Intellectual Property to Invoicing and Payment; these programs -which are designed to promote research- have a very real potential to hinder it. This session will highlight ways universities can address some of these challenges from the proposal phase through closeout and mitigate some of the risks they present. We will discuss the proposal process, the contract terms, flow down clauses, and various risk mitigation methods available.
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Timothy Gehret
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M309 |
Understanding Text Recycling, AKA "Self-Plagiarism": Findings from an NSF-Funded Study and Implications for RCR Training
Text recycling -often called “self-plagiarism"- is the reuse of material from one's previously disseminated work in a new text without quotation marks. While recycling between published papers appears to be common practice in some STEM fields, various types of recycling are common across the academic spectrum. Text recycling has become increasingly contentious over the past decade due to increased use of plagiarism detection software, marked variability in norms, and a lack of explicit guidelines. This talk begins with an overview of the ethical and practical challenges faced by authors, editors, and university administrators in relation to text recycling. In the second part, I presents findings to date from an NSF-funded, multi-institutional and interdisciplinary study of text recycling. These findings include (1) results from in-depth interviews with journal editors across the academic spectrum on their beliefs and practices regarding text recycling, (2) computational analysis of a corpus of published research papers to investigate actual quantity and patterns of recycling in STEM disciplines, and (3) analysis of relevant copyright law. I end with a discussion of implications for the training of new researchers.
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Cary Moskovitz
Susanne E. Hall
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M310 |
Keeping Up with ClinicalTrials.gov: A Systematic Approach in Maintaining Compliance
It is scientifically and ethically imperative for researchers to understand it is a key commitment to report the results of clinical trials to research participants, so the advanced knowledge can be utilized collectively to make informed medical decisions. This session will discuss the most recent federal mandates, pertinent requirements of clinical trials disclosure and good practice. The presenters will share the approach that Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, took to establish a robust, effective program for clinical trials registration and results reporting. Rutgers’ Human Subjects Protection Program (HSPP) has adopted a proactive plan to identify key issues and facilitate investigator to stay compliant within ClinicalTrials.gov records through the HSPP’s guidance, including a website and ongoing, customized trainings.
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Cheryl Forst
Niem-Tzu Chen
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M311 |
Leveraging Open Researcher and Contributer ID (ORCID) to Build Partnerships and Improve Research Evaluation
In this session we'll describe how the University of Rochester Libraries leveraged institutional interest in rankings, reputation management, and research evaluation to launch a successful Open Researcher and Contributer ID (ORCID) outreach project and integrate ORCID data into faculty annual reporting systems. We'll describe how we identified user gaps and needs, and how we made our initial pitch to campus leadership. We’ll also discuss our approach to gathering stakeholder support, our iterative project design process, and our methods for leveraging targeted assessment to improve user experience—on both the faculty side and the research administration side. We'll also discuss the opportunities and challenges of working with ORCID data, and the methods we developed to enrich those data and provide better insight into research activities. By the time the conference is held, we will be in the third year of this project, and will be able to offer additional insight on how to effectively scale-up ORCID adoption and discuss how we are using ORCID data to support even more research support initiatives.
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Lauren Di Monte
Nathan Sarr
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M312 |
The Nonprofit Funder - Research Institution Partnership (NFRI)
NFRI is a formal working group of representatives from nonprofit funders and research institutions that has come together to advance discussions on IP and technology transfer, reimbursement of operating costs, and streamlining administrative requirements. This session will provide a brief description of how the group was formed, its activities to-date, and its plans for moving the partnership forward.
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Cynthia Hope
Jackie Hausman
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M313 |
National Research Service Award (NRSA) Training Grants: How to Complete the Budget Forms
This session will provide participants an overview of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA), types of NRSA awards and the importance of requesting total tuition and fees versus requesting an amount arrived at by applying the NIH formula or requesting the NIH cap amount.
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Debbie Pettitt
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3:20 PM - 3:40 PM
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M300B |
Quick Talk on Teamwork and Paperwork: A Team-Based Approach to Doing More with Less
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
Mrs. Brown and Lavinghouse work in a cradle to grave office. Handling proposals, awards, and everything in-between proved challenging in terms of getting proposals submitted and awards set-up quickly. Taking advantage of a budget crunch which lead to a reduction in staff, Mrs. Brown and Lavinghouse pitched a redistribution of their work permitting each to focus on areas of the job to which each excelled. Rather than handling cradle to grave, Brown took the cradle and Lavinghouse took the grave. We will discuss how this approach has increased efficiency and effectiveness in processing proposals, awards and other transactions.
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Shoshana Lavinghouse
Jessie Brown
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3:40 PM - 4:00 PM
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M300C |
Quick Talk on Teamwork and Paperwork: Collecting and Managing Post-Submission Change Requests
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
In this Quick Talk, we will review a recently completed project at Northwestern University implementing a distributed submission for post-submission proposal/award change requests fully integrated with our existing research administration management system. We will discuss the risks and benefits associated with this project, change management for University staff, and project design/development.
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Roger Wood
Derek Kozlowski
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4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
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M401 |
Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want: Identifying Skill Sets for Career Advancement
Are you an administrator who is unsure about where to go next in your career? Do you feel as though you have no path forward in your profession? Well, research administration is a large, exciting field with a considerable number of career options. This session will help participants recognize the many skills developed as research administrators and provide ideas on how they can use the skills, expertise, and knowledge acquired in other capacities within the profession.
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Tammeka Banks
Christine McClure
Erin Menzies
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M402 |
Collaboration Between the Central Sponsored Programs Office and Department Contract and Grant Administrators
Effective interactions between the central Sponsored Programs office and department contract/grant administrators are essential as each plays a critical role in the research administration process at an institution. Both the central Sponsored Programs office and department staff, as well as researchers, have the same goal in mind – to receive funding in support of important research, education and public service projects. Recognizing this common goal and strengthening the collaborative relationship between the central Sponsored Programs office and department contract/grant administrators will not only make work more enjoyable for all involved, it will lead to more effective communications and, hopefully, adherence with University, campus and sponsor rules and regulations. This presentation will focus on identifying areas of commonality between the central office and department contract and grant staff, offering guidance on fostering collaborative relationships, creating networking opportunities, disseminating information, planning training programs and resolving issues that arise.
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Grace Liu
Kassie Obelleiro
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M403 |
Best Practices with Foundations: Strategies for Humanities and Social Sciences
How do we work with private foundations to fund faculty research in the humanities and social sciences? How can you help faculty members access foundations, and how do you know which projects will be a good fit? How can you maintain a strong relationship between the funder and your institution? Maureen Thompson-Siegel and Kelly Freidenfelds will share insights and best practices to guide your work with private foundations, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. We will tackle sticky issues, such as: (1) indirect cost recovery, (2) gift vs. grant (sponsored research), (3) risks of international research, (4) how sponsored research offices can best work with their university’s corporate and foundation relations offices (fundraising/development) to address these and other issues. By presenting several case studies, we will lay out suggested best practices, emphasizing a holistic and relationship-based approach. This will include: (1)How to develop a holistic relationship with a foundation funder, from initial interactions through the application process through reporting. (2)How to give faculty members holistic support that addresses both federal and private grants; how to provide the right assistance at each stage of the process, from the development of the proposal and budget to the spending on the grant to the final report (3) How to promote efficient interactions between your sponsored research and development offices
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Maureen Thompson-Siegel
Kelly Freidenfelds
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M404 |
Is Your Research Support Office Ready For the Future?
The role of universities and research in the world is changing. Universities will have to be much more open to society in general and industry in particular and consequently, researchers will need to work in different ways with industry, stakeholders and funders. Especially on the funding side we will see new types of projects and funding mechanisms and new forms of research delivery. In this new context, the role of the RSO will change. New technology/artificial intelligence/office robotics will automate and digitize many of the standard procedures we see today. The staff left in those offices will change from being reactive service providers to pro-active advisers. In this session, the first speaker will show you how he worked with 100 staff in a RSO in order to change culture towards being advisers and address all the inherent challenges in the relationship with the researchers. The second speaker will address the overall framework conditions for universities and research in a new, global reality with a focus on the challenges and use of new technology. Mission evolution will also be covered (link between research and industry, open science, citizen science, GDPR challenges, big data/use of data etc.).
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Ian Carter, Distinguished Faculty
John Westensee, Distinguished Faculty
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M405 |
Making New Stars Shine: Effective Onboarding and Training of New Employees
The cost of replacing employees can be expensive, not to mention the stress that being short-staffed brings to an organization’s existing staff. It is not only important for an organization to retain its talented employees, it is also essential for an organization to train and keep its new hires to reduce turnover. Recruitment is an investment and therefore, effective onboarding and training of new employees is vital to an organization’s success. In this session, the presenters will discuss the onboarding process of new hires at the central research administration level of two University of California campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA. Specifically, the presenters will provide an overview on how their institution onboard and train new hires through mentoring, classes and other professional development opportunities and how these programs help new employees develop job knowledge, transition into their new positions smoothly and become self-efficient. The presenter will also discuss the challenges that they face with the onboarding of new hires, especially with new generations of the workforce.
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Angela Ford
Jim Fong
Joyce So
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M406 |
Indirect Cost Rates – A Non-Profit Perspective
Almost every research institution must engage in the process of negotiating federal indirect rates. Non-profits face unique challenges under the Uniform Guidance in preparing, submitting and negotiating indirect rates. As we go through this process, many of us often wonder if we have done everything we can do within the constraints of federal regulations in order to maximize our institution’s negotiated indirect rate and resulting indirect cost recovery. In this session, we will discuss strategies that may be employed to maximize indirect cost recovery, both in the preparation of your indirect rate proposal as well as during the subsequent rate negotiation and budgeting of indirect costs on grants and contracts. Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences concerning the indirect rate process.
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Alex Weekes
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M407 |
Managing Salaries and Wages Charged to Sponsored Programs
One of the most frequent questions PI's ask Research Administrators is, “How much do I have left to spend on my grant?” Since salaries and wages represent more than 80% of expenditures on grant awards, reserving funds for salary commitments is the #1 item that must be addressed in order to correctly answer that question. Labor scheduling also drives: spending against budget, meeting salary cap requirements, effort reporting, cost share, salary encumbrances, and monthly reconciliation. Ready for some help? Come to this session and learn how to manage labor charges on grants like a pro and keep your institution, faculty, sponsors, and auditors happy.
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Angela Behrend
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M408 |
Research Misconduct: A Year in Review
This session will review the most significant developments in research misconduct over the past year including significant legal cases (qui tam actions, civil cases, criminal cases). It will also review ORI and NSF misconduct findings and trends noted, and significant journal retractions or corrections.
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Debbie Parrish
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M409 |
Confidentiality Agreements - The Basics
Confidentiality Agreements are often the first step in establishing a relationship with a pharmaceutical or biotech company for a research project. The company wants to ensure that any confidential or proprietary information that it discloses to an academic institution is kept confidential. It is critical that academic institutions understand the intent of the confidentiality agreement and negotiate terms that are clear, not overly broad and reasonable. This session will introduce basic information about negotiating confidentiality agreements, including what terms are appropriate and why, as well as instruction on how to effectively negotiate revisions in an efficient and professional manner.
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Karen Mullin
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M410 |
Addressing Concerns Regarding Foreign Influence on US Research: A Look at an Emerging Critical Issue
Institutions who never or seldom veer off the path of fundamental research are now being confronted with how to respond to inquiries from US agencies about foreign influence on US research. NIH revealed last summer that it was investigating twelve cases where NIH funded researchers had failed to disclose ties with foreign countries and what that influence might have for US funded research. Several institutions have received letters from NIH asking why those relationships were not disclosed. Recently it was disclosed that NSF was seeking guidance on addressing growing concerns that US developed intellectual property was being stolen or exploited by foreign countries. DoE has announced that it will be announcing guidance on defending against this threat which may include a policy that disqualifies researchers with those ties from receiving DoE funding. While the concerns are rooted in US competitiveness and maintaining our commercial advantage, these changes could have far-reaching implications for fundamental research. This session will update attendees on the current status of this issue, consider how to address this discussion with your faculty, and consider how to develop an institutional response for either a specific letter from an agency or the impending directives we can anticipate over the next few months.
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Patrick Schlesinger
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M411 |
Export Controls and Sanctions Compliance for Higher Education and Scientific Institutions
This session provides an overview of the fundamentals of export controls and sanctions for higher education and scientific institutions -from what export controls and sanctions are, to the mechanics of export controls and sanctions and how they come into play in the University community. Common challenges such as how to handle contracts with export controls and sanctions clauses to how to preserve the fundamental research exclusion will be discussed. Additionally, this session moves beyond the basics and provides instruction on how to prepare and obtain licenses from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
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Michelle Perrin-Steinberg
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M412 |
Part 1: Foundations of IACUC and Animal Activities in Research Administration
Poor communication between the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and members of sponsored programs, grants and contracts offices, and research administrative staff, can lead to missteps in adherence to regulations. In addition, when the responsibilities and scope of the IACUC are not well explained, known, or understood, the interpretation of necessary compliance holds can sound more like “Hi, my name is IACUC and I’ll be holding up your grant award today”.
IACUCs have defined regulatory requirements to which they are beholden and the administrative offices that support them must uphold the requirements. These federal and state regulations affect pre- and post-award activities, subcontracts, and other facets of research administration. Research Administrators are often caught in the middle of these “compliance holds”. In this first section of a two part session (refer to "Part 2: IACUC and Research Administration: why and when our paths cross and how to improve the journey”), the University of Michigan’s IACUC Office will provide the foundations of IACUCs and how IACUCs and animal activities overlap with Research Administration(ors).
Focusing on how regulations relate to research administration, we will first review cornerstone regulations, terminology, review processes, and required documents and assurances. Participants are encouraged to bring questions, scenario’s, quips, and concerns to the discussion. Our goal is to help Research Administrators navigate the IACUC and the processes related to grants and contracts, to reduce administrative burden, and to facilitate research administration by sharing foundational knowledge of IACUC regulations and processes, opening channels of communication, and helping us all asking the right questions at the right time. Participants will be able to describe the basic regulations governing animal research and identify when IACUC regulations affect research administration functions.
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Lauren Danridge
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M413 |
Using Data to Support Decision Making in Research Administration
This session will explore ways to use administrative data along with other data sources to answer questions that research administrators are often faced. Panelists come from diverse fields and have experience working in various capacities.There will be discussion of which data sources are available publicly, how to evaluate the best data source to understand a question and which metrics provide insight into what questions.
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Linda Galloway
Emily Rader
Hansa Magee
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M415 |
My Friend NOAA: Quick Introduction
A sometimes difficult to understand sponsor, who deserves a greater understanding by the research administration community. This session will cover National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as an organization, and provide helpful tips and tricks in proposal preparation and submission.
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Amber Hardie
Angela Cocchiarella
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Tuesday, October 22
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Session Code |
Session Title |
Speaker(s) |
8:00 AM - 8:45 AM
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Coffee Talks
Coffee Talks are informal networking and learning gathering facilitated by our Exhibitors to bring research administrators together around topics of interest.Join an SRAI-Coffee Talk to hear best practices and exchange ideas with your peers. We will provide the coffee! Participants are eligible to receive 45 minutes of Continuing Education Credit.
Meet the SRAI President
Continental 7
Ever have a suggestion on what SRAI should be doing, but don’t’ know who to tell? Have a question, but don’t know who to ask? Swing by the SRA Coffee Talks and get the inside scoop from the SRAI President. She will share her experiences, answer your questions and looks forward to the discussion.
The Value of Research Administrator Certification-What it can mean to you by RACC
Golden Gate 2
Obtaining certification means that an individual has met the eligibility requirements of the Research Administrators Certification Council(RACC) and has demonstrated achievement of an advanced level of knowledge and understanding of the principles, concepts, and regulations for administering research.
Challenges of Enforcing Internal Deadlines by Cayuse
Golden Gate 4-5
Join the Cayuse team of recent research administrators turned Solution Consultants, as we engage fellow RA's in a conversation on the challenges of enforcing internal deadlines. Bring your best practices and worst woes as we facilitate this thought provoking discussion. Hear real world examples of how to improve communication and deadline compliance. We’ll even take notes to keep the talk (and coffee) flowing!
Plan S, NIH and Open Access impacts on the Research landscape by Ex Libris Pivot and Research Professional
Golden Gate 6-7
How new funder requirements to publish in Open Access journals and data repositories may impact those who work in the world of research. Join Eddie Neuwirth, Sr. Director of Product Management, Ex Libris as he shares insights from Research Professional News’ coverage of plan S and leads discussion on what Research Administrators should be thinking about when it comes to a rising tide of funder open access requirements.
Federal Funding for Research, Regulations, and Oversight + Developments re: Foreign Influence in Research by Streamlyne
Golden Gate 8
Sara Bible, Associate Vice Provost for Research, Stanford University, and Board Chair of COGR, will respond to questions posed by Randy Ozden, President and CEO of Streamlyne, to explore the 2019-2020 outlook for Institutions of Higher Education and Research Institutions regarding federal funding for research, regulations, and oversight. There will be special emphasis on recent developments regarding foreign influence in research.
Purchasing Software in an Institutional Environment by infoReady
Golden Gate 3
Sometimes the most challenging part of buying a software solution can be navigating the procurement process, especially in an institutional environment. During this session, we’ll cover some tips, tricks and strategies to to help you move a software purchase through the approval and procurement process.
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9:00 AM - 9:20 AM
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T100A |
Quick Talk on Digital Solutions: Sharing the Pain and Pleasures of Introducing a Digital Solution to Research Proposal Development and Award Management - A Case Study from the UK
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
This Quick Talk will discuss what we have been working on over the last 48 months: delivering an electronic environment with an intuitive and adaptable interface that supports an improved research applications and grants process. The University of Bath is firmly established as a top ten UK university with a reputation for research and teaching excellence. Key to meeting our ambitions is continued investment in our research base, not only in terms of our academic environment but also in relation to delivering effective and efficient support from professional services such as Research and Innovation Services (RIS). The tasks RIS undertake for management of grant applications and successful awards, such as accurate costings, ethics approvals, monitoring of expenditure etc. are business critical. However, the ways we undertake these tasks has not kept up with modern methods, being heavily paper based, burdensome and not joined up. In May 2014 senior management at the University of Bath approved a project to implement a new electronic grants and awards process with a budget of £400K. The anticipated return on investment was £94500 per annum in efficiency savings to be deployed to better support academic staff and meet increasing demand. We will share our “warts and all” experiences of delivering a step change in a core process to our academic community. We will reflect on what we have learnt and share our evaluation of the cashable and non-cashable benefits we are beginning to realise.
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Elizabeth Hope-Dyer
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9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
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LC5 |
Measure What Matters: Using Data Effectively to Manage Subawards and Subrecipient Monitoring
Measure what matters! Join us for a lively discussion about using data to measure and improve processes related to subaward management and subrecipient monitoring. Topics will include capturing and reporting on data, identifying trends and process improvements, and interacting with the Federal Demonstration Partnership Clearinghouse as well as other sources of information. Schools will share information about how they are mitigating risk, improving cycle times, and increasing transparency for their investigators and administrators. By the end of the session, attendees will walk away with very practical applications to use at their institutions for accessing, sharing, and using data more effectively.
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Sally Egloff
Whit Baird
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T101 |
Transitioning from Functional Expert (Doing) to Leader (Overseeing Staff)
Congratulations, you have been promoted! You are now responsible for developing the strategy and overseeing staff to meet operational and fiscal goals. How do you transition from being a functional expert, responsible for one part of research administration activity, into a generalist overseeing multiple parts of the research administration enterprise? Are you being asked to discontinue activities for which you are an expert and/or engage in duties that are new? These and many other questions will be addressed in this session. Come prepared to listen to best practices, share experiences, and discover how others have grown into leaders.
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Kortnay Woods
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T102 |
Bringing the Budget into Focus with Proactive Planning
Oftentimes as research administrators we are approached by project directors at the eleventh hour to magically develop a budget when the planning and narrative are well underway. The budget should not be an afterthought but a driver to the planning process. Getting an invitation to early planning sessions provides invaluable insight into the project objectives and results in compliant budgets and higher quality proposals. It also helps project directors avoid the pitfall of over promising objectives and deliverables which may not be realistically supported within meager budget constraints. Having a place at the planning table allows research administrators to share their expertise in a proactive way and to ask questions to help faculty properly resource their projects. Building these relationships also leads to a culture of collaboration rather than perception of research administrators as obstacles or gatekeepers.
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Tamara Hatch
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T103 |
Sponsored Programs and Research Outreach at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions to Support Faculty Success: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
Faculty at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions face many competing demands for tenure and promotion including heavy teaching loads, student advising, scholarship and research, and campus engagement. Junior faculty often come to the institution with passion for their discipline/areas of interest but have varying degrees of exposure to research while senior or tenured faculty find themselves fighting to be competitive within the context of changing federal regulations and diverse learning platforms. Increasingly, the Research Administration and Sponsored Programs office has become a resource to assist faculty and foster success with grants and research. This presentation will offer perspective of outreach successes and failures from both a grants and IRB perspective and identify specific mechanisms for engaging faculty and promoting the mission of teaching institutions. Through our own admission, some initiatives led to faculty success and admiration (online systems, targeted outreach), while others, despite our best efforts, fell flat and created learned lessons for future strategies.
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Megan Williams
Mary Mader
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T104 |
Pre-Award Decisions that Impact Post Award
This session will provide participants a deep dive into the key decisions of pre-award that impact post award. The session will focus on the importance of defining allowability, allocability, and reasonableness at the budget development stage. It will also focus on the importance of award setup and the interface between pre and post award that impact the institution and individual awards.
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Trudy Riley, Distinguished Faculty
Marcos Garza
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T105 |
Research Operations Outside of the Central Office
The Departmental research office is unique from the multiple central offices in research administration in that it is the operational and compliance hub for the Principal Investigators (PIs). Research operations requires one to "know the environment" and have unique perspectives regarding how best to provide essential services but also implement improvements to assure a rich and thorough research environment for the ultimate customer the PIs, in administering research. When the PIs can work in an environment with ideal research support the entire system of research benefits. This session is about amassing departmentally centralized research resources and the steps an improved, if not ideal, research operations. The approach is simple – 1. Identify the services and resources needed – we will review a long list of research resources for the PIs and how to centralize (departmentally) 2. Refine staffing and processes involving those resources, and 3. Methods and tools to effectively communicate and interface with PIs/faculty
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Amy Sikalis, Distinguished Faculty
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T106 |
Best Practices for Contracts and Grants Administration Working with Departmental Administration
There is a definite need to reinforce research administration through both organizational and human resource development. Human Resource Development (HRD) is the applied processes used to improve workplace performance and individual learning in organizations with a systems focus. Human resource development is a central function in virtually any type of organization, including for-profit and non-profit organizations as well as public and educational institutions. This session will aim to assist administrators from the departmental level as well as the central office level in operating as a team instead of opposing contenders. It will also utilize case studies and activities to provide an understanding of institutional success and failure.
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Anthony Edmondson
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T107 |
Understanding the Term "Source Documentation", AKA The Root of Solidifying Internal Controls
The world of research administration is constantly evolving and technology plays an important role in the evolution. The fairly recent audit approach called "Data Analytics" requires we take a deeper dive into our internal policies, procedures, processes, controls and systems of record to establish what is adequate "source documentation" for the various transactions we review and approve. Does your signature constitute your confirmation that your institution has adequate internal controls in place? Where have we come from, and where are we headed? This session will look at the importance of establishing, implementing and assessing your internal controls as they relate to the transactional level detail and philosophical approaches to meeting the reasonableness, allowability and allocability tests, as well as research administration as a whole. Internal controls, who is in control and what are the ramifications for lack of control? Come explore these issues with us!
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Denise Clark
Ann Holmes
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T108 |
Intricacies in International Subcontracting
As the work of the research administrator has become more global, so has the challenges facing them in the realm of international collaborations. In particular, working with entities in developing nations can present unusual situations that stretch one's problem solving skills in new and creative directions. This session will present real-life situations and problems that were presented to research administrators, coupled with a discussion of practical solutions.
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Maryellen O'Brien
John Sites
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T109 |
Confidentiality Agreements - Beyond the Basics
This session will discuss provisions often found in confidentiality agreements that are more complex and can be more problematic than the basic provisions. The speakers will discuss (1) terms such as "required by law" and the implications for open records/FOIA statutes and discovery, (2) implications of injunctive relief, requirements for bond and ex-parte proceedings, (3) issues involving who signs - individual vs. institution, (4) governing law and jurisdiction, and (5) why it matters what type of information is being protected and included within the definition of the confidential information being shared.
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David King, Distinguished Faculty
Karen Mullin
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T110 |
Confronting Conflicts: Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Interest in Research
The emergence of new and more intense conflicts of interest and commitment are a direct consequence of the entrepreneur university or hospital. Offices of research administration and compliance are left with the responsibility of identifying and managing them. In this session, panelists will identify and discuss strategies for fulfilling these responsibilities.
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John Baumann
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T111 |
Research Misconduct: A Global Concern
Research integrity and compliance issues are rarely simply a matter of right vs. wrong. Often there are subtleties of dubious practices that can mar a scientific project, a career, and an institution. Factor in global collaborators with different policies, guidelines, expectations, and/or accepted practices, and the situation becomes even more complicated and difficult to mitigate. This session will look at case studies that involve multiple collaborators across the world to see how differences in research integrity perspectives influenced investigational procedures and outcomes.
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Debra Schaller-Demers, DistinguishedFaculty
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T112 |
Knowledge Exchange, Economic Development, Societal Impact: Can They be Reasonably Measured?
Research organisations are increasingly expected to contribute to societal benefit from their research. This can take place in myriad ways, through multiple pathways and over long timescales of gestation and diffusion. Is it possible for research organisations to measure, practically, the socio-economic effects of their research? What are the realistic ways that an individual organisation might go about this? This session will draw on the experience of UK and Australian national assessments and explore the problem of measuring knowledge exchange. The session will provide some suggestions about what to do and what not to do.
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Mark Hochman, Distinguished Faculty
Ian Carter, Distinguished Faculty
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T113 |
Ensuring Research Evaluation is Meaningful, Responsible and Effective: Introducing the Work of the INORMS Research Evaluation Working Group
Research organizations are increasingly reliant on evaluating the quality and impact of their research activities to attract investment and justify research spending. The INORMS Research Evaluation Working Group is an international team collaborating to developing resources that can be used to support best practice in the evaluation of research. The session will address areas senior managers should consider during the evaluation process and provide tools to help assist in this process. Additionally, the team has been considering the impact that university rankings have on organizations and what characteristics should university rankings possess in order to responsibly assess the value that universities offer. This session will provide an overview of the work that has been done to date and collect feedback from participants to inform next steps in the process.
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Elizabeth Gadd
Baron Wolf
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T114 |
A Primer on Preparing Proposals for NSF
Designed specifically for research administrators, this session will cover the policies and procedures you need to be aware of when preparing a proposal for submission to NSF. This includes knowing how to navigate the various types of funding opportunities that NSF uses to receive proposals as well as the types of proposals that you may submit – they’re not all the same and don’t have the same requirements. You’ll also learn about the policies and procedures behind all of the required components of an NSF proposal.
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Samantha Hunter
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9:20 AM - 9:40 AM
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T100B |
Quick Talk on Digital Solutions: Journey of Developing and Implementing the First, Online Data Repository System for Research Administration in a Developing Country
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
In most of the developing countries, the field of research administration and grants management is still at the infancy stage. There are hardly any research organizations/universities which have appropriate infrastructure to support the research administration requirements of various funding agencies, one of which is to have a robust online, data repository system. Taking this as an opportunity, we developed the first online data repository system for the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and named it as the System for Research and Grants Management (Sa Re Ga Ma). This initiative has enabled us to not only be more compliant but also more convenient in terms of providing online access to researchers, research administrators, and university central offices.
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Salima Fareed Panjwani
Sana Akber Ali Pirani
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9:40 AM - 10:00 AM
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T100C |
Quick Talk on Digital Solutions: Development of the Electronic Research Administration (eRA) System for the University of Ibadan (DeRA-UI): Lessons Learnt
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
The academic research environment has undergone - and is still undergoing - significant changes that affect every university’s research enterprise. Among these are changes in the level of funding available, especially from federal sponsors, in the percentage of awards given, in the proposal submission process, and in the number and extent of federal regulations across all areas of research compliance. Attempting to manage such extensive changes with a paper-based research administration system is becoming increasingly cumbersome, not to mention the time it consumes. Keeping pace with these changes requires a different approach i.e. one that fully integrates and streamlines the many tasks involved in preparing and submitting proposals and in tracking compliance with federal regulations. A comprehensive eRA is a major step towards enhancing the ever-expanding responsibilities of the research office and ensuring the sustainability of the research services offered to the research community by the such office. The eRA solution could also be made adaptable for other institutions.
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Olumuyiwa Desmennu
Adeola Oladeji
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10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
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LC6 |
Distinguished Faculty Roundtable
Thinking of applying to become a member of SRAI's Distinguished Faculty? Attend this open forum Learning Cafe and learn about the application process and criteria used to evaluate and select SRAI's Distinguished Faculty . Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and interact with active Distinguished Faculty members.
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Andrea Deaton, Distinguished Faculty
Marjorie Piechowski, Distinguished Faculty
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T201 |
The Contemporary Clinical Research Coordinator Career Path: An Evolution of Professional Development
This session will provide an in-depth perspective of training and educational approaches for Clinical Research Coordinators (CRC) which advance their future professional growth and leadership potential in research administration and management. In response to the changing landscape of clinical research and increasing complexity of trials, the role of the CRC has advanced to include more specialized functions. Given these trends, the core competencies of the profession have advanced such that the spectrum of research activities managed by CRCs has necessitated a broad range of technical, managerial, ethical and regulatory expertise. The significance of innovative training is critical to providing CRCs the skills and knowledge to responsibly conduct clinical research. Training and continuing education for CRCs must proceed to advance in response to supporting professional growth, workforce and career development and their future as research administrators.
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Madeleine Williams
Philip Cola, Distinguished Faculty
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T202 |
The Virtuosity of Delegation: Whose Task is It?
Have you ever caught yourself saying one of the following when considering delegating a task? "It will be faster if I do it myself." "I'm not sure this will get done correctly if I don't do it myself." "I really like doing this, so I'll do it myself." "I don't like to ask." If so, THIS session is for you. Participants will learn more about why, what, when and to whom to delegate. This session is intended for managers and supervisors.
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Sheila McMillan
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T203 |
Using Metrics to Assess Staff Workload and Build a Career Ladder to Support Staff Success
Hiring and retaining research administrators is an increasing challenge in today's environment. Frustrated with rapid turnover of staff and struggles to hire qualified staff resulted in a cooperative initiative by research administration Directors at Penn State to resolve these problems. Through the organization of metrics and a multi-college coalition building approach they built a career ladder that supports employee development and success, while improving retention of staff.
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Maryellen OBrien
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T204 |
Resolving Mysteries as a Research Administrator
Aren't there a myriad of issues that come up in your daily life as a Research Administrator? Let's discuss some interesting cases(Cost Share Shenanigans, Email Black Holes, the Kidnapped Collaborator, etc.), how they were handled, lessons learned, and look at some overall root causes of recurring problems. Bring your own forensic or X-File story to share! We hope to have some fun, provide food for thought, and have you leave with some new tools or ideas in solving and preventing sponsored projects problems.
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Gloria Greene
M Fran Stephens, Distinguished Faculty
Gina Hedberg
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T205 |
Diving Into System Implementation While Still Keeping Your Sponsored Project Operations Afloat
We will navigate the ever-changing landscape of research administration and the technological advances that impact our operations. Part of the reality includes system upgrades and implementation of new software, which impacts daily operations, business processes, workload and turnaround time, all of which need to be addressed and planned for proactively. We will identify challenges and pitfalls of system implementation in order to develop a wholesome implementation plan, and evaluate the impact on existing business processes in order to effectively communicate challenges to leadership and customers alike. We will describe one implementation that went wrong and how considering resources, including monetary and time constraints, impacted the implementation of a university-wide software application for sponsored program administration, inclusive of pre-award, post-award and financial administration. Using this example as a discussion point, we will address how utilizing parallel or phased implementation strategies are more cost effective, as opposed to the direct approach. We will discuss utilizing available resources including staff, to navigate the demands of the job and the need for functional analysts and focus groups comprised of subject matter experts that consider all aspects of step-by-step system workflow and use. We will identify the need for collaboration among user groups, interfacing with central and college level administrators and communicating effectively.
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Javeria Kazi
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T206 |
Developing Large-Scale, Collaborative Grants
Large-Scale, Collaborative applications are beasts! In this session, we will discuss strategies to identify the team and will use decision design thinking to creatively solve the challenges that arise when teams get together. Team science is the "new" normal - you will leave this session with an understanding of your role on the team and have skills to develop improved teams.
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Julie Benson
Pips Veazey
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T207 |
Service Centers: Best Practices to Ensure Compliance and Effectively Monitor Activity
This Service Center session will cover examples of structured service center administrative and compliance programs. The session will begin with the importance of creating such a program and associated compliance related issues. The key components of a program will then be identified. General discussions will be based upon the topics of Service Center policies and procedures. Roles and responsibilities will be covered for all related parties. Ownership of the program and decision making authority will be discussed in an effort to cover all key components of a Service Center administrative and compliance program.
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Karen Renaud
Robert Cohen
Suzanne Locke
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T208 |
Complex International Budgeting and Accounting Including Subawards and Home Office Overseas: USAID Based Project Example
This session focuses on international sponsored program collaboration, primarily during the planning and budgeting phases which later impact post-award management. Various challenges associated with pre- and post-award administration are presented that are unique to an international collaboration. Presenters will provide insight into federal requirements and collaborators’ needs based on a simulated United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project. Some of the costs discussed are key personnel allowances, insurance, travel, subawards, consultants, and in-country (overseas) offices. Presenters will conduct an overview of an international budget with cost categories characteristic to a USAID overseas based project, utilizing creative resources available at Michigan State University in connection with international collaboration: international budget checklists, subaward checklist, training videos for international collaborators and glossary of terms for international budget.
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Diane Cox
Julia Miszkiewicz
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T209 |
Medicare, Clinical Trials and You
The session will provide an overview and the intent of the Medicare/ Medicaid programs and the principles of coverage and how it can impact research. It will also address the rules and regulations surrounding non-compliance. Additionally, it will address Medicare's clinical trial policy and the challenges/ opportunities it encompasses with coverage and payment for clinical trials. The session will also address Medicare's secondary payor rule as it relates to coverage and payment for subject injury (Sponsor obligations under section 111 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 "MMSEA") and ClinicalTrials.gov. The session will address subjects' financial obligations (21 CFR 50.25: informed consent) and relevant contract language for clinical trial agreements. This topic is relevant as Medicare beneficiaries participate in clinical trials and if the rules are not addressed an institution can be financially impacted. It is key for individuals to understand the basic concepts of Medicare and coverage of clinical trials and the issues associated with non-compliance. Additionally, clinical trial agreements and budgets also can be impacted by Medicare and can provide additional challenges to the conduct of clinical trial research. Overall, this session will provide an awareness of this topic with the intent the participants will further explore this area as it relates to their practice.
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Lisa Pitler
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T210 |
Patents and IP Protection: Why They Matter to Us
NIH will spend $37 billion this year on research and development and Congress is looking for a return on investment. Innovation and new company development are engines for economic growth. Patents are a fundamental part of innovation and the commercialization of new technologies. Bayh Dole and other relevant treaties and legislation will be reviewed within an overview of the patent prosecution process. Technology development and commercialization will provide the context for this overview as patents and IP affect how research outcomes are made available to the public.
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David King, Distinguished Faculty
Debbie Parrish
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T211 |
Export Control Basics for Research Administrators
This presentation will discuss what export controls are, why they are important, which federal agencies have authority over them, what activities are export controlled, how Universities can protect themselves, and when to escalate a situation to your export control officer. We will give details on what to look for in research that could be problematic and triggers for export control regulations in contracts and agreements.
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Alaisha Hellman
Jessica Trask
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T212 |
Part 2: IACUC and Research Administration - Why and When Our Paths Cross and How to Improve the Journey
Ever wonder why the IACUC holds up an award release? Curious about why an IACUC protocol is needed and how it affects a subcontract? Frustrated by grant congruencies? Unsure what an MOU is and why they are needed? Poor communication between the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and members of sponsored programs, grants and contracts offices, and research administrative staff, can lead to missteps in adherence to regulations. In addition, when the responsibilities and scope of the IACUC are not well explained, known, or understood, the interpretation of necessary compliance holds can sound more like “Hi, my name is IACUC and I’ll be holding up your grant award today”.
IACUCs have defined regulatory requirements to which they are beholden and the administrative offices that support them must uphold the requirements. These federal and state regulations affect pre- and post-award activities, subcontracts, and other facets of research administration. Research Administrators are often caught in the middle of these “compliance holds”. In this second section of a two part session (refer to “Part 1: Foundations of IACUC and Animal Activities in Research Administration”), the University of Michigan’s IACUC Office will briefly review the regulations, terminology, and review processes of “IACUCs”, and then take an in-depth look into the ways in which IACUC rules and regulations interact with, and affect pre- and post-award activates.
Participants are encouraged to bring questions, scenario’s, quips, and concerns to the discussion. Our goal is to help Research Administrators navigate the IACUC and the processes related to grants and contracts, to reduce administrative burden, and to facilitate research administration by sharing foundational knowledge of IACUC regulations and processes, opening channels of communication, and helping us all asking the right questions at the right time. Participants will be able to identify when IACUC regulations affect research administration functions and analyze when IACUC involvement is, or may be needed.
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Lauren Danridge
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T213 |
Enhancing and Amplifying Research at NC State University through Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID): A Case Study
In late 2018 the Libraries and the Office of Research & Innovation at NC State University partnered to leverage an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) institutional membership for the campus. ORCID provides free persistent digital identifiers, through which they can track grant submissions and publishable works, and with an institutional membership, universities such as NC State are able to track and integrate ORCID data into other systems such as faculty reporting systems and electronic research administration systems. Although the Libraries had already undertaken a project to use ORCID as the data source for our NC State Publications Inventory, the institutional membership enhanced the project outcome, and allowed us to explore additional services around reporting, tracking, and assessment of research funding and outputs. Since publishers and funders are increasingly integrating ORCID into their workflows and systems, we anticipate that the service possibilities and value to researchers will only continue to increase. This session will focus on our work to date leveraging ORCID for research support services. We’ll also share some of our strategies for increasing awareness and adoption of ORCID, lessons learned along the way, and our future plans.
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Jason Ronallo
Mira Waller
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T214 |
Houston, This National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant Is in Trouble
Can you identify the telltale signs of a grant with problems? What do you do when you see them? Reprising a popular 2018 session, National Institute of Health (NIH) staff are back with new case studies in this interactive session that both illustrates warning signs with research grants in trouble and suggests solutions to correct -or at least mitigate- problems as early as possible. The two presenters will describe 10-12 case studies. By using an interactive style of presentation,rather than the presenters just "giving" opinions, the knowledge and experience of the audience will be used to further flesh out and react to the situations as the presenters guide the audience to possible solutions.
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Rebecca Claycamp, Distinguished Faculty
Deanna Ingersoll
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T215 |
Negotiating Foundation and Non-Profit Awards: Not So Easy Anymore!
This session will highlight and discuss troublesome terms that are seen in awards/agreements from foundations and other non-profit sponsors as well as present strategies for negotiation. Issues for discussion will include royalty/revenue sharing, commercialization policies, intellectual property, and data rights.
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Thomas Burns
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1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
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LC7 |
Part II: Building Metrics to Assess Staff Workload and a Career Ladder to Support Staff Success
This Learning Cafe is a follow-up to the session "Using Metrics to Assess Staff Workload, Building a Career Ladder to Support Staff Success". Detailed discussion will focus on the specific measures collected to support the initiative, continued improvement of the process and project and the collection of outcome measures. Discussion will include detailed conversation related to outreach efforts, reducing "siloed thinking", and identifying and overcoming obstacles to progress. Current status and future plans will also be touched on during the discussion.
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Maryellen OBrien
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T301 |
How to Overcome Your Fears and Use Storytelling Techniques to Gain Confidence and Institutional Buy-in
Overcoming fear is a universal skill that can help individuals gain confidence. This session will discuss techniques for recognizing and dealing with the “fear response”. Presenters will discuss how they have overcome fear and used storytelling techniques to persuade and gain buyin for strategic initiatives.
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Anita Mills
Sikirat Tijani
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T302 |
Gender and Diversity Issues in Research Management
Join us for an up close and personal panel discussion about issues we face achieving success in research management. Does gender matter? Does our institutional culture matter? What is our unconscious biases and how do we learn to recognize and deal with them? We will focus on how this matters and how do they impact success. Whether the ceiling is glass or concrete, can it be broken? The discussion will be informative and interactive, as we share our stories and explore the barriers to success together.
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Kathryn Watkins, Distinguished Faculty
Maureen Thompson-Siegel
Gloria Greene
Annedorte Vad
Devin Kreuger
Tolise Dailey
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T303 |
Implementing a Strategic Plan to Accelerate Outcomes: An Organization Case-Study
Your organization has undertaken a strategic planning process that allows the team to rethink how it conducts its business. Out of that process, an actionable 5-year roadmap has been put into place with limited time to show a meaningful impact on the field. How can research managers and administrators influence and participate in this plan, ensure its effective implementation, and ongoing monitoring? This session will focus on a case study of how the California Institute Regenerative Medicine -tasked with operationalizing a strategic plan to accelerate scientific outcomes- leveraged its grantmaking processes to align funding with scientific outcomes, eliminated non-value adding steps, streamlined reporting, developed pre-award processes to fast-track the time to contract execution, and created a system to measure it all. In this session we will share our experience transitioning from a traditionally siloed function to an integral part of the entire team. Yes—a government agency can be more efficient!
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Jennifer Mielnicki Lewis
Doug Kearney
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T304 |
Finding and Applying to Funding Opportunities For and With For-Profit Industry Entities
The session will focus on grant proposal/project development for non-clinical industry sponsored research. We will focus on understanding the solicitation, common elements of teaming agreements, and the applicable regulations. We will also discuss the funding opportunities in For-Profit research. This will include federal opportunities that commercial researchers can pursue and partnerships with Universities (SBIR/STTR). The participants will walk away with an understanding of the process and opportunities in pursuing commercial research.
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Alex Delavan
Marcos Garza
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T305 |
Turning Over Every Rock - Strategic Approach to Secure Research Funding
For this session, we will explore strategies to grow and strengthen the research enterprise. The discussion topics include how to obtain more funding from federal and non-federal sponsors, how to establish support structures for junior faculty in securing funding, and how to leverage resources to aid in the grant writing process. Additionally, we will describe best practices used to identify funding opportunities and streamline the proposal development process.
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Matthew Faris
Craig Cassidy
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T306 |
Behind the Curtain of Research Compliance: A Backstage Look at the Oversight and Management of Regulatory Requirements and Safety Expectations
In this session, we will review regulatory and compliance expectations for both laboratory and clinical research and examine how these requirements are fulfilled at a multi-campus university and academic teaching hospital setting. Topics will include an overview of the various components of laboratory and clinical research compliance, the coordination of these items into a cohesive oversight program, and the communication of this information to the various compliance and administrative offices within the institution. By understanding the processes that must occur to allow the clicking of a regulatory checkbox on sponsored research or other forms, administrators can gain valuable insight into the programs and procedures in place at their institutions that manage compliance and safety and how these can be leveraged to enhance overall workflow as well as regulatory comprehension and communication.
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Stephen Dahl
Anita Stone
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T307 |
Building Research Administrative Efficiency and Success Using "Lean" Business Best Practices
Using lean business best practice tools such as value-proposition design, service design thinking, and value stream and process mapping, we have done a complete assessment and re-design of the Office of the Associate Dean for Research's administrative processes and procedures. In this session we will share the tools we used, our experiences, and the before and after metrics demonstrating the outcomes of the implemented changes. Topics covered will be improved pre-award for external sponsors, improved internal grants procedures, using knowledge management and new technology tools including collaborative work spaces and grant management software. We will also touch on the use of agile project management methods to keep the office re-design moving forward amidst the day-to-day of running the collegiate research enterprise and how to be an effective change agent in the face of resistance.
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Molly McCue
Kersten Warren
Chris Dillon
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T308 |
When to Stop, When to Go: Purchasing and Making Effective Decisions
As a research administrator, you are often faced with difficult decisions as to what purchases are allowable on a grant, no matter how unique. Making determinations on these purchases often requires a positive working relationship between the central office, the PI, and yourself. Also, ensuring all purchases are allowable, allocable, and appropriate during the management of an award prevents you from becoming a headline in the newspaper, or used as an example at a conference as to what is an inappropriate use of funds.
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Rachel Hayes
Daysi Ardon
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T309 |
Challenges of Managing Grants in Developing Countries
This session will address the importance of research administration system in research institutions in recent times. More focus will be on the challenges African Institutions face in effectively managing sponsored research and the effect of these challenges on the research output. The success story of Noguchi Memorial Institute will be used as a case study to discuss some of the best research administration practices in the African setting which other African Institutions can emulate. Graphs and tables showing inflows, grants submitted and grants won since the establishment of the research support office will be shared to participants. This session will also give other participants the opportunity to share similar stories from their Institutions so practical solutions can be given.
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Griselda Annan
Nana Oye Akuffo
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T310 |
Senior Topics in Export Controls Compliance
Export controls regulations seems to be a moving target and trying to get solid footing for feeling like your organization has a firm control on compliance can be fleeting. This session will take questions from the audience as well as talk about current issues are arising from university researchers with foreign collaborators, rogue principal investigators who have one foot in the university and one foot in their startup company -where the lines are often blurred-, or how to deal with a suspected violation or enforcement visit.
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Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Distinguished Faculty
Abigail Walsh
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T311 |
Always Use Protection: Play Your Role!
The loss of sensitive or confidential data can result in financial losses, penalties and reputational damage. Most organizations have robust Information Technology Solutions in place, protecting networks, computing devices and data is growing increasingly causing complex security gaps to emerge where they are least expected. That is why it is important for the network and computing devices to have several layers of protection to fight against -and at very least- be able to recognize when it is under attack. With the emphasis on technology to protect data from external threats, internal threats such as personals are often overlooked. Personal education should be part of every organization IT security strategy. Good training and procedures can help the risk of accidental data loss. It’s important researchers and research administrators acquire knowledge and skill to safeguard research data and information since these require a lot of financial investments and have a very huge impact of the individual researcher and research administrator if lost.
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Edward Kakooza
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T312 |
Facilitating Global Conduits for Industry/Institutional Clinical Trials
Clinical trials play an integral role in the identification and application of novel therapies to enhance patient health outcomes. Institutions that are able to forge solid relationships with industry play a key role in developing conduits of medical advances that can impact communities on a local level. This session will provide domestic and global research administrators with an institutional perspective of key parameters to consider in determining site capacity to host clinical trials at the local institution. In addition, insights will be shared on the challenges and opportunities of supporting institutional capacity for industry trials while navigating administrative and regulatory frameworks. Upon completion, course participants will be able to define several key capacity areas optimizing selectivity as host sites. Following participation, attendees will be equipped to recognize dynamics at three unique time points (site qualification; site activation; site closure) that facilitate collaborative conduits supporting industry/institutional clinical trials.
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Andre Watkins
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T313 |
How Much Does That Cost? Costing Considerations for Single IRB (sIRB) Review
As a result of the NIH Single IRB (sIRB) Policy requiring one IRB of record for NIH funded multi-site studies, more and more institutions are being asked to serve as the sIRB. While there are many considerations to take into account when serving as a sIRB, costing is one consideration that is particularly complex. This session will describe four costing options for institutions to consider when serving as a sIRB for NIH research as well as provide references and examples for these costing options.
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Madeleine Williams
Philip Cola, Distinguished Faculty
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T314 |
With Increased Appropriations to NIH and NIA, How Can I Play a Role in the Expanding Landscape of Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias Research?
The National Alzheimer’s Project Act in 2011 mandated the creation and annual update of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease. This act has an ambitious research goal—to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by 2025. Given the magnitude of this public health crisis, a deeper level of investment was also warranted to achieve this goal. Thus, since 2015, the budget for the NIA -the institute which leads Alzheimer’s disease research at the NIH- has more than doubled, from $1.2 billion to $3.1 billion. NIH and NIA are working to partner with institutions and organizations from a broad spectrum of science and technology, to make significant impacts and advancements toward this objective. This presentation will focus on the current and future global impacts of the disease, the comprehensive funding opportunities to accomplish the research goals of the National Plan, and how your institution or organization can contribute.
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Patrick Shirdon
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T315 |
National Science Foundation's Research.gov Modernization
Do you want to reduce your administrative burden by preparing proposals with a user-friendly and intuitive system? Are you interested in uploading documents instantly and with real-time compliance checks? Get an in-depth look at the exciting new features of the National Science Foundation's Research.gov proposal preparation and submission system. Don't miss this opportunity to learn how you can influence the future of proposal submission.
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Bill Daus
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3:00 PM - 3:20 PM
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T400A |
Quick Talk on Enhancing Your Career: Taking Ownership of Your Own Professional Development
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
Professional Development is integral to our success and growth. Many organizations do not make this a priority and/or cannot afford to financially support an individual's professional development. Coupled with this issue, research administrators do not know how to create their own professional development path. This Quick Talk will focus on several ways to create your own path.
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Carolynn Julien
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3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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LC8 |
Enabling a Scale-Up Programme at Scale: Lessons Learnt from How Six UK Universities Collaborated to Engage Fast Growing SMEs
SETsquared is a unique enterprise partnership and a dynamic collaboration between the five leading research-led UK universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Twice ranked as the Global No. 1 Business Incubator, we provide a wide range of highly acclaimed support programmes to help turn ideas into thriving businesses. This collaboration has been extended to help fast growing SMEs to set up and run R&D projects in collaboration with the SETsquared universities. The £5M SETSquared Scale-Up Programme, which has been funded by Research England and includes additional input from Cardiff University, aims to support the most innovative scale up companies across the south of England and Wales (two countries). With ambitious KPIs, such as circa £10 million research awards to the universities within 3 years, this Learning Cafe will explore the challenges and benefits of aligning institutional agendas to meet common targets. We believe these lessons are applicable to US and international universities.
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Jon Hunt
Lorna Colquhoun
Elizabeth Hope-Dyer
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T401 |
Customer Service in Research Administration
Research administrators work with many different constituents, made up of individuals with varying interests. Customers of research administrators are: University administrative offices, department administrators, faculty members and sponsoring agencies. Effectively working with these very different customers requires research administrators to be able to identify the goal of each customer, determine the reason for each interaction and respond to the customers’ needs in an appropriate and valuable way. This session will focus on identifying each type of customer’s priorities, analyzing how to solve problems for the customer and communicating with the customer. This session will cover what is necessary for research administrators to best meet their customers’ needs and offer guidance on honing those integral customer service skills.
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Grace Liu
Kassie Obelleiro
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T402 |
Institutional Training in Research Administration to Empower Young Professionals
Educating and training the next generation of research administrators is critical to the future success of an academic research center. Cleveland Clinic (CC) has taken novel approaches to handle the changing landscape of research administration with an internal training program. CC is ranked as the number 2 hospital in the United States, employs over 60,000 people worldwide and has a robust medical research program. The Lerner Research Institute (LRI) is home to 12 departments, 187 principal investigators and received over $118 million in federal funding in 2017. In 2011, LRI Leadership created a training program, the Administrative Professional Leadership Experience (APLE), to cultivate an internal pipeline of up and coming research administrators. After five successful cycles the program was evaluated. From that evaluation, core competencies, goals and training methodologies were adjusted to match the new needs of the LRI. Engagement with professionals early in their career paths as well as targeted mentoring helped increase the number of highly trained candidates available to fill open positions in the LRI. This program became highly sought after in our institution and increased employee morale. The ever evolving nature of research administration has pushed our leadership program in new directions to help us train highly sought after candidates in our field. After attending this session, we hope you feel inspired to implement this type of program at your institution.
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Robin Crotty
Angela Barger
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T403 |
Consultants, Editors and Lobbyists, Oh My! Utilizing Outside Experts and Faculty Incentives in Proposal Development
The University of Houston has taken an aggressive approach to securing high value/high visibility research grants. This session will demonstrate the strategic aspects of this initiative. These include contracting with both a DC-based grants consulting firm and lobbying firm, an internal grants program to provide incentives and support for participating faculty members, the use of external scientific editors, and the creation of a separate team within the Division of Research to manage, develop and submit these applications. Methods for both passive and active dissemination of relevant funding opportunities will be discussed. Approaches to encourage faculty members to serve as Principal Investigators or participants in these applications will be presented. Participants will learn how to construct a framework for these projects, including timeline development, communication with contractors, and managing roles & responsibilities. Finally, the effectiveness of this strategy at the time of presentation will be discussed.
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Benjamin Mull
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T404 |
Addressing Proposal Pitfalls - Department & Central Perspectives
Through an overview of Seattle Children's Research Institute's (SCRI) best practices and standard process for proposal development, level-loading, and institutional review, the presenters will define and address common pitfalls experienced by the central office and department administrator.
The session will cover how to avoid errors and rework when developing a proposal and common changes requested by an institutional reviewer. The presenters will provide examples of each group’s perspective and concerns throughout the cycle of an NIH application, and highlight pitfalls to consider when working with other types of sponsors.
The presenters will introduce continuous process improvement methods and tools implemented through all of SCRI's administrative levels which improved quality, transparency, and speed within the institute.
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Andrew Kada
Kristin Cicciarella
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T405 |
Closing the Gap between Pre- and Post- Award Offices
This session will provide research administrators with strategies on how to work together to make everyone's job easier during the life cycle of an award. We will will look at each stage of the award life cycle and discuss different ways that post-award and pre-award offices can work together to improve overall management of the award. We will also share practical tips on how to work effectively together to avoid common compliance issues universities have across auditing agencies.
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Debra Murray
Marchon Jackson
Monique Anderson
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T406 |
Speaking Effectively to a PI Even When You are Married to One
There are many times through our communications when we wonder if the PI doesn't understand our role as Research Administrators and vice-versa. This session will provide insight on how to communicate effectively to a PI as well as how we can train our PI's to communicate so that we can support them.
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Jason Claes
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T407 |
Essentials of Incoming Investigator Transfer
This session will provide helpful tips for facilitating a smooth transition for your incoming faculty. This is inclusive of a checklist of items to remember, such as having your investigator complete necessary compliance requirements and the importance of relinquishment of the project by prior awardee. We touch on some of the specifics of the NIH PA-18-590 transfer application, and the NSF “Notification and Request” process to be initiated by the PI in Fastlane.
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Angela Yost
Nancy Spice
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T408 |
Succession Planning: The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
Succession planning helps organizations to ensure there are capable and experienced candidates to fill vacancies especially at the leadership level but is most successful when it is incorporated into a more holistic career ladder approach to retain high potential employees. Let’s face it: if you think they are worth keeping, someone else will think they are worth recruiting. So how do you identify high potential candidates, invest in their professional development, and mentor them to be able to hit the ground running when the opportunity arises. This session will focus on: WHO you identify, WHAT professional development opportunities do you afford them, WHEN do you assign greater responsibility, WHERE do you find them and HOW do you keep them for the long term.
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Marianne Woods
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T409 |
Allocability Among Multiple Projects: Strategies and Methods for the Departmental Administrator
Allocating costs to one sponsored project is difficulty, adding costs to several projects can be overwhelming. When this occurs, the costs should be allocated in the same proportions as it benefits each award while adhering to sponsor guidelines and institutional policies. This session will provide methods, strategies and tools to assist departmental administrators who have to manage the purchases of services and goods that benefit multiple awards.
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Tolise Dailey
Csilla Csaplar
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T410 |
Death by Committee and Other Research Admin Hazards
Death by Committee - The slow, painful death of a project prior to completion due to its assignment to a committee. May occur due to squabbling, apathy, or a lack of individual accountability among the members. -- Urban Dictionary
Research ethics and compliance review committees are an alphabet soup of confusion. IBC, IRB, IACUC, COI, IRE, RSC, HIPAA, GDPR often seem to work together to prolong and delay research approvals. This presentation will give a quick overview of what these required committees do and offer some helpful suggestions on how to make them work together and bring down those long approval times.
This session is designed to be interactive and incorporates a game, prizes and spirit animals. Stop by, partake in the discussion, and walk away with actionable suggestions for reducing research approval times through committee improvement.
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Quinton Johnson
Adora Parker
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T411 |
Big Data in Research
Big Data as a concept is an amalgam of trends in computing, information processing, computational methods, and analytical tools. As with any area of emerging technology the use of Big Data to conduct research and research into the use and analysis of Big Data raises new legal issues. As Big Data technologies mature, society will increasingly rely on data-driven science and data-driven decision making. To drive that maturation of Big Data technology will require research on methods and means of large-scale data collection, management, analysis, and the appropriate actions to respond to Big Data findings. Additionally, the legal issues that have already arisen concerning privacy, security (both cybersecurity and national security), and ethics are even more complex when applied to Big Data. Ownership, use and export of computer architecture and networking technologies, algorithms, data management methodologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology similarly raise a host of legal questions, many of which are just beginning to be dealt with. This session will provide an overview of the Big Data landscape from the legal and “governance” perspective.
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J. Michael Slocum, Distinguished Faculty
Benjamin Walworth
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T412 |
Software-Induced Burden: When All You Can Say is "My Software Made Me Do It!"
Automation of business processes is an expectation, in part due to the climate of technological advancements.Systems for data capture, application process, and reporting are purchased or home grown, customized, and continuously tweaked for efficiency and efficacy. Processes to buttress these electronic systems are also implemented as supplemental or security measures. However, heavy reliance on these systems -and on the need for department/office specific efficient data capture- has created self-imposed administrative and regulatory burden. In turn, this burden negatively impacts the research culture and reduces compliance.
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Carlotta Rodriguez
Lauren Danridge
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T413 |
NIH Change of Recipient Institution
This session will cover the requirements for both the original institution and the new institution when a grant is being considered for a transfer.
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Debbie Pettitt
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T414 |
Making Grants Happen at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The concurrent session's goal is to help demystify both the “what” and the “how” of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant making targeted for research administrators as the presenters have equivalent roles.
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Lee Klejnot
Leah Goudie
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3:20 PM - 3:40 PM
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T400B |
Quick Talk on Enhancing Your Career: Mentorship Through Scholarship -The Author Fellowship Program of the Journal of Research Administration
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
As research administrators, we typical find ourselves focusing on our job duties in any particular work day without considering ways that we can actively participate in professional development (PD) activities. Often, our PD comes through our attendance at local, regional, or national/international conferences. Further, the PD we receive is often didactic and less experiential. The Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) provides a unique, experiential professional development opportunity through the Journal of Research Administration (JRA). This Quick Talk will describe scholarly writing as a professional development activity and present the Journal’s Author Fellowship Program (AFP) as an example of how individuals can be mentored through the publication process. The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Nathan Vanderford, and a previous AFP Author Fellow, Paul Martinez, will be the lead presenters.
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Paul Martinez
Nathan Vanderford
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3:40 PM - 4:00 PM
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T400C |
Quick Talk on Enhancing Your Career: From RA to PI - Breaking Through the 4th Wall
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were the PI? Well, look no further. In this Quick Talk, the presenter will discuss insights and lessons learned taking on the role of Principal Investigator. As part of the SRAI's Journal of Research Administration Fellowship program, the presenter (a Research Administrator) had the opportunity to create and conduct a two cohort research study including a human subjects protocol at UC Berkeley. The key discussions for this session will cover: (1) how to find available resources, (2) the importance of campus networking, (3) using the skills gleaned through research administration experiences for actual research.
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Paul Martinez
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4:30 PM - 4:50 PM
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T500A |
Quick Talk on Paths to Improvement: Strategies to Attract and Engage Millennials
Millennials bring a unique and important viewpoint to our workplace. Recruiting and retaining them in the same old ways will not help us reach and keep them. We need to be actively engaged in social media tools and make our posting easily located through mobile-friendly searches. Our work environments must value and recognize their contributions, provide maximum flexibility for their personal lives and support personal and professional growth. By 2025, Millennials are expected to be 75% of the workforce so it is vitally important for us to find and actively engage them in our profession now.
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Kim Carter, Distinguished Faculty
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4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
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T501 |
Research Administrators are People Too! Creating and Maintaining Quality of Life in the Workplace
Let's have a "what happens in Vegas" open conversation about what you're dealing with at work and ways to navigate those situations. This discussion will focus on what we Research Administrators can do as individuals to change our perspectives on the stress factor of our jobs and improve our workplace experiences by evaluating how we personally navigate challenges and adjust our own viewpoints. We really love what we do, but let’s be honest…by nature, research administration can be a stressful career path. Yes, we are all versed in guidelines, compliance, rules and regulations…but what about the other side of our roles…the side that doesn’t seem to get the care and attention it clearly calls for? What about us? Everything we do is deadline driven, we regularly engage with just about every personality type on the planet, and we’re tasked with providing faculty and staff with the best support possible on behalf of our institutions. Our best laid plans can drastically change with the slightest shift in the wind and we need to wear a dozen hats in a given day -- you could be an accountant in the morning, an editor by noon, and a counselor as the workday ends! As research administrators, most of us have felt the pressure mount and, unfortunately, this can sometimes feel unbearable or, at the very least, seriously frustrating! How do we put forth our best selves while juggling all of this and still maintain quality of life in the workplace while we're doing it? Let’s talk!
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Molly McCarty
Jill Borland
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T502 |
Stuck in a Rut: Disrupting Implicit Bias within Academic Research Processes and Structures
Participating in the university research enterprise requires understanding and combating implicit bias inherent in research processes and structures. This interactive presentation features social science research showing the prevalent role of implicit bias and discrimination in academic research, with a focus on publications, sponsored programs, awards, research opportunities and other essential research quality indicators and activities. Modern conceptualizations of prejudice operate in increasingly subtle ways especially in ambiguous situations where stereotypes about gender, race, and/or sexual orientation are operating and can be a contributing factor in research administration decisions. This presentation includes evidence-based strategies to combat implicit bias and ensure a more inclusive research infrastructure. Research administrators interested in diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts that broaden participation and foster excellence for the entire academic community will find value in this presentation.
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Jessi Smith
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T503 |
50 Years in Research Administration: What Have I Learned? What Can You Learn?
This session will review the skill set, work setting and goals to succeed in Research Administration through someone who has invested a career in spanning over 50 years in the field. It will also help to define the meaning of success in this profession. The session will be an interactive presenter-audience discussion of the skills, traits, goals and behavior that lead to success in Research Administration.
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Ira Goodman, Distinguished Faculty
Nathan Vanderford
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T504 |
Building Research Capacity for Reluctant, Inexperienced, Inactive or Discouraged Investigators
Based on literature and best practices, this session will present an overview of the characteristics of reluctant, inexperienced, inactive or discouraged investigators that deter them from pursuing grant funding. New, mid-level and senior investigators present different professional and personal challenges for research administrators, so the strategies and approaches need to differ as well. Among the ideas to be presented and discussed include incentives, mentoring, special workshops, individual strategic plans, and partnering. Participants will be encouraged to share examples and case studies of their own best practices for motivating and working with these investigators to develop and increase their capacity for successful grant careers. The session will be interactive and participatory for research administrators from all types of institutions.
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Marjorie Piechowski, Distinguished Faculty
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T505 |
Achieve High Level Service to Faculty and Increased Compliance through a Shared Service Organization
The increased complexity and changing nature of research administration led us to evaluate the models we use institutionally to provide services to faculty. This session will look at Yale’s approach to regionalizing research administration services for academic and non-academic departments. Our organization, Faculty Research Management Services, seeks to raise the level of service to Principal Investigators while increasing compliance and mitigating risk. During this session we will discuss how the current model was designed and implemented on our campus, provide the challenges and successes during the transition, and provide an opportunity to have a discussion about all aspects of this model. Additional discussion will include how to leverage this type of an organization during a major financial system implementation.
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Joanne Bentley
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T506 |
CANCELLED: Applying Performance Management in a Research Institution in a Developing Country
In 2010, the MRC Unit The Gambia moved from a core funded research environment to an environment where its research funding was sought one hundred percent from competitive sources. This has put pressure on the organisation to establish a robust system of managing performance and allocating resources to support the science we do. In our environment however senior scientists have to take cognizance of wider issues of gender, capacity building, population vulnerability, ethics challenges, limitation of opportunities for scientists etc whilst at the same time have to ensure that their performance manifest in significant positive form. The Unit had to establish a performance management system that is responsive and supportive of the development of young scientists, as well as lead to effective allocation of resources. This session seeks to provide a summary of the key challenges, lessons and learning outcomes as we review the system after nine years. Issues we dealt with include: challenges donors and collaborating partners from the west. We believe similar research institutions in a developing country setting will relate to these issues. Through the session we hope to generate discussions on the challenges and benefit of establishing well established performance management systems for managing collaborations and institution owned research. This session will highlight various tools that can be developed locally in resource constraint settings to monitor and manage performance.
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Elizabeth Stanley Batchilly
Dembo Bakary Kanteh
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T507 |
Risk and Crisis Management Planning: From Shutdowns to Shooters
In addition to planning for the normal upheavals caused by weather events or public safety threats, the longest government shutdown in US history had many research offices scrambling to get calibration on how other institutions were handling the situation and what advice they were providing their principal investigators. The impact had implications for our global community who are recipients of US funding as well. The failed Brexit plan has posed equally uncertain stressors on research offices as well. How do institutions plan for the unexpected crises: government shutdowns, stop-work orders, campus emergencies and natural disasters? A panel will be assembled of senior research administrators including international panel members with experience in formulating strategies to address a myriad of situations to include government shutdowns, political upheaval, campus safety threats, technology disruptions, and weather events such as hurricanes where you have days to plan or tornadoes where you may have minutes to act. Focus will be placed on the data needed for decision making in times of crisis and how to ensure communications that mitigate rather than heighten concerns.
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Andrea Deaton, Distinguished Faculty
Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Distinguished Faculty
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T508 |
Indirect Cost Rates – A Hospital Perspective
Many hospitals must engage in the process of negotiating federal indirect rates, and they face unique challenges in preparing, submitting and negotiating indirect rates under the 45 CFR Part 74, Appendix E, “Principles for Determining Costs Applicable to Research and Development under Grants and Contracts with Hospitals.” As we go through this process, many of us often wonder if we have done everything we can do within the constraints of federal regulations in order to maximize our institution’s negotiated indirect rate and resulting indirect cost recovery. In this session, we will discuss strategies that may be employed to maximize indirect cost recovery, both in the preparation of your indirect rate proposal as well as during the subsequent rate negotiation and budgeting of indirect costs on grants and contracts. Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences concerning the indirect rate process.
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Alex Weekes
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T509 |
Invoicing as Audit Preparation
By doing in-depth invoice reviews and compiling all of the supporting documents for that invoice on a monthly basis, it allows one to note any exceptions when the explanations are fresh in their mind rather than trying to remember what happened on that one project ten months ago. We'll explain how and why this will benefit the institution and minimize risk.
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Lillian Winfrey
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T510 |
Demystifying General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - Requirements for Research Institutions
The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is now in effect with sweeping implications for research institutions, health systems, and other private research organizations. Even if you don’t directly conduct research in the EU; GDPR may still be apply to your organization. In this session we will explore the basics of GDPR, how they apply to research, and what you need to know to prepare your organization for compliance.
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James E. Riddle
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T511 |
Developing a Comprehensive Research Ethics Training Program
We have been expanding RCR training on the UC Berkeley campus to include additional salient topics, assignments, and faculty participation in response to the needs of the trainees and their supporting departments. In anticipation of upcoming new regulations, we have also introduced new training modules for Rigor and Reproducibility in Science. This session will discuss these new endeavors in developing a comprehensive research ethics training program.
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Victoria Sharma
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T512 |
Sharpening Research Compliance: Heightened Awareness with a Self-Guided Risk-Assessment
As Research Administrators, we are often faced with challenges of identifying risks within our scope and responsibility. So how can we not only identify risks but also reduce the probability of situations or events being vulnerable to or ending in an undesirable outcome? This session offers an innovative approach that, when applied straightforwardly, employs risk assessment philosophies and principles to heighten awareness of risks in areas of research. Attendees will examine a comprehensive risk assessment that insightfully uncovers whether specific factors, systems, or situations could adversely affect both the administrative and compliance areas of research. From there, attendees will focus on ideas that empower teams to weigh and prioritize self-identified risks in order to create meaningful action plans. Most importantly, attendees will form a self-guided risk assessment tool to encourage risk preparedness and sharpen research compliance and administrative best practices at their institutions.
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David Staley
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T513 |
Knowledge Mobilization: Developing an Institutional Strategy that Works for You
Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) refers to a broad range of activities that enable academic researchers to improve the social relevance and impact of their research. KMb support services, such as community partnership development or science communications, are an increasingly important part of the research administrator’s tool kit. How an institution defines knowledge mobilization and the activities it supports will depend on several factors, such as the external context, funders’ expectations and alignment with the institution’s mission. This session will present an international case study from two research-intensive universities, in the U.S. and Canada, which documents institutional drivers, their KMb strategy and activities implemented, lessons learned and best practices. An interactive discussion period will engage participants on the implications of these examples for their organizations and stimulate dialogue on best practices from their institutions.
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Terry Campbell
Stephen Beck
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T514 |
The Fundamentals of Non-Federal Sponsored Research: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The object of this interactive session is to be able to identify the components of non-federal research, describe and illustrate the typical components in a non-federal clinical submission, review important contracting issues, best Pre-Award practices to prevent avoidable issues on the post award side, and review typical post award deliverables. This is relevant to the administration of research because without these parameters and everyone's explicit knowledge of the requirements, mistakes and unintended consequences are likely. A portion of the session will address the importance of preliminary communication with all stakeholders to ensure clarity, not only with the administrators but potential subjects.
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Lashundra Kirkland
Cheryl Bowie-Thomas
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W202 |
Tips and Strategies for Negotiating what You Need -and Want- to Be Professionally Successful and Personally Satisfied as a Research Administrator
Negotiating contracts is one of the many job responsibilities of a research administrator. However, few research administrators negotiate or know how to negotiate what they need -and want- to be professionally successful and personally satisfied in the workplace. Negotiating on behalf of oneself requires a “win-win” approach to negotiation without the fear of failure or of fracturing professional relationships during the negotiation. This session will focus on teaching research administrators the important elements of a negotiation, how to plan and prepare for the negotiation, and the “dos” and “don’ts” of a negotiation.
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Jennifer Woodward
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4:50 PM - 5:10 PM
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T500B |
Quick Talk on Paths to Improvement: Participant or Human Subject? Differentiating the Two Terms
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
The terms “participant” and “human subject” are often used interchangeably. However, these two have different definitions, different payment methods, and are even treated differently when it comes to facilities and administration (F&A) costs. They should be budgeted and accounted for properly. Join our discussion on differentiating the two terms with the use of scenarios.
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Rachel Hayes
Daysi Ardon
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5:10 PM - 5:30 PM
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T500C |
Quick Talk on Paths to Improvement: Micro-Credentialing: A New Way to Learn
A Quick Talk is a 15-20 minute presentation that will be combined with two other similar presentations in one 60-minute session.
Building a career is challenging and it is impossible without a solid, comprehensive knowledge base. Our profession is particularly challenging due to the diversity of responsibilities for research administrators, the complexity of our organizational structures, and the ever changing regulatory landscape. This Quick talk will present SRAI’s new LevelUP micro-credentialing training platform and discuss the modern education theories used for its development, the benefits of nano-degrees in a rapidly changing world, and how it can help you and employers train their staff.
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Evan Roberts
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Wednesday, October 23
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Session Code |
Session Title |
Speaker(s) |
10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
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W101 |
The Jedi Approach to Career Advancement: May the Force Be With You
Many women working hard to build a career make the same mistake. They have no idea how valuable they are. Professional value is not necessarily the same as the market value of a position. Professional value comes down to: experience, education, gender, and company structure. During this session, 3 woman research administrators at different stages in their career journey through the research administration galaxy: Jedi Knight (10-15 yrs in the field), Jedi Master (15-20 yrs), and Jedi Grandmaster (over 20 years) will share their personal stories about the trials and tribulations they have faced during the course of their careers while figuring out their professional value. This session aims to ignite new ways of thinking about your career in the research administration. If you are a woman at any level of research administration who feels they undervalue them self, this session is for you!
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Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Distinguished Faculty
Sikirat Tijani
Miriam Campo
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W102 |
The Post-Submission Pre-Award Review Process
Proposals are often prepared and submitted very close to the deadline. They are then filed away until the award is made even though there is a high probability that the budgets contain errors. This puts post-award administrators in the unenviable position of discovering these mistakes after the project start date which can lead to delays and unhappy Principal Investigators (PIs). This interactive session will examine the pre- to post-award progression and introduce attendees to a post-submission, pre-award review process.
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Dominic Esposito
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W103 |
Go Get that Grant: Best Practices for Effective Foundation Proposals
Using insights collected directly from funders and expert fundraisers, in this session you will learn the basics on how to write a successful project proposal to a foundation. You will gain understanding around the essential elements of a proposal, the "do's" and "don'ts" of proposal writing and submission, and how to follow up whether the answer is yes or no. You will also learn what grantmakers are looking for in a proposal and the biggest red flags from a funder’s perspective. Whether you have a specific project in mind or are still formulating your idea, you will leave this session armed with the knowledge needed to set you up for grant proposal success.
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Laura Bergman
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W104 |
Universities as Grantmakers: Collaborative Agreements Under Gifts and Unrestricted Funds
Many institutions receive research support in the form of gift funding. As such, there is need to enter into contracts and purchase agreements with collaborators and partners with funds provided under gifts in order to further support the institution’s own research efforts. However, particularly in the context of facilitating collaborative research efforts, it can be uniquely challenging to draft, negotiate, track and manage a “subaward” to a collaborator without prime award terms and conditions to flow down to the subrecipient. This session will explore and discuss all things to consider for effectively entering into and managing such contracts for research and purchase agreements under gifts.
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Noam Pines
Saiqa Anne Qureshi
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W106 |
SRAI Leadership Awareness
This session will offer you the opportunity to review the governance structure of SRAI and understand the roles and responsibilities of all leadership positions within SRAI. This session will provide value to those in current leadership positions and appeal to SRAI members who would like to step into a leadership role within the society, and learn more about the various roles and responsibilities.
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Annedorte Vad
James Hanlon
Bruce Steinert, Distinguished Faculty
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W107 |
A Case Study: Applying a Lean Management System to the Central Research Administration Office
A Lean Management System embodies a culture of continuously improving customer value and eliminating waste in order to improve efficiency and quality for a customer base. This session provides on overview of Lean, with an in-depth look at the implementation of a LMS in a central research administration office. A deep dive will provide examples and specific tools for success, lessons learned, and how the implementation of one LMS improved performance and productivity for the central research administration office within six months of implementation.
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Amanda Breeden
Leah Emerick
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W108 |
Improving Operations, Internal Controls, and Financial Compliance Monitoring and Review
This session will discuss approaches to conducting an independent award transactional compliance review and assessment of organizational internal controls and approaches to improving operational award management compliance through segregation of duties, checklists, consistency in practices, and monitoring.
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Tim Linker, Distinguished Faculty
Kris Rhodes, Distinguished Faculty
Sandra Justice
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W110 |
Legal Issues for Universities Outside of the USA
This session will highlight some of the complex technical and legal issues faced by Non-US Universities when the project sponsor is a US entity. In many donor agreements the US Legal Framework is incorporated by reference, but how does a private Non-US entity determine which legal rules apply? How does the US partner institution enforce these rules? How does a Private Non-US institution negotiate with a US Government Sponsor versus a Private US Project donor? The answer to these questions are relevant especially in the changing Research Environment, where small quasi-private universities are clamoring for Research Funding from an ever decreasing research funding pool.
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Sandra Gayle
Louri Clare
Laleta Davis Mattis
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W111 |
Seven is a Lucky Number: Seven Elements of a Successful Compliance Program
Compliance personnel have thankless jobs, most often feeling overwhelmed by what needs to be done. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has outlined seven particular elements that compliance programs should include. While this was written with healthcare in mind, it can be translated to any compliance program that needs to be put into place, including research in any realm be it biomedical or behavioral/social science. The use of these elements can strengthen departmental policies and improve accountability of researchers and staff. At the end of the day, implementing a strong compliance program can provide research programs with a culture of integrity and meaningful research outcomes.
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Tonya K. Edvalson, Distinguished Faculty
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W112 |
VA Cooperative Studies Program Contributions to National Healthcare
This presentation will describe the VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Centers (CSPCC) contribution to research for our Veterans and its impact on the national healthcare system. We will share our knowledge, as project managers, of managing multicenter clinical trials through our Cooperative Studies Program. Our Veterans have not only helped our nation in a military sense, they have helped with the invention of new products, innovations and improvement of regulatory requirements for research. We would like to educate our fellow researchers on the successes and experiences of the VA CSP Program. Provide insight on existing and future projects and the priorities of research for our Veterans.
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Elizabeth Jobes
Lynn Tommessilli
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W113 |
Research Management Information: Analytics & Visualisations for Informed Decision Making
The University of Edinburgh is developing a comprehensive set of research information dashboards to help decision makers at all levels of the institution. The dashboards link previously dispersed information to provide a richer picture of research performance. Income from individual to university level, by funder, success rate and by cost recovered can be compared with quality markers and, potentially, impact.
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Lorna Thomson
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W114 |
Think Like a Fed
Leadership training tells us that understanding the other person’s perspective can radically increase our successes. If that's true, wouldn’t you love to get inside the head of a federal grant manager and understand their perspective? To gain insights on thinking like a fed, walk through a series of interactive case studies led by a speaker with 19 years of research administration experience at three major universities before coming to the federal government.
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Rebecca Claycamp, Distinguished Faculty
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W115 |
An Introduction to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI): Tips and Tricks when Applying for Funding and Managing an Award
This concurrent session will provide attendees information about PCORI, including: - mission and enabling legislation - overview of funding opportunities and the application process - patient and stakeholder engagement requirements - merit review process - common compliance pitfalls and ways to prevent them
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James A. Hulbert
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11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
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W200 |
Symposium Paper Presentations
Each year SRA International has a tradition of publishing contributed papers and professional posters at its annual meeting, which are designed to advance and enrich the body of knowledge of research administration and management as an art and science.
These Papers and Posters represent an important contribution to the research administration body of knowledge or successfully demonstrate significant milestones of success that are of interest or importance. They are not used as a marketing resource for an institution’s success. Rather, they articulate advances in research administration or management.
Topics include:
-pre-award processes
-post-award processes
-international research administration
-research infrastructure and growth
-strategic planning
-financial management
-computer science
-research ethics
-human research
-animal research
-intellectual property
-technology transfer
-publication standards
-human resources management
-other research administration-related areas
Accepted papers and posters will compete for the Best Paper of the Year and Best Poster of the Year Awards during the 2019 SRAI Annual Meeting at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in San Francisco, CA.
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|
W201 |
Creating a Vibrant Learning Community at Tufts University: Lessons Learned in Developing a Training Ecosystem
As a highly skilled, ever-changing field, training is an essential part of any research administration enterprise. While the importance of training is universally accepted, the structure of that training—including questions of who will lead it, who will participate, and what the curriculum should be—remains more of an open question. In many institutions, resources to support professional education in research administration are limited, and when programs do exist they tend to focus vital leadership priorities but can neglect to harness the initiative and expertise of the research administration community itself. At Tufts University, we have answered these questions by creating an ecosystem of training and development opportunities open to all research administrators. In this session we will provide a case study of how Tufts has created a holistic training environment, centered on providing learning opportunities to all levels of research administrators. Building from the Tufts’ example of combining in-person and online training experiences, participants will learn how to structure their professional development programs to cultivate a vibrant learning community by delivering meaningful content in multiple ways and by engaging the community in developing and providing the programs themselves. Each will leave the session with a toolkit to help assess gaps that currently exist in their institution’s training offerings.
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Sarah Marina
Laura Lucas
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W203 |
The Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Landscape: Approaching Strategically
Technology supporting Research Administration has evolved a dramatically from Adobe PureEdge submissions and other early systems. What began as Individual Access databases managed by a central entry clerk on a local desktop became integrated enterprise research application suites with entry points from researcher to central offices. From mimeographed reports to automated and dynamic user based dashboards, much has changed. Despite the advances of the last two decades, Research Administration systems are still behind other core systems (Financials, HR, EMR, Student) in maturity and in institutional support. Many institutions still have a mix of Access databases, custom solutions and vended solutions. Whether enhancing current systems or implementing new ones, Research Administration leaders want to think strategically about providing tools to PIs, departments and central functions that enable transparency of information and efficiency of process. This session will cover sources of institutional successes and gaps, and provide perspective on lessons learned.
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Stephanie Gray
Matthew Staman
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W205 |
Establishing a Clinical Consortium: From Inception to Now - A Case Study
The Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) was formally established in 2004. The planning took many months and buy-in from all stakeholders. Since that time, TBCRC has grown, the research portfolio has expanded in volume and type of studies and new members have been added. This session will discuss the steps taken, lessons learned, and management strategies for maintaining and growing a consortium.
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Cindy Morin
Gayle Walters
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W206 |
Grant Management in India
In recent years US institutions have seen US sponsored funding decrease, while the research topics, the researchers supporting those topics, and the funding organizations paying for such research have become more global in nature. As a part of this change many institutions have looked to receive new sources or increase existing funding from foreign institutions and directly engage with new populations outside the US. This can take the form of study abroad sites, research offices, or even campuses overseas. In setting up these locations, universities and colleges must balance US and home institution regulations and policies along with those of the host country and funding organization. The goals of this session are to describe how Harvard Global and Harvard University’s Office for Sponsored Programs evaluated and responded to the challenges in setting up a grant-receiving office in India and to share practical advice on how others may also manage grants and operate in India. In the session, we will outline some of the practical experiences learned, including grant reporting requirements in India, ways of engaging local and foreign staff, contract negotiations, suggested ways of optimizing work across remote teams, and how to balance US, university, Indian, and in-country sponsor’s policies and regulations. Please note that we will not be discussing human subjects research or clinical trials in India.
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Peggy Darnowsky
Parker Wellington
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W207 |
Strategic Asset Management of Real Property and Moveable Equipment for Financial Reporting Purposes
As Research Institutions prepare for their reporting of their fixed assets for financial reporting and general asset stewardship purposes, it is important to understand the importance of maintaining accurate records. The investment that institutions make in these assets often represent a significant investment on the institution's balance sheet. These reported costs are audited by Federal, State, Internal and Independent auditors very closely, thus the importance of reporting accurate and supportable values and having supportable and auditable fixed asset records.
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Kevin McHugh
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W208 |
How to Financially Manage at a Statewide and Multi-Campus Department-Level
We will go through the three stages of creating an optimal financial management system with multiple campuses at the department level. I call it SIP, which stands for the stages of first Strategizing, then Implementing, and lastly Prospering. Don’t let the administrative burdens and increasing red tape slow the progress of your program down- find solutions and set up a system that benefits everyone. Strategy is important because without identifying the essential elements to set up a successful statewide and multi-campus department-level financial management system with a logical financial structure, compliance oversight, and department level evaluation and understanding you could be at risk. In the second stage of implementation we will identify your team and how to create buy in, communicate professionally but also keep the communication open and accessible in order to create an environment for low financial risk and implement internal controls that streamline administrative processes while meeting the accounting standards for internal controls. In the last stage of we hope to prosper, and we will look at how to remain adaptable in an ever changing environment at each level and maintain an optimal financial management system at a statewide multi-campus department level.
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Jennifer Redmond
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W209 |
Cybersecurity Issues in Scholarly Publishing
This session will use the experience of a major scholarly publishing platform company to explore cybersecurity in connection with scientific content, identity and privacy issues for authors and users, institutional policies, and the research data that supports the publications.
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Allan Gajadhar
J. Michael Slocum, Distinguished Faculty
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W210 |
Beyond Resistance: Institutionalizing Research Ethics in a Mega-University
Resistance to and a lack of constructive engagement of researchers in research ethics regulations are major concerns for Research Managers and Administrators responsible for supporting the governance of research ethics at universities. This session highlights the formulation and implementation of a research ethics strategy founded on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) by relevant stakeholders that enabled a mega-university to overcome these obstacles. Drawing inspiration from AI theory and professional experience in its application, we will walk participants through a case study that illustrates how we facilitated the formulation and implementation of a research ethics strategy, consequently making huge strides in institutionalizing research ethics in a mega-university. Researchers tend to agree with the moral imperatives of research ethics regulation, such as the protection of participants from harm. However, they often object to the procedures and systems followed by the institutions to govern research ethics. The mega-university representing the case study for the presentation was no exception. The application of the 4-D AI process (Discovery, Destiny, Design and Dream) during a strategic planning workshop in 2015 initiated the formulation of a research ethics strategy. Since then, this strategy has been implemented on an institutional-wide level resulting in the majority of researchers now buying into the need for proper research ethics governance.
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Les Labuschagne
Retha Visagie
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W211 |
Beyond Bibliometrics - Measuring Research Metrics Using Alt Metrics
Research is a complex business covering a wide spectrum of discovery spanning health research to fine arts. Our traditional approach to using citation as a proxy for measuring quality only works for a narrow part of the research spectrum. This concurrent session will investigate the use of alternative metrics in measuring research impacts. We will look at the systems (altmetrics and PlumX) that enable this approach and focus on case studies to illustrate the utility of research metrics.
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Martin Kirk
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W212 |
First Step Toward Proposal Success: Understanding the Agency Review Process
A major factor in preparing successful grant applications is understanding how the agency review process works and tailoring the application to address the review criteria and the review process. This session will present detailed information about the similarities and differences in the review process at major U.S. federal and selected private funding agencies. Agencies will include NSF, NIH, DOD including DARPA and ONR, DOE, NEH, NASA, Robert Wood Johnson and Susan G. Komen and other private foundations. Participants will learn the stages and criteria of the review process, how reviewers are chosen, the role of the program officer, what reviewers look for in successful proposals, how to become a reviewer, and why research administrators can benefit professionally and personally from serving as a reviewer. Questions from the audience will be welcomed.
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Marjorie Piechowski, Distinguished Faculty
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W213 |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Update
This session is a comprehensive review of what is new and being developed within the National Institute of Health's (NIH) programs, policies, and budgets. Participants will learn about the newest updates to NIH's budget and compliance initiatives and how their respective institutions will be affected. Upon completion of the presentation, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions about the new and existing policies and procedures.
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Michelle Bulls
Kristin Ta
Kasima Garst
Adam Graham
Avery Tucker
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