COMPLEX PROPOSALS PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
(11) LEADERSHIP PLAN
TEMPLATE
4.f. Narrative Description of the Management Plan for the Research, Education, Broadening Participation, and Knowledge Transfer
Activities of the Center
4.f.1. Overall Management Plan and Structure. Dr. X (title) will direct the Center. He will be responsible for all aspects of
management and implementation, budget management, evaluation, and will report to the NSF (and to the UW administration). Dr.
X’s prior experiences that make him an exceptional candidate for this position include… This leadership position gave Dr. X
considerable experience with the complexities of implementing a large interdisciplinary center’s vision and coordinating and
administering across several departments and research institutions. He is currently the Founding Director of… His leadership of
both these Centers enormously leverages the proposed project as it brings significant complementary institutional resources to the
proposed Center. These leadership positions have given him additional experience in developing, leading, and evolving diverse
faculty and education teams. He has served previously as Director of … giving him considerable experience in the creation and
management of complex education and diversity programs. His group’s technology has led to the creation o f … and he has
partnered for years with a variety of.. Taken together, these experiences have prepared him for the administrative challenges of
creating a cross-institutional Center that incorporates complex research, education, diversity, and knowledge transfer activities.
The Center will be Co-Directed by Professor Y.
Dr. Y served as the founding chair of the
Department of Biomedical Engineering at ….
where she… These experiences have given
her considerable administrative experience
w h i c h will be important in the startup and
execution of the proposed project. She has
also played a significant advisory role in
government and industry that will be critical
to the proposed project’s knowledge
transfer activities.
UW Vice Provost Research
Executive Committee
Director
Co-Director
Associate Directors
Executive Director
of Education
External Advisory
Committee
Education Diversity
Committee
Managing Director
To be named
Research
Associate Director
Knowledge
Transfer Director
Research
of Education and
Collaboratories
Dr. Z will serve as Executive Director of
to be named
Diversity
Education for The Center. He will be
responsible for the overall leadership of the
Theme 1:
Theme 2:
Theme 3: Theme 4: Theme 5:
Seattle Biomedical
UW Education Specialist
education program including oversight of the
Bioactive Carriers Biologic Cargo
Systemic
Tissue
Cells
Research Institute
To be named
Associated Director for education and
diversity, and will be a senior member of the Executive Committee. He has over 17 years of educational experience creating and
leading applications of technology for instruction, scientific visualization and simulation, curriculum, and science exhibits for
students from elementary school through graduate school and for the general public. As Chief Education Officer for he has
spearheaded a wide array of highly praised educational programs including diverse students ages 6-24 and the public.
Dr. H, Assistant Professor will lead Theme 1. His research specializes in… The H laboratory is developing… Dr. H is a member
of… and PI of...
Dr. J will lead Theme 2. His research interfaces... He is the inventor of…. He is a founder of...
Dr. K will lead Theme 3. His areas of research include… Prof. K was awarded …. He is the Director of ... His experience as a cofounder of a start-up will serve the Cen te r well in the knowledge transfer domain.
Dr. L will lead Theme 4. Dr. L has had management experience both in industry and academia. This experience also provides
knowledge transfer connections and experience that will be critical to the Center. Since joining the institution, she has built a
large and highly impactful research group around drug delivery themes. She has been recognized with awards including…
Dr. M, X Professor of… at… , will lead Theme 5. His research has been recognized by a Young Investigator Research
Achievement Award. He is a co-inventor of … He also holds Distinguished Visiting Professorships in…that will aid global knowledge
transfer and education connections.
4.f.2. Responsibilities of the lead and partner organizations. The UW will serve as the lead institution and will take overall
responsibility for administering the Center at the Vice Provost of Research level, and for coordinating amongst all the partner
institutions. The Knowledge Transfer activities will be led and managed at UW but will be highly integrated and inclusive of all
research and education across the partner network. The UW will provide a space that will serve as physical integrator where
students, postdocs, and faculty from throughout the network come together to work, plan, and evolve new directions. “Partner
institution” will host a key space, and will lead the education and diversity activities of the Center, including the coordination of
education staff at UW and URM activities at partner institutions. “Partner institution” will lead Themes 3 and 5, and host a
summer REU program. To ensure consistent, evolving, and impactful integration and management of all activities, a set of internal
and external committees will be established and charged with specific responsibilities. The External Committee is described in a
following section, but additionally a Center Executive Committee will be established and will meet monthly by video- conference.
Composition includes the Director, Co-Director, Executive Director of Education, Associate Directors, the Theme Leaders, the
Managing Director, and the Knowledge Transfer Director. This committee will meet at least once per year with the VP of Research
from all core universities to ensure consistent communication and administration. An Education and Diversity Committee will be
formed to similarly ensure consistent, evolving, and impactful integration and management of all education activities across the
Center network.
4.f.3. Management of Research. The Executive Committee will oversee all strategic decisions around the research mission of
the Center, with annual advisory input from the External Committee. This includes making annual decisions on research progress
and assessing continuation or change in faculty research funding allocation, and in reallocating funding levels between the themes.
Decisions will be made for example around the timeline for the different themes and some might be funded more at earlier
stages and some more at later stages based on evaluation of ongoing progress. A unified annual research progress report form
will be established and required for each project. It will incorporate the following criteria for project evaluation: 1) quality of
progress against the key project goals, 2) strategic need for continued support in relation to center objectives, 3) collaborative fit
and integration with related projects, 4) participation in required center activities such as data sharing, knowledge transfer, education
and diversity, etc. The annual review will include an externally-facilitated exercise in strategic goal evaluation and reassessment. This
feedback and decisions that stem from this exercise will be discussed at the annual retreat to align the center across all participating
institutions. The Executive Committee will also annually select a pilot project or renew an existing pilot project for a maximum of two
years. Emphasis will be placed on bringing in early stage and diverse investigators. The Executive Committee will have the power to
terminate projects or add projects, and this will include changing faculty membership.
4.f.4. Management of Education and Diversity Programs. “Partner institution” will lead all educational activities where both the
Executive Director and Associate Education and Diversity Director are located. Education-focused professors and/or professional staff
at UW and “partner institution” will be responsible for local implementation, and delivery. The Education and Diversity Committee will
be led by A, B, C and D with each taking a turn as chair. The Course Development Committee will be chaired by E and F with primary
support from Q (UW), R and S (“partner institution”). An Educational Advisory Committee composed of higher education, diversity,
outreach and professional development experts will review the education and diversity programs and outcomes on a yearly basis and
provide recommendations to the Executive Committee.
4.f.5. Management of Knowledge Transfer. The Knowledge Transfer Director will provide the lead management of these activities from
the UW with considerable support from the Center for Commercialization and Dr. P. The activities themselves will be highly integrated
across the institution performing Center research, with the creation of the Corporate Affiliate Program (CAP) a critical early activity. Dr.
P will Chair the CAP and lead its creation, with considerable input from the industrial, government, and policy membership itself. Early
input from an early-stage advisory group has led to the structuring of a starting plan as outlined in the Knowledge Transfer section. The
Executive Committee will also oversee the general knowledge transfer activities to ensure participation, integration, and coordination
across the institutions, and the External Committee will also review and provide advisory input annually. Other activities to be managed
by the KT Director include implementation of short courses at annual professional society meetings and at the Center’s annual Summer
Symposium.
4.f.6. External Advisory Committee (EAC). The external Advisory Committee (EAC) will meet once a year and provide guidance and
advice to the Center across all its primary activities, including strategic organizational and management input. The initial membership
includes science and technology leaders from academia, industry, and government, as well as a national leader in education and
diversity. We anticipate adding additional members particularly around the education and diversity areas. The members who have
agreed to participate include… This distinguished group cuts across a broad swath of science and technology expertise of direct
relevance to the Center, including the leader of… experts in development and commercialization, prominent educators, and biologic
cargo delivery leaders. In Dr. N we have a winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Mentoring and one of the national leaders in STEM education models that promote greater participation of URM students.
4.f.7. Director Replacement. If required, the Vice Provost of Research at UW will oversee the replacement of the Center Director. The
mechanism will be a search that likely would strongly consider the excellent leaders the Center has amongst the Co-Director, Associate
Directors and Theme Leaders, but will be an open search that fully considers other possible candidates at the three core institutions.
The Co-Director would serve as temporary Director if there is a needed period before replacement, with assistance from the Executive
Committee. If the new Director is from a “partner institution,” there will be an administrative reorganization to move the Vice Provost
of Research oversight to the new Director’s institution. That university would become the new lead institution as defined above.