COUNCIL OF RESEARCH ASSOCIATE DEANS
DECEMBER 18, 2014
101 Walter Library
1:30-3pm
ATTENDANCE: Gayle Anderson, Anja Bielinsky, Laura Bloomberg, Carol Carrier, Renee
Cheng, Greg Cuomo, Ellen Freeman, Ann Garwick, David Hagen, Janice Jaguszewski, Mos
Kaveh, Paul Kiprof, Frances Lawrenz, Tucker LeBien, Laura Olevitch, Sue Paulson, Sriram Rao,
Alex Rothman, Rosalyn Segal, Frank Symons, Sarah Waldemar
DISCUSSION
Announcements and Updates
 Annual Research Report Highlights – Frances Lawrenz
o 6.8% increase in awards (in total dollars)
o 2% increase with the federal budget increase only 1%
o More collaborations and partnerships
o Technology commercialization numbers are up
o MnDRIVE is going well – very good numbers of partnerships and hires
o Money to fund strategic plan will be coming from OVPR
o 1:6 or 1:7 return on investment for internal OVPR grants
o 3rd ranked out of CIC institutions – trajectory is going up
o You can always contact Frances with questions
o Q: For Grant in Aid, is that 1:6 ROI on total dollars?
 Yes, but only for categories where return is likely/possible (e.g. not the
“Fields with Limited External Funding” category)
Uniform Guidance Update
Sue Paulson and Sarah Waldemar
 See summary handout
 Want to communicate that two sets of rules will be in place for a number of years as
current awards finish up
 No new agencies have released guidance
o May get them this weekend or so
 Major changes have been mentioned previously
o In process of reviewing all current UMN guidance documentation and making
needed changes
 Minor changes will be necessary for local business practices
o Currently looking at these needed changes as well
 In handout grid – issues that will have the biggest impact
o 90 day closeout will be enforced
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Based on current numbers, 80% of the folks currently breaking this rule
are from DHHS grants
 Trying to look into why this is
o Subaward invoices must be paid in 30 days
 UMN solution is still being investigated
o Dependent care
 UMN will be making a recommendation to the president after January
 Folks seem to be generally supportive but there’s a lot more to come
o Procurement is also being considered and looked at – does not go into effect until
7/1/16
o Direct charging participant support costs, but F&A is exempt and requires agency
approval
Next week with agency implementation plans in – will try to communicate more asap
Still will be a lot of work to be done
Q: What’s the biggest challenge area as far as getting it done?
o Finding differences in agency implementation plans and how they differ from UG
Uniform Guidance implementation sessions are happening currently
Q: Are college administrators responsible for disseminating information?
o Sarah, Nicole, and Pamela are happy to make presentations to the colleges as
invited
Research Data Storage Services
Mike Langhus
 Mike is the storage representative at the university
 Updated OIT website: it.umn.edu/researchers is for researchers specifically
 UMN API project – trying to make it easier for OIT folks to grab data off of websites
 IT liaisons – trying to connect researchers with technology that’s available
 storage.umn.edu offers five things:
o Consultation – contact storage services for help – will help IT understand storage
needs and improve services
 Will also meet with folks, even at department level
o Expansive amounts of storage
 Looking at strategies for utilizing google drive
 Storage services has a large space in addition to this – even large amounts
– request is made to VP
o Easy access and shareability
 Computer and network connection is all you need to have access
o Long term storage
 Once the data is in storage, it is kept forever
 If you delete it yourself, you only have 30 days to change your mind
before it is unrecoverable
o No charge to you
 Any file, any type, can pretty much store anything
 Two data centers on campus – essentially a backup of all data
 Also snapshots of approximately one month’s data
 Q: How many researchers are already using this space?
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o Number is in the hundreds
Q: Is the percentage of use allowed – is it based on size of college?
o Right now, CSE is using the most
o Still trying to increase awareness at this point
A Research Data Management Community of Practice group is being led by Mike if any
researchers are interested
Medical School Strategic Plan
Tucker LeBien
 Background
o Medical School is very large
 29 departments
 20 clinical
 450 tenure or tenure track faculty
 About 1,100 faculty total
o $990 mil revenue supporting Medical School last year
 About half comes from UMP practice
 Med School has a current strategic plan in place
 AHC external review happened about two years ago
o One item in the report reflected an opportunity for more direction going forward
o President Kaler charged the Med School with developing a strategic plan
o Committee formed and charged with developing a strategic vision – led by Dick
King
 Critical strategies:
o Leadership
o Research
o Education
o Clinical care
 Each section has more detail and specifics
 Full strategic plan is ten pages – has specific points
 Implementation of plan began six months before Brooks Jackson was appointed about a
year ago
 See handout for points relative to the research portion of the strategic plan
 Metrics
o Sustained high quality/impact scholarship
o Peer reviewed extramural grants and funding
o Increased patient participation in clinical trials
o Increase in number of national awards (HHMI, NAS)
o Increase in number of collaborative research grants
 Recognizing that scholarship is not just published papers anymore
o Trying to develop a set of standards is a challenge
 Develop better tools for recognizing collaborative work – it’s not all about the individual
research anymore
 Key initiatives: Faculty
o Cluster hires
o Biomedical scholars program
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o Distinguished scholars program
o Deans distinguished lectureship – 2 faculty per year, extremely successful
o Physician scientist scholars program – development and mentoring of physicianscientists
 MD PhD program is different, this program is for current faculty
 Not at the student level
 Defined as a primary research based physician who still does maintain a
clinical responsibility
 Dept. of Medicine has some work to do in developing their research
portfolio – on the way
Cluster Hire Overview 2014
o Proposals could originate from any Medical School department
o Assistant, Associate, or full Professor recruitments
o Basic/translational/clinical within a broad area of biomedical research
o RFP went out to all of the Medical School
o Wanted to strengthen an area that is already established
2 phases:
o 2 page LOI
o 8 page full application
 Proposal had to focus around a major unresolved question in a specific
area/field
2 funded at $5M each
o Translational neuroscience
 Proposal had the goal of replacing Harry Orr
o Translational genomics in GI cancers
 Multi-faculty initiative with lynch pin of integrating with the Cancer
Center – also would help with renewal of a major core grant
Possibility of future continuation of program after getting a sense of success from initial
hire
Q: Is the $5M recurring?
o No, one-time $5M from dean’s office
o Don’t have faculty lines the way other colleges do
o Research intensive faculty are expected to recover at least half of their salary
Q: Was there administrative buy-in for these initiatives across department heads?
o Yes, their feedback was gathered throughout the process
Q: In broader initiatives – are there any goals regarding getting out of any areas?
o The strategic plan does not say anything high level
o Proposal to do post-tenure review after five years
o Dean is still figuring out where he wants to go
o Did recently evaluate centers and institutes and ended up closing a couple
o Metrics are paid much more attention and in some cases provide incentives based
on meeting metrics
Q: As plan was being developed, was expertise outside of the medical school considered?
o Not a specific part or goal, but it’s clear that alliances are important
Q: Ownership and buy in of strategic plan – how’s it going?
o It’s been more positively received than expected
o Brooks is very metrics-driven, and the plan meets that very nicely