Council on Research Meeting Minutes
Monday, March 23, 2015
Life Sciences Research Building, Conference Room 1143
10:30am-12:30pm
Members present: Indushoba Chengalur-Smith, Aiguo Dai, James Dias, Lisa Donohue, Vladimir
Ermolenkov, Kajal Lahiri, Klil Neori, Patrick Nold
Members absent: Ilham AlMahamid, Keith Earle, Ian Tucker
Also attending: Thecla Philip, Theresa Walker
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Council on Research Chair, Kajal Lahiri, at 10:41am.
Approval of Meeting Minutes from January 28, 2015
The minutes were reviewed. Once quorum was reached a vote was held and the minutes were
unanimously approved.
Subcommittee Reports
1. Benevolent Association Awards for Graduate Research review committee- chair Lisa Donohue
The Benevolent Association Awards subcommittee received 9 applications for the spring round of
funding. There was only funding available to award 7 of the 9 applicants; funding is specifically
available only for travel to do research, equipment, and books directly related to the research. The
committee met on March 27th to discuss the applications, and determined that two of the applicants had
not yet obtained approval from their committee for their research topic. The committee therefore
recommended that the below-listed seven applicants be funded, and the other two applicants be
encouraged to reapply once they had obtained the approval of their committees. It was also noted that
one of the applicants approved for funding, Yuching Cheng, would need a revised IRB approval before
obtaining their funds as their project proposal had slightly changed.
Applicant
first
name
Applicant
last name
Department
Title of proposal
Amount
funded
Jessica
Watson
Anthropology
"Ecological Effects of Colonization on
Mammals and Birds along the
Northeastern Atlantic Coast"
Sarah
Heins
Anthropology
"Animal Use at the Tripolye Site of
Verteba Cave, Ukraine"
$500.00
History
"Consuming Knowledge: Industrial,
Medical, and Recreational Uses of
Cannabis in New York City, 18701940"
$330.00
Robert
Beach
$500.00
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Hsieh
Political Science
"The Politics of Israeli Immigration
Control Policy in Comparative
Perspective"
Antidormi
Geography and
Planning
"Monitoring Soil Response to
Decreasing Acidic Deposition in the
Adirondacks"
$500.00
Li
Zhang
Educational
Administration
and Policy Studies
"International Branch Campuses in
China: Quest for Legitimacy"
$500.00
Yuching
Cheng
Sociology
"The Making of Marital Boundaries"
$500.00
Yeufen
Michael
$500.00
These recommendations were put for a vote and unanimously approved by the Council.
2. Conference/Journal Support Awards Review committee- chair Aiguo Dai
The subcommittee received one journal support award application and three applications for conference
support awards.
The Journal support award application was not recommended for funding at this time. The editorship
has not yet been approved, and would not begin until 2016, so there was some concern over the timing
of the application. If the applicant re-submitted the application later, after their editorship of the journal
had been confirmed, it was the opinion of the committee that it should be supported, as it is the major
journal in the field.
The conference support award applications were reviewed as follows:
1) Susan McCormick/History: Researching New York
This is mostly a regional or national conference which has been unusually successful at making
partnerships (including the NYS Archives) and they have become a well-known conference for
the study of NY History. The subject is limiting in terms of international participation, but they
are clearly trying to build an international component with the listing of 2 participants. It is
important to the state and makes use of the one large archive that the Albany area offers.
Recommendation: Fully support the conference at $2,350
2) Li Niu/Chemistry: iGluRs Retreat
A technical meeting worthy of support. Unlike other applications, it does not include expenses
on food or payments to speakers.
Recommendation: fully fund the requested amount of $1360
3) Matthew Szydgis/Physics: Light Detection in Noble Elements
A technical conference with 85% national participants, 10% international participants and 5%
locals. Support is also being provided by the universities of the co-organizing faculty,
including MIT and UC-Davis.
Recommend to fund the requested amount of $2500.
These recommendations were put for a vote and unanimously approved by the Council.
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3. President’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities- chair Kajal Lahiri
It was noted that the Excellence Awards would be presented on Wednesday March 25th in the Ballroom.
The Research awards were selected by the committee in January after a spirited discussion; Melinda
Larsen, Li Niu, and Donna Scanlon were chosen for this year’s awards.
New Business
1. FRAP awards – faculty concerns
The office of the Vice President for Research had received concerns from faculty indicating that they
were worried about how the review process was being handled. These concerns were passed to the
Council for informational purposes, but had been largely addressed by the Office of the Vice President
in explaining in additional detail how the review process worked beyond the feedback provided to the
applicants.
2. Chancellor’s new initiatives for experiential learning for undergraduates and graduate students.
The question was raised as to whether the Division for Research would be putting forward any
additional funding for undergraduate experiential learning programs, or if plans were in process to
approach SUNY central for additional funding for these sorts of programs in view of the Chancellor’s
message promoting experiential learning for undergraduates through internships and research.
Dr. Dias outlined a number of ways the Division is increasing participation in undergraduate research.
There are opportunities through the Networks of Excellence to involve undergraduate students in the
networks; the STEM Passport program allows funding for 45 students to go to any lab they wanted
throughout the SUNY system. This program was proving to be very popular, with twice as many
applications as could be funded.
Dr. Dias also noted that the Division had a graduate student a couple of years ago who prepared a report
on undergraduate research across the university, noting the variety of opportunities available
throughout each department.
It was suggested that a round table discussion could be held for graduate students to apply for research
funding, with successful graduate students offering tips on how to successfully apply for external
grants.
Additionally, the new Writing and Critical Inquiry faculty would introduce undergraduates to the key
tenets of critical thinking, which forms the basis for all research.
Report of the Vice President for Research, James A. Dias
The Vice President reported that the Presidential Initiatives Fund for Research and Scholarship received 70
proposals, convened an advisory council and has involved 75 faculty in a comprehensive review process.
The rankings will be submitted to the President for his consideration and approval. Once they are approved,
faculty will be notified one way or the other. Concern was noted that the process for selecting the PIFRS
recipients was not brought to COR for review and recommendations before it was implemented; it was
noted that the initiative process required a fast rollout but there would be an opportunity for feedback at the
end of this year’s process in order to improve the initiative for the future.
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There was also discussion of the successful second Data Forum, with a focus this year on Health Data
Analytics. It was noted that the forum needs to be institutionalized and additional resources brought to bear
from across the university in order to build on its success.
Finally, the American Cancer Society will be holding a grantwriting workshop and community-building
event hosted at UAlbany on April 27th; the first part of the morning will convene area leadership to look at
increasing successful funding applications in the region, and it will be followed by workshops for faculty
and postdocs on how to write successful grant applications for the American Cancer Society.
Meeting adjourned 12:30pm
Submitted by Elizabeth Rooks
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