COUNCIL OF RESEARCH ASSOCIATE DEANS
AUGUST 19, 2010
101 Walter Library
1:30-3pm
ATTENDANCE: Gayle Anderson, Melissa Anderson, Julie Borris, Michele Chin-Purcell, Judy
Garrard, Ann Garwick, Tom Hays, Brad Hokanson, David Johnson, Mos Kaveh, David March,
Geoffrey Maruyama, R. Timothy Mulcahy, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, F. Abel Ponce de León,
Srirama Rao, Rosalyn Segal, Peggy Sundermeyer, Mike Volna, Pamela Webb
GUESTS: Anne-Francoise Lamblin, Gail Klatt, & Jorge Viñals
DISCUSSION:
Announcements & Updates
 Research Awards
(Tim Mulcahy)
o For Fiscal Year 2009-2010, we received $823 million research funding.
 Breakdown of $823 million minus stimulus equals $670 million for
research.
 10% increase from FY 2009 and 1,000 additional awards.
 Introduction of Jorge Viñals
(Tim Mulcahy)
o New Director of MSI
o Holds a tenure-track faculty appointment in Physics
o Special thanks to Tom Jones for serving as interim MSI director
 Infrastructure Investment Initiative (I3) (http://www.research.umn.edu/advance/i3.html)
(Tim Mulcahy)
o $20+ Million for Research Infrastructure
 Up to 12 million for infrastructure, including key technical support
 One-third match expected
 Funding available for up to 5 years
 Funds derive from royalties from technology commercialization
 Royalties have also been used for: grant match, fellowships, and
21st Century Scholarship fund
o Internal pre-proposal with the intent to be as inclusive as possible
o External panel will review finalist proposals to make recommendations
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RISS: Research Informatics Support Systems (http://www.informatics.umn.edu/)
(Anne-Francoise Lamblin)
o Handout: “Research informatics Support Systems (RISS)”
 RISS web site is currently under development. Information regarding
RISS proposal and an ongoing UMII-RISS infrastructure project for the
support of DNA sequence data analysis (Galaxy project) can be found at
this temporary address: https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/umii-wiki/projects
Solution for Integrated Research Compliance
(Peggy Sundermeyer)
o Contracted with Key Solutions Incorporated The next step is to develop the
project plan
Risk Tolerance (Tim Mulcahy)
 PowerPoint: “A Case for Recalibrating Risk Tolerance”
 Discussion
o Our past should enable the U to be more strategic about risk; knowing what we
know, having our current systems in place. We’re not advocating returning to
what we once were, but to take advantage of what we’ve learned from our past
history and the systems we’ve put in place to develop a culture of responsible risk
management
o Board of Regents has already raised the risk question and recognizes that this is
an important issue
o International research and education – this is an example of where we need a
mechanism for allowing faculty to do research, access funds and to track students
for their protection
o Research is rarely “zero-risk”
Issues for this year (Abel Ponce de León)
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Faculty expertise database.
There are currently five university-wide centers we will ask to present to us.
o Consortium on Law & Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences
(reports to Provost)
o Institute for Advanced Study (reports to Provost)
o Institute for Translational Neuroscience (reports to Sr. Vice President for Health
Sciences)
o Institute on the Environment (reports to Provost)
o MN Population Center (reports to Vice President for Research)
What issues or concerns do we want to look at this year?
o Let Abel (apl@umn.edu) or Peggy (sunde005@umn.edu) know.
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