Research Council Meeting

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Members Present: Alberto Segre, David Drake, Jason Rantanen, John Nelson, Mihaela Bojin, Shujie Yang, Nicole Green, Ariel Aloe, Nick Stroup, Jane Nachtman, Constance Berman, Amanda Haes

Members Absent: Guowei Qi, Jodi Graff, Kevin Kelly, Diane Rohlman, Anny Curtius, Erin Brothers

Others in Attendance –Richard Hichwa, Ann Ricketts, Jennifer Lassner, Robert Kirby, Michael Weaver

Call to Order

• The meeting was called to order at 4:01 PM.
• The minutes from the October 14, 2020 meeting were approved unanimously following a motion from Rantanen, which was seconded by Nachtman.

Item 1:  Updates from OVPR

• Harassment Reporting Protocol – Jennifer Lassner provided an update on the progress of the Harassment Working Group, which has been charged with updating the University of Iowa’s reporting protocol for federal agencies in instances of alleged or suspected harassment.  The updated protocol is in place and has been shared with the Council of Deans and the Associate Deans for Research.  Research Council members expressed concern that federal reporting rules may discourage reporting and suggested that the Working Group engage with the Graduate Council and other groups that may be affected by the changes.  This is not a policy that the University of Iowa has much discretion over, only the reporting procedure.
• P3 Grant Proposals – A call for Year 0 funding proposals went to the President’s Cabinet, Council of Deans, and the chairs of the Path Forward Committees on December 4^th.  The available funds are limited to “shovel-ready” projects and proposals are due December 18^th.  A call for Year 1 proposals will open to all of campus in the spring and a larger pool of dollars will be available.  The Office of the Vice President for Research has put together a proposal for dollars that will be made available to researchers for seed-funding that might lead to larger multidisciplinary proposals and scholarship from external sponsors.  OVPR will be looking for big ideas and collaboration within the University of Iowa.  Projects will be awarded through a competitive process.  Aaron Kline, Director of the Research Development Office has been instrumental in the proposal and will be involved in the administration of the project should it be awarded.  The total ask for the OVPR proposal is $2 million out of the $7.5 million available in the Year 0 pool.  The expectation is that approximately $15 million will be available annually from the proceeds from the P3.  Michael Weaver gave a brief overview on what the P3 is and how it is expected to generate revenue for the institution.
• COVID-19 updates – Human Subjects Research restrictions have been reduced and there is no plan to ramp down research activities increase again unless there is an order from the state or federal government to do so.  Research protocols under COVID have been successful and VPR does not foresee a need to ramp down should cases spike.

Item 2:  Subcommittee Activities

• Classified/Restricted Research Subcommittee
  • The committee continues to meet and work on its recommendations.  A more detailed update will be provided at the next Research Council meeting.
• Conflict of Interest/Conflict of Commitment
  • Segre provided background information on the committee’s work dating back to the 2019/2020 council year.  Segre discussed the Operations Manual and how the policy reads and is generally implemented.  The council discussed the broad recommendations of the committee’s letter and will vote on finalizing at the next meeting.  Any comments should be forwarded to Alberto prior to the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 4:52 PM