Minutes - Jan 11, 2005

Date of Meeting: 

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

10:30 AM to Noon

Present:

Scott Bounds, Ben Darbo, Bill Decker, Karen Farris, Michael Flatte, Boyd Knosp, Johna Leddy, Michael Mackey, Teresa Mangum, Cheryl Reardon, Mark Sidel, David Wynes

Guest:

Grainne Martin

Meeting was called to order at 10:34 AM.

Publication request

The first topic was a discussion related to a publication request from a faculty member.  As outlined in Operations Manual 27.2 Principles Governing Restricted-Access Research, Research Council reviews waiver requests and makes a recommendation to the Vice President for Research.  Due to the complexity of this particular case, the publication waiver subcommittee felt that a discussion by the entire Research Council would be helpful.  Prior to the meeting, each council member received information related to this request.  This publication waiver request related to publication limitations and requirements in an academic consortium-proposed agreement with the University.

Outcomes from Research Council discussion:

  • Sidel will write a recommendation to Decker regarding the RC position on this waiver request.
  • The Research Council will develop guidelines for the publication waiver subcommittee that will help address these types of consortium agreements.
  • The Research Council reiterated the importance of redrafting and updating Operations Manual Chapter 27.2 Principles Governing Restricted-Access Research Policy.

Indirect cost recoveries (ICR)

Flatte continued the discussion about the amount of indirect cost recoveries (ICR) that are allocated to departments.  Tom Boggess, the DEO in Physics and Astronomy, recently attended the Midwest Physics Chairs meeting in Chicago, Ill.  Boggess provided a chart that showed the percent of return of indirect cost funds that are returned to departments.  This data indicates that the return to departments and PI's at The University of Iowa is very low compared to a number of peer institutions.

Questions arising in this discussion included:

  1. Should more ICR funds be allocated directly to departments?
  2. As we think about growing the research enterprise, is there some way to change ICR that would provide incentives to help with this goal?
  3. As an institution, if a new policy on ICR were approved it would take a few years to be implemented due to current institutional reliance on these funds.
  4. If ICR is an investment, what is the return on that investment (as measured by increased research publications, external awards, and other forms of measurement)?

The meeting was adjourned at noon.