Research Council Meeting

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Members Present: Fatima Toor, Mihaela Bojin, Kailey Cash, Yasar Onel, Paul Dilley, Jason Rantanen, Sai Kumar Ramadugu, David Drake, Anthony Panos, Natalie Denburg

Members Absent: Ariel Aloe, Anny-Dominique Curtius, Amanda Haes, Constance Berman, Jenna Yang, Rebecca Taugher, Queena Lin

Others in Attendance: Marty Scholtz, Jennifer Lassner, Mike Weaver, Lauren Galliart, Leslie Revaux, Aaron Kline

Call to Order

• • Meeting was called to order at 3:34 PM
  • Minutes from the October 24, 2022 meeting were accepted with no edits

Item 1: Survey Results (Toor)

• See Included Power Point slides

Item 2: Faculty Senate Feedback (Toor)

• Toor discussed the council charge in conjunction with her meeting with the Faculty Senate. Several colleges are not currently represented (Public Health, Nursing, Business, Pharmacy, Grad College). The council discussed increasing Research Council membership so that each college would be represented as well as what the process would be to incorporate this change into the charter. This could increase the council’s visibility on campus. Toor suggested sending a survey to council to gather feedback on the optimal size and makeup of the council. It was suggested that the council could work with shared governance and collegiate leadership to potentially recruit representatives from colleges lacking a formal representative to council meetings in the near-term while they explore officially expanding the council in its charter.
• The council discussed putting together a quarterly spotlight in the OVPR newsletter as well as refreshing the Research Council website.
• The council heard from OVPR on current efforts regarding strategic planning and will refrain from further discussions as the Strategic Plan Action and Resource Committee and Associate Deans for Research do their work.

Item 3: OVPR Updates

• P3 Updates (Scholtz)
  • Marty updated the committee on the P3 funding initiative. The FY24 call for preliminary proposals received 33 responses totaling $62 million in funding requests. The proposals will be reviewed and applicants will be notified by December 8th whether or not they have been selected to submit a full proposal. Full proposals will be due in March 2023.
  • The Faculty Senate will be conducting a periodic review of the Office of the Vice President for Research. Teresa Marshall will lead the review. Phase 1 is a self-study and Faculty Senate will formalize a committee to conduct the review in spring of 2023. It is expected that Research Council have an opportunity to be involved in the review process.
  • There is an ongoing need to bolster seed funding for early career researchers. P3 has provided some opportunities, but we need to reinvigorate these programs with permanent funds.
• Book Matters (Revaux) – This series will celebrate books by Iowa scholars across all disciplines (https://research.uiowa.edu/book-matters). Victor Ray will present a reading and reception in celebration of his new book, On Critical Race Theory, at Prairie Lights on Tuesday, November 29th from 7-8:30 PM.
  • Scholars in Conversation event will be held at the Stanley Museum in February.
  • Book Celebration at the Old Capitol Museum on March 31, 2023 will celebrate all UI Faculty scholarship who published books in the last year. OVPR doesn’t currently have a comprehensive list of books published by UI faculty and has reached out to Associate Deans to help identify faculty. Walton indicated that the libraries is setting up a system to capture these publications. Right now, the criteria include single authors, co-authors, and editors and co-editors of major textbooks. We are not including book chapters at this time.       
• RDO Updates (Kline)     
  •  The Research Services Fair was held at Hancher on October 20th. There were lots of presenters and attendees and many good connections were made.
  • DEI RFPs for supplements (grad student focused) and Team awards (team of researchers and team of undergraduates) are both live and applications are due mid spring.
  • Community engaged scholars RFP will go live in the next few weeks. $50,000 is available for working with partners around the state of Iowa. These applications will be due mid spring.
  • NSF CAREER Club will be starting again: https://research.uiowa.edu/nsf-career-club. Lots of resources are available to faculty who go through the program.
  • The federal NSF budget is on the verge of a large increase. UI needs to be ready to tap into new money, CAREER awards are a great opportunity to get your foot in the door for this funding. The money will go to bolster existing programs and to new and emerging areas of emphasis.

Item 4: Future Engagement with ADRs

• • Toor will plan to join an Associate Deans for Research meeting in early 2023 to discuss how Research Council can best engage.

Meeting adjourned at 4:59