Date of Meeting:
Research Council Meeting
Friday, October 26
Members Present: Jessica Boyle, Jodi Graff, Amanda Haes, George Hospodarsky, John Nelson, Jane Paulsen, Guowei Qi, Jason Rantanen (by phone), Diane Rohlman, Alberto Segre,
Rebecca Taugher, Keyan Zarei
Members Absent: Barbara Eckstein, Jennifer Fiegel, Kevin Kelly, Steven Mickelsen, Jane Nachtman,
Others in Attendance: Shelly Campo, Marie Kerbeshian, Bob Kirby, Leslie Revaux, Ann Ricketts
Item 1. Welcome (Segre)
Minutes of the October 5, 2018 were approved unanimously.
Item 2. Vice President for Research Updates (Ricketts)
a. The Economic Development transition is nearly final. Jon Darsee has been hired for the position of Chief Innovation Officer. MERGE/Protostudios, Tri Incubator and the Research Park are transferring to Darsee’s office on November 1. The University of Iowa Research Foundation will remain in the Office of the VP for Research.
- Budget Review Board –
- A Provost Investment Fund will be set up to support innovative, aspirational, ideas linked to AAU metrics and strategic plan. Grants up to $300K over three years will be available. An RFP will be sent to colleges.
b. The Revenue Estimating Committee projects state revenue will grow by five percent in FY19 and then slow to 2 percent growth in FY 20 when the initial tax cuts in the tax reform bill passed in the last legislative session are in full effect. A budget reversion for FY 2019 is unlikely, but FY 2020 and beyond will be fiscally challenging.
- Reminder that VP for Research airport interviews will be conducted on 11/30 and 12/1. Guowei provided an update about the CLAS Dean search. The on-campus interviews concluded the week of 10/25.
Item 3. Responsible Conduct of Research
An RCR survey was distributed to course instructors of RCR courses. 10 course instructors responded.
In reviewing the responses, the Council noted that the average course enrollments for those that responded are low. Large classes, like those in Engineering, Medicine, and possibly Public health, don’t appear to be represented in the sample.
Animal research scores lower in importance than any other course topic. It was noted that the Qualtrics survey scale was inverted (i.e. a “1” represented most important and “5” least important contrary to the headings).
Committee members expressed concerns about conflicting communications regarding current institutional RCR policy, and general campus confusion about who is required to complete training.
Shelly clarified that RCR training is not required for all graduate students. The current requirement applies to NSF, NIH and USDA (NIFA) funded graduate students. Leslie noted the notification list is pulled from HR data and the language on the current notification does not suggest all graduate students must take the training.
Alberto cited a solicitation that limited NIH’s policy coverage of the R mechanisms to R25 and R26s. The current UI policy applies to all NIH-funded graduate students.
The committee requested data from the OVPR on the number of current UI NIH training grants that are subject to the NIH policy.
Jason joined by phone and added these comments by e-mail: It might be worth talking to some of the graduate programs that don't necessarily do research or scholarship. I don't know, for example, whether the Master of Accountancy or Master of Finance programs involve scholarship. Other programs might have different norms about issues like authorship--Strategic Communications, for example, might have different norms. There are definitely different norms in law (although that's not part of the Graduate College). Here's the list of programs: https://www.grad.uiowa.edu/programs/alphabetically
The committee will establish a sub-committee to review the current UI policy and provide recommendations to the VP for Research. Their ultimate goal is to clarify policy and messaging, and recommend an efficient method for monitoring compliance. Alberto, Jane, Amanda, Jodi, Keyan and John agreed to serve on the RCR subcommittee.
Next steps: Mike will set up a subcommittee meeting within the next week or two and provide information regarding RCR from Northwestern, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Michigan State.
The meeting adjourned at 3:00 pm.
