Council for Research - Annual Report

2007-2008

Clinton Chichester, Biomedical Sciences
Nikhilesh Dholakia, Business Administration
Ginette Ferszt, Nursing
Graham Forrester, NRS
Sookhyn Kim, TMD
John King, Oceanography
Tom Mather, Plant Sciences
John Merrill, Oceanography, Chairman
Mike Milkman, CELS Business Manager
Joan Peckham, Computer Science
Manbir Sodhi, Industrial Engineering
Mark Wood, Psychology
Ray Wright, Engineering

Meetings 2007-2008

Professor John Merrill served as the Chair for the Council for Research during the 2007 - 2008 academic year.

September 10, 2007
October 1, 2007
November 5, 2007
December 3, 2007
February 4, 2008
March 3, 2008
March 31, 2008
April 14, 2008
May 5, 2008

Significant Activities:

The specific priorities for the 2007 - 2008 Council for Research were:

Graduate student tuition costs
Fair treatment of post docs
Survey former CFR grant recipients to evaluate success of grant programs
Proposal Development and Career Enhancement grant programs
Proposal submission process: evaluation and recommendations
Export Controls Policy development
Revision of Proposal Development & Career Enhancement applications and instructions
Support for university wide research facilities and infrastructure
Department differences re: utilization of research office personnel for grant support

Center applications were considered for:

URI Transportation Center (recommended permanent status)
Institute for Immunology and Informatics (III) (recommended temporary status)
Confucius Center (tabled: awaiting written financial report with budget, and report about the type of research to be conducted)
Center for Excellence in Research on Offshore Renewable Energy (RORE) (recommended temporary status)

Partnership award recommendations:

URI Energy Partnership (recommended by CFR and approved by Provost)

Council for Research Faculty awards for the Proposal Development and Career Enhancement grant programs for 2008 - 2009:

After review and discussion of the top applicants, the Council decided to award the $20,000 funding for this Career Enhancement program in the following amounts:

$6,305 to Timothy George
$5,035 to Kim Hensley Owens
$1,800 to Eliane Aberdam
$3,421 to Manabu Takasawa
$3,421 to Yinjiao Ye

The committee then discussed the Proposal Development's top applicants and decided to award the $50,000.
Funding for this program as follows:

$8,459 to Brenton DeBoef
$5,995 to Shahid Karim
$7,250 to Ingrid Lofgren
$8,500 to Laura Meyerson
$9,556 to Niall Howlett
$3,935 to Brad Seibel
$6,305 to Angela Slitt

The committee recommended that Vice President Peter Alfonso seek additional funding to support the Proposal Development applications of Resit Sendag, Chris Roman, and Navindra Seeram, due to their high Intellectual Property potential.

The committee also discussed gender equity issues and determined that if more money had been available for Council for Research grants, the proposals from Katherine Kelley and Emi Uchida would also have been funded, thereby achieving this goal.

Results of significant activities:

Graduate student tuition costs: discussed

Fair treatment of post docs: Human Resources unresponsive to requests to meet with Council to discuss issue; written complaint to be expressed to VP for Administration Robert Weygand concerning lack of satisfaction with HR, with request for written report reiterated.

Survey former CFR grant recipients to evaluate success of grant programs:
Completed with report submitted to Council for Research

Proposal Development and Career Enhancement grant programs: Funded 12 proposals

Proposal submission process: evaluation completed by subcommittee and recommendations submitted to Dr. Peter Alfonso and Council for Research

Export Controls Policy development: work in progress, to be continued

Revision of Proposal Development & Career Enhancement applications and instructions:
Completed and posted on website

Support for university wide research facilities and infrastructure: issue discussed with recommendations for share resources noted

Department differences concerning utilization of research office personnel for grant support: issue discussed with recommendations noted

Faculty Senate