Although the Faculty Learning Community is not a new structure or initiative in the higher education arena, adapting this model for faculty development focused on grant proposal writing is relatively new. This article describes how the concept developed by Milt Cox of Miami University has been successfully modified and implemented twice on the…

Call it innovation, creativity, imagination, cutting edge, paradigm shift, or any other term for new information, an assessment of innovation may now impact the final decision on awarding grants to investigators. What exactly is innovation and how does the reviewer perceive innovation in the research approach? Procedures, the approach, and…

By providing training from the Central Sponsored Programs Office (SPO), departments, and colleges at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) can increase compliance with grant requirements. PUIs usually do not focus on department- or college-level grants administration and lack monetary resources to support this function. However, at the…

On occasion, colleges and universities are confronted with natural or technological disasters that affect their communities or their constituents throughout the state. While these situations demand a coordinated institutional research response, administration and management of these endeavors are extremely complex. In this paper we discuss the…

Federal sponsorship of collaboration between academic institutions and industry is on the rise. Many government programs emphasize cooperation between universities and the commercial sector as a means to merge basic and applied research, promote economic development, and enhance knowledge dissemination. The intersection between academia and…

Experienced grant writers know that reviewers are quick to decide whether they like or do not like the proposals they are reading. Therefore, much of the success of any given proposal rides on the strength of the first page--its capacity to "sell" the research idea to skeptical reviewers. This paper describes a writing technique designed to elicit…

After months of waiting, the grant reviews came back: "excellent," "excellent," and "fair." What?! How can this be? Why is the third review so out of line with the first two? On more than one occasion a principal investigator (PI) has been frustrated not only by a negative funding decision but more so by the accompanying reviewer evaluation forms…

Examines the concept of cost sharing between grantor agencies and grantee institutions and identifies problems encountered, including use of cost sharing to leverage funds by both funding agencies and grantee institutions; and various grantee institution costing, accounting, and auditing issues, such as effort reporting, the Cost Accounting…

Discusses various policy considerations related to the sharing by universities of the costs of federally funded research in the context of government expectations that research universities will carry out the vital functions of training the next generation of scientists and engineers, performing a large fraction of federally funded basic research,…

Addresses ongoing issues in research cost sharing between government and universities in the context of the current Presidential Review Directive on the Government-University Research Partnership. Issues include the procurement vs. assistance conundrum, systemic shifting of costs of research from the government to universities, and the failure of…

Discusses issues in the recent debate on cost sharing within the federal government-university partnership, the historical roots of cost sharing, and limitations on the recovery of costs under federally funded research. Notes that the Presidential Review Directive process is working toward a set of guiding principles and recommendations to enhance…

Discussion of cost sharing in the government-university relationship focuses on the controversial idea that adding a "factor" for voluntary cost sharing in the rate base for facilities and administration and rationalizing the assignment of space to functions could simplify rate negotiation, decrease record-keeping burdens, and avoid costly…

Proposes a plan to determine if a cyclical, systems-based analysis can replace detailed activity reporting for voluntary faculty effort in government-supported university research. This analysis could then provide the basis for adjusting entries on billed contract costs. The method would provide quantitative support for analyzing voluntary cost…

A national survey of college and university chief research officers conducted in July 1996 provided comparative data concerning the characteristics of research administration in a modern institution, including funding levels and sources, facilities and staff resources, and other program information. Data are grouped by institution type and sector.…

Presnets the questionnaire used to survey college and university chief research officers in a July 1996 study, with response data summarized. The survey gathered information on the administrator's characteristics, research-funding levels and sources, costs, office functions (grant administration, research administration, ethical/legal oversight),…