INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH SUPPORT UNIT ESTABLISHED

With federal agencies showing a trend toward funding an increasing number of centers and programs directed at solving large-scale problems, the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor provided seed funding to the Office of Research to establish a new unit, Interdisciplinary Research Support, which will work with faculty to apply for large, complex grants and assist them to prepare the applications.

Federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which traditionally have funded much research through grants to single investigators or small groups, are showing a trend toward larger, more complex and multidisciplinary grants. Besides emphasizing a cross-fertilization across physical, engineering, biological, and medical sciences, the NIH’s “Roadmap” initiatives, for example, call for more collaborations with industry directed towards products to solve health problems.

The Interdisciplinary Research Support unit, headed by Dr. Richard J. Meisinger, Jr., will scout for new opportunities for funding from government agencies and the private sector; advise campus administrators on which opportunities to pursue; bring faculty together from across campus to apply for large-scale, complex grants or grants that establish an interdisciplinary center of excellence; create teams to write the applications and coordinate faculty and staff in making sure grant proposals get written and submitted on time.

The Interdisciplinary Research Support unit will have three staff members to assist in the preparation of research proposals: a financial specialist, an editorial specialist, and an editorial coordinator/writer for science-based proposals. Usually large-scale proposals involve the creation of several budgets; the financial specialist will assist with their preparation and ensure that the budgets adhere to sponsor guidelines. The financial specialist also provides assistance in drafting budget justifications. The editorial specialist will coordinate the written contributions of participating faculty and associates and edit technical writing to make the contributions consistent in style and content. The editorial coordinator/writer will coordinate faculty-writing teams and assist faculty in drafting the grant application. The Interdisciplinary Research Support unit will assist with the project schedule, obtain supporting documents and forms, and assemble the final proposal. The new unit is intended to not only make the grant application process easier for faculty from multiple disciplines engaged in complex endeavors, but also to strengthen the proposal itself.