RESEARCH
COORDINATING COUNCIL
Memorandum
159
November
18, 2004
Members Present:
Brian Attebery James Bigelow Phil Blick
Steve Byers Kay Flowers Gregory Green
Dianne Horrocks Richard Inouye Lori Johnson
Skip Lohse Jason Marenda Subbaram Naidu
Al Strickland Rob Van Kirk Connie Tillotson (Secretary)
Alternates: Susan Steiner for Carol Ashton
Cyndy Kelchner for Beth Hudnall Stamm
Skip Lohse for Linda Deck
Absent: John Bennion Deb Easterly Larry Ford
Frank Harmon Mike McCurry Robert Picard
Malcolm Shields Robert Wharton Thomas Windholz
Paul Zelus
Guests: Christopher Daniels, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Solomen Leung,
Ms. Horrocks introduced
herself as the Vice-Chair and said she would be presiding over the meeting as
Dr. Wharton was out of town. He was
selected to receive an award from his alma mater
Ms. Horrocks called the
meeting to order.
I. Approval
of Minutes
Ms.
Horrocks requested any changes or corrections to the minutes. Ms. Horrocks announced that the office was
planning on submitting information to the committee (agenda, minutes,
attachments) electronically to save a few trees. However, if any committee member would prefer
a hard copy to please advise us and we will mail them the information. Ms. Horrocks also asked Ms. Tillotson (committee secretary) to bring
a few copies to the meeting. One
correction to the minutes was on page 4 to correct the spelling of Dr. Swamy
Laximinarayan=s name.
Ms. Horrocks requested a motion
to approve the minutes with the corrections.
Dr. Bigelow moved to accept the minutes, Dr. Strickland seconded the
motion. Motion passed (Memorandum #158).
II. Reports.
A. Faculty
Research Committee (FRC) - Dr. Green reported they will be meeting to
consider fall proposals for the first time December 3. He said they received a total of 23 proposals
totaling $113,000 and the committee only has a little ~$37,000+ to give. The first round of evaluations will be held
on December 3 then the committee will break for a little over a week and hold
the next round of discussions on December 10.
B. Graduate
Student Research and Scholarship Committee (GSRSC). Mr. Jason Marenda reported they made their
recommendations on November 5 for eleven (11) scholarships totaling
~$13,500. The committee also changed the
ranking on how scholarships are awarded.
Previously it was a 30-40-40 split for undergraduate GPA, GRE, and
graduate GPA scores. They changed it for
incoming graduate students to 60% for undergraduate GPA and 40% on the GRE
scores. For returning graduate students,
it will be 10% on the undergraduate GPA, 70% on the graduate GPA, and 20% on
the GRE scores. Also, the GPA scores are normalized to the average for their
college. The committee is also currently
reviewing 13 research proposals and one (1) dissemination proposal. They made the first review of the
proposals. They have notified applicants
of changes or corrections needed for the proposals and on December 10 they will
meet again to award the proposals.
C. Humanities
and Social Sciences Research Committee (HSSRC) - Ms. Horrocks
mentioned Dr. Wharton is the chair of
the committee and at the last meeting Dr. Green was elected as the Vice-Chair
of the committee. Eleven proposals have
been distributed for review and the next meeting will be held November 30 for
the initial review and December 16 to make the final decisions. Dr. Green advised that the number of
proposals the committee received is up from what has been received in the past.
D. Undergraduate
Research Committee (UgRC) - Dr. Van Kirk reported the committee made one
change in the bylaws as a matter of procedure.
The bylaws have a provision for non-voting members of the committee to
be appointed by the President of the University. Since the inception of this committee, the
positions have never been appointed and there has been no participation on the
committee; therefore, the Office of Research advised if the committee did not
feel this was a needed part of the committee and did not require this
participation, it was within their rights to remove this requirement from their
bylaws. The committee voted to remove
this from the bylaws. Basically the
change brings the bylaws in line with how the committee has operated. Dr. Van Kirk advised the number of proposals
was actually down from prior semesters.
They received requests for five (5) travel awards and six (6) research awards
requesting more than $14,000. They had a
budget of $10,500 to award so even with the small number of proposals submitted
they did have to make cuts. On November
16 the committee decided to fund all five travel requests at a fraction of what
was requested (72%). All five of the
requests were from students in the same lab.
The committee scored the submissions as one request. Of the six research proposals, one proposal
clearly was not in accordance with the guidelines and it was eliminated from
consideration. Of the top three of the
remaining five research proposals, the committee voted to award the student=s requests at the full amounts. The remaining two were awarded at 75% of the
requested amount. This resulted in a
total of $10,393.00 being funded.
E. University
Research Committee (URC) - Ms.
Horrocks reported Dr. Wharton is the chair of this committee. No report, as the committee meets only in the
spring.
F. Federal
Initiative Update - Ms. Horrocks reported Dr. Ford was out due to illness
and therefore no report will be provided at this time.
G. INL
Contract - Ms. Horrocks reported that Battelle Energy Alliance received the
contract for INL and she mentioned the local newspaper had a one page announcement. The article in the paper announced that
Battelle is excited about being the new contractor and they will work with a
few partners. The BEA team (Battelle Energy Alliance Team) includes BWX
Technologies, Washington Group International, the Electric Power Research
Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a further subset of this, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology will lead a university consortium which
includes Idaho State University, Boise State University, University of Idaho,
University of New Mexico, North Carolina State University, Ohio State
University, Oregon State University, and of course MIT. Ms. Horrocks advised Dr. Wharton has been in
communication with his counterparts at both
H. Other
Reports - Ms. Horrocks asked if there were any other reports. No reports.
III. Council
Business
A. Notice
of Intent (NOI) - ISU Biomedical Research Institute - Ms. Horrocks reminded
the committee they were provided with an updated NOI. Ms. Horrocks introduced Dr. Chris Daniels to
make a short presentation and to answer any questions from the committee. The concerns expressed in past meetings were
addressed and clarified with the updated NOI.
She advised Dr. Daniels has also provided letters of support from deans
from the various colleges. Ms. Horrocks
turned the time over to Dr. Daniels for any other updates. Dr. Daniels expressed his appreciation for
the opportunity to resubmit the NOI. He
briefed the committee on past developments of this project. It has been evolving for the past three
years. They have proceeded with the
approval received early in the process from Dr. Bowen, Dr. Lawson, and Mr. Prolo. Dr. Daniels said their long term goal is to
have a facility constructed on campus to have all the branches of the institute
consolidated in one focal point for research.
Ms. Horrocks thanked Dr. Daniels for the information and requested
questions from the committee. Dr.
Daniels responded to a few questions and advice provided by the committee
members. Ms. Horrocks thanked Dr.
Daniels and Dr. Leung for their time.
Dr. Daniels and Dr. Leung excused themselves from the meeting. Dr. Van Kirk requested a summary of the
approval process. Ms. Horrocks said
submission to the RCC is the first step.
If we approve, then the next step is to present the NOI to Faculty
Senate, then ISU Administration, and then to the State Board of Education. Dr. Strickland moved to accept the Notice of
Intent for the Biomedical Research Institute (as revised). Dr. Bigelow seconded the motion. Motion passed.
B. Revision
of Bylaws - Ms. Horrocks told the
Council the next item on the agenda for council business is provided mainly as
information. She explained Ms. Tillotson
has been reviewing the bylaws for research related committees making sure the
bylaws and guidelines are up-to-date, are clarified, are being followed, and
are consistent. She said some inconsistencies have been
discovered. The UgRC has corrected the
problems to their bylaws, and the HSSRC is planning on corrections to their
guidelines and bylaws. Ms. Horrocks said
the Council will be provided with the revised information for each committee if
needed. She mentioned these changes may
not require the approval of the members and will research whether by the
acceptance of the minutes this will also indicate an acceptance by the Council
or whether the changes require RCC approval.
Ms. Horrocks advised this information will be provided to the members
prior to our next meeting.
C. Other
Business
Ms.
Flowers reminded everyone that the library receives 2% of ISU=s collected indirect costs for infrastructure
support. She will provide a report on
how these dollars are spent at our next meeting.
Ms.
Flowers also reported a problem they have experienced with software; problems
with adding this to the university=s
server. In a sense, she feels we are
suffering from our success. Ms. Flowers
suggested perhaps some discussion from the Council on how computer needs can be
incorporated into grants. Ms. Horrocks
said the subject definitely could be discussed by the group. The Office of Research/Office of Sponsored
Programs have discussed including computer support costs in proposals in a
recent staff meeting. Mr. Dave Harris
from the Office of Sponsored Programs is meeting with Mr. Randy Gaines to
discuss what Mr. Gaines= needs might be and how we may eliminate his
concerns. Some ideas are to revise the Proposal
and Approval Routing form for the inclusion of computer support as a trigger to
the faculty submitting the proposals.
This would bring to the attention of those submitting a grant
application to include computer support in their budget. Ms. Horrocks said she would entertain any
suggestions to take to Mr. Harris and Mr. Gaines. Ms. Flowers mentioned they have established a
steering committee to identify these areas.
Ms. Horrocks suggested the Council feel free to share any ideas and she
will collaborate with Mr. Harris on this concern.
Dr.
Strickland mentioned he received a FRC award last year and asked for
clarification in regard to the reporting procedures for grants provided by the
FRC committee. Ms. Horrocks said the
Office of Research web site contains the reporting guidelines for all ISU
research related grant committees and it contains information regarding filing
a final report. Dr. Strickland
questioned whether the final reports from past awards were also published to
the website. Ms. Horrocks responded the
final reports from past awards are not published on the website rather they are
provided to the chair of each individual committee and the chair communicates
the information with their members. Ms.
Horrocks said the submission of the final reports are monitored very closely to
ensure the funds are spent appropriately.
If a final report has not been submitted, the individual will not be
eligible for another award until it is filed.
Ms. Horrocks requested a
motion to adjourn the meeting. Dr.
Bigelow moved to adjourn, Dr. Van Kirk seconded. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned 3:40 p.m.
Approved by Faculty Senate on October 17, 2005