More than 300 research development professionals will be gathering in Orlando this May for the 2016 NORDP Conference. Will you be joining us? Register at http://www.nordp.org/conferences, and enjoy this week’s featured Conference Cameo!
Who: Marley Bauce, Manager of Research Initiatives, Office of the Executive Vice President for Research
Where: Columbia University
Number of years in research development: 7
Length of NORDP membership: 2 years
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 1
I run the Research Initiatives in Science & Engineering (RISE) program, the largest seed funding competition for Columbia faculty, which provides introductory support for interdisciplinary research collaborations that cannot receive conventional funding because they are too preliminary, too risky, or too non-conforming. In addition, I help administer limited submission competitions for the University, and maintain a number of communications capacities, including authoring articles on interdisciplinary scientific research for The Record, Columbia’s largest internal newspaper, and producing my office’s semiannual newsletter. Finally, I coordinate large events, including faculty networking receptions, information sessions, proposal writing workshops, and promotional campus visits by government agencies. The remaining pieces of my work revolve around opportunistically and creatively establishing new ways to competitively advance Columbia’s stature with the extramural research funding world – a task that I enjoy immensely.
I began my career as the Manager of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, a funding competition jointly run by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences. I helped expand the awards program from a regional to a national competition in 2013, wherein I was chiefly responsible for the communications plan, recruitment of senior judges and the Science Advisory Council, and development of application and evaluation materials.
Early into my time at Columbia, Susan Gomes, Harvard University’s Director of Research Development & Strategy within the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, encouraged me to join NORDP, and I’m terribly glad I did. Last year’s NORDP conference allowed me to develop relationships with other RD staff and begin sharing ideas for best practices and identifying common challenges. It was useful to understand various university structures – their unique reporting lines, data management techniques, extra-institutional partnerships, and indirect cost agreements. The NORDP conference was an exceptional way of recognizing that I am not an island, but rather part of a larger community of professionals deeply committed to increasing the diversity, momentum, and traction of interdisciplinary research for the public good. Last year, I attended a presentation about merging foundation relations with research; it provided me with a new perspective on collaborating and establishing constant communications lines with our foundation relations staff, particularly while we engage the W.M. Keck Foundation.
Together with Susan Gomes, I co-lead the new Ivy Plus Research Development Group, containing 20 members across seven institutions. We met at last year’s conference and will meet again for a half day before this year’s conference. I encourage all conference attendees to take full advantage of the conference features – workshops, dinners, networking receptions, etc. This is a rare critical mass of people who can help and be helped by you, so don’t waste the opportunity!
We hope to see you at the 2016 NORDP Research Development Conference, which will be held May 23-25 in Orlando, FL. For more information about the conference program or to register, visit http://www.nordp.org/conferences. Follow @NORDP_official on Twitter for all the latest 2016 Conference updates.
If you’d like to be featured in a Conference Cameo, let us know at rdconf@nordp.org.
NORDP News 