Category: Liaison Reports

What is the mission of CLASP? Colleges of Liberal Arts Sponsored Programs (CLASP) was designed to provide a resource for sponsored research administrators at liberal arts colleges and those with a liberal arts focus to promote and strengthen members’ abilities to respond to research support and policy issues as these arise; this is hugely important in contexts where there may only be a single person covering all the functions of research administration and research development. In recent years, CLASP has evolved to become a community of practice and, through an NSF GRANTED conference award, is considering ways to extend its reach to women- and minority-serving institutions and its organizational framing.

What are some of the unique challenges that liberal arts institutions confront with respect to grant administration? The challenge many liberal arts and/or predominantly undergraduate institutions face is that staff engaging in RD need to act in a “generalist” role. They must inform the institution of risk, stay abreast of federal funding trends and priorities, and perform research development, research administration, and compliance functions.  Often practitioners must lead from the middle to educate those to whom they report, explain what the university is certifying, and position the institution should it be audited.  This is a stressful role with a variety of needs and little support from within the institution. 

 In small institutional settings there is often a single research administration practitioner doing a “soup to nuts” or “cradle to grave” job.  That is, they might engage with faculty on the front end, supporting research development and facilitation, in addition to performing the duties of a pre-award sponsored research professional in submitting, accepting, and managing an award.  In some very small institutions with a single staff member managing research administration, this person might also manage IRB and IACUC regulations as well as other aspects of compliance.   When I worked at Franklin and Marshall College, a 1,200-student institution, we piloted a 5.5 FTE sponsored research, Corporate and Foundation Relations, and grant accounting team that occupied the same office with three reporting lines under a common leadership structure. Now, I am at the College of New Jersey, a comprehensive master’s granting institution with 7,000 students, also classed as a PUI. We have a 3-person pre-award office and are now in the process of bringing a post-award specialist into our office. Folks acting as generalists in a complex regulatory environment where their institutions are likely strained fiscally, may have little to no money for professional memberships or to travel to conferences for professional development. Yet, their institutions are responsible for meeting the same compliance standards as R1 institutions. Moreover, these folks are often the “expert” on campus –a daunting reality.

How has CLASP evolved since its founding?  CLASP originated at Middlebury College and was spearheaded by Francie Farnsworth, who created a listserv-enabled conversation group supported by a Wiki repository of shared materials. The targeted listserv now anchors the membership by providing a forum where questions related to sponsored research concerns—which at small institutions may also map onto corporate and foundation relations—can be posed, with answers coming back almost instantaneously. In addition, through the listserv, CLASP members periodically conduct surveys on range of topics. As one example, we have surveyed our membership on the types and nature of indirect cost rates at member institutions. For example, smaller institutions may have salary and wage-based indirect cost rates, salary, wage, and fringe rates, as well as Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) rates, which are more commonly seen at larger institutions.  CLASP has also surveyed our membership on where our offices are situated within their institution, whether in academic affairs, advancement, the President’s office, and to compare to peer institutions. Having peer or near peer institutional knowledge helps CLASPS members to advocate for policies and practices that better serve our institutions.   As a replacement for the original Wiki-based repository, CLASP hosts a “Collaboratory” which is a Google-document based repository of resources that archives materials and resources from past meeting sessions as well as resources and on various topics of interest that members have created. CLASP also hosts annual meetings, post-Covid alternating between virtual and in-person meetings. The upcoming 2024 meeting will be held in person at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, November 13-15. Typically, 60-90 people attend.  

You are part of a team that was awarded an NSF GRANTED award. Could you speak to some of your objectives for this grant? CLASP’s NSF GRANTED award (NSF 2324524), via Carleton College, is design to strengthen a community of practice (CoP) and to broaden, increase, and diversify membership in CLASP, in particular with MSIs and women-serving and women-only institutions. We first articulated this CoP vision at the annual CLASP meeting in 2018 at Swarthmore College and at the 2019 meeting at Bowdoin College. CLASP has long showcased funder presentations intermingled with some presentations from members. But we began to recognize more fully that our members represent a significant body of expertise and have placed greater emphasis on expanding that dimension of our organization and our community of practice, and imagining how we can position our organizations for the future.  

What are the mutual benefits of NORDP’s relationship with CLASP? I started out as an assistant grant writer at a community-action agency, and later transitioned to a predominantly undergraduate institution (PUI) in the SUNY system where I was institutional grant writer and later grant development specialist.  Then, when I came to Franklin and Marshall I was introduced to CLASP.  Through CLASP I was introduced to NORDP, and like so many other members felt as though I had finally found “my people.” Of course, many one-person shops do not have the resources to attend NORDP, and that has motivated me to share my expertise with CLASP. For example, I recently presented on RD with Susan Ferrari and Dean Gerstein at the 2023 virtual CLASP annual meeting last November.   Conversely, expertise from the CLASP community, together with others in PUI settings, has been extended to NORDP through the founding of the PUI (Predominantly Undergraduate Institution) Affinity Group, in 2019.  Many members of the PUI Affinity Group are also members of CLASP.  Historically, NORDP was developed by individuals who were in a context in which they could specialize in all of the contextual aspects of RD and in preparing researchers to lead large research grants, whereas the research focus of smaller institutions is most commonly at the PI-level and often within a teacher-scholar framework. The PUI Affinity Group addresses the needs of these NORDP members by developing resources for research-related and grant development activities, including my 2016 research article with Cara Martin-Tetreault and Carol Withers, “The Grants Office and the RA Generalist: Parallel Life-Cycles and Development at Small PUIs,” which addresses benchmarks research administrators can use in assessing development at the office and practitioner levels. 

However, the biggest benefit to NORDP in liaising with CLASP is in engaging generalists around a clear articulation of one component of their role – research or grant development. CLASP in some ways also represents a type of diversity – institutional diversity – that NORDP needs to be consciously aware of, so that it can best meet the needs of this sector of membership. Moreover, and relatedly, CLASP members are well positioned to inform NORDP that it runs the risk of losing the generalist audience to larger organizations such as NCURA and SRAI who are beginning to offer RD training modules which NORDP is, in fact, most ideally positioned to offer. 

This report was prepared by Elizabeth Festa, Liaison Chair, Strategic Alliances Committee, eaf2@rice.edu

What is the mission of NACRO?

NACRO is the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers.  NACRO “provides professional development opportunities that enable corporate and academic professionals to develop and advance comprehensive, mutually beneficial relationships between industry and academia.”  While membership in NACRO has historically been limited to corporate relations officers in the academy, the organization is now open to professionals in industry. 

How did you become involved in NACRO?

I have been in NACRO for over 10 years.  Having a background as a chemical engineer, I worked for Dow Chemical for 17 years. A large part of my job was bringing in sponsored research with academia so that Dow would have much needed expertise and capability. Therefore, I was initially on the other side of the table.  Once I began working in research development, working in/with corporate relations was a natural fit for me.

What is your role within your organization?

I am Director for Research in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  My office falls under the Office of the Associate Dean for Research.  In addition to supporting the launching of large, multi-investigator, multi-organization efforts, I have a significant faculty development mission.   I have developed a number of programs for early career investigators including a program for new faculty to help them in starting their research at University of Illinois and a workshop series dedicated to assisting faculty with their NSF CAREER proposals. I have also developed/facilitated workshops on interacting with program officers and workshops on leading graduate students as well as faculty peers.  As part of seeding large, multi-investigator centers and institutes, I oversee the Strategic Research Initiative at Grainger Engineering, which offers funding to help build teams and obtain preliminary data for large, multi-million-dollar proposals.  I am also a certified coach – coaching faculty and staff in career and leadership development. I recently initiated “5 for 5” group coaching where five professors meet with me for five weeks.

How can NORDP’s alliance with NACRO help us at the member level? 

We have an alliance between NORDP and NACRO, and one of the things we’ve been thinking about is how this alliance can increase member-to-member interaction across these organizations. Right now, we are exploring collaborations between NORDP, NACRO, and federal agencies. Our current project is emerging in conversation with the NSF TIP (Technology, Innovation, and Partnership) program.   NORDP and NACRO are exploring the possibility of partnering to conduct a landscape analysis of needs and capabilities (such as workforce development and commercialization opportunities) in different regional innovation ecosystems.  We hope to facilitate collaborations between universities and corporations that are mutually beneficial.  This project is well-suited to support the NSF ENGINES program, which focuses on catalyzing regional innovation ecosystems – especially those that may be in early development and have had limited interaction with federal agencies. 

You recently presented on this project at the NACRO 2023 meeting.  How was your talk received?

This year’s NACRO 2023 meeting was held in Portland, Oregon. I presented on a panel with fellow NORDP and NACRO member Rachel Dresbeck, Senior Director of Research Development at Oregon Health and Science University, and NACRO member, Kim Jacobs, Assistant Dean of Development in the College of Engineering at Florida A&M and Florida State.  A quick poll of the audience of about 50 showed that almost all were potentially interested in this project. Our vision for the landscape analyses are quite broad and may include technical/research capabilities, entrepreneurship, tech transfer, DEIB, local government needs, nonprofits/NGOs, community engagement, incubator services, etc.

How might NORDP members be involved in this project?

This project will necessarily draw upon many untapped partnerships and will have teams performing landscape analyses in different areas of the country that are co-led by NORDP and NACRO members. NORDP and NACRO members can also just be members of the teams. The highly successful NORDP Consultant program has been an inspiration and a model as we plan for this grassroots effort.   We are also drawing upon Strategic Doing to develop our framework. As you may know from workshops at previous NORDP conferences, Strategic Doing facilitates collaborations to address complex challenges. NORDP members Rachel Dresbeck, and Jeff Agnoli, Director of Education, Funding, and Research Development in the Office of Research at Ohio State (who is also a Strategic Doing Fellow)  are involved in this effort. The NORDP membership will be instrumental in requesting support for their regions and partnering with us in these efforts.  NSF TIP may also wish to prioritize certain areas.  While we are still in the planning phase of this effort, it is clear that the kernels of activity and energy from this effort will also result in new collaborations and team building.

Based on your experiences as an engineer in industry, an RD professional, and a NACRO member, how can research development offices and offices of corporate relations work together more effectively?

I want to emphasize the importance of networking between RD offices and offices of corporate relations. While each office has its own mission, there is a benefit for corporate relations being included as a part of the team in proposals to federal funders, and vice versa.  Since corporate partnerships and funding are an essential part of the academic research ecosystem, corporate relations, and research development should be working closely together on a regular basis. This will result in new opportunities as well as more compelling proposals for funders. Instead of waiting until a particular proposal needs corporations, these teams can engage at a much earlier stage to determine how they can work together for future proposals – before the solicitation comes out. Programs that the institution has submitted to in the past may be a good place to start.

Interview with Emily Kotay, Liaison to INORMS and Leader of the International Working Group within NORDP’s Strategic Alliances Committee (SAC), by Jessica Venable

What is the mission of INORMS?

INORMS stands for the International Network of Research Management Societies.  Their mission is to connect “research management societies and associations from across the globe….to enable interactions, share good practice, and coordinate activities between the member societies, to the benefit of their individual membership.” INORMS is comprised of organizations around the world that are similar to NORDP, including the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), Malaysia Association of Research Managers and Administrators (MyRMA), the Brazilian Research Administrations and Management Association (BRAMA),  the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA), and many others.  One of the benefits of membership in INORMS is the opportunity to engage with people all around the world who are working in research administration and research development.

How did you become involved with INORMS?

 I am the Assistant Director of International Research within the Research Development Services office at the University of Arizona. In my role, my focus is to ensure more engagement in international research and to serve as a connector for faculty and the appropriate offices/staff on campus to support their international research collaborations, provide proposal development support for international collaborations that involve basic/fundamental research and promote funding opportunities that support international research (NSF, NIH, Horizon Europe, other countries’ science agencies’ opportunities). I have the broad aim of building and sustaining international research collaborations.  My supervisor, Kim Patten, is also a member of the Strategic Alliances Committee in NORDP. Kim encouraged me to explore INORMS to continue forming alliances and develop as a professional in this relatively rare field of solely focusing on international research within RD.  

Tell me about your recent presentation at the INORMS 2023 Congress.

The biennial INORMS Congress was held in Durban, South Africa, from May 30-June 2, 2023, and was hosted by the South African Research Innovation and Management Association (SARIMA). Each INORMS Congress is hosted by a member society in their home country.    This year, the theme was  “Towards a Utopia in Research and Innovation Management,” and presentations focused on research administration’s future. This future includes an emerging relationship between research administration, management, and RD, a topic of great interest in the United States and globally.  I presented on a panel entitled “Enhancing individual career development and institutional capacity in research development” with SAC members Karen Eck and Jessica Venable. Our presentation outlined the professional development opportunities we offer in NORDP (mentoring program, PEERD, N-ROAD). Our presentation was well-received, and I’m looking forward to the 2025 Congress, which will be hosted by the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA)  in Madrid, Spain.

In addition to serving as a liaison to INORMS, you also lead the International Working Group for SAC. How does IWG engage the membership of NORDP?

Many RD professionals are working on international research funding opportunities but aren’t solely focusing their efforts there and would like to consult with others on best practices. Within NORDP, the International Working Group, a part of the Strategic Alliances Committee, meets monthly to discuss international research issues. We’re a small group, but we have great discussions. Recently, we have been discussing the NIH’s new policy regarding reporting requirements for international collaborators recently.  Members who are interested in joining the IWG should feel free to contact me.

Why is NORDP’s relationship with INORMS important to our membership and to NORDP as a professional organization?

The global research enterprise is rapidly expanding.  We can see this in new initiatives that respond to global challenges, such as the National Science Foundation Global Centres funding opportunity in which the NSF collaborated with the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA), and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Australia to fund cross-national projects aimed at addressing use-inspired solutions to climate change and clean energy. In addition, the NSF recently published a Dear Colleague Letter from their Office of International Science and Engineering announcing multilateral partnerships for Ukraine’s resilient education and science systems to support integrating Ukrainian researchers into the global research community.  Through the connections in INORMS, I can build relationships with my counterparts in other countries to facilitate building teams of researchers to answer these critical calls. While faculty often bring their international partnerships and relationships to us, RD professionals also play an important role in building teams and serving as liaisons to researchers and institutions abroad.  Moreover, sharing what we do as RD professionals with INORMS members, and hearing about their best practices, helps develop working relationships; practices vary across countries, and understanding those differences facilitates collaboration.

Just as significantly, as a US-based organization with some international membership, NORDP’s participation with INORMS is important to broadening our awareness of international issues and initiatives in the research management space. INORMS has spearheaded 3 phases of the RAAAP (Research Administration as a Profession) survey and many NORDP members participated. RAAAP seeks to identify the key skills, attitudes and behaviors of successful research management and administration (RMA) leaders and develop a longitudinal dataset about our profession. INORMS has further launched the More than Our Rank initiative, which has been “developed in response to some of the problematic features and effects of the global university rankings. It provides an opportunity for academic institutions to highlight the many and various ways they serve the world that are not reflected in their ranking position. This initiative is meant for every academic institution, whether ranked or unranked, top 10 or yet to place.” NORDP’s exposure to new ways of conceptualizing research impact provide a novel way of assessing not only overall institutional results but also how RD offices and professionals contribute to these outcomes. This has potential to influence how we make the case for, and evaluate, RD activities and their impact.

RD professionals connecting with HSIs: Insights from SAC Liaison Jorja Kimball, by Elizabeth Festa

What is the mission of your liaison organization, AHSIE? AHSIE, pronounced “Osh-ee”, is the Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institution Educators. As noted on their website, the mission of AHSIE is to support educators at HSIs “as they seek to provide quality, relevant educational opportunities to large and growing numbers of underserved populations, particularly Hispanic students.” AHSIE’s focus is on the undergraduate population, which makes it distinct from other organizations.

What is your role as a Strategic Alliances Committee liaison to AHSIE? In my role, I work with a specific HSI organization to help link them to resources and initiatives that NORDP offers or has access to. I also communicate unique RD needs of the organization to NORDP, so that we might possibly develop partnerships between the organizations or obtain resources to address mutual needs or goals. That is central to the SAC mission of serving as the professional development arm for NORDP. In uniting AHSIE with NORDP, I hope to strengthen the efforts of both organizations. For instance, one of the longer-term goals I have as a liaison is to facilitate a proposal, such as NSF GRANTED, that includes AHSIE and NORDP members, which will garner more attention and support through the backing of two organizations. It is just as crucial, I believe, to introduce NORDP members to what AHSIE and similar organizations, such as HACU (the Hispanic Alliance of Colleges and Universities), for example, have to offer. I view myself as a point person for the NORDP member who wants to learn more about HSIs and partner with them as well as to support NORDP members at newly designated HSIs. Finally, I am committed to staying abreast of current research trends in supporting Hispanic students and sharing that with NORDP members as potential best practices for use in research development.

Tell me about your professional role. I’m Executive Director of Research Development Services and the Office of HSI and Inclusivity Research Services at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M is an HSI as of last year and a Carnegie Research 1 institution. Research Development Services has three areas of emphasis: support for large proposals, career development for faculty (especially early career faculty), and a focus on submitting for HSI funding opportunities. My role in the Office of HSI is similar to the other two focuses, but with increased attention to communicating HSI funding opportunities to faculty and facilitating the proposal writing process according to faculty requests and needs.

How did you become involved in working with underrepresented scholars? Before coming to Texas A&M, I worked across the State of Texas as Director of Strategic Development for the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, the research arm of engineering for the A&M System. In addition, my doctoral research focused on underrepresented groups in STEM and time to completion of the core body of knowledge at A&M. As such, my background prepared me for this role.

What qualifies a university as an HSI? According to the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, an HSI must have an “enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students at the end of the award year immediately preceding the date of application.” The federal government also requires that HSIs have educational and general expenditures per full-time equivalent student that fall below the average of similar institutions, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Education.” There are currently 451 HSIs in the United States. One interesting fact is that three states have their own consortia: California, Texas, and Florida.

Could you recommend an article or book on HSIs that may be of interest to NORDP members and the faculty they serve? I’m currently reading Gina Ann Garcia’s book Transforming Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).  Garcia was the keynote speaker at the recent AHSIE conference, and was also a speaker at a conference that we held at Texas A & M. Garcia, with other scholars, coined the term servingness, which emphasizes the importance of actually serving, as opposed to simply enrolling, Hispanic students. That is an important distinction and a key term for any scholar who is developing research or programming involving HSIs or Hispanic students. This is yet another way that I hope to assist NORDP members through my role as a SAC liaison. Very often, in RD, we need to assist technical faculty in locating publications on best practices for use in broader impacts or educational outreach narratives. My liaison with AHSIE will help to keep me on the cusp of current research, and I will share these resources with NORDP members.

One of SAC’s missions is advocacy. How do you see this as influencing what you hope to achieve as a liaison? One of the goals I have for the next few years is to help with an HSI-specific consulting initiative that is part of or similar to the current project that NORDP launched with HBCUs. This would be a significant undertaking, but a very valuable one in light of the growing college age population in Texas and the nation and the growing interest in DEI. I would love to brainstorm this with the Board and the SAC committee in the coming months!

Karen Eck, Ph.D. and Gretchen Kiser, Ph.D. presented an online workshop, Research Development: Contextual and Relational Approaches to Institutional Research Support, in early December 2021 to research management professionals in India as part of IRMI, or India Research Management Initiative, an initiative of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance for strengthening institutional support for research in India. Reflecting on the experience of delivering a workshop outside of typical work hours (2:00 AM PST in this case!), Kiser commented that “although engaging with international partners may involve odd hours, it is nonetheless interesting and exciting.”

The opportunity came about after Savita Ayyar, Ph.D., a consultant leading the IRMI initiative, attended a talk given by Eck, Kiser and Jacob Levin, Ph.D. during the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) conference in Spring 2021. After the conference, Ayyar inquired after an interactive workshop offering for the recently formed IRMI network, who hosted their first conference in January 2021.

Research Administration (RA) is in its early stages in India and is growing with new careers in both research development (RD) and RA. Ayyar says, “India has tremendous opportunities for team science, and Research Development can play an important role in nurturing these large-scale collaborations.  The April 2021 INORMS workshop by NORDP colleagues provided excellent examples of how team science could be professionally facilitated and how to hire people and build local capacity for this purpose. This motivated me to connect with Dr Eck and Dr Kiser, to explore possibilities for a joint workshop for our colleagues in India. We kept in touch and it was wonderful to see the workshop taking place later in the year.”

At the virtual December IRMI workshop, a first of its kind for NORDP, over 40 people from a variety of Indian university, research and private sector settings participated. They explored a variety of RD roles through interactive simulations with small group discussions that highlighted RD contextual and relational approaches, skills, and activities employed in cross-campus and cross-sector partnerships. 

NORDP joined INORMS in July 2020 and is committed to engaging an international audience and partnering with sister organizations around the world to provide professional development opportunities to its 1000+ membership. International engagement is led by the Strategic Alliances Committee (SAC) through its International Working Group and NORDP Liaison program. If you are interested to learn more, please contact SAC co-chair, Karen Eck, at keck@odu.edu.

Dr. Savita Ayyar is currently leading Jaquaranda Tree, an independent consultancy service she founded in 2017 that is aimed at supporting organizations with their research management needs. Prior to this she built an RD office about eight years ago at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in India. She describes the experience as a “once in a lifetime opportunity that was tremendously rewarding.”

Dr. Karen Eck is Assistant Vice President for Research at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology and completed a post-doc in psycho- and neurolinguistics at the Université de Montréal in Québec, Canada. Eck served on the NORDP Board of Directors from 2015-2019, as President in 2018-2019, and currently co-leads the Strategic Alliances Committee and represents NORDP on the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) Council. She was selected in 2020 as a PEERD Expert, consulting individually and in teams for colleges and universities seeking institutional assessment of research development programs, best practices and capacity building. In 2021, she was honored with a NORDP Fellow designation to recognize her sustained contributions to NORDP and the practice and field of research development.

Dr. Gretchen Kiser is the Executive Director of the Research Development Office (RDO) at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a long-time research development professional. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Kiser has been a member of NORDP since 2012 and served on the NORDP Board of Directors from 2014 – 2018 and as its President from 2016 – 2017. She serves as co-chair of both NORDP’s Committee on Inclusive Excellence and Strategic Alliances Committee. She was honored in 2020 as a NORDP Fellow and in 2021 with NORDP’s Leadership Award, which recognizes exceptional leadership and/or a deep commitment to volunteerism in ways that advance the profession and field of research development.

NORDP currently has 67 international members and has recently become part of a new initiative, the

INORMS Sister Association Reciprocal Benefit Strategy (ISARBS).  This will allow participating members of the INORMS community of research management associations to benefit from discounted rates on certain events, publications and other products offered by other associations in the international INORMS community

If you are a member of a participating INORMS association outside of North America, NORDP is happy to offer you the member rate for our annual Conference registration.  Please visit https://www.nordp.org/overseas-partners for details on ISARBS and participation in NORDP’s conference April 24-28, 2022.

Compiled by Daniel Campbell & Sharon Pound from the Communications Working Group

The Hiroshima Statement on Essential Practice of Research Management and Administration was developed as part of the INORMS 2021 Congress, which was originally planned to be held in Hiroshima, Japan. On May 24, 2021, the INORMS Council convened a virtual meeting. During the meeting, Dr. Koetsu Yamazaki, Chair of RMAN-J, the Research Manager and Administrator Network in Japan and host of the international Congress, completed the Hiroshima Statement by signing the document.

The statement (see link here) highlights a set of five principles and responsibilities common to the collective memberships of INORMS member associations. Research Managers around the world face similar challenges and aspire to a common goal: to improve our local, national, and global research landscapes. INORMS Council hopes to promote interactions, sharing of best practices and joint activities between member societies to benefit the professional development of individual members worldwide.

Karen Eck, Assistant Vice President for Research at Old Dominion University and Co-chair of the Strategic Alliances Committee, is currently representing NORDP on the INORMS Council. Kim Patten, Assistant Vice President, Research Development at the University of Arizona, is representing NORDP on the INORMS Working Group.

RD professionals and corporate relations officers advance research when they work together

Companies need things from universities: graduates, access to facilities, access to intellectual capital. Universities need things from companies: jobs for graduates, help with commercialization, funding.

Universities’ corporate relations officers help connect companies with universities, but they may lack deep knowledge of the research landscape. They may not know about the promising postdoctoral fellow’s innovation to transform the field, the unique core facility to address a testing need, or the multidisciplinary team to work with on a large proposal. That’s why research development and corporate relations make a great team: their complementary expertise is a natural area for collaboration to strengthen the research enterprise.

This is where the relationship between NORDP and NACRO comes in.

NORDP’s Strategic Alliances Committee (SAC) has been engaging with NACRO for several years, exploring the natural synergies between these two university functions. NORDP’s volunteer liaison responsibility is shifting to Don Takehara, Associate Director for Research, College of Engineering Office of Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

With more than 500 members, NACRO provides professional development and best practices related to university-industry corporate relations. “As higher education plays an increasing role in economic development, and in light of the challenging fiscal environment in which many of our institutions operate, it is more important than ever for colleges and universities to create and maintain dynamic relationships with business and industry,” the NACRO website declares.

In support of his RD role, Takehara has been a member of NACRO for eight years, even before he joined NORDP. He recently agreed to take over the NACRO liaison responsibilities previously held by NORDP Board member Rachel Dresbeck, who is a co-chair of SAC.

The relationship between the two organizations began in ­2017, when Dresbeck and NORDP Board member Peggy Sundermeyer presented on research development at the NACRO conference in Seattle and met with the NACRO Board to explore how the two organizations could work together . 

“This partnership with NACRO fits well into SAC’s strategic priorities by strengthening our reciprocal relationships with sister organizations. We now have a memorandum of understanding between the two groups, providing benefits such as complementary registrations at conferences. Our work informs one another and provides a type of competitive intelligence for both groups,” Dresbeck says.

Serving as a SAC liaison has also benefitted Dresbeck’s own RD work, helping her institution initiate new relationships with local businesses, both large and small. She encourages NORDP members to take advantage of this partnership with NACRO, which can help them work more effectively with their own corporate and foundation development colleagues.

Takehara echoes the benefits of RD professionals engaging with NACRO and their own universities’ corporate and foundation staff. “It’s important for corporate relations and research development members of the two groups to learn how to work better together,” he says.

An example of joint activity includes presentations at the 2018 NORDP Conference in Arlington, where Dresbeck and Eileen Murphy, Kerry Morris (both NACRO and NORDP members), as well as NACRO member Brett Burns presented case studies on the value of working together.  Murphy and Morris have been instrumental in deepening this important relationship. The following year, NACRO’s Co-presidents, Megan Greenawalt from the University of Pittsburgh and Adam Johnson from the Michigan Technological University, led the Leadership Forum at the NORDP 2019 Annual Research Development Conference. And following that, NORDP’s 2019 Great Lakes Regional Meeting, chaired by Jill Jividen and Beth LaPensee, included three sessions about RD and corporate relations and was led by Takehara.  Sessions included center directors discussing how to engage industry partners on large-scale proposals, corporate executives explaining how to engage industry in research initiatives, and a corporate relations panel discussing their perspectives on RD.

Many resources on the NACRO website are significant to strong RD strategy. For example, Takehara served the NACRO Industry Perspectives Subcommittee for its “Research Report: “Industry Perspective on Academic Corporate Relations” that can be found here.

More information on NACRO and the NORDP Liaison program can be found on the SAC liaison page, including a NACRO “Profile” link with members-only information for NORDP members. For more information about serving as a NORDP Liaison, please contact Karen Eck,  who serves as SAC co-chair, along with Dresbeck, Gretchen Kiser, and Ann Maglia.

NORDP fosters a culture of inclusive excellence by actively promoting and supporting diversity, inclusion and equity in all its forms to expand our worldview, enrich our work, and elevate our profession.

Jeff Agnoli in Ohio State’s Research Development Office serves as a NORDP liaison to OCLC, a nonprofit global library cooperative providing shared technology services, research, and community programs. He recently shared an OCLC report, in which he and other RD interviewees participated.

Social Interoperability in Research Support: Cross-campus Partnerships and the University Research Enterprise, by Rebecca Bryant, Annette Dortmund, and Brian Lavoie, explores the social and structural norms that shape cross-campus collaboration and offers a conceptual model of key university stakeholders in research support. Information about their goals, interests, expertise, and the importance of cross-campus relationships was synthesized from interviews. The report describes the network of campus units involved in major categories of research support services and concludes with recommendations to establish and maintain successful cross-campus relationships. Download the free report at: https://oc.lc/social-interoperability.