In the aftermath of Harvey & Irma

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in obsessively checking for news about the hurricanes that recently ravaged south Texas (Harvey) and significant portions of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Florida (Irma): many NORDP members have friends, family, and colleagues in the affected areas just as I do. I’m happy to report that all of my near and dear ones have reported in safe, although several of them are still without power and a few are looking at rebuilding or repairing major damage sustained in the storms.

The NORDP Board of Directors and I wanted to let our members and friends in the affected areas know that they are much in our thoughts these days – and if there’s anything concrete we can do to help as you and your institutions recover, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Some of the federal agencies are providing additional funding to institutions affected by these storms, and I wanted to highlight those programs here. If you know of any others that aren’t listed, please add them in comments, or feel free to post to the NORDP listserv if you have access.

  • NEH Chairman’s Emergency Grants. NEH plans to award up to $1 million in emergency grants ($30,000 per institution in the affected area) to preserve documents, books, photographs, art works, historical objects, sculptures, and structures damaged by the hurricane and subsequent flooding.
  • NSF has promised to provide assistance, and to be as flexible as possible in responding to the needs of institutions affected by Harvey (and I expect they’ll be doing the same for Irma before too long). They’ve set up a special email address, harvey@nsf.gov, for administrators, faculty, and students on NSF awards at affected institutions to use when making inquiries. They’re also accepting proposals related to the hurricane and its aftermath.
  • NIH has issued a guide notice related to Harvey (and, again, will probably do the same for Irma shortly) outlining the applicable policies and allowances for late submission of proposals, reports, etc., necessitated by the weather and any campus closures. In some circumstances, awardees may also be able to continue to pay salaries and wages on grants even if the work is unable to continue due to damage, depending on the terms and conditions of the grant(s) in question.

Everybody stay safe, and I’m sure we all hope that things will get back to something a little closer to normal in the affected areas soon.

Michael Spires
NORDP President

NORDP 2017 Conference Notes: Bringing NORDP Home: Building a Community of Research Development Professionals

Bringing NORDP Home: Building a Community of Research Development Professionals

Presenters:
Beth LaPensee, Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, University of Michigan
Jill Jividen, Office of Research, University of Michigan Medical School

Thanks to our session note-taker!

Key points from the session. We learned:

  • The University of Michigan is a large, decentralized research university. Research development functions are housed in some of the university’s 19 schools and colleges rather than in a central office.
  • Beth and Jill’s interest in sharing research development resources and strategies was sparked at a NORDP dinner. They created a group to share best practices and resources, bring exposure to research development resources and efforts, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, foster faculty research, and increase the quantity and quality of proposals submitted. Central university research leadership was not interested in supporting the group, so they switched to a grassroots approach.
  • They brought together a Research Development Core Team of 16 members representing 12 UM units and a variety of job classifications. It was a challenge at times to identify people who were engaging in research development activities, as well as to convince them that what they were doing was actually research development.
  • The Core Team hosted a free half-day “mini-NORDP” conference in spring 2016, attended by 52 people from 33 different units. Evaluations were good, and proved to be a source of ideas for maintaining momentum throughout the year.
  • Since spring 2016, the group has also hosted a workshop on library involvement in research development, created a moderated listserv, and are collecting university-wide resources and contacts. Over 100 people are now part of the e-mail list for research development news and events.

What did you hear at this presentation that surprised you?

I was a bit surprised that the mini-conferences featured keynote speakers from outside the university. This makes sense, however – as the saying goes, you are never an expert in your own backyard!

What resources did you discover at this presentation?

I liked the idea of looking to conference and event evaluations as a source of ideas for activities for the coming year.

What was the most interesting question asked by an audience member, and what was the presenters’ response?

A question came up about how to involve research administration staff in research development without losing the distinction between the two in the eyes of high-level leadership. Jill Jividen replied that she often presented research administration and research development as two parts of a Venn diagram. The overlapping center section is faculty success.

What else from this session should NORDP members know?

This is a good model for larger universities with decentralized research development functions.

NORDP 2017 Conference Notes: Better Together – Joining Forces to Maximize Success

Better Together: Joining Forces to Maximize Success

Presenters:
Brent Burns
Peggy Sundermeyer
Kerry Morris
Eileen Murphy

Thanks to our session note-taker!

Key points from the session. We learned:

  • What National Association of Corporate Relations Organization (NACRO) is and how Research Development staff participation with NACRO can benefit the entire institution.
  • What Corporate Relations can add to Research Development
    1. Work together in a holistic model.
    2. Share resources, co-locate, share administrative support
    3. Companies are spending more money in research & development
    4. Federal funding is decreasing
    5. If we work together, this will move the institution forward
  • How to develop strategies and portfolios for faculty
  • How to bring CR staff to the table at institutions of various sizes
  • Effective ways to share faculty research interests.

What did you hear at this presentation that surprised you?
Resource sharing is not the norm.  Although we criticize departments and the faculty who operate in silos, administrative offices within the same institution are territorial and operate in silos too.

What resources did you discover at this presentation?
NACRO– nacrocon.org
The Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers brings together U.S. and international academic corporate relations professionals who are dedicated to providing professional development opportunities and sharing best practices that enable members to develop and advance comprehensive, mutually beneficial relationships with industry and establish common language and metrics for peer comparison. Founded in 2007, NACRO has grown to more than 500 individual members.

CASE – www.case.org/
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. CASE helps its members build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, raise funds for campus projects, produce recruitment materials, market their institutions to prospective students, diversify the profession, and foster public support of education.

Profile databases used by CR and RD offices:
SalesForce
Raisers Edge (used by development offices)
Financial Edge

Interesting questions:

Q. How do we guide faculty as to who will get the IP credit when faculty and corporations collaborate?

A:  Break the barriers between the Technology Transfer/IP office and the faculty.

The IP office does the negotiations for the faculty.  Faculty should not be negotiating the IP because they tend to give away more than they should.  The IP offices are trained attorneys, and can speak on behalf of the faculty member’s research.

Q: There are many entities within our institution that reach out to corporations, and we are all unaware these contacts are being made. It appears (rightly so) that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing within the same institution. What do your institutions do to communicate across your institutions of the activity being conducted with corporations?

A:  Michigan Tech Corporate Relations creates an engagement summary and provides this to faculty or leadership who plan to contact corporations.

A: Corporate Relations and Research Development offices need to follow a holistic model – co-locate, share resources and administrative support(especially in decentralized institutions.) There is a slide within the presenters slide deck with details on what the holistic model entails.

 

New Member Cameo: Chasmine Stoddart

Chasmine Stoddart, Johns Hopkins University

Welcome to NORDP: Chasmine Stoddardt!

Where: Johns Hopkins University

Number of years in research development: 2

Joined NORDP in June 2017

What is your RD work?
I am the Manager of the Research Development Team, a new initiative within the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.  It’s very much a start-up environment as we build and launch the services to the University.  Our goal is to encourage collaborative research across disciplines, schools and institutions. Once those relationships are formed, we aim to be the one-stop shop to facilitate the proposal preparation process.  

What is your professional background?
In 2008 I started out in Physics & Astronomy at JHU, learning the basics of research administration.  My first real hands-on experience was reconciling a portfolio of accounts for one of the grants administrators.  I have also worked in a variety of settings at JHU over the years in departments in the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Arts & Sciences as well as the central ORA.  In 2015, I joined the Research Development Services team at Georgetown, but ended up returning to Hopkins in 2016.

What attracted you to NORDP?
Sue Porterfield and Julie Messersmith, colleagues at JHU, introduced me to NORDP and encouraged me to join.  The opportunity to connect and form relationships with research development professionals across the country was definitely a draw.

How will your NORDP membership enhance your own career?
I have already joined the listserv and am very impressed by the responsiveness and community-type feel of the organization.  The topics that are discussed provide insight to how our peers operate at their institutions and opens the doors to true collaboration.  I look forward to the relationships that will form through my NORDP membership and to meeting everyone at next year’s conference in Washington D.C.

Written by Daniel Campbell, Member Services Committee

NORDP Membership Continues to Grow

How does our garden grow? Thanks for asking! NORDP’s Member Services Committee is delighted to report that our goal to increase the net number of NORDP members by 100 this year has not only been achieved, but exceeded. NORDP’s active members now total 779, an increase of 138 since NORDP’s fiscal year began on October 1, 2016.  Thank you to Member Services Committee members and to all other NORDP members who have worked so tirelessly on this year’s member recruitment and retention campaign.   Kudos!!

Kathy Cataneo, Member Services Committee 

Regional Groups Met at NORDP 2017 Conference

During the 2017 NORDP Conference all seven regions held meetings with over 220 members attending. Common themes included affinity groups, annual conference location, listservs, and shared challenges.

Highlights of each region’s discussion are listed below. For full reports, click here.

I – Northeast

NORDP Northeast plans to apply for affinity group status. NE is open to piloting programs to roll out at NORDP national, and is considering slight increases to its meeting registration fees that could provide for travel awards to the NORDP annual conference for regional members with financial need.

 II – Atlantic

The Atlantic region is looking into holding a monthly conference call or online meeting to share best practices & challenges. Rotating annual in-person meetings and creation of a regional membership directory were also discussed.

III – Southeast

The Southeast region is very interested in becoming an affinity group with the intent to plan meaningful activities for members of the region. Kimberly Eck offered to lead the application process and plans to put together a working subcommittee to draft a proposal and give all SE members a chance to contribute.

IV – Great Lakes

The Great Lakes region had a great discussion about holding a regional meeting. As a result they are planning their 1st Regional Meeting which will be hosted by Jeff Agnoli at Ohio State University in October.

V – Mid-West & Mountain

The Midwest & Mountain region members discussed using their new listserv to assist in organizing their regional efforts as well as exchanging ideas about funding opportunities specific to the regional members.

VI – Southwest

The Southwest region members discussed the new formalized process for creation of affinity groups and explored some of the background on why the process has been put into place. Kay Tindle offered to lead the affinity group initiative and plans to organize a conference call to discuss the effort.

VII – Pacific

The Pacific region discussed the active use of their active listserv, which they plan to continue to use. Members voted in favor of moving forward with identifying Region VII as an official region through the affinity group mechanism.

Summary prepared by Dan Campbell, Member Services Committee. 

NORDP 2017 Conference Notes: Leadership Without Authority

This post is the first in a series that capture the take-home points from a variety of sessions presented at the NORDP Annual Meeting in Broomfield, Colorado. 

Leadership Without Authority

Presenters:

Shay D. Stautz, Associate Vice President for National Policy, Arizona State University
Brian C. Ten Eyck, Assistant Dean for Research Development, University of Arizona College of Engineering

Notes written by Susan Lodato.

Key points from the session:

  • No scientific definition of “leadership without authority”
  • “If you lead well, you will not need your rank.” (Developing Leaders: A British Army Guide, p. 74)
  • You need people to WANT to work with you to achieve your goal.
  • Leadership without authority is about engagement, credibility, and cooperation.
  • All relationships should be win-wins.

What did you hear at this presentation that surprised you?

There is a secret to leadership without authority: intentionality.

What resources did you discover at this presentation?
Samuel B. Bacharach. The Agenda Mover: When Your Good Idea is Not Enough. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016.

Charles Duhigg. Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity. New York: Random House, 2016.

David Goleman. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Dell, 2006.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Developing Leaders: A British Army Guide. 2014

What was the most interesting question asked by an audience member, and what was the response?

Comment: We must remember that there is a cultural aspect to leadership. Presenter: Absolutely. You need to understand the audience with whom you are about to engage.

Question: You discussed the importance of choosing your team carefully. What if you cannot pick team members? Presenter: Even if the leader is unable to pick his or her team, the leader must establish the norms of the group and determine the rules for interaction and trust-building.

What else from this session should NORDP members know?

Leadership Without Authority is leadership that you exert on your own without the traditional hierarchical support systems of your institution. It is leadership in an area outside of your job description, strengths, background, etc.

Leadership needs to be applied to getting something done. It’s about doing things. Why should people work with you?

  1. You need to ask them.
  2. You need to have a mission – a broader one for your unit or institution.
  3. You need to have credibility. Elements of credibility:
    1. Sound judgment
    2. Presence
    3. Integrity
    4. Competence
    5. Emotional intelligence

The Virtuous LWA Cycle

  1. Establish credibility
  2. Build and nurture alliances on a systematic basis through continuous, systematic professional activities (meeting/working with people outside of your unit)
  3. Establish the public good that you want to accomplish (this public good often comes from these relationships)
  4. Build your team
  5. Deliver!

Leading Teams

  1. Establish psychological safety for teams
  2. All team members speak and contribute

 

NORDP Announces New Officers, Board Members

Welcome to the new (and returning) Board members!

At its meeting on June 27, 2017, the NORDP board of Directors ratified the results of the 2017 Board elections, welcoming three new members and one returning member. The new members are: Jan Abramson, M.S., Sponsored Projects Officer, University of Utah; Jennifer Lyon Gardner, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President for Research, University of Texas at Austin; and Jerilyn Hansen, M.S., Director, Research Development, Utah State University. Returning to the Board for a second term is Rachel Dresbeck, Ph.D., Director, Research Development & Communication, Oregon Health and Science University. All four of these members’ terms will end June 30, 2021.

The Board also accepted the resignation of Terri Soelberg, M.Ed., Director, College of Health Sciences Office of Research, Boise State University, and appointed Kellie Dyslin, MSW, Associate Director, Proposal Support, Northern Illinois University, to complete Terri’s term. Kellie will serve the remaining two years in Terri’s term, ending June 30, 2019.

Officers for 2017-2018 are as follows:

  • President: Michael Spires, M.A., M.S., CRA, Principal Proposal Analyst, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Vice President/President-Elect: Karen Eck, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President for Research, Old Dominion University
  • Treasurer: Jeff Agnoli, M.A., Education, Funding, and Research Development, The Ohio State University
  • Secretary: Karen Fletcher, M.B.A., Director of Grants Resources & Services, Appalachian State University
  • Immediate Past President: Gretchen Kiser, Ph.D., Executive Director, Research Development Office, University of California, San Francisco

NORDP Board: A Year in Review

IMG_1306

This last year has been one filled with challenges and uncertainty but also wonderful achievements and new opportunities. It’s been a privilege for me to serve as the NORDP president during this time.

We started last July working with our then newly hired executive director to lay out a work plan for the new role that included expanding our list of potential sponsors. In late August, the whole Board spent an intense (and fun!) couple of days of planning and team-building in Boise, ID (check out the photo of the Board during our Boise meeting).  We developed primary goals and stretch goals for all of our committees, restructured some aspects of our committees, and defined working groups for activities that didn’t fit within the scope of our existing committees. Below, I’ve listed some highlights of this past year’s NORDP organizational activity.

  • Member Services Committee rolled out a membership drive and realized a net increase of more than 100 new members, bringing NORDP membership to its highest point yet at well over 700 members.
  • Member Services Committee also developed and rolled out new membership orientation materials.
  • Developed and implemented a policy to guide the structure of affinity groups of NORDP, such as those defined as regional groups.
  • Finance/Revenue Committee identified and adopted several administrative cost-saving and infrastructure improvement measures, including upgrading our MemberClicks membership administration tool.
  • Implemented a modest increase in membership dues.
  • Researched and generated a broader list of potential sponsors.
  • Maintained current level of professional development webinars while working to define future, broader webinar content. Professional Development Committee supported the participation of over 360 members in live webinar events this year.
  • Investigated past efforts, reactivated, and successfully re-implemented the Program for External Evaluation of Research Development (PEERD) NORDP Consulting Program. At the 2017 conference, launched an effort to recruit expert reviewers for the program as well as advertise for potential clients.
  • Developed and implemented of the first training forum focused on emerging research enterprise leaders: Wise decisions in times of change and uncertainty: Research Enterprise Leadership Forum, held at the 2017 conference in Broomfield, CO.
  • Planned and executed the best-attended NORDP annual conference to-date, with nearly 500 people in attendance at the Broomfield, CO conference.
  • Established the Mentoring Program Committee as a ‘stand-alone’ NORDP committee, recognizing its expanding programmatic depth and breadth, with development of mentoring resources, e.g.
  • Established an expanded volunteer administrative services resource to assist with MemberClicks and other member-related administrative questions.
  • Reinvigorated the former External Engagement Committee under the new name of Strategic Alliances Committee, building capacity in the Liaison Program and in peer-group alliances.
  • Matured the New Opportunities in Research Development (NORD) Working Group to a NORDP committee.
  • Formed a revived Communication Working Group manned by several NORDP members, focused at several communication levels – website, blog, social media, listserv, conference communication.
  • Formed a new working group focused on increasing diversity and inclusion within NORDP.

I know that these accomplishments were the collective effort of many volunteers and thank you all for your contributions to these and other recent accomplishments.  So, while this year has brought challenges, it is not hard to also see evidence of continued positive growth in NORDP, and to be excited about the potential for the future.

Thank you for the honor of serving as president this past year.  Onward and upward…

NORDP 2017 Conference Reflection with Eric Wayne Dickey

Conference Reflections provide brief reflections on members’ NORDP 2017 experiences. Maybe there was a session you particularly enjoyed, a connection made, or a keynote that spoke to you. If you’d like to participate, you can send your reflection directly to communications@NORDP.org.

Eric Wayne Dickey: Live tweeting during the seminars and presentations allowed me to document the things I learned at the conference. It also allowed me to make personal and professional connections to other research developers via social media. As a result, I will use my tweets from the Denver conference to compile a blog post that I can share with the readers of my Liberal Arts Research in Action blog. You can follow me here: twitter.com/claResearchOSU, and check out my blog here: blogs.oregonstate.edu/lara/.  The conference inspired me to up my online and social media presence, not just for my research development work, but also for my creative writing work. Something I have been wanting to do for a while. Who knew that Poetry and Research Development were made for each other? Thanks for the inspiration, my NORDP colleagues!

Visit twitter.com/MePoet and medium.com/@MePoet if you’re interested in Eric’s writing.