NORDP News

Who: Deborah S. Rocha, Research Development Specialist
Where: Indiana University, Bloomington
Number of years in research development: about 8
Length of NORDP membership: 8 years
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 1

I have a graduate degree in Systems Science and a passion for the kind of problem solving that can come out of interdisciplinary research, and I’ve come to see this as a natural pathway into RD work. My first RD position was with an academic department that was expanding traditional boundaries in exciting new and interdisciplinary directions. From 2008 to 2012, I was their point of contact for proposal related questions, identified relevant funding opportunities, reviewed and edited proposal content, delivered informational workshops, and created and maintained an informational website.

In 2013, I started working with Proposal Development Services (PDS) in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) at IUB. My work is campus wide now and includes comprehensive project management of complex grant proposals, as well as general proposal support. This typically involves reviewing and editing proposals for content, structure, and grantsmanship. I’m happy to be included in larger vision and planning conversations within the OVPR as well. I also provide individual consultations to faculty who are developing projects for which they plan to seek external funding, and help develop and deliver informational workshops and specialized seminars.

In late 2008 I joined the listserv Holly Falk-Krzesinski launched out of Northwestern University that grew soon thereafter into NORDP. The collegiality has been really important to me ever since. During the first part of that year, supporting great research was a clear goal for me, but I hadn’t yet seen it as research development. NORDP has provided me with both a network and a framework for realizing RD as a career.

Attending the 2015 NORDP conference with hundreds of others who do similar work, many of whom have similar stories, was validating and exciting. I came away with a terrific mentor and an invaluable safety net of colleagues to turn to for feedback when I’m working on something new.

So much of what I learned from NORDP comes into play routinely in my work; specific examples include looking more closely at evaluating RD using metrics and surveys, and adjusting how I critique and offer feedback on faculty proposals. I’m looking forward to this year’s conference themes of creativity and interdisciplinarity, to the presentations around those themes, and to the interactive workshops.

My advice for first time attendees: Be willing to ask for help. The community is generous and happy to share experience and knowledge. Be assured that your opportunity to help others will come around, and grab it when it does. Attend all the sessions you can, and as much as possible mingle, listen, and share.

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. 

Who: Cortney Leach, Research Development Manager, The Information School
Where: University of Washington
Number of years in research development: 3
Length of NORDP membership: 2 years
Number of NORP conferences attended: 2
I provide leadership for the UW iSchool in the areas of research strategy and development, partner and sponsor cultivation, and promotion and external relations. Under our Associate Dean for Research, I support a highly diverse group of faculty and research scientists, with backgrounds ranging from philosophy and law to data science and systems biology. As the lead within a 2-person, unit-based RD shop, I manage services that strategically lighten the administrative load for our researchers in addition to those that propel us forward. In a given day you will find me holding proposal strategy sessions with individual faculty members; facilitating a brown bag on cracking Google research funding; reaching out to Federal Relations re: an upcoming faculty member’s visit to D.C. (our Seattle location has its challenges); drafting policies related to the management of our research centers; planning our transition to an eIRB system; helicopter-parenting a proposal as it makes its way through OSP review; advising my ADR on internal seed fund requests… If it pertains to the conduct of research, I pick up the phone. I came to the field after holding varied positions in research, non-profit, and public program management, most recently within the digital inclusion evaluation and policy spac

We do not enjoy the support of central RD office at Washington, and my position is rather unusual on campus. I discovered NORDP quite by chance within in my first 6 months, and it has been a critical lifeline. I attended the previous two NORDP conferences (Portland and Bethesda), and found the workshops, sessions, and opportunities to connect with colleagues to be invaluable. The range of topics explored as well as the level of expertise in the room (each room) has made for a consistently rewarding conference experience with tons of takeaways. For instance, the 2015 session on evaluating research development services helped me to take a leap forward in developing metrics and methods for evaluating our own services, and the session sharing findings from comparative study of proposal review criteria at federal agencies has translated to remarkable efficiencies for myself and my faculty.

In Orlando, I am especially looking forward to making new connections, the sustained reflection I hope to find at the Developing a Faculty Research Development Program pre-conference workshop, and sharing my thoughts on why it may be time to revisit crowdfunding during my session with the brilliant Cindy Bellas, Reconnecting to the Citizen: Crowdfunding Research. For those you attending, I urge you to step away from the Outlook and allow yourself to be truly present. You won’t want to miss a thing. I’m counting down the days – I know I will leave NORDP 2016 inspired, smarter, better prepared, and better connected.

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. 

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. 

Research development professionals from all regions of the U.S. – and abroad! – will be converging on Orlando in just 10 weeks for the 2016 NORDP Conference. Register at http://www.nordp.org/conferences, and enjoy this week’s featured Conference Cameo, which comes to us from Princeton University.

Who: Mary Sym, PhD, Assistant Director, Project Development
Where: Princeton University
Number of years in research development: 2.5
Length of NORDP membership: 2 years
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 2

More than 10 years ago, I began working in research administration, but we did not have the phrase “research development” in our lexicon. Federal funding agencies were busy launching several large-scale initiatives geared toward interdisciplinary team science. Although many faculty were interested in participating, at the time, our university did not have dedicated staff or resources to support these kinds of projects. I was asked to bring teams of interested scientists together and help develop competitive applications for these funding initiatives.

After a few years working in big pharma, I circled back to academic research administration here at Princeton. My supervisor told me about NORDP and it sounded like the perfect venue for getting up to speed on the research development landscape, which has grown and matured tremendously in the past decade.

As a NORDP member, I have enjoyed talking with other research development professionals to learn how similar many of our struggles and, more importantly, our solutions can be across a wide range of universities. Sharing best practices has been incredibly insightful.

My advice to first-time conference attendees: Bring a colleague or two so you can split up your office’s coverage of the concurrent sessions. When I went solo in the past, I had a hard time deciding which session to attend since so many were relevant and interesting.

I’m glad the conference is in Florida this year. In New Jersey, we recently had a blizzard that dumped over two feet of snow on us. I am definitely looking forward to the warm, sunny climate!

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.

Don’t miss your opportunity to learn from and network with the largest gathering of research development professionals anywhere – register for the 2016 NORDP Conference today at http://www.nordp.org/conferences. Nearly 300 RD professionals already are registered! A new Conference Cameo from one of them, Nathan Meier, is posted below.

Who: Nathan Meier, Director of Research Strategy, Office of Research and Economic Development
Where: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Number of years in research development: 13
Length of NORDP membership: 5 years
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 3

I have been “doing” research development since 2003, when I joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) as a proposal writer specialist. Over time, my portfolio has grown to include a range of responsibilities that I enjoy but that I am careful to ensure supplement rather than supplant my core skill set, which has proposal writing at its center. This is important because I believe most research development efforts will be wasted if we cannot ensure faculty have the support necessary to develop high quality, well-written grant proposals.

On any given day, you may find me facilitating external review, managing internal seed grant programs, supporting selection processes for limited submission competitions, organizing workshops or retreats to help catalyze interdisciplinary connections or to help faculty network with external partners, linking faculty with UNL’s proposal development staff, assisting with a faculty award nomination, facilitating a faculty development initiative, or working on something entirely new. Like so many of you, what I love most about my job is the fact that no two days are ever alike!

I subscribed to the NORDP listserv several years ago and became a member in 2011. I attended the conference in Austin, attended and presented at NORDP in Portland, and helped with abstract review and marketing leading up to and presented at the meeting last year in Bethesda. What I enjoy most about the annual conferences is the sense of community that has evolved over time. Finally, it seems, there is a professional home for those of us who do this type of work.

This year, I am really interested to see how the focus on creativity and innovation coalesces during the May meeting. As you think about registering for the conference in Orlando, I encourage you to consider inviting a colleague to attend, too. Since there is such a wealth of information shared each year, I have found that one of the best ways to maximize the time spent at the annual meeting is to ensure at least one other individual with whom I work also participates so we can discuss new ideas and approaches once we are back in the office.

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.