NORD/Info Ready Grant

The New Opportunities for Research Development (NORD) Committee is excited to announce the NORD / InfoReady Grant Cycle I 2023 Awardees, sponsored by InfoReady and NORDP

written by the NORD Committee

Meira Orentlicher from Touro University was awarded $4,950 for the project, “Understanding the Experiences and Needs of Immigrant Faculty Researchers in their Career Development.”

Immigrants contribute to the growth and development of the US research enterprise at many levels, as faculty, staff, and learners. This project seeks to understand the experiences, perceptions, triumphs, and challenges of immigrant faculty working at US research institutions. Orentlicher and other members of NORDP’s Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom affinity group (Melissa Li, University of Michigan; Gagan Bajaj, University of Vermont; Samarpita Sengupta, UT Southwestern Medical Center) will conduct in-depth interviews with first-generation immigrant faculty researchers. Using the results of those interviews, they will develop the foundation for tools and actionable strategies for research development professionals to use in supporting immigrant researchers.

Susan Carter (Santa Fe Institute) and Nathan Meier (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) were awarded $4,976 for the project “Professional Development in Research Development: A Landscape Analysis.”

There is no comprehensive, intentional system of professional development programming to support the research development (RD) workforce. This gap complicates the recruitment, development, and retention of talent in RD. This project seeks to establish a systematic understanding of professional development opportunities available to RD practitioners through an online survey. The survey will collect information about extant RD-focused professional development programming. Survey items also will capture respondents’ perceptions about barriers to access or participation in professional development programming in RD, help identify holes in that content, and surface promising approaches from allied fields. Results will provide a baseline against which unmet professional development needs of RD professionals can be identified and offer empirical direction for future attention and investment.

Charlene Emerson from the University of Missouri – Columbia was awarded $3,750 for the project “Responsibilities and Motivations of Research Support Staff: An Institutional Case Study.”

Charlene Emerson (University of Missouri)

As universities continue to invest in research development (RD), they will likely experience challenges integrating existing infrastructure with emerging RD practices, as well as with recruiting and retaining skilled research support staff. Emerson and team will use a survey-based approach to characterize RD and research administration (RA) task distribution at an R1 institution and identify variables that can be used to optimize research support operations. In addition to collecting data to understand the distribution of RD and RA responsibilities across positions and units, the team will also collect information on staff experiences, job satisfaction, and career motivations. The cross-disciplinary team includes human resources professionals, so that results can be used to inform institutional practices for structuring research support offices and for recruiting and retaining research support staff.

Congratulations to Meira, Susan, Nathan, and Charlene!

Announcing the NORD/InfoReady 2022 Cycle II Grant Awardees

The New Opportunities for Research Development (NORD) Committee is excited to announce the NORD / InfoReady Grant Cycle II 2022 Awardees, sponsored by InfoReady and NORDP.

NORD/InfoReady Grant Awardee Sanjukta Choudhury

Sanjukta Choudhury, from the University of Saskatchewan, was awarded $4,714.18 for the project, “Identifying Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Gaps in Faculty Research to Inform Research Development Practices: The Case of a Canadian Research-Intensive University”

This project aims to advance Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in faculty research through identifying barriers that researchers face in academia for meaningful EDI integration in research, and by gathering inputs on possible actions to address those barriers. The proposal addresses a pressing question in the disciplinary field of Research Development (RD) and proposes a three-step plan: a) developing a better understanding of the details of the problem picture that our researchers are facing to generate and nurture an inclusive research environment, b) discussing/consulting the identified problems with RD professionals for possible solutions, and c) communicating the findings with the broader research community internationally. Choudhury anticipates that the findings will impact the perspectives and understanding of both the researchers and research administration leadership/ professionals, resulting in an expansion of the resource allocation and improved training / services around adopting a more inclusive research guidance and practices. The research will influence enhanced EDI skills for RD professionals and larger scale research and collaboration among RD professionals internationally, broadening the recognition that is necessary to sustain a deep and lasting change in RD.

NORD/InfoReady Grant Awardee Kathryn Duvall

Kathryn Duvall, from East Tennessee University, was awarded $5,000 for the project “Developing strategies to improve and facilitate collaborative research”

Through a collaboration with an university institute and a regional committee on research and academics, Duvall’s project seeks to better understand the barriers, opportunities, and facilitators to fostering and enhancing interdisciplinary research around a central focus area (child and family health) with administrators, faculty, staff, trainees, and community organization representatives in a regional sample of south central Appalachian institutions for higher education. Duvall will develop a data dashboard around a central research focus (child and family health) within the region to provide information that will improve communication about work being conducted in the region, and foster collaborative teams which include more clinical faculty.

NORD/InfoReady Grant Awardee, Pammala Petrucka

The Nursing Unit for Research & Scholarship Excellence (NURSE) led by Dr. Pammla Petrucka, from the University of Saskatchewan, was awarded $5,000 for the project “Exploring the role of research development in building a strong culture of research: Co-creating with researchers and research development professionals through participatory diagramming”

This study seeks to better understand how the professionals that support and strengthen the research process can build a positive research culture for faculty and institutions, and ultimately enhance research development as a profession. Petrucka and participants will create a research development cycle diagram to illustrate (i) how decentralized and targeted research development supports activities that can build research culture within the College of Nursing and beyond and (ii) identify lessons learned, best practices, tools, and resources to advance the profession within North America. The results of this study will provide insights into the role research development plays in creating a strong culture of research within an academic unit from the perspectives of researchers and research development professionals. By examining the beliefs, values, knowledge, and actions that build culture, research institutions will be better positioned to continue to create a permanent culture shift that builds an environment for research success.

Congratulations, Sanjukta, Kathryn, and Pammla!

Irvine and Roane awarded NORD/InfoReady Research Development Grant

Rebecca Irvine (top) and Alexus Roane (bottom), 2022 NORD/Info Ready RD Grant Awardees

NORDP is excited to announce that the 2022 Cycle 1 NORD / InfoReady Research Development grant program awardee is Rebecca Irvine from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan, who will be working with co-PI Alexus Roane. The project, Examining the Role of Research Development in Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, aims to explore how research development professionals can help faculty integrate diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) frameworks into research. The project seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities of this integration by gaining insight from both DEI and RD professionals, in an effort to provide information to improve efforts overall.

Irvine, the Program Director for Faculty Research Development at the IRWG, noted, “Many research development professionals feel ill-equipped to offer insight and suggestions on improving the DEI aspects of research proposals. Building stronger relationships between DEI and RD professionals and providing the right tools to facilitate these conversations may be a way to begin to bridge this divide.”

Roane, an IRWG Graduate Fellow for Research, added, “I look forward to challenging ourselves to expand the possibilities of how we can imagine the necessary integration of DEI frameworks into research development both in and beyond the U-M community!”

The findings of the study are expected to help inform future policy and practice through a series of practical recommendations, reports, and resources.

Congratulations Rebecca and Alexus! And thank you to InfoReady for sponsoring the NORD / InfoReady Research Development grant program.

Written by Karen Fletcher, New Opportunities for Research Development (NORD)

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.