Tag: NORDP 2015 Conference

NORDP 2015 Conference Report: Strategies to Support Multi-Institutional, Cross-Conference Research Collaborations

by Marilyn Korhonen, Ed.D.
Associate Director Center for Research Program Development and Enrichment
Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Oklahoma

Panelists: Martha Cooper and Nathan Meier

The Traumatic Brain Injury Project is a great example of being ready to seize an opportunity, and it serves as a lesson to watch for such opportunities and be flexible enough to respond. One important aspect of the project is the timeliness and critical need to address concerns about the impact of more than 3 million brain injuries that occur each year, many of which are associated with college athletics programs.

A second critical factor is the presence of an established organizing structure. In particular, the Big Ten Athletic Conference and the Ivy League came together to improve traumatic brain injury prevention, detection, and treatment strategies. While this project aligns with athletic conferences, it is enabled by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which is a consortium of the Big Ten member universities plus the University of Chicago. The CIC has been in place for more than 50 years, enabling the member institutions to advance their academic missions by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and collaborating on innovative programs.

A third factor is the ability to govern, fund, and staff the project quickly and equitably. CIC is governed and funded by the Provosts of the member universities, and coordinated by a staff from its Champaign, Illinois headquarters. Thus the project had a natural, established home. This governing body allowed for focused goals and focused approaches implemented in coordinated ways.

Most of these factors exist primarily outside of research development. So a fourth important factor is to make a case for research and scholarship, and to leverage the resources established for the program. In this case, having a larger sample size of athletes with potential traumatic brain injuries enabled use of evidence-based, clinical protocols. These protocols may lead to collaboration with the Department of Defense, allowing for comparison of TBI based on a greater number of factors.

Finally, the University of Nebraska was in a position to provide leadership as well as physical resources to create a Center for Brain Biology and Behavior, which is attached to their Athletics Performance Lab (all within the football stadium). This strengthens their research program and provides even greater resources to the overall TBI Project. This project has already resulted in 22 research collaboration efforts and 12 distinct sources of funding.

Some of the challenges include:

  1. Increased competition for limited federal funds
  2. Balancing tensions between collaboration and competition
  3. Lack of equity in the institutional contributions of seed funding and other support toward the project.

Ultimately, the presenters expect that a strong focus on common goals will be the key to the success of their project.

NORDP 2015 Conference Report: Building an NIH Portfolio Without a Local Medical School

By Karen Markin, PhD, Director of Research Development, University of Rhode Island
To build a portfolio of grants from the National Institutes of Health at an institution without a medical school, it is essential to understand the agency’s mission, according to Janet E. Nelson, associate vice chancellor for research development at the University of Tennessee. That mission is to seek knowledge that enhances health, lengthens life and reduces illness and disability.

Nelson was one of three panelists who discussed strategic planning for successful grant-seeking from NIH in an increasingly competitive environment. The panel was part of NORDP’s annual Research Development Conference in Bethesda, MD.

Award rates at NIH are falling, noted Jennifer L. Webster, manager of strategic research initiatives at the University of Tennessee. However, it is still making grants focused on certain initiatives, including precision medicine, antibiotic resistance, cancer, brain research, Alzheimer’s disease and new vaccines.

Institutions without medical schools can compete by focusing on their strengths relative to other institutions. Panelists urged participants to think about the unique strengths of their institutions. For example, panelists Meredith Murr said the University of California at Santa Barbara has a top engineering department with talents it can leverage into NIH awards. The institution also hires strategically, focusing on medical researchers, and buildings collaborations outside the university.

Other tips from the panelists:

  • Invite an NIH program officer to speak at your campus.
  • Organize quarterly networking events and involve off-campus groups
  • Conduct red-team reviews on grant proposals.
  • Offer proposal development workshops.

NORDP 2015 Conference Report: Preparing Competitive STEM Education Development Proposals: Planning for Sustained Adoption

By Vanity Campbell
Proposal development and project management of large STEM education proposals often lack design elements to ensure sustained adoption of successful programs. The presenters shared 6 key best practices to increase the impact and systemic change anticipated of such proposals. In the past, funding agencies have encouraged a solitary cyclic model for STEM education improvement based on research, evaluation, and implementation of innovative methods.  This system relied on isolated, individualized development of new methods by researchers with limited outside feedback and involvement.  The dissemination of program outcomes was often passive utilizing conferences, websites, and publication to share program results.  As a result, proposed solutions were unique to specific institutions and lacked transferability and scalability.

New federal agency trends are emerging in STEM education development to address limited adoption and portability and broaden dissemination. To identify best practices, the presenters researched successful practices by analyzing 75 NSF CCLI grant proposals funded in 2009, case studies of well-propagated innovations (PhET, PLTL, Peer Instruction), and a review of recent related literature.  The results showed that effective propagation requires 6 key elements:

  • identification of potential adopters,
  • extensive plan for attracting, training, and supporting adopters,
  • addresses propagation early while the program is ongoing,
  • relevant instructional system elements identified,
  • provides a clearly identified plan, with rationale and strategy defined,
  • innovation, potential adopters, and selected strategies are aligned

As a hands-on activity, the presenters led workshop participants through an evaluation of a proposed STEM education proposal using an assessment instrument focusing on project type, target curricula, propagation activities, and plans.  Participants reviewed and assessed two different proposal project summaries, and compared evaluation ratings and comments.  From this exercise, participants learned that successful propagation has an intended audience, engages users, propagation plans are initiated at onset, the plan consists of an instructional system, clear and thorough plan and strategy.

Successful propagators identify potential adopters, interact with them, and support them. To achieve this, proposal planning requires interactive development, interactive dissemination, and support at three levels: individual, department, and institution.  Interactive development will include partner institutions, advisory boards and beta testing.  In comparison, isolated development involves primarily institutional stakeholders.  An interactive dissemination plan will consists of immersive workshops, leverage professional societies, pilot sites, and foster scholarship in other faculty.  Where as static dissemination should be avoided, such as dissemination of results via articles and webistes.  Lastly, adequate support will assist adopters by use of networks, customizable materials, and consultation.  This ensures successful adoption in contrast to adopters implementing new methods in isolation with no support for addressing challenges.

Implementing strong propagation plans can strengthen STEM education proposals and ensure sustained adoption and successful impact of active programs.

For contacts and additional information, see www.increasetheimpact.com.

NORDP 2015 Conference Report: Innovations in Research

By Lucy Deckard
Presenters: This session was presented by Margaret Hilton (National Research Council), James Gentile (Hope College) and Kara Hall (National Cancer Institute and member of National Research Council ) Margaret Hilton gave an overview:  This session discussed a series of reports related to Innovations in Scientific Research (specifically, interdisciplinary and team science), the latest of which came out in late April, 2015.

  • “Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research” (2005)
  • “Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Beyond” National Research Council (2014)
  • “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science” National Research Council (2015)

The first report defined “interdisciplinary” vs. “transdisciplinary” (transcends disciplinary boundaries). In theory, an individual can conduct these kinds of research by him/herself, but in reality that rarely happens. This is where you get to the realm of Team Science – science conducted interdependently by more than one person.

These reports came up with some common recommendations for changes needed to promote and accommodate these new ways of doing scientific research:

  • Revise promotion and tenure policies
  • Expand funding mechanisms and review criteria
  • Conduct research/evaluation to understand and guide improved interdisciplinarity and convergence in science

James Gentile spoke about ”convergence”:

Scientific research is becoming more problem-centered. Mother Nature is winning, and she has no departmental structural constraints. In order to solve complex questions in science we need true innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition, tools in science are exploding, bringing disciplines together.

The grand challenges that we want to converge about include:

  • Green energy
  • Chemistry and physics of living systems
  • Synthetic capacity of live
  • -omics to uncover new approaches to disease
  • Others were also listed.

The Research Corp, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and others: Science Coalition coming together and made a context map   Addressing these problems means we have to go through a web that includes law, policy, economics, as well as virology .

So in the future we will have to learn how to converge. For example, brain mapping requires a lot of different types of expertise. In interdisciplinary research, it’s usually altruistic. A researcher takes a sample to a colleague in chemistry and asks if she’ll run it on her machine. She does this as a favor. In contrast, when we converge, I get my question answered but that answer presents a new question for the colleague in chemistry. In this case, everyone is growing. They coined a new term: “Scialog,” from science and dialog.

The Research Corporation for Science Advancement brought together researchers to consider a national priority: energy from photosynthesis (in essence, can we build an artificial tree based on nanotechnology). They invited researchers to form teams, but before they pitched the science, the Research Corporation just wanted to hear the justification for the team composition. They ended up funding a group that created bio-inspired silicon photovoltaics. Convergence also works in education. He gave the example of having students design robotic “cockroaches”. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JysIA-4fcA4 and NRC, 2014.

Kara Hall talked in more detail about the recently released report, “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science”:

The committee looked at factors that impacted effectiveness of science teams:

  • Individual factors
  • Factors at team/center/institute level (organizational factors)
  • Management approaches and leadership styles
  • How tenure and promotion are affected
  • etc.

The team included people with a broad range of backgrounds, including psychologists, biologists, social scientists, etc. They used several measures to evaluate effectiveness, including which research is cited more and which yielded more patents. They found that research done in teams is cited more, yields more patents, and demonstrates high levels of innovation.

They defined the following terms:

Team science – collaborative, interdependent research conducted by more than one individual

Science team – 2 – 10 individuals

Larger group – more than 10 (teams of teams)

Team effectiveness – a team’s capacity to perform

Key features that cause more challenges for team science are large membership diversity, the need to effect deep knowledge integration, (sometimes) large size, goal misalignment, permeable boundaries for teams (meaning members may move in and out as the research evolves), geographic dispersion, and high task interdependence. The concluded that there is already a strong body of research on team processes as they relate to  effectiveness, but most of that research was done on teams such as business teams (not science research teams), so we need to bring that literature into the context of science.

They identified three main areas where interventions could enhance effectiveness: team composition, team professional development, and team leadership. Kara summarized several recommendations based on current research in each of these areas.

Composing your team: Consider using task analytic methods to identify needed knowledge, skills and attitudes. These methods can be used to match task-related diversity among team or group members.  Also, consider moving outside your usual network – for example by leveraging networking tools.

Team Professional Development: Team professional development models prevalent in business could be applied to science. The committee recommended that we look at these models to see what’s out there and develop them so that they are relevant to science teams. When dealing with diverse teams and trying develop shared knowledge, it’s very important to devote time to developing a shared vocabulary. This may seem like it takes a lot of time, but in the end it will be worth it.

Leadership: The committee noted that there is already fifty years of research on teams and organizational leadership, so we should take advantage of this robust foundation and adapt it for leaders of science teams and larger groups.

The team also recommended that, in order to address the challenges of geographic dispersion, we conduct research on virtual collaboration and geographically dispersed science teams. They also recommended that dispersed teams consider task assignments within semi-independent units at each location to reduce the burden of constant electronic communication.

The team also concluded that while universities have launched new efforts to promote interdisciplinary team science (e.g., getting rid of departments), the impact of these initiatives on the amount and quality of team science has not be systematically evaluated. It may not be that the main hurdles are not actually disciplinary structures but may instead be factors such as promotion and tenure (P/T) criteria.

This points out the importance of aligning reward structures with encouraging team science. Many university P/T review policies are uncreative  and don’t give credit for team-based research. One model might be big physics, where research has long been done in very large teams. They allow researchers to get credit for pre-publications (e.g., software, databases, etc.), not just first-authored publications.

Funding agencies also need to play a role in encouraging a culture change in the scientific community. The report recommends that funders encourage development and implementation of new collaborative models (e.g., research networks, consortia). They also need to support the development of resources that support team science (e.g., info repositories, training modules, ensuring data is available for mining). We also need more targeted research about team science, but few funding programs support this research.

She also recommended that folks attend the SciTS (science of team science) 2015 conference in June 2 -5, 2015 in Bethesda, MD.

Questions and Answers:

Question: Are more diverse teams more difficult to manage?

  • Faculty are a non-pack-oriented group – leadership and administrative oversight can be difficult
  • Teams should start out small – then they can grow as they demonstrate success
  • In the team science report there was lots of discussion around diversity – we will see evolving culture shifts – more emphasis in education. A new Chief of Science Workforce Diversity at NIH was just named. As get used to more diversity, it will get easier.
  • There will be a meeting targeting provosts and deans by the National Academy highlighted their role in addressing some of these team science issues (e.g., authorship is an example  if diff disciplines have different authorship criteria)

Question:  Are there recommended strategies for forming teams?

  • When you have a team that has worked together and then bring in some new people, that often works best. If you’ve been working together too long, you can lose your innovative edge. Sometimes concatenating two teams also works.
  • When there’s too much competition among teams, it degrades the teams’ ability to work with one another, which may be needed in the future. One way to address this is to develop large networks and initiatives that include multiple centers to foster collaboration.
  • NIH is offering the opportunity to bring together scientists to think about a problem space – not a commitment. That way, teams can form and when there is an application, it’s more sophisticated
  • Another strategy is to form a team around teaching – if they can work together around teaching, a lot of research can come out of that, and it’s a way for the members to get used to working with one another (for example, developing innovative interdisciplinary non-major courses)

Question: Can core facilities help bring teams together?

  • You have to find a way to stimulate conversation. Some core facilities work better than others to stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations. The  core needs to understand that this is one of their roles.
  • Sometimes the core is competing with the people they are supposed to be supporting – they need to get rewarded for bringing people together.

The presenters thanked their sponsors: NSF and Elsevier

NORDP 2015 Conference Report: When Research Development is Just One Part of Your Job Description

By Sarah Pollock-Wisdom, Washington State University

Presenters: Michael Spires (University of Colorado, Boulder) & Kellie Dyslin (Northern Illinois University)

Background of the presenters:  Both presenters have experienced with this topic. Kellie Dyslin has been in research development for fifteen years. Her work in RD began with a nonprofit where she worked to launch projects and find grant opportunities…all without realizing that she was actually participating in research development. Now she works at NIU, where she helps investigators put their best foot forward.  Michael Spires has been in research development for ten years. He spent some time working with the Smithsonian and now works with humanities and social science faculty at UC Boulder.

This session covered four areas:

–          Objectives

–          Definitions

–          Challenges & Opportunities

–          Best Practices

The objectives for the session were that the participants would 1) Gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in the positions that blend research and proposal development. 2) Understand how blended positions are different from separate, full-time research development roles; and 3) Gain tools for enhancing one’s ability to conduct research and proposal development as only one responsibility among many.

The presenters started by defining some of their terms (with help from the audience):

–          Research Development – the bucket of things that happens before we put a proposal together (aka relationship building; identifying community partners; internal seed grants; positioning; helping faculty talk to program officers, etc…)

–          Proposal Development – This narrows down to specific projects.  Often this is where the work starts for most of us with (formatting of bios, C&Ps, COIs, etc…).  Although we might want to help with Research Development (also referred to as the “pre-pre proposal part”), it is typically mentors in the PI’s field that assist in this area. Once you have worked with a PI once or twice, though, they are more likely to come to you for research development assistance.

–          Research Administrator – This person makes sure everything is compliant. They monitor internal & external deadlines. They may help with budgets. Assisting with budgets is a good inroad to getting more involved with research development activities. Most PIs are delighted to hand the budget off to someone else, and once they see your ability to help them, they may be open to more input from you in other areas.

The presenters asked the audience to consider a question: Is our time on the nitty-gritty details (formatting biosketches, checking margins, adding page numbers) really valuable? Although such mundane activities take our time away from the critical area of research development, the presenters argued that the time spend on details is valuable, if only for the fact that then proposals are not returned without review for noncompliance. While it may feel like we format biosketches endlessly, typically we are not working with the same PIs every time; hopefully the PIs learn from the help we give them and grow out of needing our assistance in that area. To alleviate the time spent on these mundane details, one audience member suggested hiring undergraduates to format the bios. Another audience member shared how she keeps a spreadsheet of all she does so that she can show her supervisor and justify her requests for student hires.

Next the presenters discussed the challenges and opportunities to a job that involves more than simply research development. These challenges and opportunities sometimes go hand-in-hand: Continue reading “NORDP 2015 Conference Report: When Research Development is Just One Part of Your Job Description”

NORDP 2015 Conference Cameo: Lucy Deckard

Who: Lucy Deckard, President
Where: Academic Research Funding Strategies, LLC
Number of years in research development: 14
Length of NORDP membership: 5 
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 3
It was my good luck that NORDP was being established just I decided to leave my position in Research Development at Texas A&M University to start a consulting business. Independent consultants depend on networking and word of mouth to connect with potential clients. Our currency is information, and one of the most valuable things we can provide a client is a broader perspective that reaches beyond their particular institution. What approaches have other institutions employed to address specific research development challenges? What works and what doesn’t? What are the larger trends in research funding and research development?

NORDP has been instrumental in helping me address all of those aspects. Attending NORDP conferences has provided invaluable opportunities to connect with potential clients across the country and meet clients with whom I’d previously only talked on the phone. The information I’ve learned at the conference has helped me to build a much broader understanding of the research development landscape across the country than I could ever have done on my own. Interestingly, when I attended my first NORDP conference in 2010, I was the only consultant there. At last year’s conference, I met a number of other independent consultants. It was wonderful to be able to share advice with them and commiserate about challenges.

In past conferences, I’ve participated in NORDP conferences in various ways, including serving as part of the planning committee, presenting, and volunteering to be a scribe. For this year’s conference, I’m particularly looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones. To get the most out of the conference, I recommend that you make a point to talk to people you don’t know. Sit only at tables where you don’t know the other people and ask them about their research development roles at their institutions.

We hope to see you at the 2015 NORDP Research Development Conference, April 29 to May 1 in Bethesda, MD. For more information about the conference program or to register, click here! 

NORDP 2015 Conference Cameos: Jessica Venable

Who: Jessica Venable, Coordinator, Research Development Services
Where: Virginia Commonwealth University
Number of years in research development: 16 (Was it called “research development” back then?)
Length of NORDP membership: 4
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 4
My first foray into research development, well before I had even heard the term, was when I was a graduate student intern at NASA Langley Research Center. The Associate Director of the Education Division handed me a giant book of grants the center had made in the past fiscal year. He said my project was to survey faculty, postdocs, and graduate students about their experiences working on these sponsored programs. My first question: “What’s a sponsored program?”

Fifteen years later, I am in the position of responding to that question for researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Since the answers are so critical faculty professional development and VCU’s success, I have to come up interesting, creative, and compelling ways to impart the fundamentals of grantsmanship. And if I am to help keep the faculty competitive, I have to stay sharp, well-informed, and ahead of the trends. I certainly can’t do that by myself from Richmond, VA!

 I serve as the Coordinator for Research Development Services in VCU’s central office of research and am charged with assisting faculty in all disciplines targeting all funders. I readily admit the limits of my expertise, so I was thrilled to learn that there was an organization of research development professionals to pool and share resources. Thanks to the RD conferences, an entire community of experts has inspired VCU’s yearlong, campus-wide grantwriting bootcamps: the CAREER Academy and the Grantwriting Institute.

 For me, the NORDP 2015 conference will be all about the hallway conversations. My office is refining some of its programs, so I’ll look to my fantastic NORDP member colleagues for their best strategies, best advice, and good humor. Like Bob McDonald said, the annual meeting is where it’s at!

It’s not too late to attend the 2015 NORDP Research Development Conference, which will be held April 29 to May 1 in Bethesda, MD. More information about the conference program and registration info available here.

NORDP 2015 Conference Cameos: Pradip Pramanik

Who: Pradip Pramanik, Director, Proposal Development Unit
Where: North Carolina State University
Number of years in research development: 27
Length of NORDP membership: 6
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 5
With more than 27 years of  combined experience in project management, grants management, planning, administration, assessment, and research development, I am really encouraged by NORDP’s role in enhancing the visibility of research development professionals on a national scale. Since its inception, the organization has played an extraordinary role in establishing a network of research development professionals and enhancing the capacity of its members. It serves as a communication and networking platform to share best practices and build awareness about effective strategies, policy decisions, opportunities, and issues related to research development.

For me, NORDP has played a significant role in steering my professional growth and development in research development facilitation across departmental and institutional boundaries. Over the years, I have realized that success of a faculty team depends not only in the content of a team’s discussions but also in the manner in which the team members interact and communicate with one another.

That said, at the upcoming conference, I am specifically interested in team science strategies and am looking forward to the sessions on “The Collaboration Continuum: An RD Perspective on Building Teams” and “The Science of Team Science: The Evidence and A Path Forward.” The NORDP conference is well-attended, and I would recommend my colleagues to reach out to fellow research development professionals at this conference to share accomplishments and lessons learned, participate in Q&A sessions, and to engage in discussions that enhance peer interaction. I will be participating in the 2015 conference as an attendee and am looking forward to engaging in discussions and informative sessions. 

Make plans to attend the 2015 NORDP Research Development Conference, which will be held April 29 to May 1 in Bethesda, MD. For more information about the conference program or to register, visit here.

 

NORDP 2015 Conference Cameos: Vanity Campbell

Who: Vanity Campbell, Senior Research Development Officer
Where: University of California, Merced
Number of years in research development: 5 
Length of NORDP membership: 2 
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 1

At the University of California, Merced, I support the research efforts of investigators, research teams, and university leadership. The wealth of research ongoing at this new research university has inspired a broadening of my scope of research experience from clinical to areas of engineering, basic science, and social sciences, coordinating proposals for industry and investigator initiated projects. My role ensures the competitiveness of securing and maintaining funding in this changing research funding environment. As a research development professional, it is most rewarding for me to contribute to supporting an array of innovative research projects and programs and the growth of a thriving new university.

NORDP attracts a number of professionals dedicated to providing research development support to institutions across the country. The organization’s annual conference provides a platform and strong network for building upon my professional growth. The past annual NORDP conference was a resource for meeting several needs, including presentation of federal funding trends, strategies focused on institutional competitiveness, RD office structure, and best business practices, as well as the opportunity to share experiences with others in the field. I look forward to attending the 2015 NORDP conference both as an attendee and Idea Showcase/Poster presenter. The Red-Team review pre-conference workshop, various breakout and roundtable sessions, and the conference featured speakers are of immense interest to me. I encourage others to join me in visiting Bethesda, MD, for this year’s engaging conference. Maximize your conference attendance by planning to attend activities such as the networking dinner opportunity, poster showcase, and breakout and roundtable sessions to meet and connect with other attendees.

We hope to see you at the 2015 NORDP Research Development Conference, which will be held April 29 to May 1 in Bethesda, MD. For more information or to register, visit http://www.nordp.org/conferences.

 

NORDP 2015 Conference Cameos: Bob MacDonald

Who: Bob MacDonald, Coordinator for Partnerships and Grants
Where: Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
Number of years in research development: 5
Length of NORDP membership: 5
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 5
I was hired by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in December, 2010, as its first Coordinator for Partnerships and Grants. My charge was simple but broad – to help ARS scientists to be more successful in obtaining soft funding. I had previously been with a Federal granting agency for 17 years, so I was very knowledgeable about Federal grant programs and grantsmanship – but this assignment was broader and, as I came to find out, very closely aligned with the emerging field of research development. I was both thrilled and anxious about my new task of helping ARS’ 2,000 scientists located in 90 locations across the nation. One of the first things I did was to visit several universities to learn what they did. I quickly ran into Ken Gertz, Associate Vice President for Research Development at the University of Maryland and one of the NORDP’s founders. He told me about NORDP, and I quickly joined and started attending the meetings.

What I learned at NORDP annual meetings was indispensable to my standing up a successful research development program at ARS – even though there are significant differences between universities and ARS, a Federal agency with units dispersed across the country. I learned what works and what does not work, could discuss strategies and programs with the wonderful members of NORDP, find and vet the tools and contracted support I needed, as well as be part of an exciting, growing organization of fantastic people. And the annual meetings are where this really takes place. The sharing of experiences, best practices, and hallway conversations are invaluable – as of course are the dinners out together! Today, in large part thanks to the shared experience of NORDP, I have a program that my scientists (who, like most scientists, are not fans of administration) love and avidly support.
The 2015 NORDP Research Development Conference will be held April 29 to May 1 in Bethesda, MD. For more information or to register, visit http://www.nordp.org/conferences.