NORDP 2017 Conference

NORDP 2017 Conference Notes: How to write a successful NIH Career Development Award (K award)

How to write a successful NIH Career Development Award (K award)

Presenters: Mark Roltsch, University of Western Florida

Thanks to session our session note-taker, Burr Zimmerman, Urban Venture Group!

Key points from the session. We learned:

There are many different kinds of K awards
- Some schools support K-awards, some don’t: K awards require the faculty member have 75% protected time for research
- Medical Schools – they tend to like K-awards. They are viewed as stepping stone to R01s, and five years of training should get them there.
- K progression: Start with T32s or institutional K awards, then ‘real K’s’, then R01
  - The R03 award may only be open to folks who have K awards in that institute
  - The R21 is for exploratory, cutting edge; not necessarily good for junior faculty
- Types of K awards
  - K01 – basic research
  - K08 – clinical research
  - K23 – patient-oriented research
  - K25 – quantitative research
  - K01 – diversity award / minority serving institution
  - K99/R00 – post doc who is transitioning
    - Walk into job interview with 3 years of funding
    - Don’t have to be US citizen, so lots of applicants

Selecting a target institute – faculty should:
- Match topical area with your mentor’s funding source
- Email program officer, get feedback (not just topical, but also which mechanism – K01, K23, etc.)
- Carefully read the PA/RFA to identify participating institutes and their specific topics
- Engage with NIH staff at the conferences your mentor attends
Read the PA/RFA
- Check dollar amount (for MDs, $100k for 75% of time is a paycut – usually the university or school supplements the salary)
- The review section is what to emphasize in your application
What does it take to get funded?
- Essential: well-funded primary mentor (if he or she hasn’t mentored before, form a mentoring team)
  - Need to emphasize mentoring experience, NIH funding
  - Mentor needs to be co-located. Across the hall ideal. Across town isn’t great. Across the state doesn’t work.
- The presenter is from University of West Florida; his own institution wouldn’t ever apply for a K-award – can’t get it.
  - But! Some diversity K awards are possible for smaller institutions.
- Keys to K award success
  - Time to write a compliant, compelling application
  - Good research idea
  - Quality candidate
  - Qualified mentor
  - Well developed training program
- Biggest K funders are NHLBI, NIMH, NIDDK
  - NIA funding 40% of K-awards
  - NIGMS funds 85% of K08 awards!

What did you hear at this presentation that surprised you?
K awards can have extremely high funding rates (e.g. NIGMS K08s 86% funded), and average over 30% for entire K spectrum. But the criteria mean only a very small cadre of schools have high success rates

Also, R21s may not be a good mechanism for generating data for your first R01 – they are too competitive and are pooled with experienced researchers. R21’s are highly, highly competitive, and if you’re junior faculty, it might not be a great place to compete, as you don’t get early investigator bonus points.

What resources did you discover at this presentation?
The main resource emphasized was NIH Reporter. Might not be a ‘discovery’, but the presenter emphasized how rich and useful the data are.

Also, FOIA requests are a way to get access to successful applications. Build a library by requesting funded applications. NIH does a better job than some other Federal agencies of providing useful information.

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

Different institutes review K awards differently. Funding rates can be very different across K mechanisms. K99 toughest (23%); K23 is 57%, K08 can be nearly 90%.

What else from this session should NORDP members know?
If you can crack the code (meet all the requirements), K-awards are a great resource. If you can find a nearby, well-funded mentor, then you have a chance!

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.

NORDP 2017 conference materials available!

Presentations from the 2017 9th Annual Research Development Conference are now available on the conference program site. If you presented at the conference and your materials are not posted, please send your final presentation slides (and any accompanying materials) to rdconf@nordp.org and we’ll see to it that they’re posted.

Further, thanks to NORDP sponsor Digital Science, we will be making conference presentations available (with indexing, metadata, and DOIs for each presentation) available through a NORDP instance of FigShare in the near future.

Finally, it’s not too soon to start thinking about presenting at the 2018 NORDP meeting! Next year’s meeting will be held Monday, May 7, through Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. We hope to see you there!

2017 NORDP Rising Star Awardees

NORDP Day 2 0591_Rising Star Awardees_3 — Madhavi (Maddy) Chokshi, Michael Thompson, Mary J. Fechner

The annual NORDP Rising Star Award recognizes up to three members who have made outstanding volunteer contributions to NORDP. The 2017 Rising Star awardees are Madhavi (Maddy) Chokshi, Michael Thompson, and Mary Fechner.

Madhavi (Maddy) Chokshi, University of Central Florida
A NORDP member since 2014, Maddy attended her first annual conference in 2016. She helped make the 2016 conference a rousing success, serving on the conference planning committee and leading the local activities sub-committee. If you attended a networking dinner or went on a morning walk or run, you can thank Maddy. She also has served on the Strategic Alliances Committee and is actively engaged in NORDP Region III.

Michael Thompson, University of New Hampshire
Michael has generously shared his humor, knowledge, and expertise with regional and national colleagues since becoming an RD professional in 2013. He has been instrumental in improving NORDP communications. He serves on NORDP’s communications working group, sharing his wisdom with the marketing committees for the 2016 and 2017 conferences. He started the @NORDP_official Twitter account and has been tweeting on NORDP’s behalf ever since.

Mary J. Fechner, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Active in both NORDP and NORDP NE, Mary combines her anthropology Ph.D. training with RD experience to bring a nuanced understanding to her service on NORDP’s annual conference evaluation committee. She is also a co-investigator on a collaborative project with University of Massachusetts, University of Tennessee, and Hanover Research peers to study development of the RD field through analysis of RD job postings and focus group input.

Early Bird Conference Registration ends March 15

All good things must come to an end, and that includes the early registration rate for the NORDP annual conference in Denver this May. Early registration ends on Wednesday, March 15, so don’t miss the opportunity to sign up for a great meeting and save some money! The member rate is currently $460, but that increases to $530 after March 15. For non-members, the rates rise from $650 to $720. There’s still room in some of the pre-conference workshops: don’t delay in signing up! View the program here. Register today!

NORDP Pre-Conference Workshop Highlight: A Research Development Professional’s Guide to Community-Engaged Research

#NORDP2017 starts Monday, May 8 in Denver, CO. Keep checking back here at the blog and on our Twitter feed (@NORDP_official) for live conference updates. Register here: http://www.nordp.org/conferences.
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A Research Development Professional’s Guide to Community-Engaged Research

Have you wondered what you need to know to assist faculty with engaging the community and developing competitive proposals that include community engaged research?

Have you been approached by a researcher who needs to include community input on a grant proposal but has no idea where to start to engage the community?

Do you wonder if your institution has the necessary expertise and infrastructure to support community – engaged research?

The 2017 NORDP Pre-Conference Workshop entitled: “A Research Development Professional’s Guide to Community-Engaged Research” will provide research development professionals (RDPs) with an opportunity to increase their working knowledge about community engaged (CE) research. Presenters will focus on five community engaged research topics including: partnerships, budgets, resources/tools, training and institutional considerations. A pre-conference survey will assess CE research knowledge, perceptions, and current activities and will help shape workshop content. A collective SWOT analysis will frame CE research from a RDP perspective, highlighting areas where RDPs can make significant contributions and where furture professional development opportunities could be most beneficial. Case studies will illustrate examples of community engaged research and resources / tools that facilitate community engaged research and community engagement.

About the Facilitators:

Tiffany L. Israel, MSSW, is the Translational Research Coordinator/Community Navigator for the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. In this role, she manages the implementation of the Community Engagement Studio model, a forum for community members to better inform research practices. She serves as a co-instructor for the Vanderbilt Medical School and supports the development of community engaged research by conducting institutional seminars and guest lectures on best practices for partnering with community to improve the field of research. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Ms. Israel, a trained facilitator, gained more than 15 years of experience working in and with the Nashville community most recently as the Director of Programs and Resource Development for the Neighborhoods Resource Center and the Associate Executive Director for St. Luke’s Community House.

Ms. Israel has a Master’s degree in Social Work and Community Practice from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelors of Social Work from Middle Tennessee State University.

Yvonne Joosten, MPH, has an extensive background in population and community health, with expertise in community and patient engagement, community outreach, community development and building academic-community research partnerships. As the executive director of the Office for Community Engagement in the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health she provides input on the institution’s community and public health strategic initiatives related to education, research, outreach and service. Since its inception in 2007, Ms. Joosten has led the creation and management of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Core, part of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. She has overseen the creation and implementation of infrastructure and resources to support the planning and implementation of robust community engaged research and mutually-beneficial, sustainable academic-community research partnerships. Ms. Joosten’s work in the academic setting is informed by over 30 years of experience with community based providers and advocacy organizations that serve diverse populations impacted by health disparities. She maintains strong relationships with local community leaders and has developed an extensive network of academic partners, resulting in a unique ability to effectively broker academic-community research partnerships.

Ms. Joosten has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and a Bachelor’s in Anthropology from Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona.

Kim Littlefield, Ph.D., currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Research Development and Learning (http://www.southalabama.edu/departments/research/rdl/) at the University of South Alabama (USA). In addition to the other responsibilities of this role, Dr. Littlefield facilitates the creation of collaborative research partnerships. She is a Co-Investigator on USA’s Translational Research Services Center (TRSC) award, which established USA as a partner institution in the eleven member partner network associated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham CTSA award – the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). As a Co-Investigator on the TRSC project, Dr. Littlefield serves on the national CTSA Collaboration / Engagement Domain Task Force and on the Metrics/Evaluation working group. In this role, her partnership building efforts have gravitated towards local and regional community engaged research activities. As a university administrator, Dr. Littlefield’s community engagement research partnership building activities focus on developing institutional infrastructure to connect community and academic partners and showcase community-academic partnerships and projects in searchable, dynamic, and real-time ways. Dr. Littlefield’s goals for future community engaged research work include finding creative ways to translate university compliance infrastructure to the community, including human subjects training, IRB review, and grants management capabilities. She brings an institutional perspective to the evolving discussion about how research development professionals can best apply their expertise and resources to facilitate community engaged research activities.

Click HERE for full information and to register.

Stay tuned for more workshop previews! In the meantime, you can see full descriptions of each workshop HERE.

Each workshop takes an interactive, hands-on approach, introducing new tools, techniques and training to incorporate these tools into your research development activities. Workshops will also provide opportunities for networking through small group discussion and interaction.

Workshop sizes are limited, so please register early. For questions or additional information, please contact Kari Whittenberger-Keith. We hope you to see you in the workshops!

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We hope to see you at the 2017 NORDP Research Development Conference, which will be held May 8-10 in Denver, CO. 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 #NORDP2017 updates.

2017 Conference Cameo: Kimberly Eck

Who: Kimberly Eck, Director of Research Development
Where: University of Tennessee
Number of years in research development: 8
Length of NORDP membership: 2
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 2
How do you unwind? Taking my Boston Terriers for a walk.

As a first-generation college student, I would have never predicted that I would one day have a PhD and be serving as an administrator in an institution of higher education. Like many research development professionals, my understanding of and career in research development have evolved greatly since I started. I am thrilled to eck_pic share more about my background and the value I found in NORDP.

I started working in research development in 2009 when I joined a small consulting firm whose clients came from the health care and public health arena. I was able to leverage my academic background (my PhD is in epidemiology) while working with diverse clients from federally-qualified health centers, to state departments of health, to multi-hospital health systems. It was an intensive introduction to grants, federal funding, and more.

In 2013, I joined the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY). I worked across all disciplines and with even more funders. I was excited to work outside of my comfort zone. As a part of this role, I convened and actively participated in faculty-led workshops and other meetings.

During one of these workshops, a guest speaker – Michael O’Rourke – scribbled five letters on a piece of scrap paper. He handed it to me and asked, “Do these letters mean anything to you?” “N-O-R-D-P,” I read. No, they didn’t. Of course, I quickly googled NORDP and was ecstatic to find this fantastic group of research development. Finally, I found my people!

I attended my first Annual NORDP Conference in 2014. It was incredible! Everyone I met was genuinely interested in learning, sharing, and advancing and legitimizing the field of research development. I had never felt so welcomed by a professional organization before. I started the conference knowing 1 person and left the conference with meaningful contacts at more than 30 institutions. My 2015 conference experience was even better.

Now as the Director of Research Development at the University of Tennessee, I’ve encouraged my team and others to attend the 2017 Annual NORDP Conference. I am most excited to share early results from a research project sanctioned by the NORDP Board of Directors to characterize the field of research development. (Be on the lookout for our brief survey!)

If you are new to research development or to NORDP, my advice is to join the group dinners and breakfast discussions. You never know who you’ll meet. Just make sure to bring extra business cards!

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If you’d like to be featured in a Conference Cameo, let us know at rdconf@nordp.org.

NORDP Pre-Conference Workshop Highlight: Crowdfunding and Social Media

Crowdfunding and Social Media: New Paths to Raise Funds and Visibility for Research

As traditional sources of research funding become more and more competitive, faculty members are seeking new ways of raising funds for their projects. Scholars and universities alike have become interested in harnessing the crowd to raise both funding and visibility for their initiatives. But it is difficult to know where to start in this uncharted terrain! Participants in this workshop will learn how to develop and run a crowdfunding campaign for academic research, and will learn the mechanics and skills necessary to teach faculty this emerging form of research funding.

About the Facilitators:

Jai Ranganathan

Jai is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara, and Director of #SciFund Challenge, a nonprofit organization that empowers scientists to shrink the gap between science and society. He has taught classes on research engagement and crowdfunding, outreach, academic poster design, video production, and social media for scientists at universities and colleges across the country.

Barbara Louise Endemaño Walker

Barbara has been the Director of Research Development for the Social Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) since 2007. She is responsible for catalyzing research innovation and excellence among social scientists and interdisciplinary teams, as well as strategic planning for campus diversity initiatives. She is also the co-author of a forthcoming book from Routledge Press on strategic research proposal writing for the humanities and social sciences.

Click HERE for full information and to register.

Stay tuned for more workshop previews! In the meantime, you can see full descriptions of each workshop HERE.

Workshop sizes are limited, so please register early. For questions or additional information, please contact Kari Whittenberger-Keith. We hope you to see you in the workshops!

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2017 Conference Cameo: Michael Spires

Who: Michael Spires, Principal Proposal Analyst
Where: University of Colorado Boulder
Number of years in research development: 11
Length of NORDP membership: 6
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 6
How do you unwind? Reading, movies, cooking, Civilization V

I’ve been working in research development since the fall of 2006, when David Stone, a NORDP past president, hired me at Northern Illinois University. Since then, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution and, for the last three years, at the University of Colorado Boulder, where I’m one of only a few individuals doing research development. (I like to think of myself and my small cadre of colleagues as the wedge that’s leading the way to a lot more.)

My job is a blended one: I have both research development and research administration functions. That’s been the case with most of my jobs in this field, except at the Smithsonian, where I was exclusively focused on research and proposal development.

Although I’ve only been a NORDP member myself for six years, I can honestly say I’ve been in the know about NORDP since its inception, since Dave Stone was one of the people who got the organization off the ground, and he routinely sang its praises to me and my colleagues in his office. I formally joined the organization in around 2011, and I’ve been serving as a member of NORDP’s Board of Directors since 2014. This year, I’m the NORDP vice president/president elect, and also the conference chair.

The annual conference is a great opportunity—whether you’re brand-new to NORDP and research development, or whether you’re an old pro. This is where you come to meet your people—the folks who know what it is you do without lengthy explanations, and who can share war stories and best practices with you, help you make connections, and even get involved with NORDP and its day-to-day operations.

To get the most of out a NORDP meeting, plan ahead! Look at the session lineup, and find the two or three talks each session that you want to attend. (Then try to find friends or colleagues who can attend the sessions you can’t go to, and share notes.) Go to the receptions and the Idea Showcase—it’s a great opportunity to mix and mingle, and meet new people. Sit next to someone new, or invite someone not from your office to your table, during breakfast or lunch. Sign up to attend (or host!) a networking dinner: another great way to meet new colleagues and learn new things, while also getting the chance to explore outside the conference hotel.

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If you’d like to be featured in a Conference Cameo, let us know at rdconf@nordp.org.

2017 Conference Cameo: Naomi Nishi

Who: Naomi W. Nishi, Associate Director, Office of Research Development & Education
Where: University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Conference
Number of years in research development: 4
Length of NORDP membership: 4
Number of NORDP conferences attended: 4
How do you unwind? Running or playing with my kids

My background in Research Development is somewhat unique. I received a B.S. from Michigan Technological University in Scientific and Technical Communication and began my career as a Technical Writer. I wrote proposals for small/local government groups for a software development and consulting firm. However, I left early on to pursue an M.A. in International and Intercultural Communication at the University Denver.

nishi-photo After completing my M.A., I took a job at Academic Impressions and ultimately focused on designing programs in adult education within higher education. I customized and facilitated programs for colleges and universities across the country and internationally while there.

I came to the University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus four years ago and am responsible for designing and offering a suite of educational programs on research development topics to faculty on both the Denver and medical campuses. We offer workshops, seminars, instructional videos, a blog, e-books, and other resources to our faculty.

I feel unique at NORDP because my job is truly focused on educating our faculty to allow them to be more competitive when seeking external funding. Our office is not directly involved in grants administration or grant-writing, aside from my agreeing to review and offer feedback on grants as faculty ask. The NORDP conferences always allow me a good opportunity to identify other resources/topics that I can consider integrating or adapting in my programming. Plus, being active in NORDP puts me in a unique position to share effective models of research development with research leadership at my institution and have a seat at the table in that decision-making.

I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate in Education at CU Denver, and enjoy running, writing, and spending time with my partner, our two little boys, and our dog, Molly Brown.

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If you’d like to be featured in a Conference Cameo, let us know at rdconf@nordp.org.