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DOCUMENTS OF THE GENERAL FACULTY
GENERAL FACULTY RESEARCH POLICY
COMMITTEE STATEMENT ON RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT
On behalf of the Research Policy Committee, Juan M. Sanchez (vice president for research and committee member) submitted the
following statement on research infrastructure support.
Vice President Sanchez will report to the Faculty Council at
its meeting on May 7, 2007.
Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The Faculty Council and General Faculty
GENERAL FACULTY RESEARCH POLICY
COMMITTEE STATEMENT ON RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT
The national and international recognition and prestige
of a university is significantly impacted by the university's
research infrastructure; this infrastructure affects
the quality and quantity of funding and the ability to
attract and retain the very top faculty and students.
Thus, it is imperative that The University of Texas at
Austin, one of the largest universities in the U.S.,
be a leader in cutting-edge research. With grants becoming
increasingly more competitive, it is essential to provide
the faculty with the necessary resources to secure and
manage substantial research funding.
Recently, working together with our Research Policy
Committee, Vice President Juan Sanchez agreed to provide
one-half of the salary for two grant specialists, one
to assist PIs in the College of Pharmacy, and one to
assist PIs in the College of Engineering. The Colleges
of Pharmacy and Engineering will respectively provide
the remaining one-half salary and office space. The
grant specialists will report to the respective College
in which they are working. We are very pleased
with this agreement, and have a goal of it being a pilot
program that leads to additional grant specialists, University
wide. We encourage the Colleges of Pharmacy and
Engineering to follow and monitor the efforts of these
grants specialists, and to report back to the Research
Policy Committee.
The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP), under the direction
of Susan Sedwick, has recently hired Grant Central to
present a one-day grant-writing seminar on April 16. Space
will be available for 125 participants. This
is an excellent step toward providing aid to PIs in grant
preparation, and we encourage broad participation in
this seminar. We hope that additional grant-writing
workshops will be organized, and we encourage UT Colleges
to work with OSP in sponsoring these.
We also recommend that OSP coordinate training and guidance
to departmental and organized research unit staff members
in grant policies and procedures.
Overall, we are pleased that the office of the VP for
Research at the University of Texas is working to increase
its support of research infrastructure, and ask that
this effort be continued. An increased level of
support will aid PIs in grant preparation and management. It
will allow UT to be more competitive overall with grants,
bringing additional research funding and prestige to
the University, which in turn will critically impact
faculty and student recruiting and retention.
Respectfully Submitted April ’07.
Distributed through the Faculty Council web site (www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/)
on May 3, 2007. Copies are available on request from
the Office of the General Faculty, WMB 2.102, F9500.
Distributed through the Faculty
Council web site on May 3, 2007. Copies are available on request
from the Office of the General Faculty, WMB 2.102, F9500.
