13th Annual NORDP
Research Development Conference

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Pre-Conference Roundtables 

Note: Roundtable times are not finalized, but updates will be posted as they occur. Details, including links to participate, will be sent one week prior to these events. To ensure meaningful dialogue, roundtables are limited to 25 attendees; registrants can select three roundtables total from the pre- and post-conference options.

Tuesday, April 27



 2-3 pm EDT
Concurrent Roundtables
  • Guiding Principles for Engaging Virtual Meetings
    Katherine Duggan, Brown University; Betsy Stubblefield Loucks, Brown University
    Tired of online meetings? People checking out after signing on? How can we make the “now normal” online environment engaging and--dare we say it--energizing? The goal of this session will be to explore approaches to structuring and facilitating engaging virtual meetings using a range of free or low-cost online technologies. We will introduce virtual meeting best practices and available tools, then split into breakout groups to trade tips and explore these tools and approaches more deeply. At the end of this session, participants will sign off with a list of free or low cost tools to enhance virtual meetings.

  • New Approaches in RD Programs 
    Carly Cummings, University of Idaho; Kendra Mingo, University of Idaho
    This session is meant to allow conference attendees to participate in a discussion and Q&A session as a follow up to the pre-recorded presentation titled, “New Approaches in Research Development Programs: A Proposal Development Academy to Improve Early-Career Faculty Development and Grant Readiness.” During the Roundtable, Dr. Cummings and Ms. Mingo will be available to answer questions about their semester-long grant readiness course called “Proposal Development Academy: What you need to know before you write.”

Wednesday, April 28

 2-3 pm EDT Concurrent Roundtables
Growth Strategies at PUIs
 Kristin Beck, Northern Michigan University; John Barfield, Tennessee State University; Jennifer Glass,  Eastern Michigan University

This session will cover the variety of ways predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs) plan, implement, and evaluate growth strategies for their sponsored programs/grant offices. The presenters will describe in detail what each of their respective institutions have and are doing to support growth. In addition, survey data gathered from other PUIs in regards to growth strategies will also be addressed during this session.
  4-5 pm EDT International RD: Sharing Best Practices, Challenges and Funding Strategies
Karen Eck, Old Dominion University; Melissa Li, University of Michigan Medical School; Rachel Dresbeck, Oregon Health and Sciences University; Amy Huang, University of Michigan Medical School
Have you supported faculty or teams pursuing international research funding? Interested in learning more on how to support researchers interested in international collaboration? Join us as we discuss our experiences in pursuing international research opportunities and collaboration. We’ll also discuss current funding opportunities from private and public sponsors, with the goal of creating a NORDP resource for recurring opportunities. Finally, we’ll create a mailing list and NORDP circle for participants in the roundtable to facilitate ongoing conversations in the space of international research development.       

Thursday, April 29

 12-1 pm EDT 

Orientation for New Members / New Attendees
  2-3 pm EDT Concurrent Roundtables
  • Creating Cohorts to Advance University Research Initiatives 
    Jamie Burns, Arizona State University; Carrie Berger, Purdue University; L.J. Hernandez, Arizona State University
    Cohorts are a novel way to tackle your university or department’s research agenda. The cohort approach has direct ties to RD strategic objectives as it provides a venue for capturing common interests among faculty, creating support networks for professional development, and streamlining communication. Presenters will share different approaches each have taken when creating cohort programs aimed at advancing strategic research pursuits. Learn about a sampling of cohort efforts, along with the types of facilitation methods used. 

  • Encouraging Diversity and Equity through RD: The Impact of Team Dynamics on Future Collaborations
    Quyen Wickham, Arizona State University; Elizabeth Lathrop, University of Maryland, College Park; Maureen Bonnefin, Washington State University

    What tools and techniques can we leverage to encourage collaboration dynamics that respect diverse opinions and inclusive practices? What strategies have others successfully used to promote engaging and equitable dialogue? As research development professionals facilitating team formation and interactions, we are placed in unique situations that present us with opportunities to engage in cultural change around topics of diversity. In this roundtable session, we invite you to participate in pre-mortem scenario planning - where top ‘failure interactions’ are identified, followed by a brainstorming session to generate potential ‘solutions’ that will promote the team dynamics along more inclusive and equitable paths.

Friday, April 30

 12-1 pm EDT Virtual Road Trippin' Across the Northeast: Maintaining our NORDP Community
Edel Minogue, Brown University; Jeralyn Haraldsen, University of Vermont; Bethany Javidi, University of Connecticut; Kate Duggan, Brown University

This panel will discuss the planning and execution of a series of Zoom mini conferences for the members of NORDP Northeast designed to keep our membership engaged during COVID-19 in lieu of being able to meet in person. We will discuss our considerations with respect to meeting format, content, and creative ways to make the meetings appealing when so much of our workday is happening via Zoom and other online platforms. Attendees will leave the session with a playbook and ideas for promoting inter-institutional engagement in their own regions. (Session will be recorded)
  2 - 3 pm EDT

Concurrent Roundtables

  • Delimiting Limited Submissions 
    Hayley Bohall, Arizona State University; Chetna Chianese, Syracuse University; Chris Herring, Indiana University
    Presenters from three institutions will share multiple case studies and analysis of best practices in the limited submission process, allowing insight into how we manage our own institution’s unique processes. The panelists will share efforts they’re working on that expand the reach of limited submissions and cover the full submission lifecycle.

  • Best Practices for Large-Scale Collaborative Proposals to Federal Funding Agencies
    Mary Sym, Princeton University; Marley Bauce, Columbia University
    Proposal development support provided by experienced RD staff is a powerful tool for increasing the quality and quantity of large-scale collaborative proposals (often involving 20-30 investigators and budgets in the $10M-$25M range), thereby improving the institution’s success rate and reducing overall faculty burden. Requiring a unique blend of left-brain/right-brain responsibilities, this type of proposal development has a variety of common stumbling blocks, which many RD professionals find challenging. This roundtable seeks to bring together proposal development staff to share their unique strategies for success, notable hurdles, and opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration and networking.

 

Preconference Sessions (20-minutes pre-recorded oral sessions)

Research Development Workshops for Faculty
Jessica Brassard, Michigan Technological University

Explore the creation, implementation, and evolution of campus-wide, researcher-focused events. This session will discuss event goals, planning strategies, lessons learned (both successes and failures), evaluation strategies, significant changes, and future plans. (Fundamentals | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)

Analyzing Research Capacity and Core Competency
Alba Clivati-McIntyre, The Ohio State University

With the pandemic crisis effects on universities and academic research in particular, it is imperative for universities to maximize opportunities for research irrespective of sponsors. The first step to maximize opportunities and uncover areas of weaknesses or strength is to critically analyze the university's own research capacity and competencies. This presentation will outline key concepts of both research capacity and competency analysis as well as take into consideration definition of the topic of interest, data collection and analysis and final reporting. A primer on tools and databases will also be shown. (Advanced | Strategic Research Advancement)

New Approaches in Research Development Programs: A Proposal Development Academy to Improve Early-Career Faculty Development and Grant Readiness
Carly Cummings, University of Idaho

To enhance the rate at which early career faculty members attain grant readiness, the University of Idaho’s Office of Research and Faculty Development developed a semester-long course called “Proposal Development Academy: What You Need to Know Before you Write,” centered on the concept of grant readiness. During our presentation, we will present the theoretical background for this academy, introducing the concept of grant readiness, and contrasting it with traditional proposal writing workshops. We will then describe the academy’s overall structure, topics, and learning goals, present outcomes from a grant readiness assessment of the initial 13-person cohort, and review lessons learned.
(Advanced | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)
  

Leveraging Expert External Reviewers to Increase Proposal Quality and Research Development Capacity
Matthew Dwyer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This session showcases how the University of Nebraska-Lincoln leverages expert external reviewers. The goal is to spark conversation around the intricacies and benefits of external review. Colleagues who join this session may expect to gain insights about review logistics, expert identification and recruitment, and a matrix of reviewer engagement types. Presenters also can describe the motivation and rationale for external review. Designed as a catalyst for information exchange and ideation, this session will be valuable for colleagues unfamiliar with expert review and those already engaged in this work who want to learn from others’ experiences. (Intermediate | Proposal Support)

Rigor and Reproducibility in Proposal Development
Hollie Fuhrmann, University of Utah

Rigor and reproducible research is critical to the advancement of science. In recent years, there has been growing concern about the irreproducibility of research, especially in clinical trial research. In response, sponsors like the National Institutes of Health are implementing policies to enhance rigor and reproducibility in research. This session will: 1) introduce the importance of rigor and reproducibility in research; 2) review NIH’s application instructions and review criteria for rigor and transparency; and 3) identify resources and best practices for developing rigorous and transparent research proposals. (Fundamentals | Proposal Support)

Systematic Literature Review of Faculty Views on the Barriers and Facilitators to Grantsmanship
Rachel Goff-Albritton, Florida State University

RD professionals are tasked with helping faculty researchers succeed at grantsmanship. RD is a service-delivery system. When choosing appropriate services, practitioners should reach for client-centered, evidence-based practices. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to reveal the perceptions of faculty on research support services related to grantsmanship. The specific objective was to understand what factors are perceived to be barriers or facilitators to grantsmanship by research faculty based on extant literature. Attendees of this presentation will learn the perceived barriers and facilitators to grantsmanship from faculty and the factors required to establish an effective grantsmanship support service at their institutions. (Fundamentals | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)

RD Office Annual Reports: Who, When, Where, Why, and How
Beth Hodges, Florida State University

As Research Development offices increase in number across institutions, there is interest in developing ways to effectively report on impact and activities. This presentation introduces some core attributes of research development that can be used to measure immediate and future impact, which can be tailored to the types and level of services offered. The presentation begins with discussion of a recently founded unit-level office and moves to more established, centralized offices. Using a question framework, the presentation examines the Who, When, Where, Why, and How of their journeys to design and deliver compelling annual reports. (Advanced | Strategic Research Advancement)

Research Development Program Engagement: Success with the Fulbright Scholar Program
Kristen Kellems, Brigham Young University

At Brigham Young University, Research Development has engaged with the Fulbright Scholar Program by a) designating a research development professional as the Campus Scholar Representative, b) sending out a monthly newsletter to faculty and administrators about Fulbright Scholar opportunities and trainings, c) organizing and promoting a campus “Fulbright Day” in which Fulbright program officers speak to faculty and students in large groups and in one-on-one meetings, d) extensively edit Fulbright Scholar proposals. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate how Research Development offices can engage with a specific program which can lead to an increase of proposals and awards. (Fundamentals | Collaboration)

Utilizing Subscription Databases for Maximum Impact
Kirsten Kellems, Brigham Young University

Research Development offices often pay for subscription-based funding databases. It can be challenging to ensure that these databases are being utilized and that the information that they provide leads to external funding. This presentation will discuss some of the ways research development professionals can maximize the effectiveness of these type of databases.  (Fundamentals | Proposal Support)

Inside the Advocate's Studio
Gretchen Kiser, University of California San Francisco

Over the past few years, and in the last year particularly, we have been viscerally reminded of the need for advocacy of critical messages vital to our research enterprise, vital to our world. In this session, we will present short interviews with advocacy experts speaking to the value and content of research advocacy - what makes for a good ‘advocate’, what types of advocacy are most effective, what are critical elements of strong advocacy efforts, etc. This session will offer insights for RD professionals interested in getting involved or improving their advocacy efforts. (Fundamentals | Strategic Research Advancement)

Facilitating Proposal Development: A Storytelling Approach
Yulia Levites Stekalova, University of Florida

Research development professionals and proposal development specialists can provide an invaluable service to investigators as educated and interested audience that is removed from the immediate context of project science and planned activities. In this role, RD professionals can serve as coaches who ask focused questions to guide the development of the proposal argument. This short presentation will introduce an intuitive and powerful metaphor of proposal as a story with protagonists (heroes), antagonists (villains) and the conflict between them. Participants will learn about active inquiry to guide the development of stronger, narrative-based arguments for proposal significance and impact. (Intermediate | Communication of Research and Research Activities)

Impact of COVID-19 on Biomedical Research Funding: Pandemic Response and Some Lessons Learned
Anindita Mukerjee, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

COVID-19 created an unprecedented impact on biomedical-research world. Federal stimulus packages were released and major research-funding were re-directed to COVID-19 relevant field. Almost all Federal, State and private sponsors re-strategized their grant-funding resources to respond to the pandemic. This session will track the pandemic responses by major funding-agencies and summarize different phases of COVID-research-funding planned/released. It will also discuss institutional-response - some effective methods to increase awareness amongst investigators about COVID-relevant grants-funding mechanisms, and challenges faced by scientists. The overall goal is to summarize/discuss the lessons we’ve learned so far, and to reflect on future directions of biomedical/healthcare research-funding. (Intermediate | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)

Role of Research Development (RD) in Mobilizing Institutional Resources for Early Stage Investigators (ESIs)
Anindita Mukerjee, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Jessica Lynne Moon, Stanford University School of Medicine

The growth and sustainability of an academic/research institution depend on its next-generation researchers. Research Development (RD) professionals can play important role in enhancing support for the junior-investigators. This presentation will identify areas/resources to improve the career-development of ESIs conducting research on biomedical-sciences and will discuss various strategies to support the ESI workforce and pipeline. The overall goal is to strengthen institutional research-funding and identifying the key-roles RD-professionals can play in achieving it. (Intermediate | Collaboration)

Strategies for Seeking Non-governmental Funding for Basic Science Research
Eleonora Palmaro, Elsevier

Funding Institutional helps to better understand the private research funding landscape and funding opportunities—how to find them, and how to maximize your proposal’s success. (Intermediate | Proposal Support)

Don’t Sweat the Site Visit: Three Experiences, 12 Months, One Institution
Kathy Partlow, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln supported three teams through in-person and virtual site visits in the span of a year. The three research development professionals who supported these teams will discuss the similarities and differences of their experiences, share tips and lessons learned. The discussion will be enlightening for both those who have and have not participated in site visits. Participants can expect to be entertained with stories of the unexpected and leave with valuable strategies for hosting site visits at their institutions. (Advanced | Strategic Research Advancement)

Moving Educational Resources to the Virtual Platform: Transforming Your PowerPoint Presentations into Videos with only a Microphone and Patience
Lisa Preziosi, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Among the many challenges COVID-19 has presented to the research community, is how to continue to educate staff without the ability to hold in-person presentations, tutorials, or classes. With the limits of resources, technology, and budgets, moving materials to the virtual platform can be challenging. This session describes how to use PowerPoint and a microphone to create modular videos that can be adapted for a variety of functions. Developing virtual education materials provides numerous benefits. This approach uses limited resources, while still creating a variety of online learning materials that can be used for a myriad of purposes. (Fundamentals | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)

Digital Commons, The Modern Institutional Repository: Magnify the Visibility & Impact of Your Institution’s Scholarship
Greg Seymour, Elsevier

Would you like to prove just how much all scholarship matters at your campus? Showcase Arts & Humanities scholarship with rich video and audio? Promote undergraduate research? Would you like to obtain clear impact metrics from dashboards tracking real-time readership about the research, productions, achievements, and people that matter most? Digital Commons helps Research Offices prove just how much research matters. Offering custom services to every corner of your institution, Digital Commons can magnify the visibility & impact of your institution's scholarship. (Fundamentals | Communication of Research and Research Priorities)

How We Got Here: Historical Antecedents of Research Development
Michael Spires, Oakland University

Over the last two centuries, research has become centered in the academy, and become increasingly more complex - asking larger, more complex questions and tackling bigger problems. Research development began developing alongside and in support of the research enterprise within the last half century. This presentation will trace the major developments that led to the establishment of research development as a profession and which have made it an increasingly important one over the last decade. (Intermediate | Career and Personal Development)

Intel for All:  Generating Research Development Intel using Publicly Available Resources
Elizabeth Vandewater, The University of Texas at Austin

Generating high quality research development (RD) intel is critical to institutional strategic planning and decision making. Yet, all too often, tools for creating such information are proprietary and expensive, and thus out of reach of many RD teams. We demonstrate an approach for generating high quality RD intel using publicly available data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; NIH RePORTER Tool) and commonly used software (MS Excel) already familiar to most in higher education, using a case study of intel created to foster NIH Center grant applications at The University of Texas at Austin as an illustrative vehicle. (Intermediate | Strategic Research Advancement)

Affirming LGBTQ+ Identities in Human Participants Research
Nicole Walker, Minneapolis VA Health Care System

Despite recent policy advances directed at creating legal equality for LGBTQ+ identifying people, individuals within this population continue to face discrimination and health-related disparities. It is imperative that individuals in human participants research create inclusive and affirming environments for LGBTQ+ identifying people to improve the well-being of people within this population. This session will seek to educate researchers regarding the health-related disparities LGBTQ+ identifying people face, increase understanding of the influence these disparities have within human participants research, and suggest methods researchers can use to create more inclusive research administration environments for LGBTQ+ identifying individuals. (Fundamentals | Proposal Support)

Logic Models: Making Sense of the Pieces, Purpose, and Intended Benefit for RD Professionals
Morgan Wills, Kansas State University

Attendees' will build their capacity to advance research development at their respective universities through effective logic model design and implementation. Multiple benefits, formats, and visual representations will be shared, as well as guidance on developing logic models in response to a variety of contexts (e.g., in response to a written document or a planning meeting with project team members), and the role of logic models in project planning and program evaluation. Finally, suggestions on how to leverage logic models to address the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewer requirements will be provided. (Intermediate | Strategic Research Advancement)

Resubmission Assistance: Understanding Current Practices and Perspectives
Jeannie Wilson, Arizona State University

The impact of resubmission assistance on proposal success is relatively unknown. This study, funded by the NORD/InfoReady competition, used a combination of interview and survey methodologies to identify the availability of resubmission assistance services and, when relevant, the most common areas of resubmission assistance. Data from various institutions included institutional and office-specific characteristics, information about the availability of and support for resubmission assistance, and areas in which Research Development professionals would like to offer services. The data may help RD offices and units compare and contrast their activities, services, and capacity with similar and different organizations. (Intermediate | Proposal Support)