RDO Strategic PlanRKA140124
PRELIMINARY
Research Development OfficeStrategic Planning
27 February 2014
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Sponsored Awards at NC State
• NC State is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a “Research University with Very High Research Activity”
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013$0
$50,000,000
$100,000,000
$150,000,000
$200,000,000
$250,000,000
$300,000,000
Other
Industry
State
Federal
Fiscal Year
Mill
ions
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Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development (ORIED)
Vice Chancellor
ResearchAdministration
ResearchDevelopment
Office ofTechnology
Transfer
FederalAffairs
Partnerships&
EconomicDevelopment
Proposal Development Unit Limited Submissions Research Infrastructure Foster Collaborations
Compliance Negotiation Administration
Centennial Campus Industry Alliances Economic Development
IP Management Licensing Venture Development
Advocacy Situational Awareness
Randy Avent
Terri Lomax
Jeff Cheek
Kelly Sexton
Matt Peterson
Dennis Kekas
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Strategic Roadmap
ExternalTrends
InternalAnalysis
ExternalAnalysis
StrategicPlan
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
Positioning Prioritization Payments Performance
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Outline
• Introduction
• Trends
• Analyses
• Initiatives
• Summary
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External Trends(1)
• Harsh federal research funding climate continues– Uncertainty due to sequestration, continuing resolutions, debt ceiling, …– Political questions about the value of research– Increasing emphasis on metrics, applied research, and deliverables
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External Trends(2)
Make solar energy affordable Provide energy from fusion Develop carbon sequestration methods Manage the nitrogen cycle Provide access to clean water Restore & improve urban infrastructure Advance health informatics Engineer better medicines Reverse engineer the brain Prevent nuclear terror Secure cyberspace Enhance virtual reality Advance personalized learning Engineer the tools for scientific discovery
• Increasing complexity of proposal– Focus on use-inspired grand challenges– Emphasis on interdisciplinary, team-based proposals– Increasing attention to budget and management plans over research– Leaderships skills grow more in importance than technical skills
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External Trends(3)
• Faculty research burden continues to grow – Agency success rates continue downward trend– No relief from OMB administrative caps continues to reduce
administrative staff– Overburdened faculty spend significant time on administrative matters
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External Trends(4)
• Emphasis on applied research and job creation– Questionable increase in industry funding
− 2011(5.89%), 2012(26.49%), 2013(1.6%), 2014(1.7%)− Industry spends 1% of funds in academia, represents 6% of academic funding
– More emphasis on job creation and use-inspired research
Federal Gov’t FFRDC Industry Academia Non-Profit Total
Performer
Industry
Academia
Other Gov’t
Non-Profit
Total
Federal Gov’t
So
urc
e
-2.51% -3.69% -2.42% -2.29%
8.89%
0.93%
26.49%3.37%2.20%
2.85%
2.72%
2.70%2.70%
-2.51% -2.36% 2.63% 2.85% 1.55% 2.07%
2.70%
2.72%
2.85%
3.75%
-1.61%
Source: Battelle, R&D Magazine: Battelle FY2012 Global Forecast
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Outline
• Introduction
• Trends
• Analyses
• Initiatives
• Summary
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Internal Factors
Strengths Weaknesses
NC
Sta
teR
DO
• Land-grant culture (4)
• Centennial Campus (4)
• Emphasis on translational disciplines (engineering, agriculture, design, textiles, veterinary medicine) (4)
• Favorable entrepreneurship & licensing climate (4)
• New faculty hiring (3)
• Strong proposal development team (2,3)
• Fragmented & bulky internal processes (2)
• Faculty inexperience in grantsmanship (3)
• Faculty awareness of agencies & opportunities (3)
• Limited seed funding opportunities (3)
• Faculty morale with no raises (3)
• Overburdened faculty (2)
• Weakness in NIH funding (1)
• Lack of strong research culture (3)
• Outdated tenure policies and traditional faculty models (4)
• “Cylinders of Excellence” (2)
• Lack of mentoring program (4)
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Opportunities Threats
NC
Sta
teR
DO
External Factors
• Pressure on industry to increase research funding (4)
• Many agency grand challenges align with our sweet spots (2)
• Shortened proposal timelines (2,3)
• Lack of state support limits ability to grow infrastructure (3)
• Competition from top universities (3)
• Fiscal debt continues to curtail federal research funding growth (1)
• Continued pressure for immediate ROI from research (4)
• Increasing emphasis on larger & more complex proposals (2)
• Increased & proactive leadership in strategically important research areas (3)
• CFEP hires in important areas (2)
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Outline
• Introduction
• Trends
• Analyses
• Initiatives
• Summary
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Strategic Initiatives
PaymentsPerformance
Positioning Priorities
Funding Resource allocation Budgeting process
List of critical activities Implementation timeline Action items with
assignments
Who are we? What do we have to offer? Where are we headed?
Measures of success Metrics Dashboard
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RDO Positioning
Mission Statement
Facilitate Research Excellence
Vision Statement
Develop & implement initiatives that increase institutional competitiveness
Value Statement
Be strategic, catalytic, and responsive to faculty needs
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Research Development Eigenvectors
• Provide integrated research services– Opportunity Development– Proposal Development
• Help faculty become successful in research– Faculty Development
• Grow enabling structures for research excellence– Infrastructure Development
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PIVOT Analysis
October, 2013 PIVOT Statistics
• Few faculty use PIVOT tool to find research opportunities
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Goal 1: Provide Integrated Research Services
• Help faculty generate opportunities– Improve RFP notifications to faculty
− Hire interns to conduct enrollment drives across departments and to scan/notify faculty of opportunities, create own “listserv”
− Assemble committee to investigate use of text mining for improved delivery– Deepen relationships with funding agencies – get left of the RFP
− Provide seed funds for faculty travel to Washington, provide blog where faculty can share information about discussions
− Provide faculty with more detail on funding agencies priorities & processesDevelop and update agency strategies and programming
Increase faculty awareness of NSF and NIH Regional Grants Seminars
Share slides from federal seminars on RDO website
– Assess and refresh seed funding programs (FRPD, RISF, …)− Centralize all seed funding programs into a single office− Build reporting system to capture and analyze impact of each program− Discuss concept for travel grants
– Grow collaborations in strategically important areas− Conduct two Research Workshops each year focused on strategic thrusts,
opportunities, or internal issues− Update Research Strategic Plan
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Proposal Development at NC State
• PDU has winning approach to working on large multi-institutional proposals
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Year
Su
cces
s R
ate
PDU (Full Proposal)
Non-PDU (Full Proposal)
Pending
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NC State Strategic Plan
• Expand and unify proposal development efforts across campus
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Expanding the PDU
• New strategies for expanding proposal development are needed
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Goal 1: Provide Integrated Research Services
• Expand and unify proposal development – Centralize services for faculty research
− Create single point to request all services (Limited Submission, PDU, seed funding, …), purchase proposal management software
− Reinvigorate Faculty Toolbox to provide single point for administrative functions− Create more proactive management of Limited Submissions
– Provide broader support to all faculty − Start concierge services for faculty with proposal questions – integrate into chat tool− Consider hiring interns to help faculty plan & format proposals− Build budgeting templates for different agencies− Provide links to examples of data management plans, mentoring plans, …− Grow storage and analytic services for faculty
– Maintain “full spectrum” Proposal Development Unit for complex, strategically important proposals− Improve PDU access and facilities− Work with CFEP hires to support their efforts− Hire future proposal developer with NIH experience
– Unify proposal development across Colleges− Develop “thin membrane” model with College proposal developers− Work with Colleges to help hire proposal developers
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Goal 2: Help Faculty Become Successful
• Continuously evolve Early Career Training Programs based on past experiences– Deliver four-part program in 2014 open to all faculty– Work with Colleges on mentoring programs– Build stronger relationships with OFD on technical workshops
• Provide new programs to help faculty with “Team Science” concepts– Mentor/train faculty who have identified interest in leading inter-disciplinary
teams– Provide team science leadership workshops for faculty– Broadly disseminate the NIH Collaboration & Team Science Field Guide
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Research Development Workshop 2014
• NC State Research Proposal Mechanics (open to everyone)– Centennial Campus (1/31/2014)– DH Hill Faculty Senate Chambers (2/21/2014)
• Panel Discussions (open to everyone)– NIH (3/7/2014) – Five panelists– DoD (3/21/2014) – Seven panelists– DOE (3/28/2014) – Five panelists– NSF (4/4/2014) – Seven panelists
• Early Career (60 faculty, preference to early career)– DH Hill Faculty Senate Chambers (4/24/2014 – 4/25/2014)
• Individual help (limited to Early Career attendees)– By appointment, as time permits
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Centers & Institutes
• Numbers of Centers and Institutes have grown significantly
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Centers & Institutes
• Many Centers and Institutes have not been reviewed in past five years
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Goal 3: Grow Enabling Structures for Research Excellence
• Conduct strategic alignment of Centers & Institutes– Prioritize and conduct overdue Centers & Institute reviews – Conduct strategic study on the role and structure of Centers & Institutes
− Assess new models for refreshing Centers & Institutes − Discuss organizational structures around interdisciplinary Centers & Institutes− Address F&A return models for interdisciplinary Centers & Institutes
– Instrument Centers & Institutes to understand their impact− Measure students, funding, and staffing levels− Measure publication and patent histories
• Grow and build a better laboratory infrastructure– Instrument Service Centers to better understand their impact
− Measure usage, equipment, funding, students, faculty, …− Conduct cost analysis on Service Centers
– Improve faculty access to laboratory infrastructure− Deploy Equipment Locator and the Research Instrumentation and Equipment
Recommendation System (RIES)– Coordinate instrumentation awards to improve infrastructure– Conduct strategic study on the role and structure of laboratories & Service
Centers
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Phased Approach
Near-term Mid-term Far-term
OpportunityDevelopment
FacultyDevelopment
InfrastructureDevelopment
ProposalDevelopment
• PIVOT enrollment drive• Travel Seed Funding• Seed Funding analysis• 2 Research Workshops
• Centralized services• Up-fitted PDU• New “NIH” hire• Concierge services• Intern experiments
• Early Career program• OFD discussions
• Instrumentation• Begin C/I reviews• Equipment Locator• RIES introduction
• Text mining RFPs• Targeted Seed Funding• Research Strategic Plan• 3 Research Workshops
• CFEP planning• Unified PDU/Colleges• Budgeting templates• Centralized plans
• Mentoring program• Team Science initiative
• C/I and Service Center studies
• 4 Research Workshops
• Institutionalize Interns• Storage/Analytic services
• OFD technical workshops
• Complete C/I reviews• C/I and Service Center
recommendations
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Payments (Core Responsibilities)
• Proposal Development Unit remains the same
• Administrative functions transition to Santana Hester– Reception, calendars, logistics– Pcard, Marketplace, equipment purchases
• Bonnie Aldridge transitions to Research Services– Seed funding programs, Limited Submission– Proposal concierge– Research Workshops, C/I and Service Center yearly workshops
• New Hire fills Budget and Analyst role– Office budgets, CMIF/CILS oversight– Analysis
• Pradip Pramanik/Melanie Clark continue to run Proposal Workshops
• Several intern hires to fill gaps
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Performance
• Monthly proposal statistics (stratified among federal, industry, state, other)– Number of proposals generated– Total amount of proposals generated– Number of proposals won– Total amount of proposals won– Success rate
• Interdisciplinary collaborations– Number of proposals generated that included multiple colleges– Collaboration matrix
• Laboratory Service Centers– Numbers of shared equipment– Equipment capital purchases
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Summary
• Academic research faces several risks– Congressional attacks and uncertain budgets– Lack of understanding of long-term value– Increased competition with limited resources
• NC State’s land-grant culture in translational disciplines provides limits exposure to many risks
• Proactive initiatives are needed to continue growing research at NC State
• Current strategic plan is a first step in building these proactive initiatives
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Proposal Development at NC State
(141, 32, 23%)
(18, 7, 42%)
• PDU has winning approach to working on large multi-institutional proposals