2007-08 Research Policy Oversight Committee

Committee Members

• Hortensia Amaro, h.amaro@neu.edu
  Institute on Urban Health Research
• Barry Bluestone, b.bluestone@neu.edu
  Center for Urban & Regional Policy
• Craig F. Ferris, c.ferris@neu.edu
  Arts and Sciences-Psychology
• Kim Lewis, k.lewis@neu.edu
  Arts & Sciences-Biology
• Joanne L. Miller, j.miller@neu.edu
  Arts & Sciences-Psychology
• Carey M. Rappaport, Chair rappaport@neu.edu
  CenSSIS, ECE
• Alexandro Makriyannis, a.makriyannis@neu.edu
  BCHS-Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Nikkos Passas, n.passas@neu.edu
  College of Criminal Justice
• Michail V. Sitkovsky, m.sitkovsky@neu.edu
  Bouve, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Srinivas Sridhar, s.sridhar@neu.edu
  Vice Provost, Research

Background to Charge

The Faculty Senate voted in 2003 to replace the Research Council with a new Standing Committee of the Faculty Senate the Research Policy Oversight Committee. This committee was established to review and assess the direction and implementation of the University's research mission, advocate for its needs, review periodically and make recommendations on its research resources, infrastructures, and policies, serve as a research "ombuds-body" to address structural impediments and faculty complaints, and work with the Provost, the Senior Vice President for Administration & Finance, the Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement, and the President to insure the best possible environment for research and scholarship.

Committee Charge

The 2003 Institutional Management Practices Committee (IMPC) that proposed the enabling legislation for this Committee recommended that the issue of the administrative structure for research be revisited in the 2005-2006 Academic Year. The 2006-07 Research Policy Oversight Committee (RPOC) was charged to study the administrative structure of the University as it impacts research, gather data on research administration at preeminent research universities.

Recent reviews and data, including that from the Strategic Planning Task Force, have found that the overall research infrastructure, including timely grant processing throughout several units throughout the University, continues to be a major issue. For example, faculty members report that they continue to face long delays in contract processing (despite the addition of a full-time attorney for contracts); and the lack of a centralized and organized functional university research structure has yet to be developed. As a result, there continues to be lack of coordination among the various departments on campus (Central Corporations and Foundations, Tech Transfer, and DPSA).

Faculty also report that research contracts and relationships developed with outside agencies have been diminished, leading to a loss of research funding and placing the reputation of the faculty and university at risk. The strategic planning task force on Fundamental/Translational Research concluded that there is inadequate administrative support at central and department/college levels with regard to business, accounting, and financial support services. The SAC believes that this is an urgent and serious issue, one that impedes the ability to increase research funding and Northeastern University efforts to retain and recruit research-active faculty.

Based on these issues, the SAC asks the RPOC to undertake the following issues:

1. Working with the Provost and VP for Research, the RPOC is charged to develop and recommend changes to the administrative structure of the University as it impacts research and develop solutions to accomplish this, based on current data and data gathered on research administration at preeminent research universities. This may include specific actions needed to improve the University�s infrastructure and competitiveness in sponsored research, and recommendations about administrative changes to further the development of research at Northeastern (e.g., the creation of a centralized triage system for faculty grants, administrative research positions in the Colleges to support research, electronic systems to enhance research proposal development, and other proposals). As part of this charge the committee should review the actual size and diversity of the research enterprise at Northeastern today and consider the following questions:
   • How many faculty are involved, from which departments, and for how much federal, state, foundation and internal funding?
   • What is the current research budget and how much do we spend? from where? for what?

   We respectfully request the RPOC to report to the Senate Agenda Committee by no later than 1 November 2007.

2. In the resolution presented to the Faculty Senate on April 26 2006, the RPOC called upon the Vice Provost for Research and the Senior Vice President and University Counsel to research and present studies of "best practices" for the processing of contracts at research universities nationwide. The RPOC is charged to continue to follow-up on the findings of this best practices study and report to the Senate on steps that are being taken or should be initiated to streamline the processing of research contracts. We respectfully request the RPOC to report to the Senate Agenda Committee by no later than 1 October 2007.

3. Recently the University has committed to purchase and implement a new system for the registrar office and budgeting. The RPOC is charged to consider the impact of these systems on research accounting procedures and how information from these statements can be transmitted via the most usable and appropriate formats.

4. Research space is one of the most limited and critical resources for the continued health and growth of research at the University. The RPOC is charged to work with the Vice Provost for Research to obtain an estimate of the needs for research space in the next 10 years as the faculty becomes more research active and the University continues to build research in areas of excellence and distinction. This should include a review of the University's inventory of current research supported space (i.e., federally funded research space that determines the overhead rate). Consideration should also be given to the types of research space needed and to resources currently available to the University as well as those included in the planning process for the next building campaign and master plan.

5. The RPOC is also charged to identify other major issues where actions may be needed to improve the University's competitiveness in sponsored research.

The Senate Agenda Committee respectfully requests a report on charges 3-5 by no later than 1 March 2007. Any issues that the Committee judges to need more immediate attention should be forwarded through the SAC Liaison.

Committee Reports