9.5.8 Vice President for Research

The Vice President for Research (VPR) office supports and promotes the scholarly activities of faculty, staff, and students. This encompasses such activities as the negotiation and administration of contractual relationships with external sponsors; the ethical and responsible conduct of research and scholarly activities; and compliance with relevant governmental and institutional research regulations, including the administration of ethical/regulatory review boards. The VPR office administers internal funding supporting research and scholarly activities, faculty start-up packages, and cost share funds for sponsored projects.

The VPR Office includes a number of individual offices that each support sponsored and scholarly activities in a variety of ways as described below:

Sponsored Programs Office

Assists faculty and staff in submitting proposals to external sponsors; including budget preparation, proposal review, proposal submissions and proposal conformity to sponsor and internal guidelines. Conducts sponsored agreement negotiations with federal and state government agencies, universities, foundations, and sub recipient collaborators.

Sponsored Programs Accounting

Assists faculty and staff in the financial management and reporting of funds received from external sponsors including account establishment, transaction processing and compliance review, cash management, financial reporting and financial account closeout procedures.

Innovation and Industry Engagement

Assists faculty and staff in submitting proposals to external industrial sponsors; including budget preparation, proposal review, proposal submissions and proposal conformity to sponsor and internal guidelines. Conducts sponsored agreement negotiations with industrial and all foreign sponsors. Assists faculty, staff, and students in the commercialization of University intellectual property through technology development planning assistance, patent licensing, and startup business development. Also supports the cultivation and development of comprehensive relationships with industrial partners to further research, technology commercializing, and/or fund raising interests.

Sponsored Programs Enhancement

Assists faculty, staff, and students in identifying relevant funding opportunities; initiating and developing relationships with foundations; developing competitive proposals and accurate budget justifications; managing the proposal development process; evaluating reviewer feedback; and planning for proposal submission and resubmission.

Research Integrity and Compliance

Supports institutional compliance with various governmental and institutional regulations and policies including; responsible conduct of research, conflict of interest, export controls, misconduct, human or animal subjects' research, and laboratory biosafety for activities involving recombinant DNA and other biological organisms and materials.

Sponsored Operations Office

Provides business infrastructure in support of the Vice President for Research (VPR) operations including: management and support of the research and technology transfer database; preparation and distribution of data reports, developing and negotiating of non-monetary agreements such as memoranda of understanding, collaborations, international student exchanges, dual degree agreements, and other agreements that do not involve the exchange of monetary resources between the parties.