Florida Research Development Alliance (FloRDA) Meeting

April 10, 2017

9:00am – 10:00am ET

Participants:

Maddy Chokshi, UCF

Sharon Collins, Mayo

Tristan Fiedler, FIT

Donna Gilmore, FGCU

Sobha Jaishankar, UF

Kelly Jacoby, UF

Albina Mikhaylova, UNF

Maureen Pelham, FIU

Jason PItzen, Mayo

Josh Roney, FSU

Karin Scarpinato, FAU

Kristin Wetherbee, UCF

Karin Scarpinato called the meeting to order at 9:05 AM.

  1. Review of mission, vision, and strategic goals:
  • Group reviewed and discussed revised drafts, which reflect feedback from March meeting.
  • No additional changes suggested for mission statement.
  • Unanimous agreement to adopt vision statement distilled to one sentence as drafted by Beth Hodges.
  • Karin reviewed draft text for strategic goals that she and Beth reorganized thematically into three broad categories, based on Teri Gabriel’s suggestion (collaboration, research resources, and outreach) and potential action items for each theme.

Action Items:

  • Mission and vision statements will be posted on website; may be revisited at next face-to-face meeting of group.
  • Sobha and UF colleagues will refine and redistribute to group for review and feedback prior to posting on FloRDA website.
  1. RD Topic Discussion: How RD intersects with study feasibility, post award, and department administration
  • Karin introduced topic and asked whether RD offices are participating on the post-award side.
  • From the discussion, it appeared that everyone on the call works primarily on the pre-award side.
  • Albina specifically asked about RD involvement in NIH programmatic reports. All RD office representatives indicated that PIs at their institutions worked with other units of research operations to prepare reports, no-cost extensions, etc.
  • The group discussed whether it makes sense for RD offices to continue to work on projects following submission. Many RD offices have little bandwidth: working on the post-award side would detract from efforts to prepare competitive applications. Moreover, most institutions have well-defined post-award units with clear delineation of pre/post-award job duties. Several institutions reported that their RD offices participate in monthly or quarterly group grant reviews that include pre- and post-award.
  • Karin questioned whether any RD units share responsibility for core facilities. No one on the call responded affirmatively, although some RD offices are peripherally involved during grant preparation process.
  1. Committee Updates:
  • Planning Committee: No committee members on phone. Karin noted that Lori Brown contributed to today’s meeting agenda.
  • Website Committee: Josh Roney provided update. Increased navigation capabilities added to website. Group members agreed with Josh and Beth’s suggestion that each institution designate a single point of contact (SPOC) to avoid accidentally overwriting changes to the website.

Action Item:

  • Each institution to email Josh to identify a SPOC for website changes.
  • New member Donna Gilmore to send information about FGCU for FloRDA website.
  • Communications Committee: Maddy Chokshi reported. When mission/vision/ strategic goals are finalized, the committee plans to prepare a one-pager on FloRDA to share with university colleagues and at national conferences.
  • Mentoring/Training Committee – Maureen Pelham reported that survey questions had been distributed for review by committee members prior to distribution to members of FloRDA. Findings will determine short- and long-term committee plans. Karin reminded group that mentoring/training activities are for two constituencies, RD professionals and mentoring of faculty.
  1. New Business
  • Karin asked group members for their preferences re: schedule for face-to-face meetings. Group agreed to schedule physical meetings at six month intervals.

Action Item:

  • Karin to inform Planning Committee of intent to schedule another physical meeting in August 2017.

Meeting adjourned at 9:40 AM.