II.20 OFFICE OF RESEARCH SERVICES
Subsections of this chapter include:
- ORS Directory
- Extramural Support
- Human Subjects
- Additional Research Services
Research and Outreach Services
Susan Ellis Weismer
303 26 5-4312
ellisweismer@ls.admin.wisc.edu
Associate
Dean for Research and Outreach
Lillian Larson
303 26 5-4312
llarson@ls.admin.wisc.edu
Assistant to Susan Ellis Weismer
Assistant to Donna Jahnke
Bill Barker, Ph.D.
208B 26 3-0540
barker@geology.wisc.edu
Associate Dean-Research & Technology
Transfer
College-Corporate Relations
Donna Jahnke 310 26 3-2320
dcjahnke@ls.admin.wisc.edu
Assistant Dean
Director, Office of Human Subject Research
Linda Johnson, Ph.D.
208A 26 5-9655
johnson@ls.admin.wisc.edu
Assistant Dean, Pre-Award Research Services
Mehdi Rezai, M.B.A.
203 26 2-1556
rezai@ls.admin.wisc.edu
Post-Award Services
(UW Foundation Accounts, Trust Funds)
The creation of new knowledge through research is a central mission of the College of Letters and Science. Through their initiative and internationally recognized expertise, college faculty and staff raise over 70 million dollars a year in external research grants. These grants and gifts allow the faculty and students to pursue knowledge in many fields. The College offers the following services to facilitate these efforts.
Linda Johnson, the Assistant Dean for Pre-Award Services, is the main contact in this area.
Web Site: For the most current information in the area of L&S Pre-Award Services, please visit www.ls.wisc.edu/research or contact Linda Johnson (265-9655 or johnson@ls.admin.wisc.edu). Here is a summary of some of the most general issues:
Transmittal Form: the common mechanism for processing all grant proposals, contractual agreements, and intake of monetary or non-monetary gifts ("gifts-in-kind") is the transmittal form (commonly referred to as a "t-form"). This internal UW routing form is a cover sheet that summarizes the attached proposal/contract/gift, and ensures that all parties involved sign to signal their awareness of the action and the combined commitments involved. The correct signature order must be followed; Principal Investigator (PI), Chair or Director, Dean's Office (Linda Johnson for contracts/proposals; Mehdi Rezai for check deposits) and lastly the UW Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP). In addition, PI's sign an intellectual property agreement, and indicate their financial disclosure status for Federal projects. This 2-page form may be obtained online at http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/html/tform.html.
When Chairs or Directors sign a t-form, they commit their departments to whatever resources the PI commits in the proposal. Chairs/directors should ask each PI about resources committed, including time and/or monetary cost share, space and equipment needs, etc. Cost overruns on grants are the responsibility of the department.
Principal Investigator (PI) Status: An individual with a faculty appointment is automatically eligible to serve as a Principal Investigator (PI) on research or outreach projects, initiating proposals and accepting responsibility for the resulting activities. Under present Graduate School rules, an academic staff member may serve as PI on proposals and awards by securing Limited PI Status, which is granted on a project-by-project basis as described at http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/limitedpi.html. Limited PI Status must be recommended by the Department on a project-by-project basis, and approved by the Dean’s Office (Linda Johnson). Emeriti also may continue to request PI status through this process.
Permanent PI Status for non-faculty appointees requires a more formalized process and Chancellor approval. This process is outlined at http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/permpi.html.
Departmental Research Administrators: The research support staff in the Department are a PI's first-line resource when preparing proposals, budgets, and contracts. Departmental Research Administrators often have the most current information for salaries and other financial aspects of proposal-writing, and are experienced in university policies and procedures. In addition, L&S Research Services holds regular meetings with departmental research administrators, providing an opportunity for networking, training, and mentoring.
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP): RSP, which is housed within the UW-Madison Graduate School, is the "front door" of the University for Extramural Support. RSP officials are the ONLY individuals on campus legally authorized by the UW Board of Regents to accept grants and sign contracts on behalf of the University. Therefore, it is imperative that PI's work through the L&S Office of Research Services and RSP when proposing for a grant or negotiating a contract with an outside funder. The RSP website is extremely informative and may be found at www.rsp.wisc.edu.
Steps for Submitting a Proposal or Contract:
PI's need to ascertain whether any special clearances will be needed. A minimum of several weeks should be allowed for obtaining any clearances. A checklist of these is on the t-form. Contact the following offices for clearances/approvals in the area of:
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Biosafety Environmental Impact |
Biological Safety Office http://www.fpm.wisc.edu/safety/.
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Human Subjects |
Social & Behavioral Science Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Donna Jahnke dcjahnke@ls.admin.wisc.edu
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Animal Care |
L&S Animal Care and Use Committee Bill Barker barker@geology.wisc.edu |
| Conflict of Interest | Bill Barker barker@geology.wisc.edu 263-0540 http://www.grad.wisc.edu/research/compliance/coi/index.html |
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Space, remodeling |
Christopher Bruhn bruhn@ls.admin.wisc.edu |
Approximately one week prior to submitting a proposal, a draft of the budget must be reviewed and approved by Linda Johnson. If the normal Facilities and Administration (F&A) charge rate (also referred to as "overhead" or "indirect costs") will not be used, Linda Johnson will help determine whether to request a waiver. If contractual language has been drawn up, any items related to technology transfer and intellectual property will be reviewed by the Associate Dean for Research and Technology Transfer (Bill Barker). Due to the complexity of and time required to negotiate these contracts, we strongly recommend involving Bill Barker in the proposal process as soon as possible.
When the proposal or contract is ready, it must be routed with a t-form (see above section) and all signatures obtained. The proposal/contract then is sent to the funding agency, usually by RSP. For more details see the L&S Research Services web site at www.ls.wisc.edu/research.
National Science Foundation proposals are an exception worth noting here; these proposals are submitted directly to NSF by Linda Johnson via Fastlane, NSF's online electronic proposal system. Nonetheless, a t-form is still required.
Finally, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of funding agencies providing online proposal submittal systems. Some of these systems require involvement on the part of RSP; other systems allow the PI to unilaterally submit proposals with little or no knowledge/approval on the part of the university. L&S PI’s must follow the procedure of getting campus approvals PRIOR to any online submission, as outlined on RSP’s website at:
http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/preaward/esystems.html . Any questions should be sent directly to Linda Johnson.
Account set-up: When all paperwork is obtained and any negotiations are complete, RSP sets up extramural fund accounts. Awards with federal funding are assigned a Fund "144" designation; Fund "133" accounts are non-federally funded.
Depositing checks to existing accounts: All checks that are being deposited into existing 133, 144, 161 and new 133, 161 accounts should be accompanied by Transmittal forms (www.rsp.wisc.edu/forms/tform99-1.pdf). T-forms and the checks should be forwarded to Mehdi Rezai at 203 South Hall.
Gifts-in-Kind: In the case of gifts-in-kind (also referred to as non-monetary gifts), formal acceptance by the Regents is required as is the case with any other gift or grant. Much of the information requested on the standard transmittal form used for monetary gifts is not applicable for gifts-in-kind. Consequently a special form has been developed to expedite and simplify processing of such gifts. That form can be found online at http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/forms/uw84-1.pdf.
Personnel Activity Reports (PAR's): required by federal accounting procedures, are issued for classified and unclassified employees whose salaries are paid from federal projects or who are cost sharing on a federal project. All PAR's should be signed either by the individual employee or by his/her immediate supervisor with first hand knowledge of the employee's effort. See Research Administration Notice 96-2 (http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/chap4/rn/rn96-2.html) for a complete description of recent changes to the PAR system.
Overdrafts: in 144 and 133 accounts are of serious concern across the College. University policy states that such overdrafts are a combined responsibility of the principal investigator, the department, and the College. The Dean has final responsibility. Each college has an individual designated as the primary person responsible for dealing with such overdrafts; Mehdi Rezai serves in this capacity in L&S, and should be contacted as questions and potential concerns arise (rezai@ls.admin.wisc.edu).
REVIEW REQUIREMENTS & DEFINITIONS
Federal regulations and UW-Madison policy require anyone (faculty, staff or students) conducting research involving human subjects to obtain review and approval of a protocol from an Institutional Review Board (IRB, Human Subject Committee) before the research begins. There are four IRBs on campus, two Health Science Committees, the Education Committee, and the Social and Behavioral Science Committee (SBSIRB) which is administered by the College. The majority of faculty and students in the College use the SBSIRB which will be the focus of the remainder of this overview. The SBSIRB is a faculty committee with research expertise representative of the social and behavioral sciences. Assistant Dean Donna Jahnke directs the SBSIRB. A schedule of meeting times and cutoff dates for submission of protocols can be found at www.ls.wisc.edu/research. This web site also provides the forms (both paper and electronic) for submitting protocols and more detailed information about the IRB process in general and the SBSIRB in particular. Federal regulations require everyone working a research project to complete a tutorial on the ethical conduct of research. The UW-Madison has created an online tutorial resulting in certification to conduct human subject research. Links to this tutorial can be found on the L&S research site. You must submit evidence of certification with your protocol. Please submit protocols as they are completed. Do not wait for the meeting deadlines. There is an SBSIRB meeting every two weeks, either the full committee or the sub-committee meeting. The review process usually can take from two to six weeks so it is important to submit your protocol as soon as possible to facilitate the review process.
Who should submit a protocol? Any research project using humans intended to be published or presented at any public forum. Research is defined in the federal regulations as a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. A human subject is a living individual about whom an investigator gathers data through intervention or interaction with the individual or identifiable private information. An intervention is not exclusively physical but can also be any manipulation of the subjects' environment including, but not limited to, an interview, survey, focus group or oral history. Pilot studies which involve human subjects require review and approval by the IRB. Research involving analysis of existing data also requires IRB review unless it falls under the UW-Madison policy on the use of existing data. This policy can be found athttp://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/compliance/humansubjects/index.html In addition, the requirement for review by an IRB is not dependent on who is conducting the research. Student projects which meet the definition for human subject research must be reviewed by the IRB. Please see the UW-Madison policy on student research found at http://www.grad.wisc.edu/hrpp/view.php?id=10021&f=htm .
The L&S Office of Research & Outreach has developed a training presentation that focuses on social and behavioral science human subject research. Donna Jahnke is available to present this program to faculty, graduate students and administrative staff at the request of any department. Please contact the ORS office (5-4312) to schedule this additional training. Note that participation in the L&S training does not release researchers from the campus online training and certification requirements. The campus online training program can be found at http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/compliance/humansubjects/index.htm.
Research approval by the IRB is for a period of one year or less and the protocol must be renewed at least annually while the research is active (either because data is being collected or analysis is ongoing.) Some protocols may have a shorter review cycle. The renewal date will be set by the IRB during its review and can be found on the Notice of Action sent to the investigator. All continuing research must receive approval from the IRB before the renewal date to avoid lapsing. If the protocol approval does lapse, no data may be collected until the protocol has received approval from the IRB.
Federal regulations regarding the use of animals require that a protocol be reviewed and approved when animals are used in research, testing, or instruction. The protocol should be submitted as early as possible, but at the latest at the same time as the proposal. No funds will be released by federal agencies on these projects unless they have an approval on file. The committee meets once a month. Questions may be directed to Eric Sandgren (3-8870) or to Bill Barker(3-0540), L&S Director of Animal Care and the College's representative on the Animal Care and Use Committee.
Bill Barker serves as a resource for faculty and staff in the general area of protection of Intellectual Property and Academic Freedom. Specific duties and areas of expertise include:
- Invention disclosures and compliance with UW policies regarding Invention Disclosure Reporting (http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/ip/index.html);
- Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) and advice on the need for and assistance with the construction of outgoing MTAs as well as the review and negotiation of Incoming MTAs;
- Working with Industry to facilitate academic industrial collaboration, to negotiate on confidentiality agreements; and
- to facilitate staff entrepreneurism.
In addition, Bill Barker reviews outside activity reports for conflict of interest issues and consults with Conflict of Interest Committee.
In this section, we discuss internal grant opportunities as well as sources of information and assistance for those individuals interested in seeking external support for their research. Questions about funding opportunities can be directed to Associate Dean Susan Ellis Weismer (5-4312).
Additional information about funding opportunities can be found on the Research and Sponsored Programs Funding & Proposal Development website (http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/preaward/index.html), where users will find - among other things - links to campus forms related to proposal development (http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/forms/index.html#PropDvpt), and data frequently requested (http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/factualdata.html ) in the course of developing funding proposals.
Graduate School Research Committee Awards
Due to impressive efforts of UW-Madison faculty and staff in filing successful patents with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), each year the Graduate School sponsors a call for research proposals. Information about this competition is available online through the Graduate School Website, at http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/acct/fc/.
As stated in the most recent competition announcement, the Research Committee accepts only one application from an individual faculty member or permanent PI. Since one of the competition's goals is to foster multidisciplinary research, in keeping with the cluster hiring initiative, an investigator may be included on one additional application from a team of applicants representing two or more different fields. For communication purposes, a lead PI must be identified on such projects.
For the 2006-07 competition, most individual awards were in the range from $6,000 to $32,000. In the most recent award competition, the Research Committee's priorities were to:
- support creative research and scholarship on campus
- open new research areas, including multidisciplinary projects
- assist junior faculty in strengthening their research programs
- provide insurance against applications for extramural funding, particularly those involving support for graduate students.
For more information, please refer to the Graduate School website provided above.
Guggenheim, NEH or ACLS Fellowships: Policy on Supplementation of Major Outside Fellowship Awards (For L&S and School of Education faculty only)
This policy applies to L&S tenured or tenure-track faculty only. Effective Dates for this Policy:
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To insure that faculty are able to accept prestigious outside fellowship awards without a substantial income reduction, the Graduate School is partnering with the College of Letters & Science and the School of Education to supplement the salaries of recipients of the following major fellowship awards:
NEH, Guggenheim, ACLS.
Supplementation will be provided based on the approved salary for the year the award is taken, minus the total amount granted by the agency for the fellowship (example: $45,000 salary minus $35,000 fellowship = $10,000 supplement). Calculations will be made as follows: L&S or SoE will provide up to 2/9ths salary; the Graduate School will match the college/school supplement, subject to the recipient’s eligibility for salary funds (a total of 4.5/9ths over a three year period). The total award cannot exceed the Regents’ approved academic year (9-month) salary. (Example: $45,000 salary minus $35,000 fellowship = $10,000 supplement: 1/9th or $5000 from College plus 1/9th or $5000 from Graduate School .) If the outside fellowship will be taken for a semester, the supplementation will be based on half the academic year salary.
To request supplementation, recipients should notify the appropriate deans in their college/school and in the Graduate School as soon as they learn of receipt of the award.
Applicants for one of the above awards may still submit an application to the Graduate School’s Fall Competition for funding other than the academic year salary supplementation (summer funding, PA, flexible funds for research, etc.), or for insurance against the outside award. Summer funding would count in calculating the recipient’s eligibility.
For awards other than those named above, supplementation may sought on an individual basis directly to the school or college, and/or through the Research Committee Fall Competition only. Applicants should note on the application that an outside application is pending or to-be-submitted, and indicate the average stipend awarded by the agency.
Robert Draper Technology Innovation Fund
Designed to increase the economic viability of a piece of WARF-held intellectual property. Contact Bill Barker (3-0540) for more information.
Industrial and Economic Development Research Fund
The program is designed to foster collaborative research between campus researchers and Wisconsin companies. Inquiries about proposals for research with potentially significant economic impacts for the state, as well as proposals for other research relating to state problems, should be directed to Bill Barker (3-0540).
External Funding Announcements
To make the best use of internal funds and to strengthen the research process and infrastructure, it is important that faculty and staff seek outside funding for their efforts. Faculty and staff at UW have available for use a number of sources of information for seeking grants to support their research endeavors. Often online sources can help researchers to find funding announcements, update and deadlines for research programs and projects. Here are a few that faculty and staff have found most helpful.
Graduate School Data Base
For information about proposal and award information, human subjects training verifications, and names of accountants assigned to awards: http://www.rsp.wisc.edu/queries.html .
SPIN: Sponsored Programs Information Network. New Funding Opportunities and Deadlines
The SPIN funding database includes an automatic electronic notification option of grant opportunities as well as announcements of new funding opportunities and deadlines. (Choose at this page New Funding Opportunities or Deadlines Coming Up.) Available for UW-Madison users through an institutional subscription. (Web Access: http://spin2000.infoed.org/new_spin/spinmain.asp.)
NSF (National Science Foundation) E-Bulletin: Program Dates and Deadlines
A daily web-accessible electronic edition of announcements of grant proposal due dates for the current four months. Arrangement is by program area ("organization.") A Custom News Service via email is also available to internet users. (Web access: http://www.nsf.gov/home/ebulletin/ )
National Institutes of Health
The NIH provides a broad range of grant mechanisms for established as well as new investigators. Visit their web site at www.NIH.gov to review their opportunities.
GrantsNet Funding News
Focuses on current research funding opportunities in the biological and medical sciences. An optional email update service is also available. A news site of Next Wave, an online journal published by Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. See Science: Next Wave Site Map for feature articles on special topics related to researching grants and grantwriting in the sciences and medicine and in general. (Web access: http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/awards.dtl.)
Community of Science
A database of over 23,000 records, representing over 400,000 funding programs in al areas of study and expertise. Visit web-site http://www.cos.com or contact Bill Barker (3-0540).
Chronicle of Higher Education: New Grant and Research Competitions*
Weekly announcements of grants and fellowships in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Bold headings make this site easy to browse. Ask for passwords to the institutional subscription at the Reference Desk in Room 262 Memorial Library. (Web Access: http://chronicle.com/free/grants)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Deadlines
Grant announcements and requests for proposals in a wide variety of subject areas, particularly but not exclusively for institutional grant seekers. Currently available free to internet users. (Web Access:http://philanthropy.com/deadlines/)
UW Library Grants Information Center (http://grants.library.wisc.edu/ )
From the website: "The Grants Information Collection is located in Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. It is one of a network of approximately 200 collections established by the Foundation Center, an independent national service organization in New York, to provide an authoritative source of information on foundation and corporate giving for nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit organizations looking for grants will usually want to begin at Resources for Nonprofit Organizations.
"Books and online databases on scholarships, fellowships, grants, and other funding opportunities for individuals also consititute a large part of the collection's holdings at the University of Wisconsin - Madison location. Individual grantseekers are usually best served by starting with our Funding Sources for Individuals category. "
Last updated: August 2006
It is the nature of this document to be a work in progress.
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This document is updated annually each summer; however, significant additions may be made at any time. Departments
will be alerted to these when they are made. Most recent annual update: August 2006.
Contact: Elaine M. Klein, Webmaster/Editor, L&S Online Handbook
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