10 Year Review - The University of Akron

presentations covered, in part, fundamentals of NIH proposal submission,
budgeting, the peer review process and SBIR/STTR issues. Sessions were
geared to meet the needs of the beginning researcher, as well as more
experienced researchers. The goal of the event was to offer useful information
for all attendees. A regional conference focusing on a different sponsor is
currently being planned to be held in the spring of 2011.
o In 2009-2010, the ORSSP began hosting the ―Research for Lunch.‖ These
brown bag lunches provided research faculty with an opportunity to talk about
their research. UA faculty are invited to present their current research in an
informal lunch setting. The lunches are held in the Student Union and advertised
campus-wide in the E-Mail Digest, and Opportunity Briefs.
o Also, in 2009-2010, ORSSP Director Katie Watkins-Wendell, along with
Associate Controller Heather Kraus, created the Sponsored Programs
Administration Training Series (SPATS). This series consists of 1.5 hour
workshops geared towards departmental staff and administrators who work with
grant and contract funding. Beginning in 2010-2011, the SPATS series will offer
―Introductory‖ as well as ―Advanced‖ Series seminars.
o The ORSSP is responsible for administering the University’s pool of start-up
money. Dr. Newkome was instrumental in increasing start-up funding by 200%.
While this funding assists in recruiting new faculty members to UA, its primary
purpose allows new faculty, from a wide-variety of disciplines, to receive funding
and enable them to outfit their laboratory space, purchase research equipment,
and travel to professional conferences. In essence, these funds enable select
new faculty to begin their research endeavors with the necessary tools for
success.
Our faculty are able to achieve outstanding results in research through the assistance of
ORSSP services. On the following pages, we exhibit the achievements of our research
faculty over the past 10 years.
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