1 / 15

The Office for Research Facilitating Research – Driving Change

Nucleus of a cell from a patient suffering from Progeria. Courtesy of Robert Goldman, Feinberg School of Medicine. A mussel uses specialized proteins to adhere permanently onto wet surfaces. Courtesy of Phillip Messersmith, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences .

augustus
Download Presentation

The Office for Research Facilitating Research – Driving Change

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Nucleus of a cell from a patient suffering from Progeria. Courtesy of Robert Goldman, Feinberg School of Medicine. A mussel uses specialized proteins to adhere permanently onto wet surfaces. Courtesy of Phillip Messersmith, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences The Office for ResearchFacilitating Research –Driving Change

  2. Outline • Trends: Global, National and Local • Areas to support • Faculty Research • Cores • Research Support • Centers • Northwestern’s Current Status - Metrics • Topics for Deeper Discussion … today’s agenda

  3. Office for Research: Our Basic Approach • Communicate with faculty, deans, national leaders • Identify trends and potential linkages • Respond: • Stimulate discussions • Match NU strengths to identified trends • Work with deans, chairs, center directors, faculty • Partner locally • Chicago Biomedical Consortium, Argonne, Fermi, Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago Botanic Garden, University of Chicago, University of Illinois (Chicago and Urbana) • Partner with companies, alumni, others • Develop functional and enduring structures that: • Result in societal impact • Train next generation of leaders (undergrads, grads, post docs, faculty)

  4. Office for Research: Agency for Change • General Approach • Strong leadership of the research agenda • Work closely with President, Provost, Deans, Center Directors and Faculty • Senior Leadership • Lewis Smith, MD – clinical and translational research, CTSA grant, IRBs, ACUC • Linda Hicke, PhD – life sciences research • Ann Adams, JD – research integrity • Don Workman, PhD – research operations • Meg McDonald, MBA – planning, finance, communications • Plan to recruit additional academic researchers in physical sciences and social sciences/humanities • Advisory committee • Senior faculty researchers to focus on big picture, strategic issues • Nimble, problem solvers • One Northwestern • Leadership role(s) • Close interaction with committee members • OR will “own” many of the issues that will be raised through this initiative

  5. Office for Research: Agency for Change • Local Partnerships: • Argonne, Fermi, and Chicago Biomedical Consortium are generally well established • Chicago Botanic Garden, Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium, and Field Museum can be strengthened • Opportunities with University of Chicago and University of Illinois need to be further explored • Strengthen Core Facilities • Computational Support for Research Data Needs • Proposal Development: • Assist faculty in making the proposals that support their work more competitive • Build a culture and provide training for faculty support • Compliance and Reporting • Increased complexity (i.e., Homeland Security) and growth leads to continued need to augment internal compliance oversight

  6. Office for Research: Stakeholders • The Schools • The Centers, Institutes, etc. • Deans, Faculty, post-docs, grad and undergrad students • Funding Agencies (federal, local, foundations, corporate, donors) • Government agencies • Not just the traditional ones of NIH, NSF, DOE, etc, but • Homeland Security • Federal Office for Research Integrity • Nuclear Regulatory Agency • DoT, FAA, EPA, CDC, DoJ, …

  7. Northwestern University Research • Strengths: • Interdisciplinary culture • Dedicated and responsive faculty • Increased financial support, esp. Lyrica funding • Challenges: • External grant funding flat or decreasing • Changing environment regarding commercialization of IP • Constraints: • Endowment and other funding • Space and facilities

  8. Office for Research: Major Challenges/Opportunities • Faculty hiring start-up and retention • Core and Shared facilities • Center for Comparative Medicine • Research computing • Cleanroom development • Research support unit staffing • Associate vice presidents for research and advisory committee • Center space

  9. Global Trends The Richard Smalley Top 10 List Problems • 1. Energy • 2. Water • 3. Food • 4. Environment • 5. Poverty • 6. Terrorism and war • 7. Disease • 8. Education • 9. Democracy • 10. Population Sustainability Public Policy and Economics Health Care (and Economics) Governance and Development

  10. Health Care Research Cancer Cardiovascular Disease Diabetes Neurodegenerative Genomics Proteomics Bacterial/ Viral/ Parasitic Obesity Health Care Economics (Curative Preventative) Translational Basic/Applied Science Energy Nanotechnology Materials Cell/ Molecular Biology Neurology Cognitive Sciences Social Sciences Governance Development Religion Ethics National Trends – An Evolving List We must match Northwestern Strengths with global and national trends.

  11. The External Research Environment • NIH Institute budgets for FY2008 are set at the same amounts as FY2007; one exception is a small increase for the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS. • NSF will receive a small increase of 2.0% from FY2007, which includes an increase of 3.3% for the Education and Human Resources budget. • DOE’s Science division will receive a 4.6% increase overall. The funding for Energy R&D will increase by 23% to $1.9 billion. The International Linear Collider was funded at $15 million of the $60 million requested.

  12. The External Research Environment - Conclusions • Northwestern must find ways to make our investigators’ proposals more competitive: • Better support and streamlined processes for clinical trials • Minimization of barriers to collaboration • Inter-departmental and inter-campus, cross school and departments • Center vs. department/school conflicts • External partners • Industry, particularly in intellectual property and clinical trials support • Support and mentoring for junior investigators • Continuously improving administrative and programmatic support • “One Northwestern” means that the sum = more than the parts

  13. Programmatic Support: Core Facilities • Continues to be raised as a “greatest need” item by faculty and deans • Instrumentation funding, including matching when grant funding is available • Operational support: personnel and maintenance • Core Facilities Committee is being charged with developing a coherent, institutional management strategy and priorities; initial report presented in Fall 2007 • One Northwestern Financial Systems and Modeling Task Force is addressing this issue as well; report submitted April 2008 • Already-identified big-ticket facilities • Proteomics • Cleanrooms • BioInformatics • Animals

  14. Northwestern University Awards

  15. Northwestern University Proposals

More Related