What a year 2020-2021 has been! Despite the uncertainties, challenges, and physical separation, we continued to make advancements in support of scholarship and sponsored projects, thanks to our many partners across campus. I'm grateful to our faculty panelists who shared insights on their research ‘roadmaps’ and serving on review panels as part of our fall and winter faculty workshops, and to all faculty presenters in our quarterly Lightning Talks series. We've invested in GrantForward - a funding search opportunities database - to provide faculty with another important tool to pursue sponsored projects. In partnership with the Controller's Officer, we developed an alternative to effort reporting to reduce administrative burden for active principal investigators and budget managers. All the while, X proposals have been submitted and X new awards amounting to $X has been received! Finally, I thank our first full advisory council for their instrumental input and dedication to the advancement of scholarship and sponsored projects. Thank you for engaging with OSP this year! I wish you a restful and restorative summer and look forward to seeing you in the new academic year.
Best, Jenna
Cheers,
Jenna Isakson, MPA
Director, Office of Sponsored Projects
isaksonj@seattleu.edu
-Thank you to the OSP Advisory Council!
− OSP Resources to Support your Summer Scholarship
OSP was pleased to welcome 13 faculty members appointed to our OSP Advisory Council in its inaugural year. Many thanks to the below members, who will serve for up to three years. Their contributions have already been instrumental in ensuring that our office’s services and programming meets the needs of faculty and staff who are actively pursuing and/or leading sponsored projects, and those who are interested in doing so. The Advisory Council and its three sub-committees focused on “Celebrating Research & Sponsored Projects,” “Supporting the Success of our Community,” and “Cultivating a Culture of Research and Grant-seeking” have made substantial progress towards amplifying faculty research ‘wins’ across and beyond campus, understanding the landscape of research expectations and support across colleges, and clarifying the university’s vision for scholarship – all of which we look forward to advancing in the upcoming year. OSP extends a particularly hearty thank you to those members rotating off the Council, and a warm welcome to Allison Henrich (Science & Engineering) and Kumhee Ro (Nursing) who will be joining in September 2021. Many thanks also to Eunice Rhee (Albers), Randall Souza (Arts & Sciences), and Zach Wood (Arts & Sciences) who will be serving on an interim basis while other members are on sabbatical leave.
*Member rotating off the Council
OSP encourages faculty and staff interested in pursuing external funding in support of their scholarship to make use of the wealth of resources available on our website and on our Events and Workshops Materials Archive this summer. Resources are available to support multiple dimensions of your scholarship, as outlined below:
GrantForward Database: OSP encourages faculty to explore GrantForward, a funding opportunity database and recommendation service designed specifically for academic research that SU has recently invested in. GrantForward has many helpful features, including a dynamic search engine with customizable filters and mechanisms for developing regular funding alerts that are sent directly to you on a regular basis of your choosing. An overview about GrantForward with instructions for getting started is available here, with additional step-by-step guides available here. A great way to get started is to build your researcher profile to start receiving funding opportunity alerts relevant to your field(s) of expertise and interest.
OSP Curated Funding Opportunities Database: Please visit our OSP “Find Funding” page to search our curated list of funding opportunities featuring over 200 programs that may be of particular interest to SU faculty. The opportunity database can be filtered by discipline, topic, or sponsor to quickly narrow your search to relevant opportunities.
Funding Opportunity Screening Worksheet: Once you've identified a potential funding opportunity, use this screening worksheet developed specifically for SU grant seekers to assist in determining its fit with your research agenda.
Developing a Research Roadmap: OSP has a variety of resources available to support you in developing a ‘roadmap’ and funding plan that maps research interests, capacities, and potential funding opportunities to identify pathways for achieving near-and long-term goals. Materials, including a resource sheet, and Research Roadmap and 5-Year Funding Plan templates, are available here.
Essentials of Proposal Development: Grant-seekers interested in learning more about positioning oneself for successful proposal writing – including critically reviewing funding announcements, developing project aims that respond to sponsor objectives, strategically conceptualizing projects, crafting compelling proposal narratives, and tips for using language effectively – are encouraged to make use of the many resources available here, including Resource Sheet, Pro-tips from grants-active SU faculty, and brief ‘Grant-writing Cheat Sheet.’
Developing a Grant Proposal Budget: A number of resources available here provide support in developing this often overlooked component of a proposal, including a sample budget, sample budget justification, and Resource Sheet.
Federal Agency Proposal Resources: Are you planning to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) or National Institutes of Health (NIH), or want to become more familiar with their proposal requirements? Visit our NSF Proposal Guide and NIH Proposal Guide to find guidance and templates on required sections of these proposals. Other excellent resources include recording and materials from our recent faculty learning session “The Room Where it Happened: Insights from Grant Review Panels,” in which SU faculty shared their lessons learned from serving as reviewers for federal and other agencies. A recording and materials are also available from our recent info session with a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Program Officer.
Your Sponsored Research Officer is here to help!
Whether you are curious to begin exploring possible avenues of support for your work, or have an active funded research program, or your Sponsored Research Officer is available through the summer to support you! Please do not hesitate to reach out – Sarah Bricknell (Arts & Sciences, Center for Community Engagement, Education, Law, Theology & Ministry, and Biology; bricknellsar@seattleu.edu) and Kara Luckey (Albers, Science & Engineering except Biology, Nursing, and institutional/programmatic efforts; kluckey@seattleu.edu) are always happy to learn more about your work and discuss how we can support it.
Celebration of Scholarship
On May 20th, OSP, the Office of the Provost and Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons hosted a celebration of Seattle University faculty’s excellence in research, creative, and other scholarly activities. After opening words from Provost Martin, we heard from six faculty members from across campus – Onur Bakiner (Arts & Sciences), Katherine Frato (Science & Engineering), Jennifer Fricas (Nursing), Charlotte Garden (Law), and Arie Greenleaf (Arts & Sciences) – who shared their recent work in a lightning talk format. Recordings and slides from each talk are available here on Seattle University’s ScholarWorks.
We also learned about SU faculty’s wide-ranging intellectual and scholarly contributions, including sponsored projects, published books and manuscripts, conference presentations, and many other projects, documented here. The OSP and Library would like to continue celebrating your scholarly contributions in the coming year – Please consider completing this brief form so that we may stay abreast of your achievements.
Spring Learning: Developing a Proposal Budget
Preparation of the budget is, for many researchers, saved for last as it is often the proposal component that feels most daunting, and its role overlooked in the complete proposal package. This interactive workshop described the important role of the budget, breakdown common costs and how to budget for them, and walk through a sample budget development process. Whether you are currently preparing for a grant submission or plan to do so in the future, materials from the workshop available here – including a recording of the session, slides, resource sheet, and example budget documents – will equip you with the tools to confidently develop the budget needed to carry out your project.
Spring Grant Managers Virtual Peer Learning Group: Budget Tracking
Budget managers and staff supporting grants were welcomed to the spring Peer Learning Group, in which OSP Director Jenna Isakson and Associate Controller Jennifer Riester led a discussion of best practices and tools available for post-award budget management. Slides from the session, along with OSP’s budget tracking worksheet, are available here.
Congratulations to the below investigators who were recently awarded funding to support Seattle University research and initiatives*!
Amelia Marckworth and Kent Koth (Center for Community Engagement) | SU Diversity for Inclusive Recovery Supplier (DivIRS) Program | JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Jennifer Hong | The Effect of Display Location of On-Premise Signage on Consumers’ Attitude and Behaviors | Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research and Education (renewal)
Duron Jones | Summer Business Institute 2021 | Wells Fargo
Julie Hurst | Empowering Student Leaders to Live out the Center for Community Engagement Mission | Shinnyo-en Foundation (renewal)
Heidi Liere | Ecological Networks, Management Shifts and Ecosystem Services in Urban Agricultural Landscapes | University of California-Santa Cruz (U.S. Department of Agriculture & National Institute for Food and Agriculture) (renewal)
Sarah Shultz | Upower Fellowship Program | Upower
Sharon Suh | Asian American Feminist Guidebook to Teaching Buddhisms in America | Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Brittany Heintz Walters, in collaboration with Yen-Lin Han (College of Science & Engineering) | Design and Evaluation of a Soft Robot for Hand Rehabilitation | American Society of Biomechanics
Se-Yeun Lee | Future Peak Streamflow Analysis for the Skagit River | Seattle City Light
Paul Houston Blankenship | A Contemplative Pedagogy for our More-Than-Human World | Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Gretchenrae Campera | The Collegia Program Reuse and Upcycle Program | National Association of Student Personnel Administrators
In addition to the above awardees, we would like to congratulate the 19 investigators in Albers, Arts & Sciences, Science & Engineering, Law, Theology & Ministry, Center for Community Engagement, Lemieux Library, and Student Success and Outreach who submitted 22 proposals this quarter!
*Note: This list comprises all new and renewed sponsored projects awarded in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year (April 1-June 30, 2021). For a complete list of funds awarded in previous fiscal quarters, please see past OSP Observers, here.
Amelia Marckworth, Interim Director, Albers School of Business and Economics Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center
Kent Koth, Executive Director, Center for Community Engagement
SU Diversity for Inclusive Recovery Supplier (DivIRS) Program | JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Congratulations to the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) at the Albers School of Business and Economics who, in collaboration with the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and the Seattle University Procurement Office, was recently awarded a $750,000 grant from the JP Morgan Chase Foundation in support of the implementation of the SU Diversity for Inclusive Recovery Supplier (DivIRS) Program. Funding from JP Morgan Chase will enable SU to significantly advance our commitment to increasing procurement spending with local diverse business enterprises (DBEs) by 10% by FY2025, thus doubling current procurement spending with DBEs annually for the next five years.
With support from JP Morgan Chase Foundation, the DivIRS program will both direct wealth to local diverse businesses, and engage our local BIPOC and especially Black communities and businesses and increase the resilience of our local business ecosystem by increasing University spending with local Black- and BIPOC-owned businesses; building the capacity of community businesses to engage large institutional procurement pipelines; supporting local business in building networks; and developing a model to facilitate sharing and growth of neighborhood-focused supplier diversity efforts among peer universities and anchor institutions.
Amelia Marckworth, Interim Director of the Albers IEC will lead the grant in close collaboration with Directors of the CCE, the SU Procurement Office, and other campus partners. This grant extends the Albers IEC’s previous work – also supported by JP Morgan Chase Foundation – focused on implementing RAMP.up, a program that supports Central District entrepreneurs in growing their capacity. The new supplier diversity program builds on RAMP.up's foundation to support potential institutional vendors in our own neighborhood and develop procurement-readiness among local businesses owned by BIPOC community members, prioritizing the Black-owned businesses around the Seattle U campus.
Congratulations again to Amelia Marckworth, Interim Director of IEC, and Kent Koth, Executive Director of CCE – as well as their partners in Corporate & FoundaFoundation Relations and University Advancement – for securing critical funding for this important program!
Make sure your favorite diverse business is in the ProcureSU System! Select ‘Shop’, then browse by ‘Vendors’ to search.
Is there a local diverse business that SeattleU should purchase from? Contact Amelia Marckworth at marckwor@seattleu.edu to recommend vendors!
Updated: Sponsored Projects Compensation Policy
Formerly the “Grant Compensation Policy” created in 2012, this updated policy provides greater clarity around how faculty and staff can be compensated on sponsored projects. In this update, the definition of Institutional Base Salary (IBS) aligns with the university’s general definition and provides guidance for the inclusion of faculty emeriti on sponsored projects. This policy incorporates feedback from the SU Office of Legal Counsel and the OSP Advisory Council and was approved by Academic Assembly in spring 2021. The full updated policy is available for review on the OSP website.
Alternative to Effort Reporting for Publicly-Funded Grants
OSP and the Controller’s Office have worked jointly to develop a more streamlined process for reviewing compensation charges for publicly-funded grants. The new process replaces the traditional effort reporting, thus reducing administrative burden and confusion for investigators and budget managers, and will be sent an annual basis, based on the project’s performance period. More information about the new review of compensation charges process is available here.
Reminder: CITI Training Required for Student Research Assistants
A reminder to please ensure that all personnel on your research teams – students, staff and faculty – are up-to-date on their Responsible Conduct of Research Training. This training is required for all NSF and NIH personnel and strongly encouraged for all other researchers to uphold SU's commitment to responsible and ethical research. The training should be completed at least every four years. More information and to access the CITI Training Modules is available here.
Virtual Grants Conference Recordings: Recordings of NSF’s recent bi-annual Grants Conference are available here. Sessions that could be of particular interest to SU faculty include presentations by Program Officers from the following Directorates: Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). Sessions on Proposal Preparation and Merit Review Process may also be of interest to investigators interested in developing proposals to the NSF.
Updated Proposals & Awards Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG): NSF recently announced a revised version of the PAPPG, which will be effective for proposals due on or after October 4, 2021. Significant changes to policy and procedures are outlined here, and include an increase in the page limit for biographical sketches from two to three pages and improved clarity on disclosures of current and pending support that are required during both the pre- and post-award periods (summarized here). View the new PAPPG in its entirety here.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Updates
Grant-seekers Guide to the NIH: Investigators interested in pursuing funding through the NIH are encouraged to view the recording and slides from this excellent webinar in which experts from Hanover Research provided an overview of the variety of funding mechanisms available through the NIH.
Other Resources
Talking to Program Officers: How, Why, and Yes, You Should Do It: This session provides a compelling argument for why investigators should engage with Program Officers at both federal and private sponsors and helpful tips and best practices for doing so. Grant-seeking faculty and staff are encouraged to view the slides and/or recording, prepared by the experts at Hanover Research.
National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity – Upcoming Curriculum
The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) – an organization dedicated to advancing diversity in academia and supporting faculty in successfully navigating academic careers – provides many excellent resources, all of which are available to faculty through SU’s institutional membership. Instructions for activating your NCFDD membership are provided by the SU Center for Faculty Development here. Four upcoming programs that may be of interest to SU faculty are:
Cultivating your Network of Mentors, Sponsors & Collaborators – Led by Dr. Erin Furtak, Professor of STEM Education and Associate Dean of Faculty in the School of Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder | Thurs, August 12th (11:00-12:00pm) – More information and registration here.
Fall 2021 Faculty Success “Bootcamp” Program – Registration is now open for the fall session of this popular, and by many accounts exceedingly helpful, 12-week online program designed to guide and coach tenure-track and tenured faculty in developing skills to maximize productivity while maintaining a healthy relationship to work. Session runs from August 29th – November 20th 2021. More information and registration (closes July 28th) here; Information about program costs and approaches to covering them is here.
The Office of Sponsored Projects is here to help!
We are here to support the full life-cycle of your research and scholarship – from identifying funding opportunities and creating a research plan, developing and submitting competitive proposals, and managing awards. Please reach out to us to request a consultation, notify us of your intent to apply for a funding opportunity, or for help with managing your award!
Your OSP support team:
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Sarah Bricknell, MBA Sponsored Research Officer Supports CAS, CCE, COE, |
Kara Luckey, PhD Sponsored Research Officer Supports ALB, CSE (not Bio), CON & Institutional Efforts |
Gabrielle Mitrak Senior Administrative Assistant |
Jenna Isakson, MPA Director |
Please direct any suggestions about how we can make the quarterly OSP Observer most useful to Kara Luckey – we welcome your thoughts!
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