North Dakota State University, April 14, 2005 University of North Dakota, April 15, 2005

The Implementation Group, Inc.

ND EPSCoR Research Centers DevelopmentLeadership Seminar

University Research Centers: Setting the Stage

North Dakota State University, April 14, 2005University of North Dakota, April 15, 2005

Joseph Danek, The Implementation GroupJames Hoehn, The Implementation Group

Randall Haley, Centers Development Initiative


Overview of Site Visit

• Address the challenge of creating and sustaining large-scale Research Centers

• Identify the characteristics that are associated with successful large-scale Research Centers

• Work with North Dakota research groups that can develop into Research Centers

• Identify “barriers” and “strengths” that North Dakota universities have as they consider going forward with centers development

• Exchange information about federal requirements for Research Centers management


Consulting Team

The Implementation Group, Inc.– Joseph G. Danek, Senior Vice President– James B. Hoehn, Senior Associate

EPSCoR Foundation– Randall Haley, Director, Centers Development Initiative

Montana State University– Edwin Abbott, Professor and Senior Associate, CDI

Clemson University– Dan Edie, Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical Engineering

Washington University– Samuel Stanley, Director, Midwest Regional Center of Excellence in

Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research


The Implementation Group, Inc. (TIG)

TIG is a full-service consulting firm that assists educational institutions, organizations and corporate entities to target, capture and implement U.S. government and private sector contracts and grants. Services include:

Capability Assessments and Strategic Planning Intelligence Gathering Opportunity Identification and Qualification Partnership Formation Liaison with federal officials and private sector funders Proposal Development and Proposal Enhancement Project Implementation Troubleshooting

TIG Operating Divisions

Through these two divisions, TIG positions its clients to compete successfully for federal funding.

TIG

Academic Research, Development, and Education Division

Corporate Business Development

Division

Lines of Business and Clients


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WU-StL, total (right axis)

WU-StL, HHS (right axis)

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NDSU, NSF

UND, HHS


Centers Background

• Scale + Scope– Mechanism to bring together disciplines, researchers, and

partners (university, industry, government labs); integrate research, education, and outreach; etc.

• Cutting-edge S&T challenges require collaborative, often multi-disciplinary, large-scale efforts

• Research infrastructure improvement– Often sophisticated, shared experimental/computational facilities

– Critical mass of researchers

• Continuation of past EPSCoR/IDeA investments– Many EPSCoR/IDeA state efforts ~ developing and “graduating”

centers focused on strategic disciplines


Why Establish a Center?

• Complexity of the problems

• Sustained focus and coordination of research program

• Distributed collaborations

• Ability to do high impact science and technology

• Multidisciplinary science collaboration across universities

• Social Science – Science/Engineering partnerships

• K-12 outreach in science areas

• Science K-12 curricular tools and texts

• Personal Development Program

• Collaborative diversity outreach efforts

• High level knowledge transfer


K-12Outreach

Public/Gov’tPartnerships

Industrial Partnerships

Basic Physical Sciences and Engineering

Social Science Research

Scope of Research Centers Activities


What Can A Center Accomplish?

• Form and support a team to develop basic information

• Provide a reservoir of knowledge for public use

• Generate intellectual property useful to industry

• Establish unique research facilities

• Establish unique, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional approach

• Provide unique K-12 educational, outreach opportunities

• Enhance innovation by increasing diversity

• Enhance knowledge exchange between university, industry and government


What Can A Center Accomplish?

• Integrated use of collaboration, training and technologies

• Use of best practices identified from social science research and the latest from successful corporate management teams


What does a proposed Center “Bring to the Table?”

• Graduate students and postdoctoral associates who completed their studies, including many from groups underrepresented in the sciences

• Papers were published in peer-reviewed journals

• Papers/posters were presented at regional and national scientific meetings

• Undergraduates received research experiences led by Center researchers, including members from groups underrepresented in the sciences

• Developed and implemented the research infrastructure and culture necessary to conduct multi-disciplinary research

– What are the actual numbers associated with these statements?


What does a proposed Center “Bring to the Table?”

• Secondary school teacher training workshops, directly reaching teachers and students

• Distribution of exemplary learning materials, including copies of Middle & High School Environmental Science Laboratory Activity manuals, reaching teachers and students

• Fully implemented technology to enable multidisciplinary research group videoconferences to promote remote collaborations, with an estimated student-led research presentations

• Laid the foundation for an enduring legacy of sustainable economic development and multidisciplinary research– What are the number associated with each of these statements?


What are the Institutional Commitments?

• Cost share for equipment

• Direct operating support

• Release time for faculty

• Non-profit/Industry funding

• Renovation

• Funds for new faculty

• Motivated management team, faculty, students, post docs, and industrial partners

• Administrative oversight of both budgets and science


Opportunities

• People

• Scientific Knowledge

– Physical Science and Engineering

– Social Science

• Institutions

• Education

• Industry

• Society and the “Big Picture”


Opportunities: People

• Students and Postdocs

– Significant benefits to them

• Impacts to date

• Expected impacts throughout their careers

– NSF’s and Center’s goals for faculty and students

– Unique staff experiences

– Strong diversity contributions


What do Successful Centers Have?

• People who function as a team - surround yourself with people you enjoy working with…

• A strong External Advisory Board – establish a “team” not a “committee!”

• All students and faculty colleagues benefit from the experience

• Strong leader

• Key positions to ensure success:– Co-Director

– Deputy Director

– Administrative Assistant

– Computer Technician


What do Successful Centers Have?

• Addressing RFPs and Strategic Planning is treated formally

• Leverage!!!

– Internally

– Industry

– With all contacts…

• Use existing resources rather than re-inventing everything

– e.g. Video conferencing facilities


Challenges of Developing and Managing Centers



• Research Management– First-rate, relevant science– Developing and maintaining research “vision”– Intra-/inter-university research collaboration – Research topics

• Choosing/aligning ‘focused research groups,’ ‘thrust areas,’ etc.• Allocating research funds• Selecting/reviewing/evaluating research projects• Terminating/phasing-out/adding research projects• Using small funding reserves to “seed” new projects

– Personnel• Recruiting faculty (in collaboration with university departments)• Achieving “buy-in” from individual researchers

– From different disciplines – Many with successful individual research programs– Persuading them to aim research toward center “vision”

– Achieving and maintaining a “critical mass” of researchers



• Center Leadership and Administration– Strategic planning + day-to-day management

– Director, Associate Director(s), Thrust Area Leaders, Education and Outreach Director, Industrial Affiliates Liaison, etc.

– Advisory Boards (internal, external, industrial; research direction, assessment/evaluation)

– Managing center income and expenditures

– Managing relationships between center and Departments and Colleges

• Education, Outreach, Industrial Collaboration/Tech Transfer – Developing education programs (graduate, undergraduate, pre-college,

teachers)

– Involvement of underrepresented groups

– Industry research collaboration

– Technology transfer

– Intellectual property rights



• Other– University support – required cost-sharing, faculty recruitment/start-up,

physical space

– Center growth/diversification

– Sustainability plans

– Leveraging federal government funds to pursue other support

– Evaluating “success” (research, education, outreach, tech transfer, etc.)


www.epscorfoundation.org/cdi


EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative (CDI)

• CDI is a multi-year, NSF-funded initiative aimed at increasing the participation of EPSCoR researchers in NSF’s centers and other large-scale programs.

• CDI provides direct technical assistance to university research teams competing for NSF centers and other large-scale NSF projects.

• In addition, CDI organizes centers development workshops, hosts an informative website, and conducts outreach activities.


Selected NSF Centers and Large-Scale Programs

• Science and Technology Centers (STC)• Engineering Research Centers (ERC)• Materials Research Science & Engineering

Centers (MRSEC)• Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers

(NSEC)• Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams

(NIRT)• Integrated Graduate Education & Research

Traineeships (IGERT) • Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers

(I/UCRC)• Centers of Research Excellence in Science and

Technology (CREST)• Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)• Information Technology Research (ITR)• Cyber Trust• Research in Networking Technology & Systems

(NeTS)• Computer Systems Research (CSR) • Computing Research Infrastructure (CRI)

• Plant Genome Research (PGR)• Biological Databases & Informatics (BDI)• Frontiers in Integrative Biology (FIBR)• Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)• Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE)• 2010 Project: Arabidopsis thaliana• Microbial Genome Sequencing Program• Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)• Collaborative Large-Scale Engineering Analysis

Network for Environmental Research (CLEANER)

• Center for Synthesis in Biological Evolution (CSBE)

• Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE)

• Math & Science Partnership (MSP)• Science of Learning Centers (SLC)• Centers for Learning &Teaching (CLT)• ADVANCE • Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education

(GK-12)

CDI’s website maintains a calendar of NSF large-scale program deadlines.


CDI Results from First 3 years• Provided direct Technical Assistance to over 45 EPSCoR universities

across 24 EPSCoR jurisdictions competing in over 20 NSF centers programs.

• Hosted 10 Centers Development Workshops that attracted over 450 EPSCoR participants from over 60 universities across 24 EPSCoR jurisdictions and included participation from 40 NSF program managers and 49 outside experts.

• Utilized the assistance of over 90 nationally recognized discipline experts, including Directors or PIs from numerous successful, ongoing NSF centers and large-scale projects.

• 12 center/large-scale awards ~ $60M in funding


12+ center awards ~ $60++ million in NSF funding

• ERC: Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, University of Kansas• MRSEC: Center for Response-Driven Polymeric Films, University of Southern Mississippi• MRSEC: Center for Materials for Information Technology, University of Alabama• MRSEC: Center for Quantum and Spin Phenomena in Nanomagnetic Structures,

University of Nebraska-Lincoln • CREST: Computational Center for Molecular Structure and Interactions, Jackson State

University• CREST: Center for Forest Ecosystems Assessment, Alabama A&M University• I/UCRC: Friction Stir Processing Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, South

Dakota School of Mines and Technology• IGERT: Multidisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training in Nanomaterials

Science and Engineering, Tuskegee University• IGERT: Entrepreneurship at the Interface of Polymer Science and Medicinal Chemistry,

University of Southern Mississippi• NIRT: Fabrication of Functional Architectures through the Directed Assembly of

Nanoscale Building Blocks, University of New Orleans• PFI: North Louisiana PFI: Creating Infrastructure for Technology Growth, Northwestern

State University of Louisiana • Polar Programs: ANDRILL Program: A New Phase of Continental Margin Drilling in

Antarctica, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (pending)• New: STC• New: IGERTs


Technical Assistance

• CDI provides a range of technical assistance services to EPSCoR university researchers, including: – Providing guidance to strengthen centers proposals– Pre-reviewing proposal drafts and materials

• white papers, pre-proposals, prior proposals, reviewers’ comments, full proposals and offering constructive reviews along with suggestions to improve competitiveness

– Helping to identify, recruit, and support appropriate consultation from outside experts (with scientific discipline and/or specific NSF center program expertise)

– Serving as an information resource and providing guidance about existing and emerging centers programs

– Working with PIs to arrange productive dress rehearsals for upcoming NSF site visits

• CDI does NOT write proposals, we only make them better.


Centers Development Workshops

• Green Chemistry and Engineering (June 2002)

• IGERT (August 2002)

• Cyberinfrastructure for Large-Scale S&E (April 2003)

• Large-Scale Biological Sciences (July 2003)

• MRSEC (August 2003)• (Regional) Nanoscale S&E (August 2003) [partner: SD EPSCoR]

• GK-12 (November 2003) [partner: U. Oklahoma]

• Environmental Observing Systems (February 2004)

• IGERT (March 2004)

• Large-Scale NSF CISE (November 2004)

• EPSCoR University Research Leadership Retreat on Centers Development (February 2005)

Information about each of these workshops is available on CDI’s website.

Documents

North Dakota State University, April 14, 2005 University of North Dakota, April 15, 2005