EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative CDI Annual Kentucky EPSCoR Conference: Pursuing Research Cente

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EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative
(CDI)Annual Kentucky EPSCoR ConferencePursuin
g Research Centers of National Stature

• 13 May 2004
• Lexington, KY
• Rand Haley
• Project Director, CDI
• randhaley_at_earthlink.net
• 770-993-5256

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EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative (CDI)

• CDI is a multi-year, NSF-funded initiative aimed
  at increasing the participation of EPSCoR
  researchers in NSFs centers and other
  large-scale programs
• CDI provides technical assistance to EPSCoR
  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 proactive outreach activities
• www.epscorfoundation.org/cdi

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In projects first 2½ years, CDI has

• Provided direct technical assistance to 42 EPSCoR
  universities in 22 states competing in over 20
  NSF centers programs
• Hosted 9 Centers Development Workshops that
  attracted over 400 EPSCoR participants from 64
  universities in 24 EPSCoR states, including 26
  NSF program managers
• Utilized the assistance of over 80 nationally
  recognized discipline experts, including
  Directors or PIs from numerous successful,
  ongoing NSF centers and large-scale projects

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Introduction to CDI Selected NSF Centers and
Large-Scale Programs

• Science and Technology Centers (STC)
• Engineering Research Centers (ERC)
• Materials Research Science and Engineering
  Centers (MRSEC)
• Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSEC)
• Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT)
• Integrated Graduate Education and Research
  Traineeship (IGERT)
• Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers
  (I/UCRC)
• Information Technology Research (ITR)
• Math and Science Partnership (MSP)
• Science of Learning Centers (SLC)

• Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT)
• ADVANCE
• Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)
• Centers of Research Excellence in Science and
  Technology (CREST)
• Plant Genome Research (PGR)
• Biological Databases and Informatics (BDI)
• Frontiers in Integrative Biology (FIBR)
• Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)
• Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE)
• Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
• Collaborative Large-Scale Engineering Analysis
  Network for Environmental Research (CLEANER)
• Center for Synthesis in Biological Evolution
  (CSBE)
• Sensors and Sensor Networks

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NSF Awards Assisted by CDI
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Project ActivitiesTechnical Assistance

• Technical assistance services include
• Reviewing proposal materials (e.g., white papers,
  pre-proposals, prior proposals, reviewers
  comments)
• Helping to identify, recruit, and support
  consultation from outside experts pre-reviewing
  proposal drafts, offering advice and suggestions,
  etc.
• Advising on features most needed to strengthen
  centers proposals
• Serving as an information resource and providing
  guidance about existing and emerging centers
  programs
• Supporting potential PIs in arranging productive
  dress rehearsals for upcoming NSF site visits

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Project ActivitiesTechnical Assistance

• What are needs of research team? based on
• Teams own perceptions (perhaps from CDI
  workshop), discussions with NSF staff
• Reviewers comments from previous competition
  and/or pre-proposal
• Initial discussions with, and assessments by, CDI
  staff (Director, Senior Associates by
  discipline expertise)
• Stage of competition / how much lead time /
  strength of team?
• Best outside expert(s) to retain? Most
  appropriate services and support to provide?
• CDI and/or research team identification
• For pre-reviews/critiques and/or more extensive
  consulting

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CDI TeamOverview

• Senior Associates, coordinated Project Director,
  lead technical assistance activities, enhanced by
  a strong network of nationally recognized
  disciplinary experts, including directors of
  successful, ongoing NSF centers serving as
  consultants.
• Senior Associates
• Familiar with the EPSCoR community
• Knowledgeable about NSFs centers programs
• Experienced with managing complex technical
  assistance projects
• Skilled in specific science and engineering
  disciplines
• Network of disciplinary experts
• Experience and wisdom about what is necessary to
  organize strong (often multi-disciplinary) teams
  integrate required education, outreach, and other
  components with research successfully compete
  for NSF centers and manage and coordinate funded
  centers

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Network of Nationally Recognized Experts
(examples)

• D. Anderson, Dir, IGERT, U. Colorado
• K. Ausman, Exec Dir, NSEC, Rice
• J. Beach, PI, Large ITR, U. Kansas
• V. Colvin, Dir, NSEC, Rice
• K. Cook, Dir of Oper, NSEC, Northwestern
• K. Droegemeier, Dir, STC, U. Oklahoma
• D. Duffy, PI, Biocomplexity, U. Hawaii
• D. Edie, Dir, ERC, Clemson
• M. Feder, PI, BE and FIBR, U. Chicago
• D. Gray, I/UCRC ERC, N. Carolina St. U.
• S. Jeelani, VPR Dir, CREST, Tuskegee
• T. Millar, Director, MSP, U. Wisconsin
• C. OKelly, PI, ATOL, Bigelow Laboratory
• G. Page, PI, PGR, UAB

• M. Rafailovich, Dir, MRSEC, SUNY-SB
• P. Russo, Dir, IGERT, LSU
• G. Salamo, Co-Dir, MRSEC, U. Arkansas
• R. Siegel, Dir, NSEC, Rensselaer P.I.
• S. Sorooshian, Dir, STC, U. Arizona
• W. Thomas, PI, ATOL, U. New Hampshire
• M. Urban, Dir, MRSEC I/UCRC, USM
• C. Van Ummersen, Dir, Off. of Women in Higher
  Ed., Amer. Council on Educ.
• A. Ward, Dir, IGERT, U. Alabama
• J. White, Dir, IGERT, U. Colorado
• E. Williams, Dir, MRSEC, U. Maryland
• P. Woodward, Dir, IGERT, U. Minnesota
• A. Zhang, PI, BDI, SUNY-Buffalo

Directors/PIs STC, ERC, MRSEC, NSEC, IGERT,
MSP, ITR, BE, PGR, ATOL, BDI
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Project ActivitiesCenters Development Workshops

• CDI has hosted 9 broadly advertised,
  well-attended workshops
• Green Chemistry and Engineering (June 2002)
• IGERT (August 2002 and March 2004)
• Cyberinfrastructure for Large-Scale SE (April
  2003)
• Biological Sciences (July 2003)
• MRSEC (August 2003)
• (Regional) Nanoscale SE (August 2003) partner
  SD EPSCoR
• GK-12 (November 2003) partner U. Oklahoma
• Environmental Observing Systems (February 2004)
• Sensors Research (Fall 2004) currently being
  planned

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Project ActivitiesCenters Development Workshops

• Workshop components
• Presentations by NSF program officers on centers
  programs
• Best Practice presentations in which Directors
  of successful NSF centers explain how they
  organized, competed for, and manage their centers
• Opportunities for participants to network with
  other interested EPSCoR researchers, CDI staff,
  nationally recognized SE experts, NSF center
  Directors, and NSF program officers
• CDI website provides information about each past
  and upcoming workshop including agendas,
  presentations, and attendee lists.

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Project ActivitiesProactive Outreach

• EPSCoR Outreach Visits
• State EPSCoR conferences
• Targeted centers development visits/meetings
• Presentations to stakeholders
• Project Outreach
• User-friendly website
• Key resource for EPSCoR community
• Updated information about upcoming NSF centers
  competitions, CDI workshops and activities, and
  the initiatives technical assistance services
• E-mail announcements and updates
• CDI brochures, etc.

www.epscorfoundation.org/cdi
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CDI Assistance Model
1st Stage
2nd Stage
3rd Stage
Goal Move teams of all levels to a higher level
of competitiveness
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1st Assistance Stage

• Introduction to CDIs services and resources
• Information about established and emerging NSF
  centers programs and competitions
• Invitations to attend Centers Development
  Workshops
• Critiques of white papers, organizational plans,
  prior proposals, and reviewers comments
• Identification and introduction to potential
  collaborators

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2nd Assistance Stage

• Guidance of features most needed to strengthen
  proposals
• Critiques of pre-proposal drafts
• Targeting of appropriate competitions to align
  with research team strengths and goals
• Enabling interactions with successful ongoing
  centers
• Review of center proposal participants and
  collaborators

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3rd Assistance Stage

• Consulting with research teams to develop package
  of CDI services to best strengthen proposal
• Assembly of technical assistance teams, including
  identification, recruitment, and financial
  support of outside experts consulting (e.g.,
  assess competitiveness, center structure and
  management, education and outreach)
• Critiques of full proposal drafts
• Support for special requirements (e.g.,
  organizational meetings among participants,
  travel expenses, recruitment of industrial
  collaborators)
• Site visit dress rehearsal

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Challenges of Developing and Managing Centers

• www.epscorfoundation.org/cdi/centerdevelopment.htm

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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

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Challenges of Developing and Managing Centers

• 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

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Challenges of Developing and Managing Centers

• 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.)

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In most cases, centers will not be a panacea for
launching a university into stratospheric heights
of research funding, academic scholarship, and
interdisciplinary collaboration. However, with
appropriate planning and implementation, centers
with sufficient internal support and guidance do
offer an important organizational structure that
can substantially enhance a universitys
capability to attract external funding, provide
opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration
among faculty, and provide considerable
visibility and prestige in a defined area of
study for the research university. Centers and
Institutes in the Research University Journal of
Higher Education 1994