Attendees: Jerry Lin, Scott Crawford, Ana Christensen, Chunda Chen, Richard Gachot, Ken Young, Xianchang Li

Not in attendance: Amy Smith

Meeting called to order by Jerry Lin at 1:00 pm

 

I. Review/Approval of March 1, 2021 Council meeting minutes

Motion to approve the March 1, 2021 minutes made by Ana Christensen

Seconded by Scott Crawford

Approved

 

II. Updates on Cayuse Fund Manager – training upcoming

Jerry Lin: Cayuse Fund Manager will be deployed on June 1, 2021. I would like to extend an invitation to Cayuse Fund Manager training to begin May13. Fund Manager is an electronic online platform for view and track project spending in real time. We are hoping to provide efficiency regarding grant funds and spending.

Ana Christensen express interest to attend the training of Fund Manager.

Jerry Lin: I will send the virtual training invite.

 

III. Consolidated research policy in LU MAPP format

Jerry Lin: This council has approved a number of research-related policies in the past 15 months. I took the liberty to consolidate the policies and procedures in the LU-required MAPP format. This document will serve as the foundation for our research and sponsored program administration and will be subject to revision as we move forward to expand our research enterprise.

Motion made to accept the consolidated policy by Ana Christensen

Seconded by Ken Young and Scott Crawford

Approved

 

IV. New Internal Grant Announcement

Jerry Lin: A new seed grant program will be announced for external grant preparation. This grant will remain open for the entire year. The idea is to provide the needed resources and analytical supports for drafting research proposals responding to specific RFP. The final deliverables will be proposals submitted to the grant agencies.

Richard Gachot: I think the is great for junior faculty. Would this take the place of REG’s?

Jerry Lin: The funds which were available for the REG’s would be placed into this Seed Grant program. I am asking council members to provide feedback on this initiative and the draft grant announcement. There are specific requirements for the seed grants, such as they will not be able to use the funds on faculty salaries. Analysis and student support can be budgeted.

 

Ken Young: Would like clarification, regarding the allowability of fine arts to be able to submit for these funds. Also, possibly include the RFP in the submission. There were a lot of REG’s with the possibility of funding, but nothing was ever solid.

As for the rubrics for evaluation, possibly including those from fine arts to give input for the rubric so their field is included equally.

Jerry Lin: Yes, fine arts and the like are eligible for applying this seed grant program. And yes, the support is linked to a proposal submission to an external funding agency. In a sense, the standards will be raised to the standard of external granting agency’s requirement. I am asking for the council’s input and if you will review the documents and email me and let me know of your suggestions.

We will come back to this document again and please let me know if you have any other questions.

V. Roundtable

i. Naming competition for Makerspace

Jerry Lin: We are running a competition to rename the Makerspace. Beverly Kemp will send you the link to pass on to your students.

ii. Course “buyout” using research grant resources

Jerry Lin: When the PI proposed their proposal budget. Their mechanism to buy out one or more courses using the external grant resources has been worked out. The faculty member just needs to contact our office.

iii. Requirement of institution matching in proposal budget

Jerry Lin: Many grants require the proposal-submitting university to match a certain percentage of project cost (matching funds). We have worked out the mechanism for this as well.

 

Meeting adjourned by Jerry Lin at 1:54pm.