A Needs Assessment from the CLAS Faculty Council

UNCC needs to build a research culture. A cultural shift across the university is necessary for productivity to increase.  The public claim to support research does not play out on the ground.  Grant-writing and grant- managing is too difficult and undervalued. UNCC is diversifying too rapidly. Strategize who we want to be and focus on those areas. Funding agencies are focused on research centers and teams.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Start-up packages can’t support personnel, but lab techs and research assistants are vital to the productivity of new hires Provide a new, flexible source for start-up packages Solution 1: Provide F&A to colleges to supplement start-up packages. F&A money is more flexible and can help fund lab techs. Solution 2: Find another source of flexible dollars. Research extensive faculty have similar teaching and service expectations as other faculty, hindering their productivity and devaluing their research. Ensure that workload policies are in place that value research Solution: Ask departments to review their workload policies. Solution: Implement an extra-departmental review committee that ensures workload policies are adequately enforced in a department. This should ease the burden on chairs who may not want to have the unpleasant conversation of increasing teaching loads.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Ease the burden of grants administration Either hire new personal or redistribute the work-load to ensure that all departments have access to a grants-administrator. Asking department managers to fill this role is unsustainable and frustrating for both the administrator and the PI. Solution: Redistribute current job responsibilities across departments. Solution: Ask the Chancellor to provide F&A to colleges so staffing needs can be immediately addressed. Solution: Move some open positions across the university to the colleges. These positions would focus on post-award transactions. The college has lost highly productive faculty to departments where they can find collaborators. Solution: Help departments develop core areas of strength by allowing them to hire in those areas. Solution: work with Research and Economic Development to identify potential collaborators across the university. A key challenge as a researcher is to stay up to date on new methods and analytic techniques (and to respond to reviewers who may recommend an unfamiliar method): Solution: Hire research consultants to keep researchers apprised of new methods and to serve as consultants as researchers learn knew methods. One person in this position should have experience with data management, advanced statistics, and multiple statistical software programs. It would also be beneficial to hire a qualitative expert.

Academic Affairs UNCC Faculty Research Grants are too small to be effective sources of seed money, and there are difficult spending restrictions Solution: Double the size of the FRG award and cut the number of awards offered. Solution: Allow an unlimited portion of the award dollars to be spent on research assistance. Create a pool of money for undergraduate research experience This would train undergrads who would potentially become UNCC graduate students. For students who go onto other graduate schools, better training would enhance the reputation of our university. Reward faculty for receiving grants University-funded research assistants (graduate and undergraduate) Course reductions Salary Additional travel Acknowledge directing theses and dissertation proposals in the reward structure.

Graduate School Immediate Needs Create a long-term plan to attach GASP awards to specific programs GASP money is removed from a department if grant money is available to pay tuition. This is a disincentive. Many departments don’t know if they have GASP awards until they lose the strongest recruits. 3 year plan Increase graduate student stipends If departments can’t hire the best graduate students, research suffers. Provide additional assistanships to research active departments as a reward.

Information Technology Immediate Needs Information technology personnel don’t fully understand research needs: Ensure that personnel are trained in maximizing the efficiency of statistical software programs. Hire personnel with experience in a research university. Ensure that faculty have the appropriate equipment to conduct research Some software programs are only available through the internet and must be available for standalone computers: Analysis of restricted data requires non-networked computers and funding agencies expect universities to provide basic software. 3 Year Plan Purchase widely used statistical software at the university level Some common statistical software programs unavailable: STATA, MaxQDA, NVivo Move away from corporate model of purchasing (in mass): Technological needs vary across projects and it is difficult for faculty to get the resources they need to conduct research.

Research & Economic Development Immediate Needs Hire personnel from outside the university who have experience in the type of research university that we aspire to become. UNCC does not offer bridge funding to faculty as they search for new grants to continue their research Solution: Provide bridge funding when the potential for continued funding is reasonably strong. Enhance university resources to identify funding sources: Make sure personnel are well-networked with funding agencies so they are in- tune with funding priorities. Currently, faculty are directed to the COS when they request assistance finding resources. Provide support for non-tenure-track faculty, interdisciplinary programs, and students to pursue grants.

Research & Economic Development Long-term plan Spearhead the cultural shift to a research university Develop a plan for how units across the university should work together to ensure that research is valued, supported, and rewarded. Provide an incentive for faculty who are successful at grantwriting to mentor others in the university. Establish that all types of research across the university are valued. Facilitate the University’s efforts to define itself. The university is diversifying too quickly. We need to focus on our areas of excellence and exploit those. Create and sustain a limited number of centers of excellence that define our university. Work with the graduate school to ensure that PhD programs are developed that complement these areas. Connect faculty with others across the university who have complementary expertise—facilitate collaboration. Kudos: Kudos: The post-award strategy of providing a team of administrators to each department is proving effective.

Chancellor’s Office Immediate Needs Distribute recovered F&A to Academic Affairs, the Colleges, Departments, and PIs Flexible start-up packages require flexible dollars. Appropriate staffing requires additional resources in colleges and departments that receive grants. These needs are immediate and can be addressed with appropriate distribution of F&A. UNCC does not align with sister institutions in the extent that we distribute F&A. 3 year plan Insist that all units in UNCC work with Research and Economic Development to change the culture where research is valued and rewarded. UNCCHNC StateNC A&TEast CarolinaUNCG UNCC University College Department PI 510