The final Blog…

My time at the University of Maryland has come to a close…Today is my last day on campus so I thought I’d dedicate the last blog to Testudo – the mascot for the University of Maryland, College Park.

Testudo is a Diamondback terrapin, a species of turtle native to the Chesapeake Bay area that can be distinguished by diamond shaped rings on their upper shells. The Diamondback Terrapin was made the Maryland State Reptile in 1994.

Back to Testudo’s story – It all started way back in 1932, when the football coach Dr. H. Curley Byrd recommended that the Diamondback terrapin be made the school mascot. The suggestion was in response to The Diamondback’s (the school paper) search for a new “official” mascot.

While the origin of the terrapin as school mascot is well known amongst staff and students, why the mascot was named Testudo is a little more mysterious…One theory is that it was derived from the scientific classification for turtle, testudines. Another is that the name is from testudo gigantia, a species native to the African country Seychelles and the remote island Aldabra and the last ones are that Testudo means tortoise in Latin (my bet is on this one!) and in ancient roman warfare times the “testudo” (aka tortoise formation) was when the men would align their shields to protect themselves in a packed formation on the front and top – similar to a tortoise shell.

Enough of that, back to 1933 – the President of the Student Government Association and the Class of 1933 decided to give a bronze replica of the new mascot as its graduation gift. The Class raised money for the sculpture by holding its Junior Senior German (what the Senior Prom was called back then – weird right?) on campus instead of at an expensive Washington D.C. hotel. Additional funds came from the student yearbook.

In order to make the mascot a reality, Byrd suggested contacting Edwin C. Mayo, President of Gorham Manufacturing in Providence, RI. Mayo was a former quarterback for the University and member of the Class of 1904. He agreed to produce the 300 pound bronze terrapin at cost. Sculptor Aristide Cianfrani cast the sculpture. He used a live Diamondback as a guide.

On May 23, 1933, Testudo was unveiled to the world. They tied a ribbon to a live terrapin, the same one that was used as a model, the other end of the ribbon was attached to the canvas covering the sculpture and as the smaller terrapin struggled forward, Testudo was revealed for the first time.

At first, Testudo was located in front of Ritchie Coliseum. Unfortunately, this relatively open spot soon became the scene of multiple crimes against the unguarded mascot, including painting, defacing and kidnapping. In 1947, when Testudo was captured by some Johns Hopkins students, many Maryland students rushed to Baltimore and laid siege on the building where the mascot was held. Even though 200 police were called to control the riot, the “siege” quickly turned into a party.

Soon after, Testudo was again snatched from his perch. Two years later, Byrd, now President of the University, received a call from a fraternity at the University of Virginia telling him to please get Testudo off their lawn.

With Testudo safely recovered, UMD thought that greater security measures were needed to protect him and it would be best if he went into hiding until they could come up with a better plan. Fast forward to 1951…George O. Weber, Director of Physical Plant at College Park, and Class President for the Class of 1933 was determined to protect the campus mascot, so Testudo was filled with 700 pounds of cement and attached to his new perch in front of Byrd Stadium with long steel rods and hooks. While this put a stop to the terrapin-napping, painting was still a problem, especially by Johns Hopkins students. During one episode, Maryland students caught some Hopkins students in the act and promptly shaved their heads in retaliation.

Skip a couple of years to 1960, when McKeldin Library was constructed and Testudo was uprooted from his stadium pedestal and carefully carried by students to his new home overlooking McKeldin Mall.

And from this central campus perch, Testudo has continued his vigil at Maryland. In 1983, the then fifty year old Testudo was rededicated and restored to his former glory by the Class of 1933. He finally received help in his watch over campus in 1992, when a bronze twin to Testudo was created and placed outside the Football Complex locker room – there are now 6 bronze Testudo’s on campus. Here’s me with the one in the Stamp Union…

Nowadays, during finals week, students place “offerings” around Testudo, for good luck. This is what happened on campus just a few weeks ago…If you look hard enough you might catch a glimpse of Testudo amongst the offerings!

Last year in December during finals week, Testudo was ablaze after those offerings caught fire, Campus police ruled the cause of the fire to be accidental and Testudo didn’t suffer any permanent damage.

UMD marketing experts cleverly extended the school spirit behind Testudo by launching a “Fear the Turtle” campaign in 2003, building on a rallying cry from fans at the men’s basketball during 2001 and 2002 NCAA tournament.

In 2006, 50 of the “Fear the Turtle” terrapin sculptures were made and decorated by 50 different artists to celebrate UMD’s 150^th anniversary. Individual sculptures could be sponsored and this paid for their cost and decoration and could also be per-purchased, the rest were auctioned after the exhibit period.

Thirty sculptures were exhibited on campus, the other 20 found their way to communities in surrounding counties, as well as Annapolis, Baltimore, Silver Spring, Ocean City, Interstate 95, Arundel Mills Mall and even Union Station in Washington, D.C. Proceeds from the Fear the Turtle sculptures funded university scholarships. There was also a competition to win one of the sculptures if you got your photo taken with all 50 – P.S Don’t ask Jill about this, she’s still a little bitter that she didn’t win…

Here’s the 7 sculptures that have been donated back to campus that I could locate – thanks to Jill for going turtle hunting with me! J

As you can imagine, there is a wide range of merchandise for UMD including Testudo and Fear the Turtle slogan covering everything from hats, clothing, jewelry, stickers, nail polish, shoes and the list goes on and on – very, very different to Australian universities. In 2012, after President Wallace Loh took office, UMD launched a new slogan “Fearless ideas” . It is meant to emphasize the university’s push to be known as a center of innovation and entrepreneurship…the slogan can be seen on buses and posters around campus and Maryland.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end and its time to wrap up this blog – I have had such a great time at College Park for the last 12 weeks and I’m extremely grateful to Denise and UNSW for seeing the benefit in this research administrator placement and supporting me on this exciting adventure. I have learned so much and have so many people to thank for giving up their time to teach the Aussie how things work over here…so, here’s a BIG thanks to Pat, Denise, Beth, Jill, Katie, Jeff, Adam, Joe, Toni, Wendy, Sally, Susie, Danica, Veronica and everyone else in the ORA office!

Hopefully one day my American friends will make the long journey to Sydney and come and visit me at UNSW…then I can show you how we do things Down Under…

🙂

 

Week 10

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

Hello Memorial Day – finally a holiday weekend! Since I’ve been in the States I have missed numerous public holidays in Australia including Easter, Anzac Day and the Queen’s birthday, so I was very happy to have a holiday weekend and to celebrate a US holiday while I’m here…I was lucky enough to spend some time with friends at a cookout before visiting Ocean City on the Maryland coast to celebrate Memorial Day.

As nice as it was to have a day off, it did just squish more work into the rest of the week, so Tuesday was a full day of meetings starting with Adam Grant, Export Compliance Officer. Adam filled me in on what he does at UMD and what the legislation is around export control in the States. Did you know that there are 2 different federal bodies that regulate export control:

1. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are administered by the Department of State and focus on technologies that are specifically designed for military applications.
2. The Export Administration Regulations (EAR) are administered by the Department of Commerce and cover all other good and technologies including “dual-use” technologies that are considered to have both military and commercial applications.

In the US, the legal definition of “export” isn’t just shipping it also includes the sharing of information to non-US persons. This “sharing” can take many forms such as oral and visual disclosure in classrooms and labs, sending technical data in emails to foreign collaborators, and traveling out of the US with electronically stored data on laptops or other devices. If and when it is necessary for researchers to work with controlled data, Adam will work with the researcher to identify the applicable set of rules and set up a Technology Control Plan to insure the technology is properly handled. Adam also works with researchers to obtain export licences as required for exporting goods to foreign countries.

After seeing Adam, it was time for our weekly meeting on reviewing ORA’s sub recipient profile form. This was a really good meeting as we finally had reached a point where we were happy with the changes we had made to the form and it was time to send it onto Daniel Owens, the Director of UNSWs Grants Management Office for his review and feedback. Later in the week we re-grouped, made a few minor tweaks and ta-da…the sub recipient form is now ready for UMD to pilot on their next foreign
sub award.

Back to Tuesday – Beth has missed me following her around so I tagged along to a presentation she gave on MPowering the State to the Office of Research Administration in their Brown Bag lunch information sessions. Beth explained how and why it is important to tag the MPowering checkbox on internal routing forms for data collection and reporting before answering queries that staff had about the differing internal process between UMD and UMB.

Afterwards I had a nice walk across campus to meet with Ross Lewin and Reluca Nahorniac from the International Affairs office. This was a follow up meeting to discuss my fellowship and gave Ross an opportunity to fill me in on what topics were discussed at the recent U21 Presidential Symposium in Glasgow. And to finish off the day, I had a Skype call with U21 to discuss the next steps for the Research Collaboration Group – remember that workshop way back in Week 3…Denise and Warwick are the new co-chairs for the group.

The rest of the week was just as packed as Tuesday – here’s a few more meeting highlights:

• Eric McKenzie is the Associate Director for the Astronomy Department. I met with Eric so he could give me some insight into how the Astronomy department setup a joint PhD program with the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile.
• A lunch meeting at the University golf course with Brian Darmody. Brian is the Associate Vice-President for corporate and foundation relations. Brian’s unique role is charged with leading essential university-wide efforts to develop strategic partnerships between the University of Maryland and the corporate and foundation community. Brian has a very interesting career, has previously worked across campus in the Division of Research, helped setup the Office of Technology and Commercialisation, Legal Counsel and before that in the US House of Representatives.
• Ken Gertz, Associate Vice President for Research Development. I usually see Ken on a daily basis as his office is just down the hall but we still scheduled a meeting to discuss everything his office does and to also discuss the differences between the Divisions of Research at UNSW and UMD. We spoke about seed grants and the Tier programs that are at UMD versus the Goldstar awards and VC fellowships that UNSW offer.
• Ted Knight, Assistant Dean for Communications in the Clark School of Engineering. Ted previously worked in the VPR’s office at UMD and was nice enough to spend some time with me chatting about the Engineering research strengths at UMD. We are hoping that there is some overlap and we can establish some research collaborations between UNSW and UMD in Engineering.

Highlight of the week

I saw a raccoon – yep, we don’t have them in Australia…

I’ve also have a thing where I take pictures of squirrels – mainly for Vanessa (at UNSW) as I know she has an obsession with them…I do get strange looks when taking the pictures as most Americans refer to squirrels as rats with a tail…

Australia vs the States

The weather is starting to heat up and there seems to be more and more discussion around the temperature and humidity – this leads to come confusion between Fahrenheit and Celsius. Lucky for me my weather app on my iPhone can tell me both…

Week 8 & 9

Busy, busy, busy…the weeks that were…

Where is the time going? It is flying past me so quickly that I’ve had to combine two blog posts into one…

Week 8 started with another conference, this time it was local in Washington DC. The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) is a cooperative initiative among 10 federal agencies and 119 institutions that receive federal funds. The FDP is a program sponsored by the Government, University, Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies. Its purpose is to reduce the administrative burdens associated with research grants and contracts. They hold 3 annual meetings a year to update members on all aspects of federal funding and changes in regulations. The program was really interesting and it was a good opportunity to learn further information about the different federal programs and also how the new Uniform Guidance (that I referenced in last week’s blog) will affect international US federally funded grants.

It was a quick trip back to campus that afternoon to attend the Celebration of Scholarships. This is an annual spring event where the University of Maryland donors meet with students who benefit directly from their generosity. Dr. Pat O’Shea and Dr. Wallace Loh gave very inspirational speeches to the recipients – see the quote of the week section below…I was also lucky enough to be introduced to Dr. Loh and sneak in a quick picture…

Later in the week it was time to follow up with Professor Carl Lejuez on his existing collaboration with UNSW and brainstorm ideas for future opportunities to progress this collaboration. Carl’s research is really interesting, it focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of addictive behaviours and their co-occurring psychological conditions, including mood, anxiety and personality disorders. Carl visited UNSW’s National Drug & Alcohol Centre (NDARC) late last year to provide training on his methods of collecting data from human subjects that have issues with depression and addiction.

It was also a busy week juggling my time as I had quite a few things to do on the UNSW side of work – which is always interesting with the time difference…I managed to complete a few International MOUs, reconcile my credit card (always important to do!) and I had a Skype interview with Professor Laura Poole-Warren to discuss a range of Joint PhD Agreements that are currently under negotiation.

Week 9 arrived and time is still flying past me – the reality of only 3 more weeks on campus has hit me but I’m trying not to think about it just yet as there is a lot to get through this week. Monday started with a trip out to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Beth was kind enough to come with me to UMB (and also provided the wheels to get there!). Dennis Paffrath, Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration, put together a great schedule for the day that included meetings with the following people:
– Jeanne Galvin Clark, Manager, Sponsored Research Office
Beth and Jeanne described the collaboration between UMD and UMB in relation to MPowering the State and how it works in real life, issues faced by both Beth and Jeanne and ways to overcome these issues in the future.
– Jodi Olsen, Director, Student Center for Global Education
My meeting with Jodi was very informative as she described how the graduate system works at UMB and the initiatives that have been developed for graduate students. A few interesting points to note – UMB has a very low undergraduate student component and is predominantly a graduate school in 6 areas – Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine, Law and Social Work. Of the 6,000 graduate students at UMB, most are completing a professional doctorate while only ~300 are PhD students.
The Global Education Office have launched an Interprofessional Global Health Grant Award for staff and students. This was setup to encourage multidisciplinary research at UMB. The program involves a faculty member applying for a $10K grant for a 1 week field trip attached to a health related project in a foreign country. The faculty member has to agree that there will be at least 2 students on the project and at least 2 of those students have to come from 2 different schools. Applications are peer reviewed by the Global Education Office. Once the projects are awarded they are advertised and open for students to apply. This year is the first year of the program and they have awarded 9 projects that include 12 Faculty and 35 students. Jodi believes that UMB are the only institution in the US (possibly the world) doing this kind of a project.

– Jane Shaab, Vice President, Business Development, UMB BioPark & Assistant Vice President, Economic Development, Office of Research and Development

We met Jane at the UMB BioPark where we had a quick tour before settling in the meeting room to hear from Jane how the BioPark started, her role and the future plans for the BioPark. The BioPark is a biomedical research park that sits on 12 acres and when all the buildings are finished will include 1.8 million square feet of wet lab, office and clinical space. The first commercial building opened in 2005, and construction is underway on the latest, the $200 million Maryland Proton Treatment Center. Currently there are 30 tenants of the BioPark, where 550 people work in a community of innovative bioscience companies and translational research centers. The BioPark has generated $180 million in capital investment. The future includes a potential stop on the light rail connecting the BioPark to campus and downtown and additional retail, housing and hotel developments.

– Dennis Paffrath, Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration & Amanda Snider, Assistant Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
Dennis and Amanda explained to me how Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) works at UMB and we discussed the differences between College Park and Baltimore with respect to team setup and distribution of workload. In 2013, UMB received $479M – predominantly in NIH funding. There were 2300 proposals submitted last year through the SPA and 2700 awards received. Their office deals with a large portion of sub awards with international institutions and companies (~800), mostly with developing countries.

– Teresa Lamaster, MPowering Executive Director
Beth let me tag along to this meeting with Teresa. Teresa has recently been appointed to the role of Executive Director, MPowering the State initiative between UMB and UMD. Teresa spoke about how she is currently gathering information on MPowering, talking to various people, researchers, senior officials at UMB and UMD. A big issue at the moment is to update the communications and branding to portray a consistent message about MPowering. Teresa is also looking into the long term goals and strategic priorities of MPowering – what can MPower be? Can it incorporate all 3 missions of the University – Research, Students, Education? Teresa is also looking into the option of a counterpart to Beth at the UMB campus.

The next day it was time for me to present to the Office of Research Administration (ORA) at UMD. My presentation included an overview of UNSW and the Division of Research, what my normal job at UNSW involves, how the fellowship was developed, what I’ve been doing on the fellowship and the outputs of the fellowship, I also gave an overview of UNSWs Grants Management Office and UNSWs research funding. I went over some of the similarities and differences that I have noticed in research management between Australia and the US…Then after all of that,  I ended the presentation by challenging them to taste Vegemite – and a few did! Here’s a picture of Toni Lawson enjoying the delicious taste of Vege…

The rest of the week was spent attending the following activities:

– Attending a class in the ORA Certificate Program on ‘The role of a department administrator’. ORA’s certificate program is open to all staff across campus and is strongly encouraged for departmental research administrators to attend. There are 12 classes in the certification program with roughly one class held each month. It’s a really great training program and I encourage you to have a look at their website for more details.

– Skype call with Professor Mark Hoffman. This was a general touch base meeting to keep Mark up to date with what has been happening during the fellowship and the fabulous things I have been learning. We also chatted about a few issues that are happening at UNSW – which is nice to know when you’re overseas!

– I visited the NCURA national office in DC. I met with Kathleen Larmett and Jesse Szeto to discuss the future opportunities for NCURA and the Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) collaborating on a visiting research administration fellowship program. We had some really good ideas about the program and hopefully it will be up and running early next year. We also spoke about other ways for the two societies to collaborate on a range of topics where we can both learn from each other. It was interesting to visit the national office and met the staff, all 17 of them, as this highlights how young ARMS is as a society and the potential for the growth of ARMS and research management as a profession in Australia.

– While I was in DC I also visited the University of Queensland North American Office. Jen Nielsen, Associate Director – Education, was very helpful and answered all my questions on how and why the UQ office came to be in DC and she also shared her firsthand knowledge of what it takes to renovate an office, setup a business licence, workout how to report back to your Manager who’s located in Australia…and the list goes on! Jen’s main role in the States is business development including managing key research partnerships with UQs partner institutions in the US.

– Meeting with the Dr. Charles Caramello, Dean of the Graduate School. Charles spoke to me about all things graduate student related…and before we knew it out meeting time was up and we still had lots and lots to talk about, Dean Caramello was very generous with his time and we have arranged another meeting for next week – so stay tuned for more on this…

– Meeting with Professor Nathan Fox, this was a follow up meeting as Nathan is another wonderful researcher at UMD who is open to the idea of starting a research collaboration with UNSW. We discussed ways to start the collaboration and came up with the starting point could be an exchange of graduate students, they could learn unique techniques that exist is each laboratory and then return to their home laboratory to share this knowledge. I’m now looking into funding programs that can support these visits…

And that’s what I’ve been up to over the last two weeks…
Highlight of the week

Spending time with Jen and Ash at the lovely UQ office in Washington DC. The UQ office is located in a great spot in DC – only 2 blocks from the White House!

Quote of the week

“Research is to teaching as sin is to confessional. Unless you do the former, you can’t do the latter” UMD President Loh quoted John Brooks Slaughter at the Celebration of Scholarships. John Slaughter was the first African American Director of the National Science Foundation and was also a Chancellor at UMD.

Australia vs the States

Australia wins this week as I successfully made at least 6 Americans taste Vegemite! They don’t quite understand the taste and why it’s so salty, they also don’t know why I would chose to eat it on toast most mornings…

Week 7

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

Another week, another conference – we headed to lovely St Pete’s Beach in Tampa, Florida for NCURA Region II/III Joint Spring Meeting. This was the first joint meeting that Region II and Region III have held, and it proved to be quite a diverse and busy program. Firstly, let me explain a little more about the NCURA regions:

Region II = Mid Atlantic. It consists of the following state: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C & West Virginia

Region III = South Eastern. It consists of the following state: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virgin Islands & Virginia

There were over 400 attendees from the regions. The meeting opened with a networking event for newcomers followed by a welcome reception on a beautiful deck at sunset – here’s a little taste of the view…

The next day the program began with a keynote address from Kevin Carroll from the Hanger Clinic. Kevin had quite the interesting career and a great story to tell. Kevin is a prosthetist, researcher and educator. His claim to fame is that he developed the world’s first prosthetic tail for a dolphin! The story of Winter (the dolphin) and Kevin’s work was made into a 3D feature film in 2011 called Dolphin Tale starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.

There were numerous sessions on Uniform Guidance and the changes that will be taking place on December 26, 2014 when the OMB reform of federal circulars takes effect. There was also a lot of speculation about what each of the agencies will further regulate in their response which is due in June. The next issue for research administrators and Universities in the States will be figuring out how this will affect their institution? Do they need to change local policy and procedures? How do they train and educate staff and faculty? And the questions keep going…

One aspect of NCURA conferences that I really enjoy is the inclusion of discussion groups during the concurrent session slot. Each discussion group has a topic or area to focus on and usually has 2-4 speakers that act as facilitators that start the session and encourage the conversation to keep flowing. I found myself attending the discussion groups more and more as it was a different learning experience and I enjoyed hearing different points of view and examples from various perspectives and institutions. Toni Lawson from UMD, facilitated the discussion group on ‘Developing a Subrecipient Monitoring Compliance Program: Where Do I begin?’. During the session, we spoke about my placement at UMD and how we are working on revamping UMD’s subrecipient profile form to reduce red tape when a sub award is awarded from UMD.

I facilitated a breakfast roundtable on my experiences to date about my placement at UMD. I had some lovely ladies from Alabama and Georgia at my table asking me a lot of questions particularly about Sydney and why was I in the States and not there…!

Another discussion group that proved to be quite popular and I’m glad I got there early as it was standing room only was facilitated by Denise and Beth from UMD and Anita McKinney and Dana Simpson from Georgia Institute of Technology. This was an open forum on ‘Hot Topics’. It covered everything from Uniform Guidance specific changes like the procurement decrease from $5,000 to $3,000 and what that will mean for institutions, especially State institutions where the federal regulation conflicts with the State requirements. Another change is the personal liability issues that are now incorporated in the signatory authority. Other topics that were touched on included:

• NSF Audit is underway on compliance around the Research Responsible Code of Conduct
• Patent legislation and patent trolling
• NIH Public Access Policy & compliance – this relates to NIH funding and publications that arise from that funding by ensuring that the public has access to published results. A quick summary – The researcher has 3 months from date of publication to obtain a PMCID, then the publication needs to be available to the public no later than 12 months from date of publication. This is a condition of award, and there were numerous examples around the room about funding being withheld due to non-compliance. It also raised flow on issues about copyright, manuscript fees, open access policies, educating faculty and grant preparation.

A few tips that came out of the session that are worth sharing for all the research administrators reading the blog…

1. NIH Office of Extramural Research’s Deputy Director, Sally Rockey has a great blog that keeps you updated on all things NIH related – it’s definitely worth a read or bookmarking…
2. The US Department of Justice is a great website to monitor for headlines and hot topics.

I also presented in a session with Katie, Jeff and Denise on ‘Research Administration as a Profession’. We each gave a snapshot of our different career paths and provided information on professional development opportunities and tips and tricks that we have found useful in our career. There were over 40 people that came to hear our stories which we were quite surprised by as we were scheduled in the last session on a very beautiful St Pete’s day where you could have been tempted to lay out in the sun on the beach…

There was also great networking activities included in the program. Region II arranged a sunset dinner cruise that was a lot of fun.

 

And on the last night of the conference it was dinner and drinks on the beach – literally on the beach. I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

  

Highlight of the week

At the conference dinner there was a great DJ that got the crowd up and dancing but as the only Australian there it was quite noticeable that some music and dances didn’t quite reach across the Pacific – for example, the “Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground. Everyone was quite shocked when I said I had never heard this song let alone the dance that goes with it – I’m pretty sure that I will know it by the time I leave the States thanks to Jill & Katie…

Quote of the week

The TradeWinds Resort at St Pete’s Beach was a very lovely hotel but it was extremely confusing to navigate around the various buildings and numerous pools (I know – hard life right?).

The lovely Erin Bailey from the University of Buffalo, who is the Region II Professional Development Co-Chair captured this perfectly in the following text message:

“We are lost and wondering around like a rat looking for cheese”

She was actually looking for the hospitality suite and you’ll be pleased to know she made it there safely…!

Australia vs the States

Combos – another one of the numerous snack items we do not get in Australia, but this could be a good thing. I’m not a massive fan of the cylindrical tubes that are filled with different fake-cheesy like flavours. According to Katie – the pizzeria pretzel flavour is the best!

Hmmm – I’m not entirely convinced that any of them taste great.

Till next week…

Julie.

Week 6

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

This week started with quite a busy Monday!

Denise, Beth and I met with the team from the Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment Office (IRPA). IRPA is the central reporting office for data on faculty, staff, students, and finances at the University of Maryland. They receive requests for data on everything from University administration, the academic colleges, the campus community, the University System of Maryland, the State, the federal government, and non-governmental, non-profit organizations that support higher education research. The data and reports they provide can be used for a range of purposes like decision-making, policy analysis, strategic planning, mandated reporting, and academic program review. Our meeting was to discuss a bibliometric tool by Elsevier called SciVal which the School of Engineering is considering as a pilot for UMD.

Later that day I was asked to sit in on a meeting with Dr. O’Shea, Denise, Beth and one of UMD’s prominent researchers, Professor Nathan Fox and his project coordinator, Elizabeth Furtado. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways that the Division of Research office can support Nathan’s by providing funding for a symposium with his international collaborators, where they would travel to UMD. The goal of the symposium is to discuss their research project and work through the initial draft for submission to Horizon 2020 or NIH. This symposium would also include research administrators from each institution to help aid the logistical and contractual issues associated with submitting an international proposal.

It was the week of meetings and events. On Tuesday, I met with Eric Chapman from the Research Development Office for an informal chat about the differences between the Division of Research at UNSW and UMD. Later that afternoon it was off to an event in the University House to celebrate the Innovation and Partnership hosted by the Office of Technology Commercialization. This event was part of UMDs 30 Days of EnTERPreneurship and honoured innovations and inventions. There were ten Invention of the Year finalists with the 3 winners taking the awards as follows:

• A better material for the 3D printing of vascular implants – Professor of Bioengineering John P. Fisher and graduate student Anthony Melchiorri
• A new technology that makes cloud storage more secure and efficient – Assistant Professors Elaine Shi, computer science, and Charalampos Papamanthou, electrical & computer engineering and a UC Berkeley colleague, the late Emil Stefanov, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science
• A low-cost, high-energy solid state lithium-ion battery – Engineering Professors Eric Wachsman and Liangbing Hu of the UMD Energy Research Center, and University of Calgary colleague Venkataraman Thangadurai, Associate Professor of Chemistry

The awards were announced by the UMD President Wallace Loh; University System of Maryland Chancellor & Chief Executive Officer William E. (Brit) Kirwan; UMD Vice President and Chief Research Officer Patrick G. O’Shea; UMD Office of Technology Commercialization Executive Director Gayatri Varma; UMD Associate Vice President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dean Chang; and UMD Associate Vice President for Corporate and Foundation Relations Brian Darmody.

The next day it was off to another part of campus to attend a planning meeting with Beth (who luckily for me lets me keep following her around campus!). The Brain Behaviour Institute is a new idea for interdisciplinary research that combines the Colleges of Engineering, Behavioural and Social Sciences, Computer, Math, and Natural Sciences, and Education with potential ties to the University of Baltimore’s Medical School researchers through MPowering the State. The group is working towards a proposal for a large centre/institute bid in the near future. It was inspiring to be in the room with so many passionate researchers who are all working together for a common goal.

Later that afternoon it was time for cake to celebrate Dr Pat O’Shea’s birthday – Susie made the best orange cake that I have ever tasted 🙂

Another day, another meeting – this time I was able to provide some input as it was with colleagues from the Office of Research Administration, Toni Lawson, Wendy Montgomery, Denise and Beth to discuss their sub recipient profile form that they send out to foreign institutions when they are the lead institution on a federal grant or contract that has a sub award to a foreign institution. It was evident from the outset that even though the form was in English – there was a lot of language that is interpreted differently between the US and Australia. We will be meeting weekly to continue with the progress of this form with the goal of reducing the administrative burden and time that it takes to setup sub awards–ultimately making international research collaborations easier to navigate.

Then it was time to leave the office and meet with representatives from NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) for a site visit to the laboratories of Drs. Bergbreiter, Vaughn-Cooke, and Espy-Wilson. Staff from NIBIB were visiting UMD to gain a broader scope of the research that they could possibly fund and getting a first-hand look at the expertise that exists at UMD.

 

And on Friday it was time to pack up and catch a plane to St Pete’s Beach in Tampa, Florida for NCURA Region II/III Joint Spring Meeting – more on that next week…

Highlight of the week

I saw more of College Park campus this week than any of the previous weeks but the highlight has to go to attending the Innovation and Partnership event at the University House. The University House was rebuilt in 2012 and its main purpose is to cater to the numerous events that are celebrated on campus. In the past, the President has resided at University House but Dr Loh has decided that its main purpose should be to serve the UMD campus – his description of it is too perfect to edit:

University House is large, but not grand. It is stately and formal, yet comfortable and welcoming. It balances elegance, simplicity, and functionality. From its big windows that let the sky in, one can see the symbols of the three A’s—academics, arts, athletics—that speak to our identity: academic buildings, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and Byrd Stadium. One can also see Oakland Hall, the Denton residence halls, and the students who hurry across the grounds on their way to classes.

Quote of the week

The Innovation and Partnership event really provided a lot of info for my blog this week 🙂

These two quotes show the value of research at UMD:

“In the 21^st century, we need innovative incubators that translate knowledge into practice” – Dr Wallace Loh, President UMD.

“Innovation is going to be an endowment fund that will continue to fund research into the future” – Prof. William Kirwin, Chancellor & Chief Executive Officer.

Australia vs the States

We eat our food differently – literally – we use cutlery in two different ways. Americans switch hands too much! They tend to put the knife in their dominant hand and fork in their non-dominant hand to cut their food, then put the knife down and then pick up the fork with their dominant hand to eat…that seems like too much work for us Aussies (and the rest of the world too!) we just keep the knife and fork in our right and left hands all the time, rarely putting it down..

Till next week…

Julie.

Week 5

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

This week was a busy travelling week, one day I’m in Maryland, the next Washington DC then New York City…and the weather couldn’t make up its mind so it was sunny one minute then freezing cold the next!

At the beginning of the week, UMD hosted an event in Washington DC called ‘Research on the Hill – From the Gridiron to the Battlefield: Progress in Understanding and Mitigating’. This was a panel on brain injury research. It was held as a lunchtime session in the Rayburn House Building right across the street from Capitol Hill. The Rayburn House Building is a congressional office building for the US House of Representatives– it houses individual offices of each US Representative and Senator as well as their staff. It is named after a former speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, who served as speaker for 17 years. It is the largest of the congressional office buildings with a footprint of 2.375 million square feet or 220,644m².

Given all this background info, I think you can see what type of audience the seminar was aimed at – UMD invited a range of representatives and their staff to the event so that they have a better understanding of what brain research and collaborations are happening at UMD and the importance of this research  to society. This was the first seminar in this series run by the Research Development Unit; they are hoping to host 3-4 per year on different research areas.

The speakers on the panel were:

• Dennis Molfese – Scientific Director, Big 10/CIC-Ivy League Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration
• Kenneth Kiger – Professor, Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland
• David Klossner –Associate Athletics Director, Director of Sports Performance, University of Maryland
• Gary Fiskum – Professor Anaesthesiology and Vice Chair Research, School of Medicine, University of Maryland
• Lina Kubli – Research and Clinical Audiologist, Audiology ans Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Dr Pat O’Shea opened the event before turning over to each panellist for a short 10 minute presentation and then questions from the audience. Some of the interesting points from the event included:

• Learning about the Big 10/CIC-Ivy League Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration. This is a collaboration that brings together researchers on a common problem, giving them access to a larger collection of laboratories, coaches, athletic trainers, scientists, and team physicians. The extra bonus for me was talking to the project coordinator after the event and asking her about how she manages her time and the challenges in her role.
• The State of Maryland mandates that all Universities and Schools have a concussion management plan relating to sports injuries, especially football injuries. UMD complies with the State regulation by performing a neurophysiological baseline test at the beginning of the season so that after a student has a concussion they have a comparison to assess the severity of the concussion.
• 58% of all emergency department visits by the 8-13 year old category relate to sports injuries.
• Tinnitus and hearing loss are the number 1 & 2 cause of veteran disabilities in the US. Some blast exposed combat veterans have normal hearing thresholds, but they can’t understand or hear when there is background noise present. The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center link is developing screening and diagnostic tools for auditory processing disorders, balance, dizziness and executive function skills.

Later in the week it was time to catch the train up to New York for a UNSW alumni event. I attended the event with UNSW’s North American representative for our International Office, Ashley Weggener. The event was well attended and held at the Australian Bar. It provided the opportunity for the study abroad alumni to catch up with each other and reflect on their time at UNSW. All of them spoke very fondly of their visit to UNSW and a few asked me about returning to do their PhD at UNSW. It was a quick 18 hour visit to the city that doesn’t sleep…

Highlight of the week

Without a question it was the free hour or so we had before the Alumni event in New York City. The sun was shining as we walked up to Times Square and then on to Bryant Park where we soaked up the sun for a couple of minutes before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the event. Even though I have been to NYC at least 5 or 6 times, it still has the same effect  on me as it did the first time I was there…

 

Quote of the week

“We are not only interested in the creation of knowledge but the application of it to society” Dr Pat O’Shea opening the Research on the hill event.

Australia vs the States

I discovered a delicious treat this week while I was grocery shopping – and you can’t get these in Australia…

Till next week…

Julie.  

 

 

 

Week 4

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

This week I learned all about an exciting initiative between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

First a brief history lesson…

In 2011, the Maryland state legislature charged the University System of Maryland Board of Regents with developing a new working relationship between the two state universities to increase the impact on the state, its economy, the job market, and the next generation of innovators. The plan would require a relationship that demands teamwork and collaboration, with joint efforts championed and supported at the highest levels in of both Universities.

In 2012, the Board of Regents approved an innovative and structured collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) called the University of Maryland: MPowering the State.

A little more info for all the Australians reading this blog: Even though it may sound like they are one University with two campuses – that’s not the case, both institutions are separate entities, both are state universities, both have their own VC and structure with different research strengths and funding streams.

MPowering the State aims to leverage the resources of the two universities to deliver the following outcomes:

• Boost research, technology transfer and commercialization
• Attract exceptional faculty and researchers
• Serve students better across the two universities

These outcomes will in turn address the State of Maryland’s workforce needs and for UMCP and UMB to attract more research funding to the state.

Dr. Beth Brittan-Powell is the Director, MPowering the State Joint Research Collaborations at UMCP. I am very fortunate to be located right outside her office during my visit to UMCP. Beth has been incredibly generous with her time and included me in numerous meetings that relate to MPowering collaborations as well as answering any other random questions that pop into my head!

Some of the collaborative research projects that Beth works on include a physics oncology centre, engineering for mental health and a nanotechnology initiative. Her role is to link together the researchers in that field and then find appropriate funding streams for their joint research project. Beth is involved with planning meetings, centre start-ups as well as grant reviewing, workshop implementation and training. Yep, she’s a very busy person!

Highlight of the week

The Vice President for Research, Dr Pat O’Shea and I were talking about some of the things we find interesting as foreigners in the US (Pat is originally from Ireland) and we somehow got on to the topic of Vegemite and I mentioned I was nearing the end of the jar that I had brought over with me…and the next day he came into the office with a jar of Vegemite for me! Turns out you can buy it in a US grocery store!

Quote of the week

“We need 5 extra hours in the day to get all the work done” – Beth, no explanation needed for this one 🙂

Australia vs the States

So, I had a rental car this week for travel to the Baltimore campus…don’t worry, it all went well and there were no major mishaps except for one minor thing that I kept forgetting – the driver’s side is on the other side of the car in North America! So, I would pretend that I purposely opened the passenger door to put my handbag on the seat…

Till next week…

Julie.

Week 3

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

This week was all about conferences! Three to be exact:

1. Universitas 21 Research Collaboration Group workshop (U21 RCG) – Monday & Tuesday
2. NCURA International Region Meeting – Wednesday
3. INORMS biennial congress – Thursday to Sunday

The U21 RCG workshop was hosted by the University of Maryland and I have been involved with the workshop logistics for the last 3-4 months. The workshop theme was Funding, Facilitating & Fostering Research. There were 30 delegates from 18 global member institutions who attended the workshop.

 

The program included a full day meeting with various sessions including a panel presentation from various US Federal Agencies (Office of Science and Technology Policy – The White House, Department of State, Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health), an international roundtable discussion about funding opportunities and parameters for U21 joint collaborations, case study presentations from various institutions on international collaboration and a presentation on US funding opportunities. The second day included two site visits, the first to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the second to National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) at Goddard. At the NOAA site visits we spoke with analysts that monitor earthquakes and volcanic ash, short and long term weather predictions to oceanic weather predictions. All areas within NOAA operate 24/7 and analysts are on rotating rosters. Each analyst’s desk had between 6-9 monitors so they can be access all the programs they need to provide the right advice on their area of expertise.

After a short lunch we were off to NASA for our next site visit. The Goddard site is so large that we needed our shuttle van to take us to the different installations. It was named for American rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the centre was established in 1959 as NASA’s first space flight complex. Goddard and its several facilities are critical in carrying out NASA’s missions of space exploration and scientific discovery.

First we visited the lab where they are making the James Webb Space Telescope which is a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The Webb telescope will extend the technologies of the Hubble Space Telescope and be 100 times more powerful the then Hubble telescope. The Webb telescope will orbit the sun, approx. 1 million miles from Earth. Each part is made individually in the lab then it will fold origami style to fit into the rocket and then unfold once in space. The launch will be from French Guinea in 2018. Next we went to the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office where they piece by piece build new technologies to refuel and repair existent satellites in orbit—and they’re using the International Space Station to test them. It was pretty cool!

The last stop on the NASA tour we were treated to a special presentation from Maurice Henderson, a researcher at NASA that gave a presentation on Science on a Sphere. This mesmerizing visualization system was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA – nice tie into our first site visit), it uses computers and video projectors to display animated data on the outside of a suspended, 6-foot diameter, white sphere. Four strategically placed projectors work in unison to depict various scenes from space.

  

Tuesday still wasn’t over – after the site visits we were off to Washington DC to attend the welcome reception of NCURA’s International Region meeting that was held at the Swiss Embassy. This was a nice intro to meeting some international colleagues that would be attending the meeting on the following day.

The NCURA International meeting was a one day event that opened with a keynote speaker from NSF that covered their international opportunities, strategy and policy before moving onto presentations from the delegates of the international region. Topics covered best practices, case studies and policy and procedures in international research management. I ran a lunchtime roundtable session on Social Media, which proved very informative; we discussed personal and public social media accounts, institutional policies and how to monitor social media. Johns Hopkins University have staff that monitor all social media relating to JHU!

Onto the third and final conference of the week – INORMS 2014. INORMS is a biennial congress that is open to delegates from all the global research management societies; there were over 400 delegates from over 35 countries. It was a jam packed program where I attended two pre-conference workshops on research metrics and research ethics. Both were incredibly informative and the discussion and participation during each workshop was invaluable. Dave Richardson ran a mock research misconduct case study where I role played a member of the misconduct panel. It covered all the issues from data manipulation, authorship rights, consulting & contracting using institutional space to budget reviewing and conflict of interest. One of the stand out presentations from the meeting was a session on Ethical Obligations of Research Administrators. This highlighted a practice in the States where institutions have an anonymous hotline to report issues – everything from science and academic misconduct to fraud, animal and human ethics. Some institutions run this process in-house while others outsource it. Most institutions advertise the hotline on their websites, brochures and presentations. INORMS concluded with a Rock the Research Party in the great ballroom of the Hilton where numerous Presidents have given memorable speeches. It was a great night where we were able to network and talk to colleagues after a very long week of conferences!

Highlight of the week

This one was a hard choice this week as I experienced so many great things all within the one week. The two standouts were the site visits as part of the U21 RCG meeting and the Night at the Museum event that was part of the INORMS conference. I’ve already spoken about the U21 RCG site visits so I’ll give you some more info on the Night at the Museum…

It was held at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington DC. INORMS had arranged for buses to pick up the 300+ delegates that were attending the event. At first I thought it was slightly weird that the buses were picking us up an hour before the start time to take us less than 2 miles but turns out that DC traffic during peak hour is crazy busy and it took around 40 minutes to get there. On the way we were lucky enough to see Marine 1 landing at the White House – the photo isn’t the best as it was taken through the bus window but you get the idea…

The Museum itself was fabulous and a real treat to have the entire 161,145 square feet of the museum to ourselves. It was really nice to be able to walk through all the different exhibitions without having to share it with thousands of little kids! The exhibitions I like the most were the Early Flights, The Wright Brothers and the Red Baron.

   

And…our team from UNSW won best poster at INORMS which was a nice way to end the week!

Quote of the week

There were way too many good quotes to include them all in this week’s post 😉

Australia vs. the States

So, Easter has just concluded and I just wanted to point out that Easter is celebrated differently in Australia and America, especially regarding Good Friday and Easter Monday public holidays that Aussies are a custom to. No such luck, in the States they are just normal work days!

Till next week…

Julie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 2

Blog – Week 2

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

Last week didn’t really end before week 2 started, there was plenty to do over the weekend as one of my main roles at the moment is organizing the U21 Research Collaboration Group workshop that is being hosted by UMD next week. Over 30 delegates from 18 institutions worldwide will be attending, so there is a lot to organize! More about that in next week’s blog…

I was also lucky enough to meet with some very prominent people at UMD this week. The first meeting was with Ms. Michele Eastman, Assistant President & Chief of Staff in the President’s Office. Michele and I discussed the UMD-UNSW Research Administrator Placement and what the goals of the placement are hoping to achieve as well as looking at the different structures of UMD and UNSW. Michele has a research administrator background and shared insights into her career path which I found to be invaluable information and inspirational at the same time.

I left Michele’s meeting and just in time to walk across campus for a meeting with Mr. Ross Lewin, Associate Vice President for International Affairs. Ross was very generous with his time and we spoke for over an hour on topics ranging from student numbers and demographics to study abroad and initiatives in China that UMD is pursuing. Another interesting topic that Ross was extremely passionate about is the Global Classroom initiative which is an inter-disciplinary undergraduate student credit based course run via technology to link the international institutions. This is an exciting opportunity for international collaborations starting at the undergraduate level to get students ready for the global arena that awaits after graduation. We also discussed the global network Universitas 21, which UMD and UNSW are members of, and the possibility of further collaborations between our institutions. I believe this was just the first of many meetings with Ross that will be occurring during my time here on campus…

I also attended a lunchtime seminar this week run by the Graduate Student Legal Aid office titled “Ownership of IP and Related Issues for Graduate Students.” The seminar, presented by university counsel Anne Bowden, provided information on UMDs policy on intellectual property and ownership of research, publications, inventions, and data. I learned about UMD’s system for determining ownership and licensing rights, and about what resources are available for students if a conflict should arise.  

Not short after, I was off to Baltimore for a workshop that was hosted by the NCURA Region II Professional Development Committee. I was very honoured to be included in this invitation only event. The workshop was entitled “Adult Learning and Effective Presentation Skills”. The workshop was run by renowned training expert Jeffrey Cufaude. I learned a lot in Jeffrey’s workshop from how to manage and understand the expectations of the audience, and how this process starts at the first point of marketing/advertising a seminar or workshop. He also discussed facilitation principals, group dynamics, the background of adult learning, and how to make ideas stick.

“Did you know that you should change topic/style of the activity every 20 minutes? This is because research has found that adults learn best and retain the most information in modules of 20 minutes…something to think about when preparing your next seminar/meeting/workshop!”  

Jeffrey also spoke about some of the technology that is available to assist you and make your presentations more interactive. One great option is Poll Everywhere – it looks really interesting and the advertisement is quite funny.

During our time in Baltimore we got to go to an Orioles’ game. They were playing the Red Sox and unfortunately the O’s lost, but it was still a fun night out at the baseball stadium…

 

Highlight of the week

This one is pretty cool – the White House called me!

Yep, my US cell number never rings and when it does it’s the White House… No I’m not getting deported. The explanation isn’t nearly as scandalous as you’re thinking. Adam Bobrow from the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House is one of our speakers at next week’s U21 RCG workshop, which I mentioned earlier, and he was calling for extra information on the group in addition to specific areas that he needs to cover in his presentation. I still think it’s pretty awesome to say that the White House called me!

Quote of the week

“We live in an era of content snacking” – Jeffrey Cafuade during his workshop on Thursday in Baltimore. I’m pretty sure this was related to explaining why adult learning can be so difficult due to information distractions like technology.

Australia vs the States

Who knew that Americans wouldn’t understand what fortnight meant? And that bi-weekly means the same thing.

Till next week…

Julie.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1

Busy, busy, busy…the week that was…

Week 1 of the blog is going to cover my first 3 weeks in the US from the west coast to the east coast…

After a very pleasant flight from Sydney to LAX – yes really, I did mean pleasant, thank you Virgin Australia for a very under booked flight I was lucky enough to have 3 seats to myself the entire trip. Note to self – always fly on a Tuesday mid-afternoon.

The pleasantries soon ended with the usual wait in Immigration & Customs at LAX before finding my way to another terminal to queue again for security screening for my domestic flight to San Francisco. And here’s where my worst nightmare of traveling happened – I’m standing at the baggage claim waiting for my 2 bags (yes, 2 bags – and yes, everything in both bags was extremely essential including the 12 pairs of shoes!) and one comes out then I wait, secretly praying that the next one will appear…then the belt stops…and ‘Oh no where’s my other bag?’ is the only thought running through my mind…Luckily for me after a 4 hour wait at SFO baggage claim and some very helpful Delta staff, 3 flights from LAX later my bag arrives! Woohoo…

NCURA Mid-Year Meeting

Now the work begins. I was in San Fran for the National Council of University Research Administrators  (NCURA) mid-year meetings:

1. Financial Research Administration Conference (FRA) &
2. Pre-Award Administration Conference (PRA)

FRA started with a full day pre-conference workshop on the Fundamentals of Post Award Administration which provided the basics for me to learn about compliance, effort reporting, export controls and audits. One of the stand out concurrent sessions for me at FRA was on crowd funding, it really made me think what the future could/will hold for research funding.

I also presented with Denise Clark in a session on Reviewing foreign sub award invoices and other post award oversight mechanisms. The session went really well with lots of discussion from the audience on international issues, generally stemming from US compliance restrictions and the lack of understanding the requirements by the foreign partner.

Then before I knew it FRA was over and it was time for the PRA conference to begin. At PRA, I attended a lot of sessions on international grant and contract processes which reinforced that globally research administrators are all facing the same issues and hopefully I will get the chance to address (or at least understand) some of these issues by the end of my placement at UMCP. I was involved in presenting a session on ‘How to bring a team proposal to life’ with Beth Brittan-Powell and Denise Clark. In this session I was able to provide some advice on how team proposals are reviewed at UNSW by our Research Strategy Office and the service they provide to researchers.

I thoroughly enjoyed both meetings and feel that they have provided me with a great foundation for the start my US research administration journey. I would like to thank NCURA for supporting my attendance at both FRA and PRA…now all I need to do now is get my head around a new set of acronyms!

Then it was a quick 5 hour flight cross country to Washington DC.

Monday arrived before I knew it and here I was on campus at UMD. First impressions did remind me of an American movie – yep, campus is massive, complete with a football stadium that holds 50,000 people (apparently small by US college standards!), fraternity row – which I later learned that the oval in the middle was where the football scene in St Elmo’s Fire was filmed, to the beautiful building with the identifiably US architecture with the large white columns at the front of most buildings.

Luckily I had met a few UMD colleagues at the NCURA conferences in San Fran so I didn’t feel too much like a newbie on the first day of school. The first couple of days involved various meetings with staff in the Division of Research including the Vice President & Chief Research Officer, Dr. Pat O’Shea and the Director of Communications, Pamela Morse – where we came up with this great idea to blog about my placement!

NCURA Region II traveling workshop

Then on Wednesday night, I flew to Buffalo, NY with Denise Clark to attend the NCURA Region II traveling workshops. Thursday was a full day workshop on ‘Hot topics in research compliance’ which was a very interactive workshop that covered everything from audit examples, OMB circular explanations and research administrator career examples. Click here to see a youtube video that was shown on the day – very interesting!

Friday was a half day workshop on the new ‘OMNI Circular’ which, for all of us non-US based research administrators, is the new set of rules that govern US Federal funding that comes in to play on the 26^th December 2014. The Circular or Uniform Guidance streamlines eight Federal regulations into a single, comprehensive policy guide. This will allow the government to better administer grants and other types of financial assistance by decreasing the administrative burden for recipients and reducing the risk of waste, fraud and abuse.

This Circular will impact existing institutional policies, federal sponsor guidelines, and the terms and conditions expressed in federal awards. This workshop gave attendees important information on the changes to the circular and how these changes will impact research administration policies and procedures.

We managed to sneak in some down time on Thursday night with a quick trip to Niagara Falls, which I have to say was stunning to see despite the how cold it was…-8⁰C!

Highlight of the week

It snowed! All last week in San Fran everyone was talking about the bad weather the east coast had been having for the last 2-3 months. I do recall saying I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with the cold weather but it would be cool (no pun intended) if it snowed just for one day…and what happens, it snows on Day 2 on UMD campus!

Quote of the week

“I wish you could just read my mind so I wouldn’t have to talk to you” – Denise Clark with a very genuine and good intent. Ok, so this one needs some explaining and context behind it – we were driving to work and we had already got into the routine of discussing issues that need to be addressed that day, this usually involves me asking a thousand questions and Denise answering while I took notes on my iPhone…hence the quote.

Australia vs the States

So, it became apparent this week that even though we speak the same language, terminology has dramatically different meanings.

For example, the word “Faculty” in the US refers to academic staff but in Australia it refers to a Discipline/School/College – i.e. The Faculty of Medicine.

And who knew that I would get so many strange looks when I said “…like chalk and cheese” to describe two things being complete opposites.

Til next week…

Julie.