FSU Office of Research Development 2021-2022 Annual Report

Office of RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2021-2022

Our mission is to STRENGTHEN RESEARCH COMPETITIVENESS.

To this end, we are devoted to equipping researchers for success, building connections, investing in promising new ideas and research, and promoting a culture which helps research to flourish.

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

As another year is closed out, I am reminded of what an amazing time it is to be a part of Florida State University. Through my many years in the Office of Research, I cannot recall a period when research has been so much at the forefront of discussions and university priorities. The climate is right for FSU to take our research and creative effort to the next level and the Office of Research Development (ORD) stands ready to help make this a reality.

This past year, to align our role with the university’s research mission, we revisited OUR mission. Our mission refresh, a collaborative endeavor, will allow us to work more closely and intentionally with faculty to deliver them the services and resources they need to be productive and successful.

ORD’s mission is to strengthen research competitiveness at Florida State University. How we go about successfully addressing our mission is characterized by a subset of four strategic areas of focus.

» Equip researchers for success. ORD staff provide catalytic and strategic support to researchers and their grant-related efforts. This is achieved by providing proposal development support, grant opportunities, strategic planning and programming, and training.

» Build connections. For Florida State University to be a nexus for solutions to large societal challenges, we provide opportunities for faculty to come together to forge critical collaborative partnerships.

» Invest in promising new ideas and researchers. This includes cultivating funding programs to enable researchers to leverage internal funds to achieve external success.

» Promote a culture that helps research to flourish. ORD achieves this by gauging and meeting faculty needs and honoring outstanding research and creative accomplishments. As we look at the past year in this report, we will consider these focus areas to help define our efforts and our accomplishments. And as we look to the year ahead, we are optimistic that we can continue to make a lasting and meaningful impact on the research enterprise at Florida State.

Beth Hodges, Director Office of Research Development

EQUIPPING RESEARCHERS FOR SUCCESS

Proposal Development Services

Support for grant writing, proposal management, and editing is at the very heart of our mission. Our goal is to increase efficiency by reducing the burden on individual principal investigators (PIs) through effective planning and management, while also improving responsiveness to funding solicitations by helping teams to understand and fulfill all proposal requirements—both of which enhance the competitiveness of our researchers. ORD assists with proposals from all colleges, departments, centers, and institutes at FSU, and our services are available for individual PIs, small teams, large teams, as well as institutional-level proposals.

LARGE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROPOSALS

ORD plays a key role in FSU’s efforts to pursue large, center-level funding opportunities not only by managing and supporting proposal development for these opportunities but also by providing expert advice on strategy and partnerships to make these proposals successful.

In 2021-2022 we built upon our prior year’s efforts by supporting FSU’s re-submission to the National Institutes of Health FIRST program, a $14.5 million proposal focused on transforming institutional culture through the cluster hiring of underrepresented minority (URM) biomedical researchers, and the implementation of a systems-level approach to supporting their development. FSU was one of just six universities selected to receive funding in the initial round of the NIH FIRST program, and ORD was critical in facilitating and negotiating the proposing team’s request for institutional support, in addition to supporting proposal development. Similarly, we managed the re-submission of a $1 million proposal to the NSF ADVANCE program centered on adapting and expanding institutional efforts to enhance intersectional gender equity in STEM disciplines. Both proposals also highlighted ORD’s Collaborative Collision and Research Mentor Academy programs as examples of institutional commitment to supporting the growth of faculty and building a culture of inclusive excellence.

Our deep knowledge of the FSU research landscape, along with a relevant and timely insight into funding agency priorities, allows us to provide key guidance to teams in the earliest stages of proposal

Mike Mitchell discussing project strategy.

development. In 2021-2022 we were called upon to provide this “competitive intelligence” support several times, including for teams interested in the NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure program, NEH Digital Humanities Enhancement Grant program, and NSF LEAP-HI program. We also led the effort to shape FSU’s institutional strategy for pursuing the NSF Regional Innovation Engines opportunity and are actively managing the proposal development process as of August 2022.

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES FOR SMALL TEAMS OR SINGLE RESEARCHERS

ORD invites researchers preparing grant proposals to work with us from the earliest stages. This past year, we had many researchers contact us who had not yet begun their proposals and others who requested specific services as needs arose. Services provided included preparing timelines and checklists, proposal editing, coordinating mock review sessions, securing boilerplate language or statistical information, obtaining letters of support, assisting with budget issues when needed, and identifying collaborators.

EDITING SUPPORT

Since its inception, ORD has received requests for proposal editing services on a regular basis, and this past year is no exception. ORD provided this service across seven colleges and to numerous and varied disciplines. Some feedback for the past year are included on the right.

PROPOSAL BUDGETING RESOURCES

ORD provides budget support for researchers. In most cases, we can connect researchers with the appropriate department or college-level representatives who could help them craft their budgets. We also provided direct assistance when researchers did not have local support. In the coming year, we will be compiling a robust database of examples of grant budgets to assist researchers who have little experience preparing proposal budgets.

“Thanks for the edits... a lot of your changes make the language stronger and clearer.”

- Research Faculty, NHMFL

“Thanks again for your efforts and help...this is my first attempt to write in this area, which is totally new to me, so your help is really great.”

- Assistant Professor, Mathematics

“Thank you very much! I...found the edits and comments/questions very helpful.... I believe my proposal will be significantly improved with your editing.”

- Associate Professor, Engineering

“Thank you so much! I have to say I really like your editing as your words, sentences and vision are way beyond my level...so glad to have your advice to take care of those ‘political’ style questions, I feel you are so good at this, honestly.”

- Assistant Professor, Physics

Nicole Viverito and Evangeline Ciupek share ORD services with faculty

MOCK REVIEW PANEL PROGRAM

ORD offers Mock Review Sessions to FSU Principal Investigators seeking expert feedback on their grant proposals. The sessions bring together the PI with three of their colleagues with expertise in the proposal’s research areas and allow the PI to hear their colleagues’ reviews of the proposal. At the session’s close, the PI is invited to present questions to the reviewers and receive feedback. Our office has found that these sessions have led to improved outcomes. For example, in 2020-21, ORD coordinated Mock Review Sessions for seven PIs submitting NSF CAREER proposals, five of which were ultimately awarded; for a point of comparison, seven PIs submitted CAREER proposals without undergoing the Mock Review process, and only two of those proposals were awarded. This year, ORD especially encouraged mock review sessions for PIs preparing NIH R01s proposals for the fall, spring, and summer deadlines as well as from PIs preparing NSF CAREER proposals for the single summer deadline. In the summer of 2022, 18 faculty members applied for the NSF CAREER grant program and nine took the opportunity to participate in ORD’s Mock Review Sessions. In total, our office conducted sixteen Mock Review Sessions, and we were consistently impressed by the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of the reviewers’ feedback for the PIs. Next year, we hope to continue expanding our Mock Review Panel Program to help faculty members prepare the most competitive possible proposals for submission.

NSF CAREER Peer Review Session organized/hosted by Evangeline Coker <

Databases, Resources, and Services

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND ANNOUNCEMENT SERVICES

ORD distributes timely funding announcements and provides training opportunities to pursuing external funding, both in person and through our training portal. As Pivot is our primary funding search engine, our efforts to promote that platform have continued. In 2021-2022, ORD created a Pivot Working Group that meets virtually every quarter to discuss any Pivot updates and brainstorm ideas for increasing faculty use of this important resource. As a result – the College of Education has trialed a Pivot newsletter for their college and other areas are considering the same.

TARGETING PRESTIGIOUS AND HIGHVALUE FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

With so much talent at FSU, ORD is dedicated to encouraging our researchers to seek prestigious external awards and high-value funding opportunities. In particular, we encourage researchers to apply for Top American Research Universities (TARU) awards which honor faculty members’ accomplishments, lift FSU’s national profile, and improve the university’s rankings. Our updated list of these “Key Funding Opportunities” compiles information on award deadlines and specifications. We actively promote these award opportunities with upcoming deadlines through a range of channels, including a monthly announcement to Deans, Directors, and Department Heads and our quarterly Research Development Digest. When award opportunities target researchers within determined fields, we also like to actively solicit proposals by reaching out to appropriate Department Chairs or individual faculty members. By promoting prestigious and high-value award opportunities, we hope to see as many FSU researchers as possible reach for the honorifics and grants that they deserve.

DATABASE OF SUCCESSFUL PROPOSALS

ORD continues to provide a robust database of successful proposals, which includes examples generously shared by FSU faculty covering a variety of funding agencies. This password-protected database, accessible only to FSU faculty, received 272 unique visits in 2021-2022. As past surveys have noted that this is one of the most valuable grant resources that ORD offers, we will continue to add to this site quarterly and advertise this resource widely throughout the coming year.

ADMINISTERING LIMITED SUBMISSIONS

ORD curates and administers the limited submissions process at FSU. A limited submissions opportunity is a funding program that restricts the number of applications an organization may submit. Our office identifies compelling limited submissions programs and then posts them to our “Limited Submissions” web portal. We attach an internal deadline to each program and ask interested PIs at FSU to notify us of their interest before the internal deadline through the portal. In 2021-2022 we made significant changes to the limited submissions portal to save researchers’ time. We now require pre-proposals only after the internal deadline has passed, and in cases when there are more pre-applicants than slots. Over the past academic year, five funding programs went to internal competition. These internal competitions led to the submission of eight proposals and the acceptance of three funded awards. We also approved submissions of 29 proposals for limited submission programs without overseeing competitions. In these cases, PIs had no internal competitors for FSU’s permitted slot(s), and thus were granted a slot automatically.

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

COLLABORATIVE COLLISION 2.0

Since 2016, ORD has supported interdisciplinary research at FSU through the Collaborative Collision program. Building upon five years of success, ORD launched Collaborative Collision 2.0 in the fall of 2021—a major expansion of the program with a deliberate focus on leveraging FSU’s interdisciplinary research strengths to explore complex solutions to complex societal problems.

Incubator, and what first steps towards a solution they will propose at Accelerator. Through each of these three stages, ORD provides intensive support to facilitate connections, build consensus and camaraderie, and launch new projects that lead to real-world impact.

Collaborative Collision 2.0 encourages researchers to think beyond disciplinary boundaries and consider how they might combine their skills, expertise, and resources through Connector, how they will turn those connections into collaborations during

Collaborative Collision 2.0 was piloted with Resilience in the fall of 2021. Connector: Resilience was held virtually in August 2021 (due to the emergence of the Delta-variant of COVID-19) and included presentations by more than 40 researchers. Incubator: Resilience launched immediately afterward, during which participants were led through a series of team development workshops that included project development, team science training, competitive advantage analysis, and strategic communication planning. The program concluded in December 2021 with the five teams that completed Incubator making their pitch for funding at Accelerator. The Wildfire Resilience team was the first-ever recipient of the $50,000 Accelerator top award, with Infrastructure Resilience receiving a $25,000 runner-up award sponsored by the Council on Research and Creativity.

Mike Mitchell leads the Collaborative Collision 2.0 program.

Collaborative Collision’s three stages — Connector , Incubator , and Accelerator — are designed to build and accelerate new interdisciplinary research teams at FSU.

Spring 2022’s Collaborative Collision: Community+ invited all who felt that their work was connected to “community”, however they defined it. Community+ began in February 2022 with Connector — the first in-person interdisciplinary networking event in nearly two years — where 69 members of the FSU research community gathered to discuss shared interests and complementary expertise and resources. This was then followed by our revised Incubator, a 10-week program that paired each new team with a “guide” who led them through the process of project development, team building, and proposal writing.

Collaborative Collision: Community+ culminated with an expanded Accelerator in April 2022. Four teams received funding, with DeepCare—a team focused on using Artificial Intelligence to improve the quality of life for older adults— receiving the $50,000 top award.

Collaborative Collision 2.0 has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants, who especially noted the importance of the Incubator process in their team development and praised the availability of additional funding to award multiple teams. ORD plans to make minor adjustments based on feedback and launch Collaborative Collision: Rural Innovation in September 2022.

-Keith Roberson, Professor of Art, Co-PI of Collaborative Collision: Community+ Accelerator Winner DeepCare

COLLABORATOR IDENTIFICATION

Increasing collaboration among FSU faculty has also been identified in FSU’s strategic plan as an area of focus. From the beginning of ORD, this has been a priority, and through a myriad of efforts, we facilitate collaborator identification at FSU. Our Collaborator Resources website provides six unique ways of identifying collaborators, both here at FSU and beyond. Resources include information on Collaborative Collision events, links to FEAS, ExpertNet, FloRDA, Pivot, and the ability to complete a collaborator request form for individualized assistance from ORD staff. These efforts are successfully aiding faculty in locating appropriate researcher partnerships for their research and creative efforts, including the NSF Engines proposal and the NSF ERC proposal, both submitted in the fall of 2022.

“People build these connections that you wouldn’t have any other way ... You come out the other side saying, wow, we actually did this, we went through it. We’re a team. We’re partners.”

-Will Hill, RIDER Center, participant in Collaborative Collision: Resilience and Community+

“Our team wouldn’t exist if not for the guidance and structure you all provide through Incubator!”

Carolyn Bradley works with faculty group to discuss best strategies.

EXPANDING CAPACITY FOR COLLABORATIONS WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS

This past year, ORD became involved in two unique activities that allowed FSU researchers to engage with faculty throughout the state of Florida. Both activities involved our association with the Florida Research Development Alliance (FloRDA), a grassroots organization consisting of RD professionals throughout the state and private research entities around Florida.

COLLABORATE FloRDA: Water was based upon the short Research Profile presentations pioneered in ORD’s virtual Collaborative Collisions. This event included keynote speakers from the Orange County government, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and the Everglades Foundation, 31 researchers, and over 100 attendees from across the state of Florida.

Similarly, we were integral to FloRDA’s submission of a proposal to the NSF Germination program, in partnership with individuals from four other universities in the state. This proposal was awarded in the spring of 2022 and will allow researchers from across Florida institutions to engage in collaborative research related to Florida Coastal Challenges. Beth Hodges, co-PI on this grant, engaged in the kick-off this summer with the involvement of three FSU researchers who will be a part of this collaboration cohort. The result of this program will be increased collaboration and team science training for the faculty members and best practice development for the team coaches and the profession.

We also organized two workshops in collaboration with Florida A&M University, helping to further strengthen the working relationship between the FSU and FAMU research enterprises. Evangeline Coker led the development of Focus on the Gulf as part of the FAMU-FSU Gulf Scholars Program, funded by the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program. Focus on the Gulf was inspired by ORD’s Collaborative Collision, and brought together students and faculty from both institutions, and community members from across the region, to discuss interdisciplinary challenges facing the Gulf of Mexico. We also collaborated with the FAMU College of Pharmacy to organize and host a two-day intensive workshop focused on NIH funding opportunities, led by the University of Kentucky’s iMERS team. This workshop was designed to help build capacity and strategically position biomedical and biobehavioral researchers at both institutions.

Ali Ebrahimian

CRC INTERNAL FUNDING PROGRAMS

Florida State University is unique in the volume and diversity of internal funding programs offered to faculty. Through the Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) and its many programs, nearly every faculty researcher has access to some type of funding to accelerate their research and creative activities. The CRC Program Manager, Grace Adkison, serves as the program officer for the CRC-sponsored programs, with the assistance of Laurie O’Brien. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the CRC began adapting internal funding programs and their administration to the “new normal”. CRC meetings continued to be held virtually, while the First Year Assistant Professor Workshop transitioned back to in-person with a slimmed-down format. To improve access to internal funding program information, the CRC website moved to a new web address: internalfunding.research.fsu.edu, allowing for quick navigation to existing CRC programs, while also

Grace Adkison presents at the annual First Year Assistant Professor Workshop.

creating a “home” for new or existing internal funding programs that are outside of the scope of the CRC.

A thorough review of the current CRC programs in the past year revealed streamlining possibilities that would benefit faculty applicants and reviewers, as well as the administration of the programs. This review resulted in the creation of the CRC Seed Grant program which will begin in the fall 2022 semester. It replaces both the Planning Grant and Multidisciplinary Support programs, enhancing what those two programs offered individually. The new program will also align with other efforts across campus to support and encourage researchers in tackling the problems from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Another multidisciplinary initiative launching in the new academic year will be President McCullough’s Sustainability and Climate Solutions Grant Program. This new initiative should roll out in the late fall with proposals due in the early spring semester. This program will be administered by ORD.

COLLABORATIVE COLLISION SEED FUND

From 2018-2021 the Collaborative Collision Seed Fund provided over $600,000 to 36 teams that formed because of connections made at ORD’s Collaborative Collision events. The Seed Fund program was replaced by Accelerator in Collaborative Collision 2.0, and the last active Seed Fund projects will close in 2023. Collaborations can take many years to solidify and produce tangible outcomes, and these projects represent long-term investments by the Office of Research. However, some of the earliest teams funded through this program are showing promising results in terms of publications and successful grant proposals. Notable examples are illustrated here, including teams funded during the Mental Health (2018), Defense (2019), and COVID-19 (2020) funding rounds.

FSU

Professional Development and Learning Opportunities

TRAINING EARLY CAREER FACULTY

Through the Early Career Research Development Program, we orient First-Year Assistant Professors (FYAPs) and Research Faculty to various research support services and resources available at FSU, assess and understand their needs, and provide one-on-one consultations to address those needs throughout their first academic year. During the 2021-2022 program, 20 out of 31 FYAPs or new research associates took advantage of one-on-one consultations with ORD staff. Faculty who responded to the Qualtrics feedback survey rated the initial meeting as very useful to extremely useful. As part of this program, and in collaboration with the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement, ORD provided a place for new faculty to build community

and educational materials related to faculty career advancement through online modules using CANVAS. Together, we also trialed a mentoring committee for a faculty member who worked in a cross-cutting research area and needed diverse faculty mentors. We led these meetings, coordinated agendas, found mentors, and assessed and addressed the early-career faculty member’s research and professional development needs. Throughout the academic 2022-2023 year, we will help assistant professors and research faculty navigate research at FSU and provide them with quality research support services to inform their research program and career goals. Along with services, such as developing 5-Year Research Plans (see image below), this year we will offer consultations to create Logic Models for faculty research projects.

Example of a faculty participant completing a virtual 5-Year Research Grant Strategy and Planning Meeting as part of our Early-Career Research Development program.

ORD WORKSHOPS

This past year, ORD provided a total of 24 unique webinars and events, including special programming focused on supporting arts and humanities researchers, science communication, and mentor training. Most of our sessions are recorded and are available on demand for our faculty. In addition our Collaborative Collision and Research Mentoring programming events, we facilitated 13 unique workshops for our faculty. ORD also provided three basic grant writing workshops for student researchers.

Below is a listing of workshops facilitated by ORD during the 2021 – 2022 academic year: FALL 2021

» CRC First Year Assistant Professor Workshop

» Science Communication and Working with the Media

» NIH Funding Opportunities for Behavioral and Social Science Researchers

» 2-day NIH Grant Writing Workshop (in partnership with the NIH iMERS program and cohosted with Florida A&M University)

SPRING 2022

» Finding Funding 101

» NSF CAREER Program Kickoff

» Applying for Humanities Research Funding

» American Council of Learned Societies Presentation

SUMMER 2022

» Research Data Management Plans 101

» Program Evaluation

» Florida Division of Arts and Culture’s Grant Programs

» National Endowment for the Arts Guidelines and Grants

» Getting to Know the NSF International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) Program

PLANNED FALL 2022 WORKSHOPS, WEBINARS, EVENTS, ETC.

» Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Kickoff

» NSF Regional Innovation Engines Planning and Partnerships Workshop

» CRC First Year Assistant Professor Workshop

» Winning Grants as a Humanities and Arts Researcher

» Biosketch Workshop Series Part 1: Crafting a Competitive Biosketch*

» Biosketch Workshop Series Part 2: Bring Your Own Biosketch*

» Getting to Know the NSF Mid-Career Advancement Program

» Applying for Extramural Arts Funding

» Your International Roadmap: Navigating Research Around the World**

» Finding Funding 101: Pivot Presentations

» COCA Arts Funding Workshop

*in collaboration with FSU Libraries

**in collaboration with Office of Faculty Development and Advancement

“I had a fantastic learning opportunity at the FYAP workshop and got to meet experts from the Office of Research Development (ORD). The ORD is a great resource for junior faculty like me. The FYAP grant itself gets real honest reviews, and this was very helpful to sharpen my grant writing skills.”

- Faculty member, Biological Science

Beth Hodges presenting to a research faculty cohort.

RESEARCH MENTORING INITIATIVES

The mission of the FSU Research Mentor Academy (RMA) is to promote a culture of support for research mentoring and to provide training in optimizing mentoring relationships within a dyad or research team. Participants are taught skills, such as aligning expectations and maintaining effective communication, to achieve research success. We continue to foster collaborations with others on campus to provide faculty with support for their mentoring efforts, including the Graduate School, the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement, the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) programs, and various Departments and individuals interested in supporting this initiative. This year we formed a new collaboration with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Engagement (CRE) and have provided mentor training for graduate students who mentor undergraduate student researchers at FSU.

The RMA continues to be a focus of New Faculty Orientation and is conducted throughout the year with various groups, across disciplines and career levels. In addition, the RMA continues to be described within grants as a valuable part of our campus environment and research support. For example, RMA was included in proposals such as NSF ADVANCE, NIH FIRST, NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students (REU) program grant application, ACS Bridge Program application, SSTEM NSF Grant, IES grant, faculty nominations for awards, and an NIH T32, among others. The FSU RMA was recognized during a presentation at a National Conference (National Organization of Research Development Professionals; NORDP), within the UF-FSU CTSA award, and in collaboration with the Center for the Improvement of Mentoring Experiences in Research (CIMER) evaluation services program.

This year 31 faculty in three cohorts completed the full 8-9 hour interactive, process-based RMA. These faculty cohorts included Assistant, Associate, and

Full Professors as well as Research Associates across diverse disciplines. Post-program feedback surveys showed that 87% of respondents were likely (or very likely) to recommend the training to a colleague, and 97% of respondents made or planned to make changes in their mentoring relationships because of the training.

We also developed two shorter courses — “Fundamentals of Mentoring” (for faculty researchers) and “Mentors in the Making” (for student researchers) — and these workshops have been provided to researchers on training grants (e.g., an IES grant with 13 faculty and 9 graduate student mentors). Additionally, in the summer of 2022, eight research support staff completed a mentor training specific to RD professionals who support faculty and undergraduate or graduate student researchers. This training was developed in collaboration with NORDP.

During the next year, ORD will continue to provide training to these diverse groups of faculty and student researchers. We plan to develop further collaborations across campus – with an effort to support Postdoctoral scholars, to train research groups on active grants, such as the NIH FIRST cohort and the CTSA K Scholars, and individual departments who express a need – to increase a culture of mentoring excellence at FSU using evidence-based practices and tools and a universitywide approach. We have also created a robust website of resources and services related to research mentoring and will continue to promote these resources to the research community.

PROMOTING A CULTURE THAT HELPS RESEARCH TO FLOURISH

SUPPORT FOR ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCHERS

Over the past year, ORD has expanded its efforts to assist Arts and Humanities researchers and practitioners in their efforts to seek external funding. To support outreach efforts, the office built a listserv to reach FSU’s Humanities researchers all at once, and we are in the process of building a twin listserv to reach FSU’s Arts researchers and practitioners. The office also created logos for “FSU Humanities Research” and “FSU Arts Research” to brand our distinct outreach efforts. As of January 2022, we have started each semester by sending out announcements to both Humanities and Arts researchers, alerting them to ORD’s services as well as major upcoming grant opportunities with a general Humanities or Arts focus. In the Fall, Carolyn Bradley met with each of the Chairs of the Humanities departments individually to learn about the institutional and cultural barriers each Chair perceives as hindering their faculty’s efforts to obtain funding and what role ORD can play in overcoming those barriers.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN RESEARCH

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are essential to ORD’s mission. We assess DEI factors as we create events, trainings, and resources, and as we build connections with a diverse faculty population across FSU. We will continue to build DEI efforts and promote a culture of awareness and respect not only for faculty researchers on campus, but also among staff, administrators, and community partners.

ORD offers a website that provides examples of research at FSU focused on DEI, mainly from our

These conversations led to a plethora of efforts on our office’s part, including:

• the development of “How to Apply” research workshops

• invitations to staff members from funding agencies to come to speak for FSU faculty

• consideration of how departments can accommodate the greater need for course release

• greater promotion of large funding opportunities including Humanities-and-STEM research grants,

• greater promotion of small funding opportunities which might allow researchers to bring guests to campus and enliven the Humanities culture at FSU

Over the next year, we will meet with each of the Chairs of the Arts departments in the same way. ORD looks forward to continuing to invest in the Arts and Humanities with the hope of seeking more applications—and more wins—for fellowships and grants supporting research and practice in these areas.

2020 Collaborative Collision: Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion event. The website also provides information about funding opportunities for research topics related to DEI and funding opportunities to promote a diverse research community, listing funding searches for underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and women. Educational resources including webinars from the National Academy of Sciences and campus affinity groups are also available. We will continue to improve upon this site in the coming year.

Vizualization of FSU’s research capabilites related to each of the priority areas in the U.S. Air Force E3CP opportunity, presented by ORD staff at E3CP Industry Day

EVALUATING FSU’S CURRENT CAPACITY AND COMPETITIVENESS FOR EXTERNALLY FUNDED RESEARCH

A growing area of emphasis for ORD has been evaluating and reporting FSU’s research capacity and competitiveness. Our goal is to collect, analyze, and present actionable information to enhance decision-making among university leadership, as well as to strategically position our researchers for external funding. ORD produces reports and visualizations to aid in these efforts, using information available both in-house and publicly. In 2021-2022 this included reports on faculty strengths and funding opportunities for the College of Social Work, and capacity-building strategies for the Department of Computer Science.

We have also conducted several campus-wide surveys requesting researchers to self-identify their interests, skills, and/or assets, notably for the Resilience Task Force in the fall of 2021 and the U.S. Air Force E3CP opportunity in the summer of 2022. ORD staff also collaborated with Sustainable Campus

as part of their effort to map FSU’s research and academic strengths to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

In addition to producing research intelligence reports, ORD has taken an active role in strategically positioning FSU for external funding success. The previous year saw ORD staff act as representatives and ambassadors for FSU’s research community in several instances such as participating in a coalition seeking to build a Center for Climate Solutions on Governor’s Island in New York City, mapping the innovation ecosystem for the NSF Engines proposal, and organizing research-focused campus tours for representatives from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Office of Senator Marco Rubio. Efforts like these are significantly enhanced by ORD’s broad knowledge of FSU research and academic programs, which allows us to leverage relevant assets from across the university to maximize strategic impact.

View

Each month FSU Faculty are awarded grants and awards from various federal, state, and nongovernmental agencies. This report recognizes the FSU Faculty who have received an award in August 2022.

CELEBRATING SUCCESS WITH MONTHLY AWARD REPORTS

FSU Faculty awards are promoted and celebrated each month through the ORD Monthly Award Report. Our team also reaches out to faculty directly to congratulate them on their success. This year, we continued to efficiently provide the monthly awards report using the Power BI software, which provides a professionallooking, easy-to-understand interface. This information continues to be accessible through the OVPR and ORD websites and is highlighted in our quarterly ORD Digest. In the year to come, we plan to further recognize these faculty achievements in our social media efforts.

JOURNEYS IN RESEARCH PODCAST

ORD’s podcast, Journeys in Research, celebrates individual faculty’s accomplishments along their research journey. Between August 2021 and July 2022, Journeys in Research gained 133 unique downloads. This past year we recorded additional guests and published the first episodes in Season Two:

• “Happy Accidents: Asperger, Einstein, and the Great Apes,” featuring Dr. Dean Falk

• “Building Connections with Local and Global Communities,” featuring Dr. Frankie Wong

SUPPORTING CAMPUS WORKING GROUPS & LECTURES

ORD assisted Dr. Paul Marty in rebooting the Technology, Innovation, and Culture (TIC) working group by collaboratively identifying three broad research topics related to TIC: Immersive Media, Digital Humanities, and Smart Tech/AI and hosting three networking sessions—one for each research topic—to allow researchers to meet others on campus with similar interests, share ideas, and ignite collaborations.

MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT FOR FSU RESEARCH PROJECTS

One of the most unique aspects of Collaborative Collision 2.0 is the requirement that teams produce a video pitch describing their proposed solution to a complex problem. Far from simply promotional content, communicating the team’s message to a general audience through a visual medium that is unfamiliar to most researchers is a key part of the Incubator teambuilding process. As teams struggle to condense their ideas into 90 seconds or less, they must break complex ideas down into only the most essential parts—creating a shared language to describe the project that is both unique to the team and transcends their disciplinary backgrounds.

ORD interviewed newly

ORD staff working on the Collaborative Collision program provide their unique combination of research development experience, science communication expertise, and technical production skills to lead teams to produce high-quality videos with powerful impact. ORD produced 10 videos through Collaborative Collision: Resilience and Collaborative Collision: Community+, all of which premiered at Accelerator and are publicly available on our YouTube channel.

While ORD has filmed our workshops and trainings since 2015, the additional capabilities acquired for Collaborative Collision have allowed us to produce content specifically for research development projects. For example, ORD produced a video tour of the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Emergency Response (RIDER) Center for a virtual visit by representatives from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in October 2021. Similarly, ORD was called on to produce a promotional video for the Health Data Sciences Institute (HDSI) as part of FSU’s effort to court a private philanthropic donor. This video effectively communicated the vision of HDSI and FSU’s commitment to improving health outcomes in underserved communities.

appointed Provost Dr. Jim Clark to provide institutional context for the Health Data Sciences Institute promotional video.

Evangeline Coker directs a member of the Energy Resilience team while filming their pitch for Collaborative Collision: Community+

View this video online

OFFICE PROMOTION AND OUTREACH EFFORTS

ORD engaged in the following communication and outreach avenues this year:

» Provided information to faculty through meetings, emails, listservs, social media, and our website

» Reached out to departments, letting them know we are available to meet with faculty groups and met with Deans and Department Chairs to introduce ORD’s services

» Provided information at SRA’s Departmental Representative meetings

» Provided information to other research development professionals on campus through our semesterly Research Development Partners (RDP) luncheon series

» Placed articles in the monthly Office of Research Newsletter

In 2021 ORD created a digital quarterly newsletter called the Research Development Digest to keep faculty and staff aware of our office’s services and capabilities. Each issue highlights a selection of original content, resources, services, upcoming events, and upcoming external and internal funding deadlines, all in an engaging format. This past year, Research Development Digest articles received a total of 158 unique site visits. In the coming year, we will continue to release this digest quarterly.

We also created a holistic marketing plan for the office built upon a short-term goal for the year, defining our message and target market, and assessing the best marketing forms (emails, social media, etc.) for ORD’s advertising content (resources, services, events, etc.). Our commitment to focused and strategic communication in our office has resulted in an allocation of effort from one of our RDCs for outreach and promotion. In the year ahead, we will continue advertising ORD’s services and resources in these ways and increase our social media presence and engagement.

Research Development Digest

View the Digest online

The Research Development Digest is one of several products that ORD uses to disseminate research development information to FSU faculty.

ORD Staff

In the 2022 academic year, ORD made organizational changes designed to better serve faculty needs. In addition to Mike Mitchell being promoted to Assistant Director for Research Strategy and Impact, a research development coordinator (RDC) cohort was formed. This cohort now allows our staff to be more targeted in their knowledge of specific areas. Current RDC focus areas include science and technology, arts and humanities, and health and life sciences. The social science areas are currently being covered by the Director and Assistant Directors and our plan is to have those areas covered specifically by an RDC in the future. In July of 2022 (post report), we also welcomed our newest professional staff member, Dr. Nicole Viverito, who is serving as the health and life sciences RDC.

Student Assistants

ORD also benefitted greatly this past year from the efforts of our two student assistants, Mike Bosco and Noor Khan. Mike Bosco serves as the Strategic Initiatives Assistant in ORD, working on the Collaborative Collision program and other special projects, while pursuing a graduate degree in Integrated Marketing and Communication. Mahnoor (Noor) Khan is a student assistant in ORD, primarily working on special projects with the Science and Technology Research Development Coordinator. She is a Junior in FSU’s Biological Science program.

Beth Hodges Director

Evangeline Coker Research Development Coordinator, Science & Technology

Grace Adkison Program Manager FSU Council on Research and Creativity

Mike Bosco Strategic Initiatives Assistant

Laurie O’Brien Program Assistant Council on Research and Creativity

Rachel Goff-Albritton Assistant Director for Research Advancement and Mentoring

Carolyn Bradley Research Development Coordinator, Arts & Humanities

Mike Mitchell Assistant Director for Research Strategy and Impact

Nicole Viverito Research Development Coordinator, Health & Life Sciences

Noor Khan Student Assistant