CHAPTER 2
Annual Review FY 2020 was a major year for the Division of Research and Innovation. First, Mark McLellan joined UNT as vice president for research and innovation for the division. He has brought a wealth of experience, having served as a vice president of research for both Utah State University and Portland State University. He has provided the necessary stability, guidance and leadership to allow the division to serve its internal customers and expand services across campus. One of his first leadership decisions — merging research contracts with technology transfer and creating Research Commercial Agreements (RCA) — positively improved the division. This reorganization allowed the team to rethink how they worked and how to serve the UNT community more efficiently. For contracting, the RCA team examined their past processes and then asked stakeholders what they liked or disliked. It became clear that two issues needed to be addressed: turn-around time and transparency.
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The turn-around time for contracting is a consistent issue at other institutions. The time spent on negotiating language to allow two parties to work together does not add much value to the actual work to be accomplished. However, without correct contract language, liability increases, and it can keep many projects from succeeding. The unit looked at these common problems and developed a methodology to address the concerns. First, all contracts now come through a triage email system, researchcontracts@unt. edu. Janis Miller, a certified paralegal, joined the team to be the first line of triage for all contracts. The goal was to have her log every contract into the system, determine its level of complication and then assign it to one of the team members so they can respond back quickly. RCA recommends that contracting offices at other universities also explore this approach as a best practice. Janis’s dedication to organization and procedure has paid huge dividends to RCA as she leads the triage, providing each team member with a manageable workload to help ensure a quick turnaround.
