RD ANNUAL REPORT 2023

Research Development

RDResearch

RD

funding.asu.edu

Development funding.asu.edu

2023 Annual Report

Better, Faster, Stronger: Elevating the Knowledge Enterprise

2022 Annual Report

2022 Better, Faster, Stronger: Elevating the Knowledge Enterprise

RD RD

Research Research Development Development funding.asu.edu funding.asu.edu

Research Development is free to all researchers as they plan, prepare & perfect research-focused grant applications.

Research Development accelerates research success through: Events & Workshops: Want to learn more about specific grant opportunities or best practices in proposal development? RD hosts events workshops to discuss current opportunities, plan for future ones, and to learn from experts on best practices in research, helping to improve teaming, proposal quality, and award performance.

Nominations & Awards:

an RD monitors upcoming research-related nominations & awards, and manages the nominations process. Programs and opportunities might be specific, topic-driven, or general and open to many disciplines. Many nominations are specialized programs for early career faculty and might have limitations.

Strategic Intelligence: actionable insights and future-looking intelligence to inform your research decisions and proposal strategy RD's Strategic Intelligence can help you examine funding opportunities, conduct internal ASU capacity analysis or analyze specific sponsors.

Weekly Newsletter: Sign up for RD's weekly newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming events, new funding opportunities, and news on research.

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Limited Submissions: RD manages opportunities with restrictions on the number of applications an institution can submit.

Limited Submissions uses a transparent and equitable system to select competitive proposals for opportunities requiring institutional review actionable feedback. Visit Limited Submissions for more information and to view current limited opportunities.

Proposal Management:

. Email researchdevelopment@asu.edu to request proposal management services.

Graphic Design: most exciting text. memorable graphics.

Other KE Resources: ASU offers many other services and types of support to researchers throughout the entire research life cycle o learn more about other aspects of the research enterprise visit the website.

Recent Highlights Better, Faster, Stronger: Elevating the Knowledge Enterprise

Creating Community Through Communication In support of timely communication to a broad audience, Research Development distributes a content-rich weekly email newsletter to over 2000 subscribers. This year Research Development added a section of the newsletter on content relevant to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).

Limited Submissions posted six opportunities specific to this designation. One of those programs was featured in a weekly highlight, and was subsequently pursued by a PI with support from our office.

Research Development supported a total of two HSI-specific proposals, worth a total of $10M.

Current Trends in Proposals

Our Culture of Outreach

Year over year, we have been supporting the same number of proposals from ASU faculty members; however, the total value per proposal is increasing. This trend is particularly notable for Department of Energy and National Science Foundation (NSF). By pursuing programs offering larger awards, we are creating a more efficient proposal machine. This year, Research Development supported 27 proposals seeking almost $527M with ASU as prime and produced 103 graphics. During FY23, ASU received awards associated with two FY23 proposals totaling $75.4M, four FY22 proposals totaling $72.9M, and one FY21 proposal for $90.5M, the largest NSF award ever received by ASU.

Our timely, relevant workshops, available on-demand as recordings, create a culture of proactive competitive positioning among research active faculty. Research Development hosted a total of 38 events for ASU faculty, students, and staff. These events had 1,603 registrations with 990 attendees, reaching over 400 faculty attendees. Fifteen of these events focused on highly competitive, national-level programs (“opportunity kick-offs”), while twelve covered best practices of preparing competitive proposals (“Proposal Development Workshops”). The latter series leverages expertise across campus through guest speakers.

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DATA DASHBOARD Our Art Director provides cutting edge graphics to all of our proposals.

Graphics Proposal Support

Graphics Support Total Value of Proposals 103 10000 800

62

$706M

600 400

27

17

$532M

200

FY2022

FY2023

FY2022

FY2023

Number of proposals Number of graphics

Our Proposal Management function provides compelling proposal support for many of ASU's largest opportunities.

Pre vs Full Proposals

Value of Proposals

36

$527M 21

20

$377M

14

$287M

6

6

FY21 FY22 FY23 Total number of full proposals supported Total number of preproposals supported

FY21

FY22

Our Strategic Intelligence team works with a variety of stakeholders.

2021-2023 Comparison by Stakeholder Type 30

29 24 23

3

10 9 5

ASU Staff

College Directors ASU School and

ASU Faculty

5 5

6

FY21

8

5

External to ASU

13

FY22

FY23

4

5 2

President’s Office

23

KE Leadership

32

FY23

The number of events, registrations for, and attendees at RD events has increased each year.

Total Number of RD Events

RD Events Registration and Attendance

41

1622 1317

38

1739

890

943

FY21

FY22

1115

37

FY21

FY22

FY23

Total Event Registrations

FY23

Total Event Attendees

Our Limited Submissions has increased efficiency and relevancy of posted funding opportunities.

Number of Review Panels

Limited Submission Funding Opportunities 500

457

13

400 300 154

149

219

100 FY21

FY22

9

FY23

Approved Opportunities Opportunities Posted 2021

2022

2023

Our Strategic Intelligence function develops multiple products for clients across campus.

2021-2023 Comparison by Product Type 21 21 1717

33

4

3

4

3

10

9

8

5

6 2

FY21

FY22

Program Analysis

Presentation

Landscape Analysis

Info Tasks

External CI Consult

0

FY23

3

4

6 3

01

6 3

Strategic Analysis

10

Sponsor Analysis

12

16

Proposal Support

20 18

Capacity Analysis

0

9

140 159

External Profile

200

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Strategic Intelligence The Strategic Intelligence (SI) team delivers actionable intelligence to faculty, staff, and leadership, empowering them to make informed decisions and grow the research enterprise.

Continuing Impact Research Development produced 77 analyses to inform decision-making and strategy for ASU faculty and leadership. The team produces several core deliverables that are of interest to the university. This fiscal year, the team saw an uptick in landscape analysis requests. These provide insight regarding other institutions and/or funding within specific fields. These analyses help ASU better understand its position within the broader landscape. The team also observed a lower demand for capacity analyses, which may be due to the outstanding catalog of documents that have been developed in prior years. Many of these documents will be refreshed in the coming year.

Proposal Strategy Contributions Strategic Intelligence also strengthens partnerships and increases competitiveness of ASU-led teams. Specifically, analyses supported applications to the Economic Development Administration’s opportunity for Technology Hub designation and to the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine program. ASU is currently a public finalist in the latter program, which is an opportunity worth $160M. The team has also produced analyses on topics that are highly relevant to Arizona’s regional economy and workforce, including community youth, Native American research centers, housing and homelessness, energy, water, and the New Economy Initiative.

National Working Group The team continues to host the national Competitive Intelligence Working Group. This informal network comprises 42 universities and 98 members. The group has defined the practice of intelligence gathering and analysis for the academic setting by adapting and amplifying industry approaches. Over the past year, the group has observed an increase in positions for competitive intelligence staff at other universities, signaling growing interest in the function.

Keith Aspinall

Catherine Chen

Ding Ding Zheng

"The reports produced allowed our team to foster faculty collaboration around grant proposals, including the implementation of projects in the community.

The team was knowledgeable, timely, and provided information that was incredibly useful and actionable.”

--Cindy Parnell, Chief of Public Service, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions

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Events Research Development works collaboratively with other units to offer a suite of strategically designed events that empower ASU faculty to understand and pursue important funding opportunities.

Proposal Development Workshops Proposal Development Workshops (PDWs) feature key milestones along the funding lifecycle.

From understanding the funding landscape through submission of a proposal, each webinar is a quick look at best practices for the ASU research curious. These webinars are appropriate for all stages of researcher from any discipline for any sponsor (federal or philanthropic). Proposal development is not a neat or orderly experience. Therefore, we post these webinars at funding.asu.edu/videos, which allows easy and immediate access to information when our audience needs it. This year, the PDW series included four new workshop topics: evaluation plans, working with the ASU Foundation, working with the Department of Defense, and collaboration. In the coming year, we are retaining three of these topics that drew high interest, and adding two other topics based on audience feedback: first-generation researchers, and book proposal development.

This year, we had over 700 registrations and 342 attendees. Registrations were slightly lower than last fiscal year, but attendance was higher than previous years. We had 21 presenters from across ASU.

Opportunity Kick-offs Opportunity Kick-off events are introductions to specific funding opportunities or resources that enhance application competitiveness. These events often feature previous awardees from inside and outside of ASU. This allows for intimate discussions that are often honest about the challenges and rewards of the process.

This past year, Research Development hosted 24 Opportunity Kick-offs, an all-time high for the office. Registrations also exceed expectations, with 708 registrations and 513 attendees, with 400 unique registrations. Opportunity Kick-offs have the highest views on YouTube of all RD events.

RD All-Hands This year’s collaboration events were focused on developing a culture of research development across ASU. These events, Research Development All-Hands, are designed to build culture through short presentations, followed by interactive breakout sessions. Attendees included assistant deans of research, directors of research, business developers, grant writers, proposal editors, partnership managers, and RD’s own team, as well as others advocating for ASU’s research agenda and dedicated to capacity building. All three events had almost 200 registrations and over 60% attendance. There were 120 unique registrations across 68 position titles and 57 units at ASU. The series topics were: working across colleges, preparing proposals as a Hispanic Serving Institution, and qualities of a successful proposal. Based on this success, we are continuing these events in the coming fiscal year. Jhazzye Mosley

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Opportunities We support ASU through identification and management of limited or restricted funding opportunities, internal programs, seed grants, and faculty nominations. Opportunity Management tracks our performance, disseminates opportunities, manages internal reviews to select the most competitive concepts, and improves our submissions.

Limited Submissions Limited Submissions posted almost 160 solicitations for funding via InfoReady, the RD weekly newsletter, and individual emails. Of these, 140 were approved to submit to sponsor and worth approximately $85.6M. The majority of postings were from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department of State, and USAID. Increased efficiency and expertise resulted in fewer postings from prior fiscal years and a higher conversion rate to submitted proposals. For the nine postings involving highly competitive programs, Research Development coordinated internal review panels, which resulted in 19 approved submissions seeking $10.8M. We worked with 35 reviewers from across ASU. The top colleges for reviewers were The College, Fulton Schools of Engineering, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Adam Cohen as Limited Submission Chairperson for the past two years. His insight and patience have been instrumental in our success.

Internal Competitions & Nominations Research Development uses a proven highly efficient and successful system to manage internal competitions and nominations for the university. This work includes prestigious national nominations and internal seed grants.

We are currently tracking 14 nominations. Importantly, we managed the internal competition for the ASU Mayo Clinic Alliance. This included the successful review of 40 letters of intent, 16 full proposals, and the award of $100,000 to each proposal for one year.

Kendra Hillman

“What a pleasure and fascinating experience it’s been to work with limited submissions. The quality of the proposals was always impressive and it’s so interesting to learn all the kinds of scholarship going on at ASU.” --Adam Cohen, Professor, Limited Submissions Chair (2021-2023)

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Proposal Management We bring industry best practices to proposal submissions, working across the RD office and Knowledge Enterprise to cover every facet of the application process for on-time delivery of compliant and compelling proposals.

New Team, New Perspectives Research Development welcomed three new Proposal Managers to the team this past year: Emily Wilcoxson, Nick Millas, and Eva Allen. They joined Quyen Wickham, who completed his fourth year in the office. With decades of cumulative experience in industry and academia, the team possesses an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge, abilities, and skills, including formal certification from the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).

Improving the Process Increases Competitiveness The work of this team ranges from ideation to proposal development to site visits and beyond. Because Proposal Managers can quickly and efficiently tap existing resources and networks to streamline team formation and ensure a compliant, high-quality proposal aligned with the sponsor’s objectives, Proposal Management accelerates the research agenda and increases the funding potential of the university.

Increased Proposal Total Award Value Proposal Managers worked on 21 full proposals and 6 preliminary proposals seeking $527M

in total obligated awards this fiscal year. Most proposals submitted were to the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health. Research Development supported fewer proposals than last year, but improved the university’s efficiency of funding pursuit by increasing the budget-per-proposal ratio.

Our win rate this fiscal year is 14% (approximately $105M), with 52% of proposals still pending.

“Proposal management services from KE works very efficiently with the college and unit research advancement staff, collaborating universities/ industrial partners, as well as external consultants, to keep track of the several moving parts in a large collaborative proposal effort.

Quyen Wickham

Eva Allen

Proposal Manager

Nick Millas

Proposal Manager

Emily Wilcoxson

Proposal Manager

--Narayanan Neithalath, Professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment

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Graphics The RD Art Director creates visual concepts to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, or captivate readers.

On-Demand High-Value Design The benefit of graphics is often undervalued; viewers notice when graphics miss their mark, but rarely acknowledge when graphics make the difference. Our in-house graphic design capabilities serve a wide variety of sponsors and principal investigators. Each project lead has access to experienced and professional designer services, resulting in graphics that lend voice to proposals and make a noticeable difference to reviewers. This service is increasingly popular: Graphics provided 103 graphics this fiscal year in support of 27 proposals (75% increase over the last fiscal year) seeking $700M in obligated funds ($200M increase).

Empowering Researchers As proposals often require specific and sometimes fundamental set of graphics, the funding.asu.edu website was updated to provide examples that accelerate design services. Specifically, two blog posts (and companion 1-page take aways) walk faculty through designing graphics and engaging with a graphic artist. In addition, the website has a slide carousel that provides clear examples of a set of these fundamental graphics. The goal is to create a culture of proactive graphic design for all researchers as they develop their proposals. These tools empower researchers to engage Research Development in constructive conversation, to achieve creative solutions to complex concepts, and even to create their own graphics.

Brand Identity Research Development continues to develop its own brand identity. This is evidenced in this year’s flyers, worksheets, cover pages, PowerPoint presentations, Zoom backgrounds, and office posters.

Creating a cohesive brand makes our efforts polished and our messaging more clear, impactful, and evergreen.

Vince Alrich

“Thank you for making the graphics. They look unique, relaxed, easy on the eyes while conveying our main ideas” --Aviral Shrivastava, Professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence

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Looking to the Future As a national leader in the field of Research Development (RD), the team is continuing to expand our impact through a variety of professional services. In the past year, the majority of the team attended the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP). Eva Allen, Hayley Bohall, and Quyen Wickham were speakers at the conference. Catherine Chen nominated NORDP’s keynote speaker for the 2023 conference and was able to introduce her to all 600 conference attendees in Washington, D.C. This past year, Faye Farmer concluded her four years of board service for NORDP and was presented with a Leadership Award at the national conference, an exclusive award honoring NORDP leaders demonstrating “exceptional leadership and/or a deep commitment to volunteerism in ways that advance the profession or field of research development.”

In the coming fiscal year, Eva Allen will conclude her NORDP board term including a stint on the Executive Committee, Quyen Wickham is starting a term on the board of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Western Chapter, and Catherine will take over the management of the Competitive Intelligence Working Group. Emily Wilcoxson will be a panelist at APMP chapter event, Vincent Alrich will present as part of NORDP’s professional development webinar series, and Eva Allen will co-lead an invited workshop at NORDP’s fall virtual conference. The Research Development team is a top performing, expert group of professionals.

Limited Submissions rolled out LS 2.0. This new and improved format streamlines and clarifies proposal submission requirements, allowing reviewers to approach the content in a standardized format. Last year’s pilot of a fast-track review was formalized and will allow for full review of solicitations with very quick turnaround deadlines. We will welcome a new chair this coming year and continue our pursuit of equitable, timely, and transparent reviews that strengthen ASU’s proposal submissions.

Over the past four years, Quyen Wickham has contributed to the success of our proposal management function. Building on these years of experience and on his interest and skills in connecting directly with faculty, he is creating a new role as ASU’s first capture manager in a central RD office. In this valuable function, he will ensure connection among strategic intelligence, the Federal Relations Engagement Office (FREO), and Proposal Management as teams work from ideation to proposal submission.

As our Research Development team continues to expand and grow our knowledge and skills, we look forward to the ways we can help the ASU research enterprise flourish in the years to come.

Faye Farmer

Karen Walker

Hayley Bohall

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Mission: Research Development works with ASU research faculty, staff and leaders to improve funding success and grow the research enterprise.

Values: In order to improve the scale, fidelity, accuracy, and quality of our work, our office values the individual merits and experience of every person across the network of research at ASU regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, language, belief system, or inherent ability.

Goals: We accomplish our mission through empowering and emboldening ASU faculty, staff and students to increase their competitive edge in support of the expanding quality and quantity of the research enterprise.

RD

Research Development funding.asu.edu

Better, Faster, Stronger: Elevating the Knowledge Enterprise