My experience has been the same as Spanky's. We have had several go-arounds with internal programs pretty much on the order of the Incentive Grants described by Bill, but I can't say that I remember us ever having a proposal funded as a result of the internal grants. We discovered that putting out a solicitation for individual projects did not work well. Then we tried going directly to the deans, and asking them to nominate someone for such an internal award, thinking that if the dean was involved, this program would be taken more seriously, and would reflect the priorities of the college, rather than those of an individual faculty. Made no difference. Have pretty much eliminated the formal incentive grants program, and now . . . if we (in the OSP) feel someone has an excellent project, is capable of following through, and has a submission date, to which they are commited , but truly needs some time to meet the deadline . . . we can, at our discretion, buy out some time for him. Believe me, we are very selective . . . I remember colleagues at a breakfast meeting at a conference a few years back, talking about these kinds of internal grantwriting incentives, and saying that they did not work for them either. I'm glad to worked for Bill.
Jacqueline Givens
Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road
Kennesaw, Georgia 30144-5591
PHONE: (770) 423-6036
FAX: (770) 499-3620
EMAIL: xxxxxx@kennesaw.edu
>>> xxxxxx@UALR.EDU 02/19/02 10:01AM >>>
>It sounds to me as if your VP regards release time as a boondoggle
>which must be controlled. And maybe it is, wherever you are. But
>the result of this policy, I think, will be to discourage folks from
>writing proposals and give them yet another reason to complain about
>the administration. Better, in my mind, to try to work with faculty
>who have a genuine interest in winning grants and have the potential
>to do well. If your VP has control of indirects, using them to fund
>proposal-writing is an excellent investment, I think.
I agree with most of what Bill has to say, but I've never seen a
situation where funds were used to buyproposal writing/development
where the researchers turned out quality work. I've had "incentive"
programs foisting on the research office in several places, sometimes
guised as training, other times just as a plea for someone to please
to something.
I agree with using IDC as an incentive for those who are awarded,
that's a no-brainer. But the quality issues in proposal development
and paying faculty to develop proposals are just too slippery and
hard to evaluate. Faculty with initiative will try, even in
"teaching institutions." Faculty who need to be paid to give it a
shot likely don't have the inspiration or internal drive to do a
first rate job.
Our group at UALR does a lot to facilitate proposal development--
editing, training, budget work,, all the standard stuff, plus lots of
extra effort one-on-one. Paying for proposals development is nothing
more than a bad gamble, a very long shot we have elected not to make.
i don't think one can buy a behavior change, a change in a potential
PI's self-image about being a researcher. Encourage the good ones,
respond to initiative, use IDC for incentives to spark your faulty's
internal motivation (or envy). work the fields with good soil,
ignore the others.
But then that's just my experience. I may have done this stuff all
wrong. I'd like to hear form someone who paid X number of proposal
developers to put together proposals and got nearly the same number
of really strong proposals. if there's a working method, I'd really
like to know what it is.
Thanks
Spanky
--
Mike McCallister, Ph. D.
Director, Research and Sponsored Programs
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
(v) 501-569-8474
(f)501-371-7614
>
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