I'm glad you asked this question!  I am responsible for managing the
electronic information for sponsored programs here at University of
Maryland at College Park, and plan to attend NCURA to explore all the
electronic resources information there.  We are moving more and more
toward an all (or mostly all) - electric information system here, so every
new development is closely monitored and hotly debated.

>
> 1) What electronic research topics would you like covered at future >
meetings?
>
A.  A broad discussion of electronic research developments in
general;  what it means for the future of jobs of research administrators
and other administrators, what it means in terms of cost savings (or
expenses), what it means for the future of research information, society,
etc.

B.  A discussion of each of the various kinds of electronic resources in
detail; specifically, forms, templates, macros etc. that can be ftp'd or
sent out on diskette, sources for said info, "how to" for said info, a
comparison of methods for getting the more resistant administrators and
researchers to use these resources and of ways to be more helpful in
overcoming the electronic resources learning curve, possibly the
development of an NCURA repository for these resources.

> 2)  Would you be interested in seeing a special workshop (separate from an
> NCURA meeting) set up on the topic of electronic research administration?
>   To get right to the point, would you send someone from your campus if
> there were such a meeting?
> (This meeting might include sessions of vendor-available and
> University-based  contract and grant and technology transfer management
> information database systems, vendor-available and University-based funding
> opportunity database systems (e.g., SPIN, IRIS), faculty profile systems,
> training on use of the Internet (WWW, Listservs, Bulletin Boards),  and
> current updates on federal/university electronic research initiatives (e.g.,
> FastLane, EDI, Edison).
>
Absolutely - this is the #1 reason I am attending NCURA.

> 3) Could you please tell us of any speakers on your campus, or that you know
> of in general, who might be able to contribute in the area of electronic
> research administration?  (Please provide their name, address, and email as
> well as any information available about their area of speciality.  Please
> feel free to list yourself.)
>
I would be happy to contribute what I know about our campus, if it only
requires a small amount of time (we are quite busy this fall!).  We use
SPIN and RAMS, as well as an e-mail bulletin board,and I have recently
developed a WWW page for our campus.  In addition, I regularly download
files from agencies and other (very generous) universities for use here
on our campus.

Jo Meyertons
Grants Development Specialist
xxxxxx@deans.umd.edu
(301) 405-4179