News and Events

Announcements

Spring 2012 Equipment Proposals
The Office for Research offers internal grants for new or replacement equipment in core facilities twice a year. The deadline for proposals for the Spring 2012 competition will be Tuesday, May 1. You can read more about the program here. Directors and/or Managers who submit proposals will be notified of results in June.

Voucher Program
The Office for Reseach sponsors a Voucher Program for faculty who write successful external instrumentation grants for a university-sponsored core facility. The voucher is for $10,000 toward use of the instrument. Read more here.

2011 Oustanding Core Facility Awards
The Office for Research has selected five core facilities for the 2011Outstanding Core Facility Award for exemplary service and support of research. You can read more about the Awards here.

 

Workshops

The Office for Research sponsors various workshops throughout the year. The purpose of a workshop is to provide an opportunity for discussion between university administrators, directors and managers of core facilities, and PIs. Topics include how to set up a new core facility, how to navigate grant applications, how to perform a cost study, how to protect the intellectual property of NU researchers working in core facilities, and other topics that are relevant to core facilities. The following are examples of workshops sponsored by the Office for Research.

• Workshop for Directors and Managers of new Core Facilities took place on Monday, April 27, 2009, in Ward 5-230 on the Chicago campus. Outline of workshop available here.
  
  
• Professional Development Workshop for Managers of Core Facilities took place on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, in the Searle Seminar Room of the Lurie building on the Chicago campus. It provided the following opportunities related to professional development: (1) discussion of new performance evaluation criteria for core facilities; (2) overview of NU's Performance Excellence Program, and (3) information about NU's Research Administrator Professional (NURAP) organization. Powerpoint presentation available here.

• Instrumentation Grant Writing Workshop took place on Friday, February 12, 2010, from Noon to 3:00 PM in Hughes Auditorium (Lurie Building) on the Chicago campus. There was discussion of (1) new university procedures and policies regarding instrument grant applications including the requirement for an internal vetting process for imaging-related applications; (2) the new Voucher Program that benefits faculty who write successful proposals for instruments housed in core facilities; and (3) an opportunity to discuss your ideas with a panel of experts from NU and neighboring universities who have been successful in writing instrument proposals as well as involved in the review process for NIH and NSF.

• Intellectual Property, Tech Transfer and Corporate Relations Workshop for Core Facilities took place on Wednesday, February 16, 2011, from Noon to 2:00 PM at the Ford Design Center, 2nd floor conference room (ITW) in Evanston. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce directors and managers of core facilities to NU administrators responsible for these topics and to discuss how they should handle them within core facilities.

• Webpage Development Workshop for Managers of Core Facilities took place on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, from Noon to 2:00 PM in Cook 3118. The purpose of the workshop was to help managers develop a new webpage that they can edit using Wordpress software. The workshop was run by NU's Advanced Media Production Studio (NUAMPS) which is part of NU Information Technologies (NUIT).

• NSF-MRI Grant Writing Workshop took place on Tuesday, September 20, 2011, from Noon to 1:30 PM in the Ford Design Center, 2nd floor conference room (ITW) in Evanston. The workshop covered the internal process for submitting a pre-proposal as well as criteria required for the full application by NSF. It included a panel of experts who have written successful NSF-MRI proposals and/or served on NSF review panels for this program.

• NUcore Workshop for business administrators of core facilities took place on Wednesday, October 5, 2011, rom 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Ford Design Center, 2nd floor conference room (ITW) in Evanston. The purpose of the workshop was to provide an overview of the new financial management software (NUcore) and answer questions about specific features.

• NIH Grant Writing Workshop took place on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the Ford Design Center, 2nd floor conference room (ITW) in Evanston. The workshop covered the internal process for submitting a proposal as well as criteria required for the full application to NIH. It included a panel of experts who have written successful NIH instrument proposals and/or served on NIH review panels for this program. Powerpoint presentation is available here.

• NURAP-sponsored presentation by Jennifer Wei (Mgr, Cost Studies) and Phil Hockberger (Dir, Core Facilities) took place on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 (Evanston campus, Chambers Hall) and Tuesday, January 24, 2012 (Chicago campus, Hughes Auditorium) at noon. They discussed why NU needs recharge operations and their general structure, and provided a federal compliance update including OIG audit work plan for recharge centers and past audit findings. Effort reporting, equipment depreciation, and treatment of surplus/deficit were also discussed. Powerpoint presentation is available here.

 

Research Facility Fairs

The Office for Research sponsors fairs on both campuses that provide an opportunity to meet with directors and managers of core facilities and learn about their services. Information about the fairs is advertised through listservs and on core websites. Directors of core facilities or administrators of Centers and Institutes should send an inquiry to the Director of Core Facilities if they are interested in co-sponsoring fairs with the Office for Research.