MBRS SCORE ADMINISTRATIONBUDGET JUSTIFICATIONPERSONNELProgram Director: The MBRS SCORE Program Director, Dr. Maureen C. Whalen, will continue to dedicate20% time and effort during the academic year to the administration of the MBRS SCORE program at SFSU.The Program Director will implement and coordinate the program and will monitor the activities of theAssistant Program Director and the Principal Investigators in implementing their subprojects and pilot projects,as well as supervise the Program Assistants and oversee the activities of the SCORE administrative office. Ifall of the projects in this supplemental application are funded, our SCORE program will include a total of 20subprojects and 5 pilot projects. The program directly involves four different departments within the College ofScience and Engineering, and the involvement of these four distinct departmental structures contributes to thecomplexity of the administrative function. As the program has grown and the numbers of investigators andtheir needs for individualized mentoring and administrative support have increased, the responsibilities of theProgram Director have grown proportionally. We are again requesting funds from MBRS SCORE to cover20% of the Program Director's time during the academic year and one month of summer salary each year toallow her to continue to spend approximately 2 days per week during the academic year and summer onSCORE administration duties due to the demands of our large, complex portfolio of individual projects. ThePD not only runs her own research program, but still teaches one class per semester in the Biology curricula.Program Director Whalen will continue to be responsible for the administration of SFSU's SCORE Program, inconsultation with the SCORE Advisory Committee, and with help from the Assistant Program Director (seedetails below). The SFSU SCORE program will encompass a total of up to 25 projects directed by facultyinvestigators all of whom require ongoing support in order to continue to develop their research programs tofull capacity. Dr. Whalen will manage the program at SFSU in accordance with MBRS SCORE and SFSUpolicies. Specifically, she will; (1) serve as the principal contact with NIH-MBRS SCORE administrators; (2)convene SCORE Advisory Committee meetings; (3) coordinate and head the SCORE office, overseeing thetwo Program Assistants and their day-to-day activities; (4) act as the liaison between the SCORE programaccounts (25 PI and 1 administrative) and the SFSU purchasing, accounting and sponsored researchdepartments, ensuring that all relevant institutional policies and procedures are followed correctly; (5) monitorprogram expenditures for the administrative program; (6) write the annual progress report; (7) coordinate datacollection activities of the SCORE office; (8) negotiate, coordinate and review the program evaluation; (9)review progress reports and ESAC critiques/reviews of individual Pi's SCORE research programs and, inconcert with the Assistant Program Director, summarize and develop an action plan in response to thereviews; (10) support SCORE Pis directly by resolving all budgetary, personnel or administrative issues thatarise as well as to provide advice and encouragement on their research projects; (11) monitor researchproductivity of all SCORE Pis; (12) resolve all non-routine, higher level issues that arise for all Pis; (13) recruitand assess potential new SCORE faculty for competitive continuation applications and supplementalapplications; (14) coordinate and oversee the selection of SCORE Pis for all applications by a pre-proposalreview process; (15) submit the SCORE competitive renewal and supplemental applications and write theoverall program section with help from the research office; (16) ensure that individual Pis develop high quality,competitive proposals; and (17) ensure that SCORE Pis receive the necessary support for preparation andsubmission of competitive RO1 applications.Assistant Program Director: The Assistant Program Director, Dr. Scott Gronert, will continue to dedicate10% time during the academic year to assisting with the administration of the MBRS SCORE program atSFSU. We request funds for 10% time during the academic year.The Assistant SCORE Program Director, will continue to: (1) assist in providing oversight, advice andencouragement to the Pi's on their research projects; (2) monitor research productivity of SCORE Pis asevidenced by quantity and quality of peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national meetings fromthe two progress reports per year; (3) organize annual research presentation sessions and the professionaldevelopment workshops; (4) ensure that all Pis invite their ESAC member and schedule them fordepartmental seminars on an annual basis; (5) collect the formal PI program review written by the ESACmember; (6) work with individual Pis to develop an action plan in response to ESAC critiques; (7) work withDr. Whalen to develop an overall plan for infrastructure improvement based on ESAC review; (8) support andmonitor recruitment of underrepresented minority students in Pi's programs; and (8) identify additionalsources of support for the program and play a major role in applying for additional sources of funding tosupport the research infrastructure for SCORE program Pis.Funds were awarded for this position beginning with our 2005 supplement, in recognition of the demands ofmanaging a program of this size and complexity by faculty who are themselves also engaged in maintainingtheir own active programs of research. The carefully planned division of labor between the Director andAssistant Director positions, as described above, has contributed substantially to the overall success of theprogram since that time. In particular, the background, training, and experience of the PD and Assistant PDas a biologist and chemist, respectively, allow each of them to offer discipline-specific mentoring to our Pis,further increasing the effectiveness of the overall program. The Assistant PD's experience as a computationalchemist positions him ideally to mentor the new investigators we are bringing into the program from thedepartments of Mathematics and Computer Science with this application for competitive renewal,Program Assistants (2.5): Based on our experience administrating the current program with 26 Pis, weknow that a SCORE program of the size and complexity we have proposed requires a staff of 2.5 FTEProgram Assistants. Our highly efficient administrative structure has evolved over time to meet the specificneeds of faculty engaged in biomedical research at SFSU. Through the services of our program assistants,we are able to enhance and support faculty productivity by providing our SCORE investigators with access towell trained, highly efficient administrative and accounting support staff who are knowledgeable about andskilled in dealing with the complexities of accounting and purchasing procedures on our campus. Our staffcapably fulfill a variety of routine duties which are necessary to keep the subprojects and pilot projectsfunctioning smoothly and to coordinate the program as a whole. In their absence, such duties would falldirectly to each individual PI and to the PD/APD, draining valuable time and energy from a researchenterprise already challenged by the teaching workload at a comprehensive public university. Since ouroverall research infrastructure at SFSU is still in the early stages of development, it is particularly crucial atthis point for us to be able to provide our investigators with access to centralized programmatic resources likeour program staff in order to help them maintain or launch their research programs successfully and to assistin training their lab personnel about procedures and policies at SFSU. The three positions are as follows:Administrative Assistant (80% time): The responsibilities of the administrative assistant include:contacting vendors and placing orders for equipment and supplies for the administrative core and allsubproject and pilot projects; processing appropriate paperwork for such orders; following up on purchasingand delivery activities to ensure receipt of the correct items by each investigator's laboratory; working withvendors to address and resolve any problems associated with purchases; arranging returns, repairs andreplacements as necessary; overseeing investigator and ESAC travel expenditures; processing honorariaand travel related claims for ESAC committee members; and scheduling and assisting with the preparation forMBRS PI and Advisory committee meetings.Accounting Technician (100% time): The accounting technician is responsible for administering thefiscal aspects of the program and all of its components, including the subprojects and pilot projects. Thisinvolves: tracking all program and project expenditures; monitoring the budget for the administrative core andfor each of the (20) subprojects and (5) pilot projects on an ongoing basis; reconciling all actual expenditureswith information provided by the SFSU accounting office; providing the PD and all the active SCORE Pis withregular updates on the current status of their accounts; meeting with university accounting staff as necessaryto troubleshoot problems and reconcile discrepancies; and producing written balance reports at regularintervals throughout the year. The accounting technician keeps the Pis informed of the status of theirexpenditures and works with the PD to encourage Pis to implement reasonable, well-planned spendingpractices to keep their labs running smoothly and to expend their grant funds productively in accordance withthe details of their approved budgets and their proposed timelines.Data Technician (62.5% time): The data technician collects, organizes, tracks, reports upon,archives and disseminates program support information including detailed information about investigatorpublications, presentations, grant applications, awards, and other measures of productivity. Critical elementsof these data (such as publication status) change over time and require ongoing follow up in order to ensurethat they are current and accurate. The data technician is also responsible for: interfacing with our externalevaluators from the PRI to ensure their prompt access to all the materials they need to conduct their analyses;assisting the Program Director in compiling the information necessary for the development and preparation ofprogress reports; and maintaining our program website and online data systems in order to maximize theefficiency of our communication with the Pis.We are requesting funding for 2.5 FTE program assistant positions as described above in order to provide ourSCORE scientists with essential services to keep their programs running smoothly and to allow them to focuson research.
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