This project will support a planning process to establish a Virtual Sponsored Research Office (VSRO). The concept of the VSRO is for it to be a shared resource to assist faculty and administrators at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in preparing and submitting proposals to the NSF and other federal agencies and provide training in the appropriate policies and procedures for managing federal awards. HBCUs have struggled to improve their competitive research standing, in part due to the challenges faced by their administrators who are facing increased demands from both federal agencies and faculty investigators while lacking the critical infrastructure needed to keep up with the rising demands. The vision of the VSRO is to develop an innovative online platform to provide support services to HBCU institutional ?clients?. This service would address the needs of small and mid-size HBCUs that do not currently have adequate sponsored research capabilities.
The planning activity wwill solicit input from the community of HBCU researchers and administrators via a series of virtual meetings and in-person workshops. From these activities the project team will complete a comprehensive needs assessment for the participating institutions and then determine what combination of products and services would best meet these community needs. All aspects of proposal development and post-award management will be considered throughout the planning process, including but not limited to issues related to intellectual property and human subjects research. It is expected that this planning process will ultimately lead to the development of a proposal to implement the VSRO concept.
