Inside Research

Manager for Research Administration Service Center hired to streamline service delivery

Planning for shared financial and research services for the research division began in 2016, with four UNC Research centers and institutes identified to serve as a pilot shared service center. Those centers are the Center for Developmental Science, the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, and the Injury Prevention Research Center. Finance and Research Administration staff from the centers assisted in the planning and design.

The planning phase of the pilot began before the announcement of Carolina Service — the university's initiative to create more efficient and effective ways of delivering services and sharing resources in the areas of human resources, finance, information technology, research administration, and communications. In early 2017, it was decided that we merge the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research's efforts with those of Phase I of Carolina Service. As a result, project teams formed to assess the current processes and requirements through interviews with principal investigators, center directors, and research administration staff from several centers and institutes — not just those involved in the pilot. During the design phase, data was collected and analyzed to create a new way of working that includes staffing needs to support the new model, inventory of activities, roles and responsibilities, and process redesigns. Because subsequent phases of Carolina Service will include the academic units, some staff members from those units were also involved in the process.

Yana Biblin has been hired as a manager for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Service Center. She will lead the continuation of the pilot and will contribute to the planning and launch of the new working model in advance of the initiation of Phase I of Carolina Service. This process will include training, transition plans, development of governance, service level agreements, monitoring, and continuous improvement. Biblin will have responsibility for managing and providing direction, guidance, and leadership for the day-to-day fiscal management and research administration activities for our internal service center pilot, which will consolidate finance and research administration support under a single organization.

HPDP Director Alice Ammerman receives Thomas Jefferson Award

Alice Ammerman, director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) and the inaugural Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, received the 2017 Thomas Jefferson Award on September 8. Established in 1961 by the Robert Earll McConnell Foundation, the award is presented by the Office of Faculty Governance each year to "that member of the academic community who through personal influence and performance of duty in teaching, writing, and scholarship has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson."

In addition to heading one of the premier Centers for Disease Control-funded Prevention Research Centers in the country, Ammerman is widely recognized for the impact of her work in the areas of nutrition policy associated with childhood obesity, sustainable agriculture as it relates to improved nutrition, and social entrepreneurship as a sustainable approach to addressing public health concerns. She has created and evaluated innovations in program delivery that have included such novel components as jobs creation, and has demonstrated consistently that research can embody service to the community as well as teaching through the mentoring of students at all levels.

"Part of the secret is being willing to get out of your comfort zone," Ammerman says. "I'm really proud to be a part of a university that highly values diversity, cares deeply about the people of our state, wrestles with difficult challenges, and allows me to follow my passions while still calling it a job."

CPC to lead five-year NSF PIRE grant focused on energy poverty in Southern Africa

Carolina Population Center (CPC) Fellows Pam Jagger, Mike Emch, and Barbara Entwisle have been awarded a $4.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program. The grant, titled "Confronting Energy Poverty: Building an Interdisciplinary Evidence Base, Network, and Capacity for Transformative Change," is focused on the problem of energy poverty in Southern Africa. Core partners include North Carolina State University, RTI International, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Copperbelt University, and the University of Zimbabwe.

OPA names 2017-2019 Faculty Diversity Fellows

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) is proud to announce its 2017-2019 Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity Fellows: Kathryn Desplanque, art; Katrina Ellis, health behavior; Brian Hsu, linguistics; and Erika Serrato, romance studies. Since 1983, the program has built a culturally diverse intellectual community at UNC, advancing scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in higher education. Each fellow receives a paid, two-year postdoctoral position in his or her selected department, additional funds for research, professional development and networking opportunities, and a unique opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor in their respective discipline.

Resources from the Office of Research Development

To expand UNC's capacity for innovative, groundbreaking research, the Office of Research Development (ORD) engages faculty to promote and support research focused on innovative, cross-disciplinary, and transformative efforts. To do this, they offer a series of services such as:

-weekly consultation hours for faculty to meet one-on-one with ORD staff, helping clarify funding needs and how ORD supports research programs;

-SPIN Plus, a comprehensive funding opportunities database listing over 40,000 funding opportunities from more than 10,000 federal, public, and private sponsors; and

-an internal selection process for limited submission grants and awards.

To receive regular updates about all of ORD's services, subscribe to their monthly newsletter, FUNDamentals.

UNC Research Organizational Chart

The latest organizational chart for UNC Research is here.