SPECIAL EDITION: ORED STAFF RECOGNITION LUNCH

On Feb. 4, the ORED team gathered at the Lied Commons for our annual staff recognition lunch. The event is an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments over the past year and look ahead to future goals. Special thanks to Laurie Sampson and Lisa Maupin for planning this year’s Clue-themed lunch, “A Case of Curiosity.” We appreciate all their hard work in ensuring a fun, smooth event.

2018 TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Every year, each unit submits a list of its top accomplishments, which are printed in the event program. In case you missed it, here are the 2018 accolades your ORED colleagues are most proud of:

Vice Chancellor’s Office

• Welcomed and celebrated new leadership: Vice Chancellor Bob Wilhelm, Associate Vice Chancellor Deb Hamernik, Assistant Vice Chancellor Becky Zavala, Director of Research Strategy and Infrastructure Jen Nelson, and Director of STEM Education Research Initiatives Jim Lewis.
• Continued our upward trajectory of research expenditures with a total of $308 million, a 25 percent increase over the past decade.
• 2018 was a record year for UNL with five Fulbright winners: Cory Forbes, Jessica Shoemaker, Jay Storz, Yan Xia and Andrew Zimbroff.
• The Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research hit a landmark in 2018: It awarded 10 grants totaling $794,200 and awarded an additional $20,000 for 2018 summer internships. This is the largest award made by NCESR to date.
• UNL received a record number of UNL National Research Council-Recognized Awards – 24 – more than tripling the awards in 2011.

Office of Sponsored Programs

• Outperformed the Big Ten metrics 2:1 by using half as many of the recommended FTEs as other schools.
• Pre-Award submitted 2,250 proposals in fiscal year 2018 totaling nearly $742 million.
• The Awards team administered 1,246 grants, bringing in more than $178 million in new awards to UNL.
• Post-Award worked more than 5,800 unique WBS’s looking for compliance with sponsor rules. Their work paid off with notification recently of another clean audit.
• OSP processed 8,500 effort reports.

Proposal Development

• Served more than 200 faculty who submitted more than 230 proposals to federal and private sponsors.
• Coordinated and delivered ORED’s annual CAREER Award workshop and NSF CAREER Award Club.
• Coordinated and delivered the Research Development Fellows Program.
• Escorted more than 20 faculty to Washington, D.C. to meet with program officers.
• Helped to develop a bid to relocate two offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Nebraska Innovation Campus.
• Distributed Funding Announcements to 1,512 UNL faculty, administrators, staff and students.
• Successfully onboarded five new team members.

Research Compliance Services

• IRB team: Almost implementing, delaying, delaying again, and finally implementing, on Jan. 21, the Federal Changes to the Common Rule.
• Export Control team: Revamping and creating new policies, procedures, risk assessment and training requirements for the campus.
• Emily Hanus: Emily passed her CRA (Certified Research Administrator) exam with flying colors!
• Lissette Gilster: Completed her first national-level Association of University Export Control Officers presentation and webinar on international shipping and, since no good deed goes unpunished, she is working on another presentation for the upcoming AUECO conference in 2019!
• Rachel Wenzl: Completed her master’s degree in public health, presented at the UNMC Hot Topics in Human Subjects Research annual conference and received the Board of Regents Kudos award for her outstanding work!
• Jenn Klein: Jenn made it through the IRB training gauntlet of her first year with the office and she launched the first-ever IRB metrics information and video resources training pages for RCS!
• Becky Freeman: Trained and retrained on the changes to the Common Rule and passed her CIP (Certified IRB Professional) recertification testing with ease!
• Karen Hanson: She just joined the IRB team in December and has made it through the first phases of her training. Keep up the good work in 2019!

Research Communications

• The Research Comm team published 109 stories in Research News, a 15 percent increase from 2017, driving nearly 54,000 page views to research.unl.edu
• RCom expanded its storytelling prowess in 2018, adding video shorts and photo essays to its portfolio. These short-form assets enabled the team to cover a wider variety of topics, including nitrogen fixation, preparing children and families for school success, smart roadside barriers, controlling tree invasions in grasslands, and nicotine addiction.
• Nebraska Research’s Facebook following increased 28 percent in 2018. The most popular post was a short video on the invasion of Eastern Red Cedar trees in Nebraska, which 5,000 users watched. Twitter grew 15 percent, and the most popular tweet was a photo from the Biotech Connector’s grand opening at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
• The team produced another successful annual report and experimented with its first-ever multi-paneled cover — no easy feat for the design team!
• The team assisted the Office of Sponsored Programs with a major design of its website.
• Tiffany Lee brought back OPEN Book and made substantial content revisions to make the monthly newsletter both fun and useful for the ORED staff.
• Jeff Wilkerson joined the team as the communications and content manager, bringing his video skills from the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Research Finance and Information Systems

• Reconciled 1,408 P-card transactions.
• Oversaw payroll and time entry for 245 individuals.
• Reconciled 146 cost centers and grants.
• Purchased 2,061 gift cards for faculty to use for research participants.
• Assisted with budgeting and submitting 49 grants.
• Oversaw one renovation project in Behlen.
• Provided business services and support to seven research centers/programs.
• Hired and trained one new staff member.
• Successfully created a live data feed from NUgrant to Tableau.
• Designed and deployed an interactive REDGI dashboard.
• Created peer reporting dashboards using HERD and AUTM data.
• Started working with four areas on data needs.

Institutional Animal Care Program

• Granted Regents approval for the Life Sciences Annex expansion for gnotobiotic mouse research.
• Bayliegh Bohn, Brittany Smola and Melissa Bausch achieved the ALAT (Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician) Certification.
• Kathy Pinkerton earned CPIA (Certified Professional in IACUC Administration) credentials.
• Eclipsed 250 active protocols for the first time and currently have 118 PIs and 266 active protocols.
• Average IACUC protocol approval time is 22 days.
• Increased our large animal room use from an average of 22 percent use per month in 2017 to 69 percent average use per month in 2018.
• Bayliegh Bohn worked closely with UNL’s Building Systems Maintenance to make adjustments to the Life Sciences Annex HVAC system, achieving a 7.5 percent annual energy savings.

Industry Relations

• Executed a Master Collaboration Agreement with the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s National Security Campus managed by Honeywell.
• Secured the University of Nebraska’s first University Center grant from the Economic Development Administration, in collaboration with the other NU campus counterparts.
• Supported the execution of eight Master Agreements with companies, including all remaining major crop seed/biotech companies, with which we did not already have such an agreement.
• Launched several collaborative events, including Innovation Connect with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Grad Student-Industry Meet Up with UNL Graduate Studies, and the Nebraska Innovation Network Road Tour with several NU units and external organizations focused on economic development and entrepreneurship.
• Advanced several strategic industry partnerships, notably Costco, Sunseo Omega and Bayer/Monsanto/Climate Corporation.

NUtech Ventures

• Evaluated 93 new invention disclosures.
• Filed 95 U.S., PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) and foreign patents, and 38 patents were granted.
• Helped facilitate the University of Nebraska system’s ranking in the top 100 academic institutions worldwide for issued U.S. patents in 2017.
• Executed 31 new technology license agreements.
• Generated $5.1 million in license revenue.
• UNL-licensed herbicide tolerance technology was planted on nearly 50 million acres of soybeans and cotton in North America.
• Executed licenses with five new faculty startup companies.
• Produced our first annual report and held our fourth annual Innovator’s Celebration during the ORED Fall Research Fair.

Nebraska Innovation Campus

• The Rise Building, NIC’s new three-story, 75,000-square-foot structure, is open for business and companies have started moving into completed space in the building.
• Virtual Incision, a medical device company founded by University of Nebraska faculty, relocated and expanded its headquarters at NIC. The new space, on the first floor of the Rise Building, has four main areas: a manufacturing facility, a research and development laboratory, a mock operating room and office space. To date, Virtual Incision has secured $35 million in investment.
• The Biotech Connector, the first web lab incubator in Nebraska, opened at NIC and is housed on the fourth floor of the Food Innovation Center. (biotechconnector.com)
• Secured a $540,000 donation to build out additional spaces in Innovation Studio, a makerspace at NIC.
• The Veterans in Recovery program was initiated in partnership with Nebraska Innovation Studio. Veterans in Recovery is a program designed to provide basic woodturning skills and other creative outlets that will have therapeutic value for veterans. The program provides instruction, materials and safety equipment to veterans at no cost.
• Over $18.5 million in research contracts and awards were made to university faculty and projects located on NIC during the last fiscal year.
• Dan Duncan, NIC executive director, was elected president of the Association of University Research Parks.

AWARDS

Each year, the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Invaluable Service is presented to ORED employees who have exhibited excellent work and commitment to the department’s mission. Award criteria include outstanding accomplishments above and beyond job and performance expectations; actions that support leadership, innovation, initiative and/or cost-effectiveness; and exceptional service provided to university clients.

The 2018 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Invaluable Service are:

• Mari Greer, Vice Chancellor’s Office
• Craig Kreikemeier-Bower, Institutional Animal Care Program
• Tiffany Lee, Research Communications
• Tisha Mullen, Office of Proposal Development
• Brian Sabata, Office of Sponsored Programs
• Craig Chandler, University Communication

In addition, the Office of Sponsored Programs was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Cup for Outstanding Customer Service during the event.

Congratulations to all!

KUDOS

ORED staff are invited to submit kudos to their colleagues that are rotated on screen during the lunch. To view this year’s slideshow, click here.