Special Celebration Edition – December 2021
On November 30, the ORED team had its staff recognition event at the remodeled Sun Valley Lanes. Thank you to Laurie Sampson and Lisa Maupin for planning a fun, safe event where ORED colleagues could gather to celebrate and interact face-to-face. We were also able to reflect on our successes from 2021, including the many remarkable ways ORED staff have stepped up to help the university navigate the COVID pandemic.
Below you’ll find each unit’s 2021 accomplishments, a listing of this year’s award winners and links to kudos and photos from the event.
2021 Team Accomplishments
Each year, every ORED unit submits a list of its top achievements. Here are the 2021 accolades your ORED colleagues highlighted:
Vice Chancellor’s Office
- Received sponsored awards totaling $352 million and submitted proposals totaling $1.1 billion!
- Welcomed and celebrated new leadership: Director of Federal Relations Jessie Herrmann and Director of the University of Nebraska Press Jane Ferreyra.
- Launched the Research Leaders Program in 2020-2021. Members of the inaugural program: Jennifer Clarke, Katie Edwards, Matthias Fuchs, Yufeng Ge, Jiantao Guo, Carrie Heitman, Tomas Helikar, Adam Houston, Kristi Montooth, Timothy Nelson, Maital Neta, Wendy Smith, Eric Thompson, Joe Turner and Mehmet Can Vuran.
- Celebrated the University of Nebraska State Museum’s 150th anniversary.
- UNL faculty received 75 external recognitions and awards — 10 more awards than the N2025 goal, which was calculated using a 10% increase over the three-year rolling average.
- Through the use of extensive planning and safety reopening plans, UNL was able to keep faculty operating in their on-campus research labs and spaces throughout the entire pandemic, a feat many of our peers were not able to accomplish.
- UNL had six NSF CAREER Award winners: Justin Bradley, Catherine Eichhorn, Lynne Elkins, Jack Jeffries, and Siamak Nejati.
- UNL kicked off the Grand Challenges Initiative in 2020-2021, bringing together more than 500 faculty, staff and students from more than 190 campus units where seven thematic areas were identified: Anti-racism and racial equity, climate resilience, early childhood education and development, heath equity, quantum science and engineering, science and technology literacy for society and sustainable food and water security.
- Celebrated an all-time high sales revenue of $7.4 million at the University of Nebraska Press.
- Achieved yet another all-time high of $320.5 million in research expenditures.
Office of Sponsored Programs
- Pre-award group submitted 2,201 proposals in FY 2021 totaling over $1 billion. Of those proposals: 37% were direct to federal agencies, 11% included outside subawards, 9% included cost share, and 1% requested more than $10 million.
- Awards group processed 881 awards between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, bringing in a total of $124 million in funding. Further, they processed 841 amendments bringing, which brought in another $172 million in funding. They also processed 408 outgoing subawards, as well as 304 non-funded awards.
- Post-award group set up 3,400 new WBS numbers and closed out 2,853 projects between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. Further, 1,769 PVS documents were created and completed in that same time period.
- Since our last accomplishments listing, OSP has brought on seven new staff members: Sarah Hansen, Oliva Appleget, Cassidy Kosena, Jamie Aldag, Calley Bundy, Keri Williams and Jackson Slechta.
- Andrea Koeber successfully transitioned out of pre-award and into the newly created role of eRA Specialist.
Office of Proposal Development·
- Served more than 130 faculty who submitted 180-plus proposals to external sponsors.
- Helped secure more than $44 million in awards.
- Coordinated the annual NSF CAREER Award workshop and NSF CAREER Club.
- Coordinated the Research Development Fellows Program.
- Coordinated 52 expert external reviews.
- Distributed Funding Announcements to 1,370 UNL faculty, administrators, staff and students.
- Participated in three presentations during the National Organization of Research Development Professionals annual meeting.
- Posted 118 internal limited submission competitions.
- Conducted 15 funding opportunity searches.
- Welcomed two new team members – Katie Pelland and Jaclyn Tan.
Research Compliance Services
- The IRB passed its five-year, AAHRPP re-accreditation site visit with ease, processed more than 1,500 protocol forms, and more than 100 sIRB requests.
- Conflict of Interest staff rolled out a new disclosure process in NuRamp and processed more than 1,700 disclosures.
- Export Control staff processed 10 TCPs, more than 140 determinations along with many international travel checklists, H1B/J-1 visa assessments and MTA reviews.
- 457 training completion reports were processed specific to RCR/funding requirements along with a dozen trainees completing in-person RCR training requirements.
- RCS rolled out guidance and webpages specific to Research Data & Security requirements.
- Welcomed Erik Schulz (Export Control) and McKenna Schneider (COI) to the RCS Office!
Research Communications
- Led university-wide marketing efforts for the re-launch of the Grand Challenges initiative, along with revamping the website.
- Increased efforts to highlight Nebraska research related to diversity, equity and inclusion, the Grand Challenges thematic areas, and timely, newsworthy topics.
- Received kudos on another annual Research Report, which featured 63 faculty members.
- Produced news stories, social media and video content for Nebraska Research Days, to both promote the event and to highlight faculty accomplishments for the year.
- Teamed up with the events and outreach team to shift grant celebrations to a virtual format, which greatly increased participation on campus and beyond.
- Partnered with University Communication to offer specialized media training to the Faculty Research and Creative Activity Slam participants. These Slammers were well-prepared to give a short, engaging talk in any situation.
- On track to publish a record number of Research News stories by the end of 2021.
- The @UNLResearch social accounts gained 451 new followers this year.
Research Finance and Information Systems
- Hired 123 student workers and 15 temp workers for the COVID testing sites, for both nasal and saliva testing.
- Purchased and distributed $347,601 of gift cards for Research Participant Payments (physical and electronic cards).
- Worked with several ORED units to upgrade current forms to DocuSign PowerForms.
- Reconciled 4,211 P-card transactions.
- Oversaw payroll and time entry for 313 individuals.
- Assisted with budgeting and submitting 139 proposals.
- Sourced and ordered straws, alcohol wipes and plastic bags for 340,000 COVID saliva testing kits as well as PPE (gloves, N95 and regular masks, gowns, breeder sleeves) to keep workers in 14 testing pods and one nasal testing site safe.
- Generated reports to help with OSP Change Requests, greatly speeding up the process.
- Built N2025 dashboard displaying ORED’s goals and published it to web for UNL access.
Institutional Animal Care Program
- Continued to hold AAALAC Full Accreditation following a summer site visit.
- Staff members earned certifications: Megan Ebbers – CPIA, Cindy Wooledge – LAT, Cedric Wooledge – ALAT, Jesse Bauman-Berg – ALAT.
- Biocontainment Laboratory (BSL3/ABSL3): trained 12 on campus, including our own Anna Fitzwater and successfully completed several studies thanks to the efforts of Bayliegh Bohn, Jared Fischer, and Jesse Bauman-Berg; the lab also was re-certified.
- Maintained research activity throughout the pandemic with minimal disruption.
- Three staff members attended the National AALAS Conference: Denise Koranda, Cedric Wooledge, and Katelin VanDerslice.
- Hired an Occupational Health Nurse, Stephanie Padilla.
- Held a successful in-service staff retreat.
- Successfully started up the gnotobiotic mouse facility.
- Kathy Pinkerton hosted the Big Ten Academic Alliance Meeting.
- Welcomed Breanne Einspahr and Jessica Jones to our IACP Team.
Industry Relations
- A record number and value of Nebraska industry R&D projects contracted with UNL were competitively awarded matching funds by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
- Advanced strategic relationships with the Israeli ag-tech industry sector, with new industry sponsored research collaborations, and NIC partner company recruitment to The Combine.
- Supported UNL engagements with 112 companies.
- Coordinated and hosted NU systemwide Contracting with Industry forums, and two Business Innovation Act Funding webinars for Nebraska businesses and NU faculty, staff and students.
- Secured SBA funds to support industry contracting professional development, and EDA funds to develop a Working with Industry program for faculty.
NUtech Ventures
- Evaluated 92 new invention disclosures.
- Filed 96 U.S. Patent Cooperation Treaty and foreign patents and 48 patents were granted, including 29 issued U.S. patents.
- In 2021, for the fourth year in a row, the University of Nebraska system ranked in the top 100 academic institutions worldwide for issued U.S. patents.
- NUtech Ventures executed 33 new technology license agreements, including five agreements with UNL faculty founders and their start-up companies.
- Generated $6.48 million in license revenue, with $5.35 million being distributed to inventors and campus.
- Hosted numerous virtual and in-person events to promote technology commercialization, intellectual property education, networking and entrepreneurship.
- Recruited, hired and trained NUtech’s eighth cohort of technology commercialization interns. Since 2014, NUtech has provided this opportunity to 66 students from seven UNL colleges.
- NUtech Ventures and its partners recently completed the fifth cohort of Nebraska Introduction to Customer Discovery. To date, 57 teams comprising 127 individuals have participated.
- Three UNL teams received grants to participate in national NSF I-Corps Teams programs during the 2021 calendar year.
- Cheryl Horst completed two years of service to the Nebraska Bar Association as chair of the Intellectual Property Section.
- Arpi Siyahian recently served as the chairperson of the Licensing Executive Society Annual Meeting.
Nebraska Innovation Campus
- The Food Processing Center, located at Nebraska Innovation Campus, became an FDA approved over-the-counter drug production facility for the production of hand sanitizer. From April-July 2020, in partnership with ethanol producers across the state, 200,000 gallons of hand sanitizer were produced and distributed from the site.
- Nebraska Innovation Studio, the makerspace at Nebraska Innovation Campus, closed to the public and became a production facility for face shields and disposable protective gowns. 33,000 face shields and 2,000 gowns were produced and distributed.
- 6,500 USDA Food Safety Inspection Service locations, Nebraska K-12 school districts, University of Nebraska campuses, hospitals, dental offices, frontline health care providers, first responders, nursing homes and child care centers received PPE that was produced at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
- The Nebraska PPE Partnership Project, a partnership between Nebraska Innovation Studio, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Processing Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, received the Association of University Research Parks’ Excalibur Award.
- The name and brand package for The Scarlet Hotel was revealed during an August 2020 event.
- Fifty-eight companies called Nebraska Innovation Campus home during the 2020 calendar year.
- Resources for startup companies, specifically those of university faculty, staff and students, were expanded and now include Nebraska Innovation Studio, the Biotech Connector, The Combine, the Suite Spot, the Landing Coworking Space and Innovation Advancement Suites.
- Nebraska Innovation Studio celebrated six years of making. NIS is a 16,000-square-foot makerspace for innovators, artists and entrepreneurs that houses a full metal shop, wood shop, rapid prototyping room, art studio, ceramics and textiles equipment, and more.
- Nebraska Innovation Campus launched a virtual tour of the campus! Visit http://nebraskainnovationcampus.com to view the virtual tour.
AWARDS
At the staff recognition event, ORED staff members and some of our close collaborators on campus received awards, which are summarized below.
Amy Goodburn, senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education, received the Friend of Research Award in honor of the work she did with Bob Wilhelm, vice chancellor of research and economic development, to plan and implement the university’s COVID-19 protocols and plans, with the ultimate goal of supporting the safety and health of the campus community.
Jen Nelson and Becky Zavala, both assistant vice chancellors for research, received the inaugural N2025 Award from Mike Zeleny, who presented the award on behalf of Chancellor Ronnie Green. Nelson and Zavala were key players in developing and managing UNL’s COVID-19 response, working around the clock to help the campus stay as functional as possible while maintaining safety.
Each year, the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Invaluable Service is presented to ORED employees and partners 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 2021 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Invaluable Service recipients are:
- Mike Kamm, IANR Media
- LD Miller, Research Finance and Information Systems
- Erin Murray, Research Finance and Information Systems
- Amanda Bohlin, Proposal Development
- Bayliegh Bohn, Institutional Animal Care Program
- Suzanne Reinke, Sponsored Programs (not pictured)
In addition, the Research Development team led by Nathan Meier, assistant vice chancellor for research, was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Cup for Outstanding Customer Service during the event. Other team members include Tisha Gilreath Mullen, Amanda Bohlin, Matthew Dwyer, Ezra Stewart-Silver, Jocelyn Bosley and Petrina Suiter.
KUDOS SUBMISSIONS AND PHOTOS
ORED staff were invited to submit kudos to their colleagues, which rotated on screen during the staff recognition event. To view this year’s slideshow, click here.
To view the nominations of the Vice Chancellor’s Invaluable Service Award winners, click here.
Photos from the staff recognition event are available here.
