Responsible for overseeing the $260 million annual research enterprise across all UConn campuses, including UConn Health, the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) manages all aspects of research and scholarship activities for UConn’s world-class faculty.

The OVPR supports both short- and long-term initiatives to grow UConn’s research enterprise and robust innovation pipeline. Through a dynamic, multifaceted approach, the OVPR promotes single faculty investigator projects, large-scale interdisciplinary collaborations, partnerships with leading industries, and high-potential, university-driven startups.

The OVPR is responsible for:

• Research Support & Development
• Core Research Facilities
• Grant Proposal Support
• Award Management
• Research Compliance
• Technology Commercialization
• UConn’s Technology Incubation Program
• IPB at UConn Tech Park

Faculty Services is an optional service provided by the University and jointly funded by participating units and the Office of the Vice President for Research. We provide both pre- and post-award support and units can sign up to receive either or both services. If you are interested in receiving more information about this service and the cost, please contact Brianna Demers, Associate Director for Faculty Services (brianna.demers@uconn.edu).

Pre-Award Services

Our comprehensive proposal support allows faculty to spend more time on the drafting a strong narrative while ensuring their proposal will adhere to all University policies and meet with the requirements of the sponsor and solicitation. A full list of our services can be found here.

• Provide exceptional administrative support from proposal assembly to submission from expert administrators.
• Allow faculty to focus on the scientific development of the application.
• A team of specialists ensures support is always available to faculty during University hours.
• Help faculty to produce higher quality proposals is greater numbers.

Post-Award Services

Our full post-award support is a partnership with administrators within your unit to ensure faculty receive tailored services to manage their awards effectively. An overview of this partnership can be found here. By acting as the Fiscal Officer, we can provide rigorous oversight including thorough monthly reviews and a closeout process to ensure there are no surprises (deficits, unallowable costs, etc.). A full list of our services can be found here.

• Provide exceptional administrative support from pre-award/advance accounts through closeout from expert administrators.
• Provide detailed and customized monthly reports.
• Allow faculty to focus on the research and spend less time on administrative tasks.

Pre-Award Services

Who is My Pre-Award Specialist?

Summary of Services

• Budget development
• Budget justification templates
• Completion of all internal administrative forms (IPR, Cost Sharing, etc.)
• Review of all proposal documents against the requirements of the sponsor and solicitation
• Application building (our team will complete the application in WorkSpace, FastLane, etc.)
• Coordination with Sponsored Program Services for final review and approval

Faculty Tips for Success

• Contact us early! The earlier we are involved, the more support we can provide you.
• Contact us even if you are not sure if you will submit!
• Send us your documents as you complete them. We will review them against the requirements of the sponsor and solicitation and will let you know if changes are required.
• Keep us informed of your scheduled and planned travel so we can manage deadlines effectively.
• When your assigned Specialist is out of the office, contact facultyservices@uconn.edu for urgent issues and requests.

Post-Award Services

Who is My Post-Award Specialist?

Summary of Services

• Daily monitoring of account through KFS and HuskyBuy transactions
• Customized monthly reports and thorough monthly review
• Evaluate payroll changes
• Facilitate subaward and consultant agreements
• Calculate projections of future expenditures

Faculty Tips for Success

• Inform of your needs for pre-award/advance account as soon as you think you might need it.
• Inform us of potential personnel changes so we can project the impact to the award and obtain sponsor approval if necessary.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, it’s what we’re here for!

Faculty Services, founded in the fall of 2014, was created with the mission to grow and support the research enterprise by providing excellent, consistent proposal development and award management support for University faculty. This department, housed within the Office of the Vice President for Research consists of a team of expert research administrators who work directly with faculty. Faculty Services provides a single point of contact for proposal and/or award support. Our goal is to reduce faculty administrative burden allowing them more time to write proposals and work on funded projects. Faculty Services reduces the number of administrators required to complete a single transaction and reduces administrative tasks overall improving turnaround time and allowing more time to be devoted to complex and unique transactions.

Sponsored Program Services (SPS) assists faculty with the administration of sponsored program activities to reduce administrative burdens on researchers and department staff. Our goal is to help faculty win more grants and provide comprehensive pre- and post-award services, including:

• Budget development assistance and review
• Proposal review and submission
• Industry contract review and negotiation
• Guidance and consultation on grant-related questions
• Assistance with inter-campus award applications
• Set up of new grant and contract awards and related budgets in UConn’s accounting system
• Assistance with and processing of budget adjustments
• Final financial report preparation
• Proposal preparation and award management support through a shared service program (Faculty Services) to participating Schools and Colleges
• Research administration training, job aids, and support for staff and faculty

“The way we conduct research, engage our students, and prepare the next generation of scholars requires that we ensure the health and well-being of all involved. Strengthening and supporting a culture of safety is as important to our discovery enterprise as is peer review, publication, grant writing, mentoring, and educating; it is integral to the responsible conduct of research…Safety is a critical component of scholarly excellence…Good science is safe science.” APLU Council on Research (2016).

UConn is dedicated to promoting a culture of safety and provides resources and mechanisms to support researchers in conducting safe, responsible, and successful research activities:

The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) provides comprehensive services in the fields of biological safety, chemical safety, occupational safety, radiation safety, and environmental health. EHS maintains and administers programs that combine training, consultation, control, and inspection to protect the health and safety of the University community and to ensure regulatory compliance and adherence to University policies and recognized standards.

Research Integrity & Compliance works to promote safety and regulatory compliance in research by maintaining faculty lead oversight committees.  The safety committees supported by this office include:

• Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)
• Radiation Safety Committee
• Laser Safety Committee
• Chemical Hygiene Committee

The Innovation Partnership Building (IPB), an 113,700 square foot research building, officially opened its doors in 2018. The unique facility boasts state-of-the-art specialized equipment and instrumentation for nanofabrication, precision manufacturing, biomedical devices/sensor development, advanced modeling/simulation and material characterization.  The IPB serves a nexus of intellectual, physical and cyber assets intended to foster industry-academic partnerships for research, innovation technology commercialization and job growth for the State of Connecticut.

For more information visit techpark.uconn.edu