Research Reorganizes, Promotes New Leaders
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at Saint Louis University has announced a set of organizational changes and promotions.
Instead of separate offices, OVPR is now one office with working groups designed around the ways faculty approach research and scholarship. A five-year plan for research growth is currently under development and will serve as a blueprint for OVPR’s new organizational structure and work plan.
“On behalf of the entire OVPR team, we look forward to assisting all of our talented faculty and scholars in the coming years in accomplishing their research ambitions as we grow the scale and eminence of SLU’s research enterprise,” Kenneth Olliff, vice president for research, said.
The new working groups include:
Research Strategy Group (RSG)
RSG combines the Office of Research Services and the Grants Development Office into a new, comprehensive pre-award organization under the leadership of Jasmin Patel, assistant vice president for research strategy. RSG will work with faculty in all aspects of research program development including idea generation, seed funding, project management and proposal submission. This group will be responsible for expanding SLU’s research capacity by simplifying proposal submission; working with research support colleagues across campus; assisting faculty in developing strategies and skills for grant seeking; and building new research initiatives.
Research Integrity and Safety Group (RIS)
RIS combines the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Environmental Health and Safety, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and Financial Conflict of Interest (COI), into a single team under the leadership of Mark Haenchen. Haenchen will serve in this new role as executive director of research integrity and safety. Managing future growth and innovation will require greater flexibility across these highly regulated areas. RIS will be responsible for making SLU’s safety and integrity processes both easier to navigate and more transparent — within an overall focus on creating a culture of safe and ethical research that is instinctively compliant with regulatory standards and models best practices
Research Innovation Group (RIG)
Formerly known as the Office of Technology Management, RIG will support proof-of-concept through to startup company incubation, target market and sponsored research opportunities through strategic licenses and implement entrepreneurial training of faculty and students. Led by Graeme Thomas in the new role of executive director of research innovation and located at CIC@4240 in Cortex, RIG will incorporate the former office’s operations, restructured to focus on the key tech transfer functions of business development, IP management, database and transaction processing and contract management.
Research Accounting and Post-award Group (RAP)
Formerly known as the Office of Sponsored Programs Administration, this group will support central accounting and award-management functions. RAP will be led by Bridget Lally, director of sponsored award accounting and will report to Matthew Christian, associate vice president for research.
In addition to changes related to the aforementioned offices, the Clinical Trials Office and the Office of Research Technology — formerly housed in OVPR — have been moved to the School of Medicine and the Division of Information Technology Services respectively.