Office of the Vice Provost for Research

Office of the Vice Provost for Research
Name	Office of the Vice Provost for Research
Formed	varies by institution
Jurisdiction	university
Headquarters	campus
Chief1 name	Vice Provost for Research
Parent agency	Provost's Office

Contents

Office of the Vice Provost for Research The Office of the Vice Provost for Research coordinates scholarly activity across a university, linking faculty, laboratories, and centers with external agencies such as National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, National Endowment for the Humanities, and European Research Council. It operates alongside entities like the Provost, President (university), Faculty Senate, Office of Sponsored Programs, and Technology Transfer Office to support projects connected to institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Oxford.

Role and Responsibilities

The office oversees research strategy, research integrity, and enterprise-level initiatives spanning partners such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Smithsonian Institution, and World Health Organization, while interacting with leaders including the Chancellor (education), Dean (academic), Center for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and European Commission. Responsibilities include stewardship of research assets, liaison with funding bodies like Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Human Genome Research Institute, coordination with units such as Graduate School of Education, School of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, and management of enterprise systems like ResearchFish, SciENcv, and ORCID.

Typical structure comprises divisions or directors for sponsored research, research compliance, research development, and innovation partnerships, collaborating with offices such as Office of the General Counsel, Human Resources (United States federal agency), Institutional Review Board, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and Environmental Protection Agency. Leadership teams include the Vice Provost for Research, associate vice provosts, directors of administration, and liaisons to entities like National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Association of American Universities, Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, and Council on Governmental Relations. The office commonly connects to specialized centers such as Center for Advanced Study, Nanotechnology Center, Biotechnology Institute, Digital Humanities Center, and Entrepreneurship Center.

This office develops institutional policies on issues involving sponsored programs, intellectual property, open access, and data management referring to frameworks like the Bayh–Dole Act, Common Rule, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Freedom of Information Act, and guidelines from Office of Management and Budget. It drafts procedures for conflict of interest, export controls, and responsible conduct aligned with standards from National Institutes of Health Office of Research Integrity, Office of Research Integrity, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Federal Demonstration Partnership, and Committee on Publication Ethics. Operational tasks involve grant proposal review, subaward negotiation, and oversight of university-wide repositories such as PubMed Central, arXiv, and Zenodo.

Offices run programs for faculty seed grants, early-stage investigator awards, interdisciplinary institutes, and commercialization accelerators funded or inspired by organizations including Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Fulbright Program, Rhodes Scholarship, MacArthur Foundation, and XPRIZE Foundation. Initiatives often include partnerships with National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Awards, Innovation Corps, Small Business Innovation Research, European Innovation Council, and collaborations with industry partners like Google, Microsoft, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Boeing. Outreach programs coordinate with community partners such as Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, and regional economic development agencies.

The office manages pre-award and post-award services, budgeting, and compliance for grants from funders like National Science Foundation Directorate for Biological Sciences, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Education, United States Agency for International Development, and philanthropic sources like Rockefeller Foundation. It administers institutional matching funds, endowments, and contracts in coordination with Office of the Comptroller, Endowment (finance), Office of Development (university), and external auditors such as Government Accountability Office and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Tools and systems integrated include eRA Commons, Research.gov, GrantForward, and enterprise resource planning platforms used by institutions like University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Princeton University.

Oversight covers human subjects protection, animal welfare, biosafety, export controls, research misconduct, and dual-use concerns consistent with regulations from Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Export Control Cooperation, and policy guidance from National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research. The office partners with compliance bodies including Institutional Biosafety Committee, Conflict of Interest Committee, Research Ethics Board, Data Protection Officer, and external accreditors like Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International. It also provides training and reporting aligned with standards such as Responsible Conduct of Research programs, mandatory training systems used by NIH and auditing practices recommended by National Science Board.

Category:University administration