Other suggestions presented to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Feb. 25 by the senate's Committee on Research and Creative Activity included establishing a mentoring program for junior faculty and encouraging the president, provost and deans to "clearly and more frequently enunciate" the value of the university's research and scholarly mission.

The recommendations were prepared by the committee in response to a charge from the FSEC last fall to identify factors underlying the downturn in research revenue at UB and to recommend actions to reverse the trend.

The charge came in the wake of a report to the FSEC on Oct. 22 by Dale M. Landi, vice president for research, that research proposals generated at UB had declined 16 percent between 1991 and 1996, and that during that time, 78 faculty members had left the university, taking with them $8.7 million in research funding.

Robert Baier, professor of oral diagnostic sciences and chair of the Committee on Research and Creative Activity, told senators that statistics supplied by Landi's office have indicated that "most of the quantitative downturn in cash flow" from sponsored activity is in the academic portion of the life sciences.

The committee felt that establishing a "permanent presence" for Sponsored Programs on the South Campus might facilitate proposal writing and other activity, Baier said.

Some members of the committee also felt a mentoring program should be established for junior faculty within departments and across traditional academic units so that those faculty members "who know how to shake the money tree" can help junior faculty members to identify grant money and learn the particulars of proposal writing, he said.

Landi described ways in which Sponsored Programs is attempting to assist faculty members, including providing information on funding opportunities and budgeting on its Web site (http://wings.buffalo.edu/spa) and offering training sessions for small units or groups of faculty members.

He also noted that many federal agencies are allowing for electronic submission of research proposals. The National Institutes of Health is "shaking the kinks out" of its electronic application submission process and could start taking electronic submissions by the fall, he said.

"Our plan is to be in gear with that here" so that faculty members can use the system, he said.

Herbert Schuel, professor of anatomical sciences, applauded the recommendation to establish a Sponsored Programs office on the South Campus, calling the absence of an office on the South Campus, as well as the "reluctance" of the North Campus office to stay open after 5 p.m., "a major irritant when you're struggling to get a grant application out on time."

Landi reminded senators that Sponsored Programs did have a part-time satellite office on the South Campus a few years ago, but it "didn't get much play."

However, establishing a permanent South Campus office "is worth looking into," he acknowledged.

Jack Meacham, professor of psychology, suggested a scenario in which a faculty member has an idea for a research project that would only need $50,000 in funding, but would not seem credible to a funding agency because the amount was so small. "So what's needed is some kind of packaging and brokering," he said. "What we need is something like the dating section in The Buffalo NewsŠa hot sheet with block ads" linking faculty members with potential research partners or equipment. Three or four small proposals might make a very credible $1 million or $2 million or $3 million project," he said.

Landi said his office is willing to arrange for mentors to assist investigators. The office has seed money for small projects, although it is competitive, he said, as well as a discretionary pool to fund small projects that come up outside the competitive cycle, but still merit funding.