Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all are having a productive summer! I’d like to use this blog to update members of the research community on the latest ORS progress, challenges, issues, successes etc that impact research:

• ORS has recently implemented a new pre-screen step for researchers applying for animal ethics approval. This step will reduce both the time it takes to secure an animal ethics approval and the frustration in back-and-forward provisos with the animal care committee.
• The latest 2011/12 UBC research revenue numbers have been released. See url http://research.ubc.ca/vpri/2011-12-funding
• The new NIH conflict-of-interest regulations come into effect in August and so we are working with the university counsels’ office to ensure we are in compliance
• ORS has developed a series of ORS key performance metrics that measure our administrative efficiency. We monitor these KPIs and will report on them on an annual basis. They will be available on the ORS website, shortly.
• UBC has recently subscribed to a powerful bibliometric tool called InCites. This tool enables measurement of research publications, collaboration and citation impact. ORS has been working with the VPRO and UBC library to promote knowledge and use of the tool to better improve our understanding of UBC research impact/performance.
• UBC has been involved over the last 2 years in a global research administration benchmarking exercise along with 14 other ACU (Association of Commonwealth Universities) commonwealth universities. We learned a great deal about how research administration works across the commonwealth and what constitutes best practice in the profession.
• We are monitoring the implementation of the new common CV system and feeding back information to the Federal funding agencies on problems, issues, concerns etc.
• On a personal note I was recently featured in “UBC reports” magazine article (http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/07/04/facing-cancer/) describing my survival last year after being diagnosed with NH lymphoma. The articles tells the story of the high tech treatments (that saved me) and the importance of ethical use of animals in research needed to develop life-saving treatments and drugs.

Finally a reminder for anyone ever having difficulties using the RISe system: We have a full-time RISe help desk managed by Deidra, who can be reached on 604-827-4449.

Regards and have a good rest of the summer!

Martin