General Comments/Remarks: Kim Jensen called meeting to order. Due to Bill Blass’ (chair) absence from meeting, Kim Jensen and Gayle Baker (co-vice- chairs) facilitated the meeting. Asked everyone if they received packet of materials that was mailed out with copies of the Research Council by-laws, mission according to Faculty Senate by-laws, year-end committee reports from last year, and committee assignments for this year. The majority of time spent in this meeting was to have a round-table discussion reviewing issues that members believe are important to the UTK research mission and use these ideas to prioritize issues for upcoming meetings.

Jensen welcomed the new members and asked everyone to introduce him or herself and what department and area of research they are in. Jensen noted that the Research Council does act as an advisory body for the Office of Research and part of their charge is to look at issues that may impact research productivity. Some areas of concern are looking at research incentives and support, facilitating interdisciplinary research activities, research compliance, research infrastructure and other issues.

Mike Devine (Vice Chancellor for Research) welcomed and thanked everyone for agreeing to serve on the Research Council. He discussed the importance of the Research Council and the various committees. Some of the committees help with the awarding of SARIF (scholarly Activity and Research Incentive Funds) funds and center reviews. A lot of things are happening university-wide that will effect research in the future, just a few examples are:

• Research Self-Study document (everyone should have received a copy). which identifies issues that need to be addressed.
• Joint Institute for Neutron Science - JINS (now established on paper). This is a focus of university resources in research in the area of Neutron Sciences to take advantage of the support for the Spallation Neutron Source.
• National Transportation Research Center – NTRC: to step-up our level of activity in transportation related research, engineering, and various other units; this is a collaborated project with Oak Ridge National Laboratories and will be housed in a building off Pellissippi Parkway.

Ken Walker (Associate Vice Chancellor for Research) welcomed new members to the Research Council. He explained his job in Office of Research was two- fold: (1) working with faculty to put together creditable cost-sharing packages to forward to agencies and foundations; and (2) working on behalf of the Office of Research with most of the council committees; especially the committees that review SARIF proposals/award, Summer GRA stipends awards, and the review of new and existing centers.

Committee Overview: Gayle Baker gave a brief description of committees and their charges. Three types of committees: standing committees that are issue-oriented committees; special panel committees are business related committees as far as allocating awards and moneys; and ad hoc committees or special project committees. Last year’s committee reports were included in your packets that were mailed out.

Prioritization of Issues for Discussion/Action of 1998-99: (Baker/Jensen) The issues for discussion/action for Research Council 1998-99 that were identified during the round-table discussion have been edited for consistency. They are listed in five different groups below. If an issue is related to a section in the Research and Creative Achievement Self-Study, we have listed the objective from the self-study by the notation –RS Objective #. Members were asked to help us prioritize the issues for discussion at the next meeting (October 26, 1998).

1. Computing Infrastructure:
   • What should be the minimum, centrally provided, computing and networking support for faculty? For new faculty members coming in?
     • For new faculty members coming in?
     • Upgrades for continuing faculty? (Is there potential for a matching program (hard-soft funds match for upgrades- RS 4f)?
   • What are the terms of the CAS hardware contracts fixed prices or fixed percentage discount?
   • Are graduate students receiving a proportionate benefit from the Tech. Fee? (They may have more specialized needs with respect to hardware and software than undergraduates)
   • What is intensive computing needs for research and what should policies be regarding cost-sharing for high performance computing?
     • Should there be total movement away from mainframe computing to distributed computing?
   • Should the Research Council recommend to the VC/Information Infrastructure and the Senate, the establishment of the following Faculty advisory committees?
     • Faculty Senate Advisory Committee to the VC/II
     • Faculty, staff, and student technical-policy advisory committee to TNS
     • Faculty, staff, and student technical-policy advisory committee to CAS
     • Faculty, staff, and student technical-policy advisory committee to ITC)
2. Other Infrastructure:
   • Why are facilities renovations and modifications so slow and so expensive?
   • How can a plan for maintenance and replacement of non-computer equipment be formulated and implemented?
   • How can more adequate technical support for equipment be provided and efficiently distributed across campus?
3. Graduate Students:
   • How can UTK increase support for graduate research: stipend numbers and stipend levels, travel funds, etc.-RS 4G ?
   • Can we find creative solutions for increasing graduate student stipends (What portions of the scholarships are undesignated so that they could be allocated to graduate students?) - RS 2B
   • How can a Graduate Research Forum at UTK, similar to the one for undergraduates, be implemented?
   • How do departments deal with their needs for graduate students when the market demand may be low for Ph.D. in their subject area?
   • Can a more flexible international student admission policy be implemented during times of low graduate enrollments? -RS 2C
   • How can RC facilitate initiation of a permanent archive for graduate research (Sunsite)?
4. Research Incentives/Promotion:
   • How should research and creative achievement be measured under the new Tenure Policy?
   • How can access to research output be facilitated: journals, databases (including citation databases) - RS 1E, 5B
   • How can better publicity/communication about available funding resources for research be provided?
   • Can a sabbaticals Policy be implemented or a more broadly scoped Policy on research leave? (Need innovative solutions. Research leave is an option in some departments, but not across the board on campus.) -RS 3E
   • How can University/industry relationships be improved? -RS 4E, 6
   • Can a replacement for the FIS be put in place that is easy to use and that could be put in a format where faculty to administrative reporting could be streamlined? -RS 5A
   • Should Research Council recommend that more F and A recoveries from research grants be allocated to the PI's research or to support research in their respective units and that policies be put in place, if possible, to enable carryover through a change in fiscal year? -RS 1A, 1B
   • Can more mentoring, more frequent evaluation meetings, and “how to” seminars be provided for Human subjects/IRB?
5. Research Self-Study:
   • What is the role of Research Council and Research Council committees in implementing the self-study?

Meeting adjourned 4:55 p.m.