New Research Development Services Offer BU Faculty Strategic Support for Securing Research Funding

Q&A with Sarah Hokanson, Assistant Vice President and Assistant Provost, Research Development and PhD & Postdoctoral Affairs

Last June, the Office of Research put wheels in motion on a new suite of services and resources to support faculty in preparing, obtaining, and leading extramural funding programs. Known as Research Development, the effort is led by Sarah Hokanson, Assistant Vice President and Assistant Provost, Research Development and PhD & Postdoctoral Affairs. In her role, Sarah also oversees postdoctoral affairs, professional development programming and resources for PhD students and postdocs across the University, and serves as the multi-PI of the Postdoc Academy, a $1.8 million NIH project focused on providing digital and in-person professional development opportunities for postdocs nationwide.

So, what is research development?

Research development, as we’ve conceived it at BU, is a suite of services to support faculty in obtaining and leading extramural funding programs for their research and scholarship. We’re going to do that in a whole host of ways: from disseminating funding opportunities; to facilitating proposal writing through how-to workshops; to direct proposal support for major, interdisciplinary collaborations; to developing templates and resources to respond to the needs of the research community, funding agency requirements, and evolving expectations for research leaders.

How are expectations for faculty investigators evolving?

In the past, when you put together a grant, there was an emphasis on the technical. Is it sound? Do I have the right expertise? Do I have access to the right resources? But as I’ve learned in running my own grants, so much more goes into the management of a project once it’s funded than the technical objectives that you write about in the proposal.

The expectations today are shifting with recognition that productive science is underpinned by strong mentoring and our commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The most competitive science incorporates the lived experiences and backgrounds of a diverse team that collaborates well together. So now we’re thinking about how we can help faculty build the skills they need beyond their disciplinary expertise that will help them receive larger grants that have more responsibility and leadership opportunities built into them.

That sounds like a big project. Where do you even begin?

Proposals for these types of grants require a number of written components—things like mentoring plans and plans for DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] or broadening participation—that have the potential to be quite similar across disciplines and across proposal types. In February we will roll out resources to help faculty learn from one another’s successes and to avoid duplicating efforts where there are opportunities for standardization.

For example, one of our Research ‘How-To’ events on February 7 is focused on developing DEI plans, because this is something that is now required by certain federal funders. These plans ask faculty and principal investigators to connect their research to what the University is doing in these areas. There’s a lot of broad, sweeping language out there, and yet research leaders have to be able to say what they’re going to do in concrete, practical terms.

Most of the time our faculty already do the things they are being asked to describe, and this workshop is focused on finding the words to describe the role they’re taking on in these important efforts. Yes, it’s part of good grantsmanship because it’s required by these funders. But it’s also something that faculty can use to be intentional about all of the different dimensions of their work, and remain connected to those responsibilities even when things get busy. “Oh, yes, I wrote that every month I will meet with my postdocs and talk about their individual development plans.” That’s a reminder that will be meaningful for both the PI and their team.

But there’s writing the proposal, and then there’s also making sure the words have skills underneath them. One area of skill-building where I’ve been focused for the last few years is faculty mentoring practices. I have created some programs, like the Provost Mentor Fellows program, but now we are expanding the content available to help faculty mentor the next generation of researchers, who have very different expectations and very different career paths than many of our senior faculty may have had when they were in training. We also just received an NIH NOSI supplement to develop new mentorship resources through our Postdoc Academy project, which is really energizing.

How can faculty access your services? Where they should go, what should they do?

It’s not one-size-fits-all. We are developing different kinds of resources for faculty at different junctures. Some faculty will be served well by our workshops and events. Others, working on University-wide proposals that are larger in scale, may choose to consult with me directly for specific proposal support.

We will be building out templates and resources as well, and to that end I’m hoping to hear from faculty about what they really need. What gaps are they experiencing in knowledge or skill? What types of templates, examples, or grant supports needed to be developed yesterday? My goal is to plan events and develop resources that are filling real gaps experienced by BU faculty.

We’re also looking for faculty to submit successful proposals to our growing Proposal Library, which is a fantastic resource already and one that I’m looking forward to building upon.

What matters to you about this work?

As someone who learned how to be a principal investigator here at BU, there was a lot of learning by doing. Don’t get me wrong, that is a great way to learn, but it’s often bumpy and stressful. So part of me wants to help new faculty who are transitioning into leading research projects so that they don’t have to face some of the challenges that I did.

For existing faculty, I’m excited to be able make connections across our campuses, and to be able to recognize faculty for the ways in which they are leading teams using skills that go well beyond their research. I’m excited to encourage them to pursue larger scale grants that often come with more responsibility and more complexity. In so many different disciplines and fields, we are lucky to have faculty that have the capacity for tremendous leadership.