UMBC is leading a new initiative, in partnership with several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the region, that’s aiming to expand the research compliance capacity of mid-size (universities with 15,000 or less students) and smaller universities to better adhere to emerging federal research security policies.
To address the challenges associated with expanding research compliance capacity at institutions at these sizes, UMBC is partnering with the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, and Delaware State University to develop the Research Integrity, Security, and Compliance (RISC) program. RISC is supported through a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (GRANTED) program. The program’s goal is to address systemic barriers within the nation’s research enterprise by improving research support and service capacity.
Principal investigator (PI) Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research and creative achievement, and co-PI Christine Mallinson, assistant vice president for research and scholarly impact, will lead the multi-institutional RISC program.
“Mid-size institutions, along with MSIs and HCBUs, are expected to keep pace as new policies and guidance emerge, but they may not have the same ability or capacity to do so, compared to larger and more highly resourced research institutions,” explains Mallinson. “RISC will help us develop and then implement these evolving compliance structures and processes for smaller universities.”
Research security, according to the nation’s federal guidelines on government-supported research, is defined as “safeguarding the research enterprise against the misappropriation of research and development to the detriment of national or economic security, related violations of research integrity, and foreign government interference.” As part of the RISC program, UMBC will create, test, and implement a model for how mid-sized and smaller research universities can adhere to new and emerging research security policies.
That process, Mallinson explains, includes developing training modules on research security and compliance for researchers and research administration staff. The model will be further developed and evaluated among the partnering RISC institutions.
The program will also support expanding the team in UMBC’s Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) and an additional cybersecurity specialist role in the Division of Information Technology, as well as supporting an increase in compliance staffing at the partnering institutions. Mallinson shares the “RISC Roadmap” will be publicly available for other institutions to assist them in responding to research integrity, security, and compliance guidance and meeting institutional needs.
“UMBC is at the forefront of this conversation of what it looks like for mid-sized institutions and smaller, emerging research institutions to build their research infrastructure in this area,” says Mallinson.
“I am very pleased about our multi-institutional, regional partnership and the significant support by the NSF that will allow us to address these pressing issues of research compliance and to create a blueprint for other smaller and mid-size research institutions,” adds Karl Steiner. “We have already benefited from the input provided by our partners during the proposal process.”
In addition to the RISC program, Mallinson has also been working to educate undergraduate students on careers in research administration with the GRANTS MADE Research Administration Internship. The internship, also funded by NSF’s GRANTED program, was created to expand and diversify the research administration workforce. UMBC’s Alexis Johnson ’24 and current senior Andy Quach, both financial economics majors, were a part of the internship program’s inaugural cohort. This summer, Quach continued his potential career interests in research administration with an internship with the ORPC. Quach helped to review and audit active research protocols and drafted various compliance documents.
Mallinson adds that prospective interns may also have the option to work with the ORPC team, allowing for a synergistic opportunity to train the next generation in this critical area of research security and compliance.
Tags: National Science Foundation, Research, security
