UCI has been awarded a record $529 million in research funding for fiscal year 2019-2020. In recent years, across campus, schools have made remarkable progress towards the centralization of their Research Development and Pre-Awards operations. Dunlop School began the process around three years ago and has significantly increased the number of research applications and funding since that transition. Of the submitted applications for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, Dunlop School has already obtained $43.7 million in funding.
The Research Development and Pre-Award teams help Dunlop School faculty, postdocs, and graduate students develop and submit grant proposals. The Research Development team assists with writing a competitive proposal that is responsive to the sponsor request for proposals. They critique and edit drafts of grant proposals, help with managing and assembling complex proposals, and match researchers to funding opportunities. The Pre-Awards team provides an orientation of the research administrative process at UCI, and they review proposal guidelines, budget development, application completion and internal review processes. Once a research proposal is funded, the Pre-Award team helps facilitate award stage negotiations, award set up, and they monitor progress reporting and close out. Both teams work closely together under the direction of the associate dean for research and innovation, Professor Brandon Gaut.
Let’s thank both teams — Jason Park, Megan Vu, Carmen Bastos and Erica Turley-Devilla from Pre-Awards, and Melinda Gormley and Justin Sarkis from Research Development. Due to their hard work, expertise and determination, many more faculty, grad students and postdocs are able to participate in the cutting-edge research and reach ground-breaking discoveries Dunlop School is known for.
Congratulations on a job well done!