Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State's recent inclusion in a highly competitive federal partnership now allows university researchers to focus more on research and less on administrative "red tape."
Membership in the Federal Demonstration Partnership enables campus scientists to streamline administrative steps associated with federally sponsored research, said Robyn B. Remotigue, assistant director of MSU's Sponsored Programs Administration.
MSU joins 33 other leading research institutions as new members of a group representing 120 national institutions. It is the only Mississippi institution of higher learning holding FDP membership in the cooperative initiative with 10 federal agencies.
"This is a very prestigious opportunity since no other organization brings these groups together to work collaboratively toward streamlining research administration processes," Remotigue said.
FDP membership is a formal way of demonstrating professional trust among leading research institutions, she explained.
MSU faculty representatives include Robert Moorhead, an endowed professor of electrical and computer engineering and researcher at the GeoResources Institute, and Susan Bridges, a professor of computer science and engineering and researcher at the Institute for Digital Biology.
Susan Wyatt Sedwick, associate vice president for research at the University of Texas at Austin and FDP chair, said she anticipates that MSU's representatives will contribute with active and sustained participation. "The enthusiasm and interest (they've) shown already is a great indicator of that expectation," she added.
The FDP is designed to save researchers time by streamlining administrative processes involved in competitive appointment, allocation and management of federal funds. The program began in the 1980s as an experiment with five federal agencies and universities in Florida.
Operated through the Government, University, Industry Research Roundtable, FDP is supported by the dues of member institutions and funding provided by various federal agencies to the National Academy of Sciences.
The six-year membership requires MSU to maintain procedures and systems in compliance with federal requirements for administering federal research grants, support campus researchers involved in FDP activities and continue efforts to re-engineer and streamline institutional processes related to grant administration.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS; For more information, contact Remotigue at 662-325-7397 or robyn@spa.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.