Charter Committee Annual Report to the Shared Governance Council

Committee: Research Council
Report Year: 2025

Committee Chair(s)Ariel M. Aloe (Chair); Scott Shaw (vice-Chair); Fatima Toor (pastChair)
Committee Members
  • Natalie Denburg
  • Paul Dilley
  • Carrie Figdor
  • Ravinder Gaddam
  • Seth King
  • Yasar Onel
  • Anthony Panos
  • Scott Shaw
  • Fatima Toor
  • Robert B. Wallace
  • Mihaela Bojin
  • Queena Lin
  • Duhita Mahatmya
  • Cody Poe
  • Emily Killian
  • Abigail Townsend
  • Divya Rathi
Committee Charge

The Council shall be governed by the terms of the General Charter. In addition, the Council shall:

  • Advise in the formulation, review, and application of policy and guidelines for university research and economic development and its funding both from within and without the university;
  • Advise on questions concerning the compliance of research with university policies;
  • Advise in developing methods for informing university members about research opportunities and for stimulating, evaluating, and rewarding good research;
  • Provide a forum to which faculty and students may refer questions and recommendations concerning university research policies and procedures. (https://opsmanual.uiowa.edu/governance/university-iowa/advisory-bodies/research-council-charter)
Current Year Meeting Dates10/13/2024; 9/13/2024; 12/17/2024; 1/24/2025; 2/12/2025; 3/14/2025; 4/18/2025; 5/16/2025
Please indicate the typical frequency of meetings (e.g., first Tuesday of month at 4 pm). If there are subcommittees, please indicate the frequency of those meetings, too.The meetings typically occur on a monthly basis. There were two subcommittees formed this year. One of those was charged with drafting a handbook of procedures for the Research Council and the other was charged with reviewing and recommending revisions to the charge of the Research Council. Both subcommittees met as needed and the frequency varied during the academic year.
Current Year Activities

In addition to receiving monthly visits from unit directors and federal agency policy updates, other activities during the monthly meetings involved:

  1. Completing the report of the benchmarking and conversation subcommittees from last year;
  2. Revision of the charge of the Research Council;
  3. Completing the draft of the Research Council Operations Manual.
Topics your committee will address during the coming year
  • Formally approve and adopt the Research Council Operations Manual
  • Share the reports that the council has authored with the incoming VPR
  • Engage with the new leadership to understand their priorities and advise as appropriate
  • More actively engage with the campus research community and in varying ways; for example, a monthly note from the research council chair published in the VPR newsletter, hosting public forums, etc.
Other issues of concern
  • Engage the research council in University-level discussions of research priorities and other emerging topics
What should we tell applicants for this committee regarding expectations of members (anticipated workload, existence of subcommittees, etc.)?The draft of Research Council Operations Manual describes expectations for members.
Does your committee have a website? If so, what is the URL?https://research.uiowa.edu/research-council
What is your process for passing on previous agendas and minutes to the new committee chair(s)?We rely primarily on the VPR office administrators, Michael Weaver and Lauren Galliart, who maintain the Research Council website and facilitate the access to OneDrive and Teams shared spaces.
Recommendations, if any, to the shared governance groups.None