Universities work on managing research grants during integration

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In the multitude of plans that need to be made before the integration of Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on July 1, researchers are beginning to get answers as to how to apply for federal grants.

The information, published by the two schools late last week, is particularly important for National Institutes of Health grants, which have a deadline of June 28 for the July 5 awards. The researchers at the schools being integrated into Rutgers will apply for this round of funding using UMDNJ’s methods, then all existing awards will be transferred under the Rutgers name on July 1.

Linda Brzustowicz, the acting senior associate vice president of research and economic development at Rutgers, said most of the complications in getting awards under the same name come in the form of paperwork, but the two schools are eager to get this part of the integration done.

Brzustowicz said a team of research, finance and legal experts from both schools meets weekly to discuss how to transition both federal and private research grants and contracts under the Rutgers name.

She said that grants move with researchers to different institutions all the time, but the schools are working with the grant-issuing organizations to see if they can make changes on July 1 with the least amount of paperwork.

Brzustowicz said getting the research funding right is “high on the priority list” for both schools, and the goal is to make sure there are no lost days of research or clinical trials because of paperwork.

UMDNJ has already been awarded 37 NIH grants for fiscal year 2013, totaling more than $13.3 million, while Rutgers has been granted 28 awards for more than $10 million of research funds. Rutgers is also ranked in the top 25 universities in the nation for funding from the National Science Foundation.

UMDNJ will also have to work with Rowan University to integrate research funding from the School of Osteopathic Medicine. The Stratford-based SOM was awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant from NIH to study the DNA of the parts of cells that controls things like metabolism. Under the restructuring law, Rowan becomes one of a very few schools in the nation to have both an osteopathic and allopathic medical schools.

Fiscal Year 2013 grants from the National Institutes of Health to New Jersey institutions.

Source: National Institutes of Health