Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Trustees
of the State University of New York
 Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Foundation Relationship 
August 8, 2011
(Subject-to-Correction)
      
      The Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Foundation Relationship of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York met on August 8, 2011 at 11:36 a.m. at Stony Brook University, Charles B. Wang Center, Room 102, Stony Brook, New York pursuant to calls sent by the Office of the Secretary of the University on August 4, 2011.

August 8, 2011
11:36 a.m. 
				
Trustees present in Stony Brook University: Mr. Hunt, Committee Chairman, 
Mr. Staller, Mr. McCall

Trustee present via video in Rochester:  Dr. Lichtman

      Trustee available via conference call:  Mr. Belluck

Also present in Stony Brook:  Ms. Boice, Mr. Boyce, Mr. Howard, Dean Kaushansky, Dr. Lavallee, Mr. Mitchell, Dean Scheinman, President Stanley, and Ms. Wright

August 8, 2011

      1.	CONVENING OF PUBLIC MEETING
	Mr. Hunt, Committee Chairman, called the meeting to order at 11:36 a.m. and noted a quorum existed.  Mr. Hunt asked for approval of the minutes from the June 30, 2011 meeting.  The motion was made by Mr. McCall and seconded by Mr. Staller.   The minutes were unanimously approved. 
	Dr. Steven Scheinman, Dean of the College of Medicine at Upstate Medical University, provided the committee with an update from the Research Foundation Board of Directors’ Task Force.  Dean Scheinman indicated that the taskforce met twice via conference call (June 24th and July 19th) for the purposes of discussing the Hogan Lovells report.  Dean Scheinman also indicated that in their last meeting, they focused on three major categories: pre-award function, technology transfer, and commercialization.  	Dean Scheinman cited one of the New York Academy of Science’s recommendations was for the RF to develop relationships with private industry and between individual campuses and private industry.   Dean Scheinman mentioned that Ms. Boice developed a policy with regard to FOIL which will be rolled out after campuses have been consulted and input has been received.    
      Mr. McCall pointed out that the Hogan Lovells Lovell report mentioned that the RF has created a position on external relations, and he asked what it meant and who was responsible for communications at the RF.   Ms. Boice responded that Mr. Taubkin was the individual in charge of communications and external relationship at the RF and that he has been on board for about a year and three months.   
      Dean Scheinman stated that specific responses and recommendations will be fleshed out by staff at subsequent meetings and the next areas of priority will be the legal issues.  He also indicated the next meeting was scheduled for October 24th in Syracuse at Upstate Medical with tech transfer officers from other campuses in the region.  
      President Stanley, Stony Brook University, Dean Ken Kaushanksy, School of Medicine at Stony Brook, and Dean Steve Scheinman, College of Medicine at Upstate Medical, all provided their perspective on how to best support and grow SUNY’s research and what the respective roles of SUNY and RF should be.    
      A few of President Stanley’s ideas were: 1) Ensuring that the nuts and bolts of grant submission work well.   He cited that the biggest barrier to success in research was making it difficult for faculty to submit grant proposals and the lack of support to adequately submit such proposals.   2) performing technology transfer ; and 3) expanding sponsored research.   President Stanley also indicated that a large grant can take months, sometimes years, to develop properly.  
      Mr. Staller asked should the SUNY Provost be the leader in research and faculty support and not the RF.   President Stanley responded that the model has worked in terms of having some expertise at the top in people who understand research and the capacity of science and indicated he saw technology transfer best focused at the campus.   Mr. Staller pointed out that about 92% of research was sponsored research (Federal and Non-federal) and only took place at six campuses:  The four University centers, Upstate and Downstate Medical.  He indicated that this was something the provost should be able to get their hands around and fix the problems with those campuses in order to make it work for the other 58 campuses.   
      Mr. Belluck asked President Stanley’s opinion on governance issues with respect to the provost.  President Stanley responded by indicating that the overall strategic vies of research should be placed under the provost.  
      Dean Kaushansky’s perspectives touched on growing biomedicine research and focused on three major research areas -- cancer, neurosciences, and infectious diseases and immunology -- and developing major tools to allow researchers’ science to get better.  He indicated it was important to start with our leaders and recruit and empower scientific rock stars. He concluded by stating it was important to grow faculty and grow research infrastructure.  
      Dean Scheinman’s perspectives touched on NIH.  He mentioned that NIH is the largest single funder of research within SUNY.   Dean Scheinman said it was necessary to encourage as much federal funding as possible because it goes farther than any other source in covering the indirect costs of research.   He went on to say that they have asked the staff to gather information about best practices at other public universities with regards to how their research foundations relate to their parent universities and also with regard to some of the structural ways in which they support research.  
      Mr. Hunt then called for an Executive session.  Upon motion by Mr. McCall, seconded by Mr. Staller, at 12:47 pm, the committee convened into Executive session.  
      Mr. Hunt recessed the Executive Session at 1:06pm and indicated no votes took place during Executive Session.  
      Mr. McCall stated that at an earlier discussion between the RF and SUNY board, the SUNY board recommended to the RF that they enhance their commitment to diversity in hiring.  He stated that the RF staff continues to lack diversity at all levels, and as this process moves forward and staff positions are filled that the RF should substantially enhance its commitment to diversity.  
       Upon motion by Mr. McCall, seconded by Mr. Staller, a motion for adjournment was unanimously agreed to, and the meeting concluded at 1:08 p.m. 
      
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Ad Hoc Committee 
on RF Relationship	-4-	August 8, 2011