Regina Smith, a former associate dean at the University of Florida, has been appointed the first executive director of the recently created Office for Sponsored Programs in the Graduate School. She joined the University on January 1 and reports to Robert V. Smith, vice provost for research and graduate education and dean of the graduate school.

"Dr. Smith brings with her an extensive knowledge of federal regulations and is a proven problem-solver, accustomed to making and carrying out tough decisions," says Bob Smith.

"She has significant experience in the areas

of technology transfer, patenting and conflict of interest."

The recently developed Office for Sponsored Programs was created to streamline research administration. The office merges all pre-award and post-award activities for grants, contracts and cooperative agreements. Under the previous structure, people seeking support for research or other projects had to deal with separate offices for the sponsorship search and application, the award, and the administration of the award.

The consolidation will not only help the University community seek and receive support more efficiently and effectively, says Bob Smith, but will "enable us to provide even more service than we've been able to provide in the past, such as workshops on grant development for faculty and other outreach efforts."

Regina Smith says the Office for Sponsored Programs has two objectives: to both serve and protect faculty and the institution. "We seek to provide service and to ensure that all applicable rules and regulations are followed," she says.

"UConn is an institution with a great deal of research potential," Smith says. "UConn's professors enjoy significant prestige in academics. The proper discussions are going on right now about about how to better restructure the ways in which we support research, and should serve to propel us to greater heights."

She has been meeting with her staff to ensure that they all understand "the continuum of proposal development, from idea conceptualization to final closeout."

The immediate need is to get all the OSP staff together under one roof. Smith says she hopes to speed up that process in order to capitalize on the staff's enthusiam to build a strong, service-orien ted research administration team.

Regina Smith has 15 years' experience as a research administrator at institutions of higher education. These include: associate dean for research in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida; assistant to the director, Office for Sponsored Programs at the University of Alabama; and director of Proposal Development Services in the Office of Research Administration at the University of Tennessee.

She earned her doctoral degree in educational research in 1985 from the University of Alabama, a master's degree in applied clinical psychology in 1974 from Northeast Louisiana University, and a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1971 from Troy State University in Troy, Alabama.

Sherry Fisher