.
The Associate Dean for Research is responsible for providing the overall leadership and administration of the research activities of the College of Nursing.  In addition, the Associate Dean is responsible for the administration of the statistics laboratory and faculty and student evaluations.  Activities include disseminating information relevant to intra and extramural requests for grant proposals and/or contracts; maintaining current guidelines and grant materials; assisting in the development of grant proposals; providing design and statistical consultation; facilitating grant writing by students and faculty; processing research and training grant proposals; coordinating and implementing the teacher and course evaluations and reporting evaluation data to appropriate groups. The Office of Research includes the Statistics Laboratory. The Office of Research is staffed by a Project Developer and a part-time Administrative Assistant. The Statistics Laboratory is staffed with a Statistician III.

A. Statistics Laboratory
The Statistics Laboratory is equipped with nine personal computers connected to the USC mainframe and laser jet printers. The laboratory is staffed by a full-time biostatistician/programmer and part-time research assistants to augment the research activities of students and faculty who are conducting research, preparing proposals and/or developing manuscripts. Faculty have access to retrieval systems containing national census and health data within the University computer system. All faculty and students are eligible for a computer account for data analysis. Information on the application process can be obtained in the Statistics Laboratory.

B. Grant Application Processing

1. College of Nursing Processing

Faculty and students who wish to submit a grant for either intramural or extramural funding should contact the Associate Dean for Research and the Program Coordinator in the Office of Research to receive an Intent to Submit form.  The Intent to Submit form provides a timeline and process to complete the application.

IRB Process

Projects involving human subjects must have University approval.  This policy applies to all research involving human subjects without regard to the source of funds supporting the project, including research required as part of an educational requirement (such as a class project, thesis, or dissertation).

Investigators are encouraged to review the IRB Policies and Procedures found on the SPAR website:  http://spar.research.sc.edu/

No research can be conducted with human subjects unless IRB approval has been obtained and is currently valid.

Until October 1, 2001
All projects submitted for external funding must be reviewed by the USC Office of Research Compliance.  Projects that are not submitted for external funding are reviewed by the College of Nursing Ethics Committee.

Beginning October 1, 2001

• If the Principal Investigator knows the project does not fall under the exempt category, then the PI may submit application and required materials directly to the Office of Research Compliance.
• If the Principal Investigator believes the project falls under the exempt category, the PI should submit a completed Application for Approval of Human Research Subjects, including a Request for Study Exemption Form, a complete research proposal/protocol, an informed consent form, survey instruments/research tools, and any other pertinent materials to the College of Nursing IRB Liaison.
• The College of Nursing IRB Liaison will review each application to determine if the research meets the criteria for exemption according to federal regulations.
• The Liaison will make recommendations for any modifications deemed necessary to best protect the interests of human subjects.
• If the project meets the requirements for exemption, the Liaison will provide a certification of exemption to the Principal Investigator and send copies to the Office of Research Compliance.
• If the project does not meet the requirements for exemption, the Liaison will return the application to the Principal Investigator for submission to the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Application Form
The IRB application can be obtained from the SPAR website: http://www.spar.sc.edu/ . Click on “Forms” and then on “USC/SPAR Forms”.  From there the Institutional Review Board Application for Approval can be completed using either a fillable PDF form or by downloading the form in Microsoft Word. The Institutional Review Board Application for Continuing Review is also available in fillable PDF form.

When to Submit Application Form
The Principal Investigator is responsible for preparing the form.  Policies vary on when approval must be obtained, depending on the funding agency. Some agencies may require that evidence of IRB approval accompany the grant proposal submission. The current NIH policy is to submit IRB approval only for projects that are considered in the “fundable range” following the peer review stage.  Failure to submit IRB approval to the funding agency may cause the proposal to be rejected or may cause a delay in funding.

No research can be conducted with human subjects unless IRB approval has been obtained and is currently valid.

Renewal of IRB Approval
IRB approval is valid for up to one year. If the Principal Investigator wishes to continue the IRB approval, the continuation application must be completed and submitted to the USC Office of Research Compliance.  The Office of Research Compliance will notify Principal Investigators shortly before the continuation forms are due.

Required Education in the Protection of Human Participants
NIH requires education on the protection of human research participants for all key personnel on NIH applications for grants or non-competing awards for research involving human subjects.

At the time of funding, NIH will request a cover letter identifying key personnel and the education they have completed regarding protection of human subjects. A letter stating this information must also be included in the submission of annual reports.  The letter is obtained from the USC Office of Research Compliance.

Investigators and other key personnel who have not completed the requirements for education regarding protection of human subjects may complete the training at the following website: http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/extramural/extramural_training.html
Once the tutorial has been completed, the certificate that appears at the end of the session should be printed and forwarded to the Office of Research Program Coordinator, who will forward it to the USC Office of Research Compliance. The Office of Research Compliance must have the certificate on file in order to provide the documentation letters for NIH.

Collaboration
The Office of Research Compliance will assist in obtaining appropriate assurances from collaborating institutions.

2. University Processing

In order to process a grant application through the University, a Proposal/Award Processing Form is completed by the Program Coordinator in the Office of Research. This form must be completed and signed by the principal investigator, Chair of the Faculty, and Dean. It is attached to the application/proposal and sent to the SPAR office for final review and signature. This form does not go to the funding agency. All proposals for external funding, including continuing applications, must be routed with this form. If the application is not a research project, a GCR-1 Form is required for State Budget and Control Board approval. This form is for use only in the review of non-research proposals reviewed by the State Budget and Control Board. The SPAR Office will assist in completing this form. The application should be sent to the SPAR office with sufficient time to meet the funding agency's mailing deadline. SPAR requires a minimum of 72 hours to review proposals.

When faculty or staff from other USC units are included in the grant proposal, a letter of commitment from those individuals must be submitted to SPAR. The letter must include the percent effort the individual will contribute to the project and the dollar amount he or she expects to earn. The letter must also address any share in indirect costs and bear the signature of the Dean from their College. For all grant proposals submitted to the Public Health Service or the National Science Foundation, SPAR also requires that all key personnel complete and sign a Disclosure of Financial Interest Form. These forms are available in the Office of Research. SPAR will not sign any proposals without the appropriate letters of commitment and completed Disclosure of Financial Interest Forms.

The SPAR office will review the entire application, check the budget, check the forms for consistency with University policy and procedures, and obtain signature of authorized University signatory. SPAR will notify the Office of Research when the application has been signed by University officials. The Office of Research will make the appropriate number of copies and mail the grant application.

C. Grants Administration
Upon notification of the grant award, the SPAR office assigns an account number to the grant to which all grant expenditures are charged and sets up a budget based on the budget submitted in the grant application. Thereafter, at the University level, the Contract and Grant Accounting Office verifies that expenditures are within the guidelines of the grant award and the University. At the College level, all requests for expenditures of grant funds are initiated by the principal investigator, reviewed by the college business manager, and approved by the Dean.

D. Evaluation
The College's Evaluation Plan includes quantitative and qualitative measures. The assessment design has both formative and summative evaluation measures to assess structure and governance, material resources, faculty, curricula, and students. The strategic placement of formative measures allows the monitoring of achievement in the five categories. Summative measures presented in the Evaluation Plan provide indicators of the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.

The student and faculty evaluation process for the College of Nursing is coordinated by the Associate Dean for Research. The plan for the evaluation of the programs, faculty, and graduates of the College of Nursing is accomplished through the completion of a number of instruments developed to evaluate individual instructors and the undergraduate and graduate programs.

Student evaluations of courses and faculty instruction are accomplished using the Course Evaluation Questionnaire and the Teacher Evaluation Questionnaire. Each of these questionnaires is administered every semester for all courses offered and for all faculty teaching that semester. The only exceptions are courses in which fewer than three students are enrolled and the following courses: 398, 769, 799, 840, and 899. Students will complete the course and teacher evaluations (CEQ and TEQ) by logging into Central from a College of Nursing computer or by downloading the Citrix Program Neighborhood software to their home or office computer.  Detailed instructions are on the College website. CEQ-F forms are distributed to faculty who teach courses that receive an overall rating below 2.5 on the course evaluation.  Program assessment Questionnaires (PAQ-S) are distributed to graduating students approximately six weeks prior to the end of the semester. Cohort Interviews are also scheduled each semester with groups of graduating students from different programs within the College.  Program Assessment Questionnaires are mailed to faculty (PAQ-F), alumni (PAQ-A), and employers (PAQ-E) of alumni every three years.  Faculty evaluate Associate and Assistant Deans and the Chair of the Faculty at the end of the first year of services, at the end of the second year of services, and every three years thereafter.

The results of the teaching and course evaluations are sent to individual faculty, the Chair of the Faculty, and the Dean. Results of the course and curriculum evaluations are also sent to the Curricula Committee Chairperson and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Evaluation Components include:

Course Evaluation
CEQ-S Course Evaluation Questionnaire
CEQ-F Course Evaluation Questionnaire for faculty
TEQ Teacher Evaluation Questionnaire

Program Evaluations
PAQ-S Program Assessment Questionnaire (students)
PAQ-S-BSN Baccalaureate Program
PAQ-S-MSN Master's program
PAQ-S-PHD PhD program
Cohort interview of students

PAQ-F Program Assessment Questionnaire (faculty)

PAQ-A Program Assessment Questionnaire (alumni)
PAQ-A-BSN Baccalaureate Program
PAQ-A-MSN Master's program
PAQ-A-PhD PhD Program

PAQ-E Program Assessment Questionnaire (employers)
PAQ-E-BSN Baccalaureate Program
PAQ-E-MSN Masters program
Administrative Evaluation
Associate Deans
Chair of the Faculty
Assistant Dean

Evaluation Components that are not conducted by the Office of Research include the following:

 Tenured Track Faculty
 Annual Evaluation
 Third Year Review
 Post-Tenure Review

 Clinical Track Faculty
 Annual Evaluation

 Part Time Faculty
 Annual Evaluation

 Preceptors
 End of each semester