Emory official to direct research office

Beginning Oct. 1, Nancy Wilkinson steps on campus as Graduate School associate dean and director of the Research and Sponsored Programs office.

Wilkinson will oversee the submission of proposals to external sponsors for funding research, teaching fellowships, student services, and outreach programs. She also will oversee the financial management of those awards, which last year totaled $672 million for the Madison campus.

In her initial months, Wilkinson will work closely with Mareda Weiss, who has served as the associate dean and director of RSP since 1996 and who has been affiliated with the university since 1964; Weiss will retire early next year.

“Mareda is one of the most respected people in this field,” says Wilkinson. “It’s comforting to know that I can talk to her and glean a few ideas before she goes.”

Together, they plan to discuss ways in which the office can become more efficient. One possibility is through electronic research administration (ERA). “In ERA, we look at how a very manual process can be made electronic and streamlined,” Wilkinson explains.

Currently, RSP processes over 3,500 paper grant proposals each year. These proposals pass through the hands of department chairs, deans, RSP committees, and eventually the funding source, such as the National Science Foundation or a private corporation. Once an award is funded, the information again passes through RSP and eventually down to the principal investigator. “If we could take the whole process and make it electronic,” says Weiss, “everything would be more efficient.”

Wilkinson could bring this technology to UW–Madison. “Nancy has been a leader in ERA for 10 years, and she has a wonderful appreciation of the scope of issues,” says Weiss. But exactly how ERA might be implemented remains uncertain: “Research is a huge enterprise at UW–Madison, and it needs careful thought and attention,” says Wilkinson.

As Wilkinson spends time learning more about UW, she plans to begin re-evaluating the university’s research efforts. Martin Cadwallader, interim dean of the Graduate School and interim vice chancellor for research says, “We think she’s going to be a terrific asset for the university, and we expect to learn much from her as she takes on this important responsibility.”

Wilkinson comes to UW–Madison from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., where she has worked in the Office of Sponsored Programs since 1985 and directed it since 1996. Prior to that, she was the grants and contracts coordinator at the University of Florida. Last year, she concluded serving as president of the National Council of University Research Administrators.

Of her new position, Wilkinson says, “UW-Madison is one of the great research universities in America, and the opportunity to participate at that level is a dream.”