Welcome to the Research Community from Alison Harmon

Welcome to the Research Community from Alison Harmon, vice president for Research & Economic Development

Welcome to the Research Community from Alison Harmon 

I'm Alison Harmon, your Vice President for Research and Economic Development. Welcome to Montana State University. We pride ourselves on being a top tier research university and we are glad you're here. You're joining a group of scholars who are making important discoveries, developing innovations that result in economic impact, and addressing the current challenges of our communities, state and nation. 

MSU is a comprehensive university. We conduct basic and applied research in science, technology, engineering, math, the humanities, arts and social sciences, health, education and business. Regardless of discipline, our goal at MSU is to provide all the faculty with the support they need to fulfill their scholarship potential. 

To sustain our impressive growth and research and the competitiveness of our initiatives, we've invested in a research development team to assist you with finding funding and writing proposals. We maintain a range of core facilities that provide you with access to unique research instrumentation and expertise. Our many research centers or institutes are great places to find colleagues, mentors and collaborators who are excited to partner with you. 

Meanwhile, our sponsored programs and research compliance teams will help you ensure the integrity of your work. Along your scholarship journey, you'll have the chance to work with and be supported by our everyday research heroes, administrative staff, lab managers, safety officers, fiscal managers, accountants, photographers, news writers, librarians, information technology staff, procurement staff, and human resources personnel, to name a few. 

By engaging in all the appropriate training for Principal Investigators, you can help them help you. And when they do, don't forget to say thank you. 

I wish you tremendous research success, and I am eager to hear about your accomplishments. 

OSP has developed a library of online learning modules for principal investigators that supplements the in-person training offered, along with ongoing partnership with your Research Administrator. Please see the index below. We will continue to add to this library, so please check back for new modules periodically and feel free to provide feedback on what modules you'd like to have developed. 

EPCF Submission - How to Submit your Proposal for OSP Internal Review

Runtime 17:01

This course walks you through the internal EPCF tool to submit your proposal for OSP internal review. 

How to Get Started - Developing a Research Proposal Budget 101

Runtime 27:00

As you are beginning the process of developing a research proposal, this is a great place to start. This session will walk you through how to approach your budget development.  The first section will show you how to use the template available for budget development and give guidance on areas that are often heavily scrutinized. The second section is an optional appendix with more detail on how to justify your budget by category. This session is a good precursor to additional modules which are agency-specific. 

NSF: Preparing Budgets for National Science Foundation Proposals

Runtime 22:20

After taking the Developing a Research Proposal Budget 101 course, this course will help you to develop proposals specific to the NSF, using their forms, with tips specific to the NSF. 

NIH: Preparing Budgets for National Institutes of Health Proposals

Runtime 26:26

After taking the Developing a Research Proposal Budget 101 course, this course will help you to develop proposals specific to NIH, using their forms, with tips specific to NIH. 

USDA: Preparing Budgets for the US Department of Agriculture

Runtime 18:35

After taking the Developing a Research Proposal Budget 101 course, this course will help you to develop proposals specific to USDA, using their forms with tips specific to USDA including ARS.

Subawards: Proposal Considerations when Working with External Research Collaborators

Runtime 21:50

This course is an overview on subaward considerations that are important when preparing and submitting a proposal that includes work with external collaborators. 

Office of Research Integrity & Compliance - Introduction

Runtime 16:11

This short course is an introduction to the Office of Research Integrity & Compliance (RIC) for Principal Investigators. In this course you will learn how RIC can support your research efforts.

Time and Effort: An Intro to Time and Effort Reporting for PIs 

Runtime under 6 minutes

An introduction to Time and Effort reporting designed for PI's and faculty researchers to learn more about mandated time and effort reporting once work on a grant has begun. 

Time and Effort: Web-based Application Training

Runtime under 10 minutes

A training module for staff who will be entering information into MSU's time and effort recording system. 

Grant-Funded Travel - Best Practices

Runtime: 8:02

In this module, OSP shares its top 10 best practices and common issues that arise with grant-funded travel expenses. 

Advanced Training for Research Investigators, Project Directors, Project Staff & Students

For training onCost Share,Time and Effort, Travel and many more topics, contact OSP to schedule.