2006 Faculty WellBeing Survey: Contracts and Grants

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2006 Faculty Well-Being Survey Contracts and
Grants

• Research and Graduate Studies Retreat
• Presentation
• March 1, 2007
• Nancy Whelchel, PhD
• Assistant Director for Survey Research
• University Planning and Analysis
• http//www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/survey/faculty/

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Overview

• Survey background
• Awareness of grant/contract activities
• College and university pre- post-award support
• Overhead/indirect costs
• Challenges to grant/contract related activities
• Things to think about?

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Survey Population Response Rate

• On campus tenure/non-tenure track
  faculty/lecturers (including dept heads, music,
  PE, FYC)
• FTE .75 AY04-05 AY05-06
• Final population 1,625 (No sampling)
• 69.7 response rate
• No significant differences in response rates
  among subgroups

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Contracts/Grants questions
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Contracts/Grants question

• What are the biggest challenges you face related
  to grant/contract-related activities at NC State?
  (open-end)

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Awareness of grant/contract-related activities

• 25 or more said they had insufficient
  experience to answer the questions about
  contracts/grants support
• Awareness is higher for
• Pre-award support (compared to post-award)
• College-level support (compared to
  university-level)

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Awareness of grant/contract-related activities

• Two-thirds or more said they had insufficient
  experience to answer the questions about
  indirect costs

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(Un)Awareness pre-award support from college

• By college
• Most unaware (by far)
• COM (58), CHASS (53), Design (46)
• Least unaware
• COE (7), COT (7)
• By tenure status
• Non-tenured less aware than tenured
• (also by gender and race/ethnicity)

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Satisfaction with pre- and post-award support

• 60 - 69 satisfied or very satisfied with
  pre- post-award support from college and
  university
• Slightly more positive about
• Pre-award support (compared to post-award)
• College-level support (compared to
  university-level)

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Satisfaction with support for research activities

• Faculty generally give lower ratings to support
  for research activities compared to other aspects
  of working at NC State.

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Pre-award support from college

• Most likely to be very satisfied
• CED (60)
• PAMS (29)
• CNR (25)

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Post-award support from college

• Most likely to be very satisfied
• CED (36)
• COT (20)

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Comparisons of ratings for college pre-
post-award support, by college

• More positive about pre-award than post-award
  (largest gap)
• CHASS
• Design
• More positive about post-award than pre-award
  (largest gap)
• CVM
• PAMS

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Pre-award support from the university

• Most likely to be very satisfied or satisfied
• By college
• PAMS (74), CED (74), CNR (72), CALS (68), COE
  (64)
• By years at NC State
• gt25 years (71), lt 7 years (69)
• By race/ethnicity
• Hispanic (75), Asian (66), White (63)

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Post-award support from the university

• Most likely to be very satisfied or satisfied
• By college
• COM (85)
• By years at NC State
• gt25 years (69), lt 7 years (65)
• By race/ethnicity
• Hispanic (75), Asian (66), White (59)

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Comparisons of ratings for university pre-
post-award support, by college

• More positive about pre-award than post-award
  (largest gap)
• CED
• PAMS
• More positive about post-award than pre-award
  (largest gap)
• COM
• Design

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(Dis)Satisfaction with Indirect Costs

• About two-thirds or more dissatisfied with
  indirect costs
• Most dissatisfied with PI control over allocation
  (38 very dissatisfied, 35 dissatisfied)

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Highest Dissatisfaction with Indirect Costs (by
college)

• Allocation to PI
• COE (77), PAMS (72)
• Allocation to department
• PAMS (78), COE (75)
• PI control over allocation
• COE (85), PAMS (76), etc.

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Open-end comments Biggest challenges to
grant/contract-related activities

• 521 respondents
• Up to 3 coded comments each
• 14 general categories
• Support -- Accounting
• Administration -- Obtaining funding
• Workload -- Personal
• Recognition/rewards -- Tech transfer, IP
• Legal issues -- Funding agency
• Political issues -- IRB
• Miscellaneous/Other
• Positive comments!

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Open-end comments Biggest challenges to
grant/contract-related activities

• Most problematic
• Support
• Budgeting/Accounting

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Administrative Support
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Accounting System/Budgeting
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Administration/Bureaucracy
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Obtaining Funding
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Workload/Time
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Personal Issues/Concerns
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Closing Open-Ends Comments Related to Contracts
and Grants

• Most positive aspect of being a member of the
  faculty at NC State (N869)
• 5 comments
• Most serious problems or concerns that you have
  in working at NC State (N873)
• 35 comments
• Most significant changes that should be made at
  NC State to improve/enhance the quality of your
  work life. (N818)
• 32 comments

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Summary Things to Think About?

• Increase awareness/familiarity with services
• Provide/enhance support staff
• Increase number of staff (both pre- and
  post-award)
• Limit turnover
• Improve training
• Have can-do attitude
• Improve accounting/budgeting
• Complexity
• Delays
• Help faculty to understand indirect costs (e.g.,
  where the money goes and why)