Administrative Core

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Program Administration The Board of Trustees is the governing body of the University. Its membership consists of the Secretary of Commonwealth Department of Education and eight private citizens who represent the public interest in higher education. All members are appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate of Puerto Rico. With the exception of the Secretary of Education, council members serve six-year terms. The Board elects its president from among its members. The President of the University, appointed by the Board of Trustees, is the chief executive officer of the University. The President appoints the Chancellors of the various campuses subject to the approval of the Trustees. UPRM has a Research and Development Center (CID by Spanish initials) whose Director reports directly to the UPRM Chancellor. The MBRS Program Director reports to the CID Director and has direct liaison with finance, accounting, purchasing, and human resources departments of the CID for administrative support. The Program Director also interacts directly with the Dean of Administration, Property Office, Buildings and Grounds, as well as with other academic deans and department chairmen. Program records are maintained in the Program Office. All program fiscal documents and reports, including purchase orders, payrolls, and travel requests are sent by Principal Investigators to the Program Office for processing and forwarding to appropriate administrative offices. Financial balance ledger sheets are maintained in the Program Director's office where they are available to Project Leaders. The program's administrative officer and assistant also have access to the University's Financial Report System (FRS) in which they keep track of the day-to-day fiscal transactions on the Program's accounts. They also help Project Leaders with fiscal and other administrative matters including compliance with NIH and University regulations. Separate accounts are maintained for each project and account statements are sent to Pi's quarterly. This organizational structure allows the MBRS-SCORE Program to function as an institutional program not directly beneath a particular academic Department or College. The goals of the MBRS Program, thus, become true institutional goals and exist independently of the goals of different academic departments. This structure helps the Program Director accomplish the goals of the Program, particularly those related to increasing the competitiveness and participation in MBRS-SCORE across UPRM science departments. The program avoids the perception that it is really for members of one or two Departments. This is evidenced by the fact that SCORE researchers in the current cycle are from both the faculty of Arts and Science (Chemistry and Marine Sciences Departments) and the faculty of Engineering (Chemical and Electrical Engineering Departments). In addition to the SCORE Program Director's role described above there are three other duties performed by the Program Director: Recruitment of new researchers for the SCORE Program. Starting on November 2004 SCORE Program sends a "request for proposal" to researchers (especially to junior researchers) to apply for seed money grants. These grants (3 in total, $7000.00 each) helps such researchers to initiate biomedically oriented research with a commitment that they would submit a larger proposal in the next cycle or as a supplement to the SCORE Program. Each PI in the program has a senior researcher as mentor to help with planning research, as well as eventual grants writing. The PD coordinates this activity including receiving proposals, forming a committee and reviewing proposals. These funds are administered by our office. The costs for these seed money grants are shared equally by the Faculty of Arts and Science, Faculty of Engineering and the Research and Development Center. Two Graduate fellowships are awarded each year by the SCORE Program. The awards are set up by competition among graduate students who are engaged in biomedical research on campus (working with MBRS-SCORE Pis). The coordination as well as the review of the applicants and the ultimate selection is done with the help of a committee and the P.D is actively involved with that process. ESAC: For each cycle an External Scientific Advisory Committee is set up by the P.D. depending on the funded projects. Coordination of the annual meetings, report's review, and implementation of recommendations made by the committee is the responsibility of the P.D. Additionally, these reports are routinely sent to the university administration and follow-up meetings are scheduled by the PD to discuss the recommendations made by the committee.