The week of Aug 30 – September 2, I attended the National Council of University Research Administrators’ (NCURA) 63rd Annual Meeting. The conference, held in Washington DC, was a hybrid meeting with virtual and in-person attendees. Over 1,250 individuals attended, five representing the University of Arkansas.
The theme was “Reconnect,” as this was the first in-person annual conference since the COVID pandemic occurred and most people worked from home for the last year and a half. Throughout the conference, communicating and connecting with others were stressed.
I didn’t know exactly what to expect from attending virtually, but the home screen was setup like a lobby entrance with banners I could select to go to the exhibit hall, attend sessions, check out networking, or get tech support. Since it was point-and-click, it was a very user-friendly format.
The session choices were on a wide range of topics, all of which had different relevance depending on an attendees’ needs. Of course, there were more sessions than I could possibly attend, but we were given access to handouts to all sessions so I was able to gather information on different topics that I can review later. If some sessions weren’t relevant to me, there were plenty of others from which I could choose.
Although many of the sessions were prerecorded, each was followed by a live Q&A portion via Zoom. The chat rooms stayed busy with follow-up questions and insightful comments. I started out with sessions that provided updates to NSF and NIH guidelines and ended with the future of hybrid and remote work. By the way, if you didn’t already know, it looks like hybrid and remote work are here to stay!
One of my favorite sessions discussed a study at Oklahoma State University in which tenured and tenure-track faculty in STEM and non-STEM areas were asked about their perceptions of grant development and the purpose of grant funding. Six main purposes stood out, including providing mentoring to graduate and undergraduate students (research training). This point caught my attention because it is such an important part of our department’s goals.
I appreciate Dr. Rao giving me the opportunity to attend this conference to gather information which I believe will assist me as we move forward to a new year of grant proposals. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be presenting information about our success at an NCURA meeting!