By Lan Nguyen
Delays in the contract process by the Office of Grants and Contracts have caused the loss of almost a million dollars in valuable research money, U of L medical researchers say. In response, Dr. John Buchino, a professor in the department of Pediatrics, took the initiative at the July faculty senate meeting to propose that the contracting process be investigated.
The contracts that researchers are concerned about are those with private industries, such as the drug industry. In the past, contract negotiations between the school and private companies have taken too long, and as a result, companies have simply “gone right down the street to the next school of medicine,” said Dr. William Pierce, chair for the faculty senate, which has agreed to follow up on the complaint.
Contracts with private companies must follow through a series of steps before they can be approved. Companies either contact a university researcher to ask if he or she wants to participate in a study, or the researcher contacts the company. The researcher must then fill out a proposal, which is reviewed by the university to ensure that university guidelines are met and that the proposal does not put the university’s reputation on the line.
Buchino said it’s reasonable that the university wants to review research proposals. “The problem is that for the past few years, the amount of time a proposal undergoes review in the Office of Grants and Contracts is much too long. Several researchers have had proposals under review for six to 10 months,” he said.
Industries are often in a hurry to test their products in order to present them to the FDA for approval. If competing practices are able to approve proposals in less time, a lot of money and research opportunities are lost.
Oftentimes, when a proposal finally makes it through the university Office of Grants and Contracts with an approval, the study has already been closed, the work assumed by other research centers.
One researcher who has lost a great deal of money due to delays in the approval of industrial contracts is Dr. Jane Sullivan of the Kosair Children’s Hospital and U of L department of Pediatrics. She said that she has lost close to a million dollars in the past four years due to delays. Sullivan feels that there ought to be someone in the grant office “who can address issues and get them done in a timely manner.”
Nancy Martin, vice president for Research at U of L, has already begun working to resolve the problem. She’s hired several new staff members, for example.
“We’ve already seen an increase in the approval process,” Martin said. She wants people to realize, however, that the Office of Grants and Contracts is not the sole source of delay.
The contract approval process is more complicated than simply filling out a form and sending it to the office for approval, Martin said. “It is not a simple process, and it takes time on the industry, university, hospital and department side.”
What has made the process so time-consuming is that companies and the university often have to negotiate with one another so that contracts meet not only university guidelines, but Kentucky state laws and guidelines of the university’s hospital partners.
Sometimes, a lack of communication between the university and company can also stall the approval process. In one case, Martin said, the university sent the contract with its change requests to a company in December and didn’t hear back until April.
Now, however, the Office of Grants and Contracts believes the approval process will be sped up significantly by 2006. A task force was assembled to look into past complaints.
“We’re still gathering information, but things are looking better,” Pierce said. “The office where the problems were has improved, made lots of changes and reports weekly. Nancy Martin took them very seriously and took strong steps to remedy the problem.”
Martin will be meeting with the Executive Faculty Research Committee senate later this month to discuss the changes.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held Sept. 7 at 3 p.m. in the Ekstrom Library Auditorium. The meetings are open to the public for anyone interested in attending.
