University Handbook, Section G:
Research
(12/11/18 Revisions)
General Support and Coordination of Research
G1 Research at Kansas State University--with support from the state as well as from federal aid and private sources--is recognized as an essential part of the university's responsibility. At the most advanced levels, research is the mode of learning. Therefore, it is important to budget faculty time for research, to coordinate projects, and to provide guidelines and services for obtaining support and information.
G2 Adjusting teaching loads and/or other dedicated responsibilities. A portion of a faculty member's time may be formally budgeted for research. This workload is then reduced proportionately. The assignment of individual dedicated responsibilities will be made by the department or, where there is no departmental organization, by the particular college or division.
Kansas State University Research Foundation
G20 The Research Foundation is a non-profit corporation established under a policy of the Kansas Board of Regents for the purpose of handling patents and inventions coming from research done at the university. The income from its operations after expenses and sharing with the inventors is used to support research and development activities at the university. (See Copyrights, Patents, Royalties, G80.)
Major Research Units
Agricultural Experiment Station
G30 Refer to Kansas State University General Catalog or Report of Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station for additional information.
G31 Organization, administration.
The Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, headquartered in Manhattan, was one of the first experiment stations organized at the nation’s land-grant schools under the Hatch Act of 1887. That act and subsequent acts of Congress support basic and applied research that benefits the state of Kansas and Kansas State University.
KAES is the research component of K-State Research and Extension, short for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. The dean of the College of Agriculture serves as director of K-State Research and Extension.
Because rainfall, soils, and elevation vary greatly across Kansas, research is conducted at centers and experiment fields throughout the state. Current list of locations.
G32 Agricultural research by the experiment station complex involves more than 11,000 acres. Several specialized centers of excellence are affiliated research units that greatly facilitate KAES investigations.
G33 Scope of research. Research by faculty and unclassified professionals in the experiment station is organized into more than 600 projects conducted in departments in five of the university's colleges and which cover nearly all phases of agriculture in its broadest context. Though most of the research is supported by federal and state funds, much is sponsored research. KAES faculty and unclassified professionals collaborate with others within the university, state and federal agencies, and researchers from other states on regional research projects.
G34 KAES projects support such research programs as water quality and conservation; resource-efficient agricultural systems that conserve the natural resource base; safe and effective pest management systems for plants and animals; genetic enhancement of animals and plants; improved marketing strategies and global competitiveness of agricultural products; optimal health through improved dietary patterns, nutrition, and behavior of the food consumer; production, processing, marketing, and distribution systems for agricultural products; stability and well-being of individuals, families and communities to improve their quality of life.
G35 In addition to full-time faculty and unclassified professionals employed by KAES and its off-campus units, other faculty or unclassified professionals in the various colleges may have a portion of their time budgeted for agricultural experiment station research.
G36 Publishing research results. Results of research are published in scientific journals, station bulletins, reports of progress, pamphlets, leaflets, research papers, popular journals, computer software programs, news releases to the press and to radio and television stations, and reports at field days and other special events. (Outlets for releasing research results and happenings to the public include Extension Information, H4, and News Services, J40.)
G37 Editorial service. Manuscripts based on research done in projects administered by the KAES go through the director's office to be given a contribution number and to be recorded for the director's report, as required by federal and state regulations. Manuscripts that the station publishes are edited and reviewed before being published. At the author's option, manuscripts not published by the KAES may be edited before going to other publishers (primarily scientific journals). The KAES urges authors to have their manuscripts thoroughly reviewed before submitting them for publication.
Kansas Water Resources Research Institute
G39 The Kansas Water Resources Research Institute was established in 1964 after Congress passed the Water Resources Research Act. Kansas State University and the University of Kansas cooperate on the development of water-utilization and water-quality research. The purpose of the institute is to conduct both basic and applied research and to train individuals in areas related to water resources. Research and education interests include the hydrological cycle; supply and demand for water; methods of increasing water supplies; and economic, legal, social, engineering, recreational, biological, geographical, ecological, and other aspects of water problems.
Engineering Experiment Station
G40 Within the College of Engineering, the Engineering Experiment Station is responsible for the administration of research. The Experiment Station was established by the Kansas Board of Regents for the purpose of performing research of engineering and manufacturing value to the state of Kansas and for collecting and presenting technical information for the use of industry and the people of the state. While the Experiment Station still functions to meet the obligations of its original charge, its activities have expanded to include research of national and international significance.
G41 The faculty of the Experiment Station is composed of members of all departments of the College of Engineering. Projects, however, are not necessarily limited to the College of Engineering. Faculty from the Engineering Experiment Station work closely with those from the Agricultural Experiment Station and with others from within the university on projects of mutual concern. The activities of the Engineering Experiment Station are funded by state appropriations and by grants and contracts from governmental agencies and private industries. (Further information about the Engineering Experiment Station and related research centers and institutes in engineering is available in the Kansas State University General Catalog.)
G42 Office of the Vice President for Research
The vice president for research has overall responsibility for research policies and initiatives in the university. The vice president has responsibility for enhancing the research infrastructure of the university, for creating and supervising interdisciplinary research programs, and for providing assistance to faculty and unclassified professionals in the development of proposals to extramural agencies through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Other services provided through this office include project development, access to databases on current sources of extramural funding, tracking of research centers, institutes, and core facilities, and maintaining a research resources database.
G43 Research centers, institutes, and core facilities
A Center or Institute (CI) is an entity that is located within or apart from the traditional academic hierarchy of school/college/department, formed to pursue an intellectual area of inquiry through teaching, research, and/or service activities. A center or institute should involve multiple faculty members in its activities, whether research, teaching, outreach, or some combination thereof.
CIs may be proposed as part of a newly funded project; proposals for such should include a plan for financially sustaining the CI beyond the life of the initial funding. Procedures for approval of CIs are intended to facilitate the establishment of appropriate CIs and avoid the creation of unnecessarily duplicative entities.
A Core Facility (CF) is a laboratory, location, or collection of instrumentation that supports research by multiple investigators. Frequently these are initially established by extramural equipment grant awards. They may be maintained by continuing external funding, collection of user fees, and/or university support at the level of department, college, or university. Often this support takes the form of full or partial staff salaries.
Forms related to establishment, review, and closure of research CI/CFs are maintained on the Office of the Vice President for Research webpages.
G44 The Office of Grants and Contracts Pre-Award Services. This office is responsible for assisting faculty and unclassified professionals in the preparation of budgets and in the final preparation of proposals to ensure conformity with sponsor and university guidelines. This office has sole authority within the university for final approval and for university signature on all proposals submitted to any extramural agency or sponsor. All proposals that are to be submitted to extramural sponsors must therefore be routed through this office for signature prior to submission.
Special Research Regulations
G50 Research on human subjects. The Kansas State University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects serves as the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is mandated by federal laws and regulations to provide oversight for all research activities that involve the use of human subjects. The primary responsibility of the IRB is to protect the rights of research subjects/participants in accordance with applicable rules, regulations and guidelines to include the Belmont Report and the Common Rule (45 CFR 46).
G51 Research involving animals. The Kansas State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the University Research Compliance Office are committed to providing an animal care and use program that supports a humane and compliant environment for its research animals. The IACUC monitors animal care and use activity in a collaborative research and teaching environment for our scientists and students. KSU maintains an Animal Welfare Assurance with the National Institutes of Health Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, registration with the USDA, and is accredited by AAALAC International.
G52 Research involving infectious agents, recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules, or toxins of biological origin. The Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) is charged by federal law to review and approve elements of a campus biosafety program. The IBC is responsible for ensuring that research conducted at KSU is in compliance with applicable regulations and guidelines, including NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid molecules (NIH Guidelines); Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), 5th Edition; and Federal Select Agent Regulations. These form the basis for campus biosafety policies and procedures and for reviewing individual research proposals for biosafety concerns.
G53 Dual Use Research of Concern. The U.S. Government has published two policies with the purpose of establishing regular review of research with 15 high-consequence pathogens and toxins. The fundamental aim of these Dual Use Research of Concern policies is to preserve the benefits of life sciences research while minimizing the risk of misuse of the knowledge, information, products, or technologies provided by such research.
G54 Export Controls Compliance. The Export Controls Compliance Program is designed to support KSU employees, students, and departmental units in complying with U.S. federal government export controls laws and regulations. These include the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) administered by the Department of State, the Export Administration Regulation (EAR) administered by the Department of Commerce, and economic and trade sanctions implemented through the Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) of the Treasury Department. Noncompliance with export controls regulations carries severe individual and institutional penalties including criminal and civil liability, loss of research funding, and loss of export privileges.
G55 Use of hazardous materials. Departments and individual faculty and unclassified professionals should have procedures to ensure that all possible caution is used in activities involving hazardous biological, radiological and chemical agents. The Environmental Health and Safety and University Research Compliance Offices maintain training records and conduct inspections of laboratories and other research locations to review safety practices.
Research Facilities and Services
G60 Significant research and support facilities available include:
G61 Computing Activities. The university's computer facilities are for the use of all students, faculty, unclassified professionals, and other university personnel. Sponsored research projects are expected to pay computer costs, consulting, and programming. Legitimate unsponsored projects are supported to the limit of available resources.
G62 The Statistical Laboratory. Consulting and computational services of this laboratory are available to faculty, unclassified professionals, and students at Kansas State University, including those associated with the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
G63 University Libraries. Hale Library and branch libraries (in buildings housing architecture and design, physics, veterinary medicine, and at the Polytechnic campus). (Discussed under Major Resources, J1.)
Faculty Publication Support
G70 To encourage faculty scholarship, K-State Libraries provides funding as available to help authors pay article processing fees for publishing in open access journals. Researchers are encouraged to list publication costs in all research projects and all requests for research funds.
Copyrights, Patents, Royalties
G80 See the K-State Intellectual Property Policy in Appendix R.
