Stanford
Research Development Community

About

View of the front of Stanford Campus

MISSION STATEMENT

We are a campus-wide community of practice that supports Stanford University’s research development professionals and builds the research capacity of our faculty.

OUR GOALS

  • Build and support RD Community member literacy in topics related to research development
  • Share information and opportunities that affect the Stanford research community
  • Identify research development challenges and collaborate in order to resolve them

WHAT IS RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT?

Research Development encompasses a set of strategic, proactive, catalytic, and capacity-building activities designed to facilitate individual faculty members, teams of researchers, and central research administrations in attracting extramural research funding, creating relationships, and developing and implementing strategies that increase institutional competitiveness.

Research Development professionals initiate and nurture critical partnerships and alliances throughout the institutional research enterprise and between institutions—and with their external stakeholders. With the goal of enabling competitive individual and team research and facilitating research excellence, Research Development professionals build and implement strategic services and collaborative resources that span across disciplinary and administrative barriers within their organizations and beyond.

Research Development includes a broad spectrum of activities that vary by institution, including: funding opportunity identification and targeted dissemination; grant/contract proposal development; research team building; interaction with funding agencies and institutional research administration and leadership; interaction with institutional federal relations; and outreach activities and training.

-Adapted from https://www.nordp.org

RD Community @ Stanford Leadership Positions

Elections for all positions will be held in the fall of each year. We strive to have as many Stanford Schools as possible reflected in the affiliations of the RD Community @ Stanford officers. 

Responsibilities for all RD Community Officers: 

  • Participate in quarterly officer meetings
  • Report on activities & events related to their role for each officer meeting
  • Assist with recruiting and training the replacement officer
  • Are elected by the general RD Community members

​Chair or Co-Chairs

The (Co-)Chair(s) will be responsible for the general supervision of the operations of the RD Community. They will help with setting goals, vision, and tone for the RD Community activities & events. They will also create agendas for and preside at general and officer meetings, report highlights of the meetings to the general community, and orchestrate annual elections.

Communication Officer 

The Communication Officer oversees all communications for the RD Community, which includes updating the RD Community website as well as managing its email list and Slack workspace. The Communication Officer will also draft and edit website content and/or emails to promote RD Community activities and events to the Stanford community and wider community.  

Professional Development Officer

The Professional Development Committee focuses on developing and implementing activities and events that include career planning for research development as a profession, creating and disseminating resources for research development, and skill building for research development professionals. The Professional Development Committee also liaises with the RD Certificate Organizing Committee.

Networking & Community Engagement Officer

The Networking & Community Engagement Committee focuses on developing and implementing activities and events that strengthen the research development community at Stanford and our connection with the wider community beyond Stanford. Activities foster a collaborative and supportive environment where RD professionals can share, learn, and grow together. 

Excellence in RD Officer

The Excellence in RD Officer will be responsible for the annual Excellence in RD webinar, a series started in 2023 to commemorate Susan Kopiwoda. This annual webinar is envisaged to include guest speakers and have a live audience, as well as being recorded and posted on the RD community website. The Excellence in RD Officer can work with the other RD Officers and/or community volunteers for the planning and implementation of this RD Community flagship event.

If you have questions or want to learn more about the RD Community at Stanford, feel free to reach out to Ilil Carmi or Carolyn Trietsch.