CON Associate Dean for Research

Home

Administration & Organization

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER COLLEGE OF NURSING
Associate Dean for Research
Position Descriptions	Originating Date: September 1986
Responsible Reviewing Agency: Executive Council Related Documents: Policy 1302 - Budget Implementation and Planning for Grant Applications	Revised: February 2008 Revised: January 2015 (changes) Revised: August 2018 (changes) Revised: March 2025 (changes) Revised: September 2026 (changes)

General Position Description

The Associate Dean for Research (ADR) is the senior research leadership position in the College of Nursing and represents the College on the Medical Center Campus and within the University in matters pertaining to research. This individual has the responsibility of research growth and development, evaluation of faculty research, administration of the Niedfelt Nursing Research Center (NNRC), public and professional relations with respect to research, and teaching as assigned. This individual provides leadership for the research enterprise by facilitating interdisciplinary research and scholarship among the faculty. This individual will work with research faculty to provide mentorship that will facilitate new revenue streams through federal grants, training grants, corporate gifts, foundations and other funding resources to enhance the UNMC CON research portfolio. This individual participates in the tripartite faculty role of teaching, research and service.

FTE Allocations for the Associate Dean Role

Administration (0.50 FTE)

• Ability to negotiate based on the needs of the college.

Teaching

• Ability to negotiate based on the needs of the college and expectations for the Associate Dean.

Research/Scholarship

• Ability to negotiate based on the needs of the college and expectations for the Associate Dean.

Service

• Ability to negotiate based on the needs of the college and expectations for the Associate Dean.

Practice

• Ability to negotiate based on the needs of the college and expectations for the Associate Dean.

Organizational Relationships

The ADR collaborates with the Dean, the College’s other leaders, faculty, and inter-professional colleagues in accomplishing the College’s research mission and moving the College toward its strategic and long-range goals. The individual reports to the Dean and serves at the Dean’s request. The ADR is the College’s liaison with the UNMC Vice Chancellor for Research and serves on University research committees and in inter-professional research and academic initiatives.

The ADR collaborates with other members of the Executive Council and works closely with the External Affairs Committee and PhD Affairs Council. The ADR works closely with the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, the Associate Dean for Transformational Practice and Partnerships, Assistant Dean for Research, and the Assistant Dean of Finance & Operations to creatively design, implement, and evaluate programs that integrate and support the College’s tripartite missions.

Responsibilities of the Position

• Provides vision and leadership for the research mission of the College.
• Develops, implements, and evaluates the College's strategic research agenda, establishing priorities and initiatives designed to increase extramural research funding, research expenditures, faculty scholarship, interdisciplinary research, and national visibility and impact in collaboration with the dean.
• Serve as facilitator of research development for faculty of the College of Nursing.
• Provides senior administrative oversight for College research policies, procedures, and research-related institutional decisions, including review and approval of requests involving College personnel, students, facilities, and research resources in collaboration with the dean.
• Works collaboratively with division assistant deans in this process.
• Provides consultation, information, and assistance to individual faculty in all stages of the research process from idea generation to implementation of the project to writing the final report.
• Implements and assists others (e.g., research investigators and research committees) in implementation and evaluation of formal offerings designed for faculty research development.
• Serves as a research mentor and role model for faculty and PhD students.
• Provides mentorship to and oversight of the Assistant Dean for Research, including preparation to serve as interim ADR successor in times of emergent need.
• Maintains a research program which has funding and results in scholarly publications and national presentations.
• Recommends budgets and other resources for meeting the research mission of the College.
• Provides input to division assistant deans and associate deans on faculty evaluations with research efforts of 30% or above.
• Represents the Dean at designated meetings and, as needed, at regional, national, and international professional associations.
• Creates and executes visibility opportunities of CON research and scholarship.

Administrator of Research Center

The Associate Dean for Research is responsible for the general administration of the NNRC, which includes overseeing

• budget management;
• staff priority setting;
• recruitment, retainment, and evaluation of NNRC staff;
• strategies and activities to promote faculty research productivity (e.g., offering and sharing development sessions and resources, facilitating peer feedback on proposals and scholarly products, providing information to faculty about funding opportunities;
• review of research grant proposals;
• compliance review process of all grants;
• approval of budgets or all grant proposals submitted for external funding in accordance with College of Nursing Faculty Policy 1302 (4.2.4);
• research space assignment in coordination with the Assistant Dean of Finance & Operations;
• expansion of infrastructure to support research efforts, data management, and analytic processing; and
• generation and maintenance of outcome data on overall faculty research and scholarship productivity in a quarterly and annual report.
• Oversee research collaboratory efforts.

Public and Professional Relations

• The ADR represents the College’s research to the local and global community through participating in nursing research organizations and other groups related to nursing research.
• Interfaces with and promotes support for CON research within the UNMC Office of Research.
• Communicates research activities within the College and the Medical Center through various media as appropriate.
• Collaborate with Nebraska Medicine’s Nursing Professional Practice, Nursing Practice, and Patient Education departments to expand nursing research capacity, strengthen academic–practice research partnerships, and facilitate the development and implementation of clinically relevant nursing research.
• Partner with Nebraska Medicine’s Information Technology and clinical teams to support the evaluation, dissemination, and scholarly translation of quality improvement and practice-based initiatives.
• Serve as a COSMOS super user and institutional resource for EHR-based research, facilitating access to and effective use of electronic health record data to support nursing and interdisciplinary research, quality improvement, and outcomes evaluation.

Appointment Requirements

• Research-focused doctoral degree in nursing or a related discipline.
• Qualifications commensurate with appointment at the rank of Associate or Professor with tenure.
• Sustained record of nationally recognized research and peer-reviewed scholarship.
• Sustained record of successful extramural research funding, including NIH or comparable federal funding as PI/MPI.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring faculty investigators in developing successful externally funded programs of research.
• Demonstrated experience leading interdisciplinary or interprofessional research and building collaborative research programs.
• Demonstrated administrative and leadership experience relevant to research operations, personnel, budgets, research infrastructure, and strategic planning.
• Demonstrated national leadership and professional service relevant to nursing science, health science research, or the candidate's scientific field.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, organizational, and leadership skills.
• Eligibility for UNMC Graduate Faculty status.