Center Management Tools

This page contains links to resources for Center Directors, Operations Personnel, and Evaluators. Links provide information and tools for improving center management. If you have links you would like to share, please send them to the I/UCRC Evaluation Team.

NSF I/UCRC Governance Requirements

MOUs for Centralized Fee Collection: CAPPS, CeNTIRE

IAB Chair Role Description: Developed by the Membrane Applied Science, Engineering, & Technology Center

Gray, D.O. & Walters, S.G. (1998). Managing the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center: A Guide for Directors and Other Stakeholders. Columbus, OH: Battalle.

PSERC By-Laws, Operations Manual & Project Solicitation: Participants at the Director’s Roundtable discussion at the 2012 NSF IUCRC Directors Meeting found the information contained in these documents particularly helpful for understanding management of multi-university centers.

Arbegast, W., Logar, T., & Corwin, E. (2010). The Center for Friction Stir Processing: A case study for managing a multi-site Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. South Dakota School of Mines & Technology: Rapid City, SD.

Online LIFE: Level of Interest Feedback and Evaluation site used for obtaining IAB feedback on center projects

Dr. Haber’s Behaviorally Anchored LIFE

Keys, Tips, & Guidelines for Center Semi-Annual meeting Success: A guide distributed at the 2005 Center Directors Meeting

IUCRC New Project Selection IAB Voting Spreadsheet: Spreadsheet for tabulating votes to fund new projects.

Anatomy of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center: The Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center at the University of California Berkeley has, since 1986 (more than twenty‐five years), had a major impact on the research foundations and consequent commercialization of MEMS and NEMS. This has been achieved through creative combinations of resources, incentives, and shared goals involving Academia, Industry, and Government. The strongly multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary operational model of BSAC (a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center) is described.

Project Reporting Templates: These project reporting templates were created by the Center for Tire Research. They were developed by the Center leadership team, in collaboratio with the IAB. The templates evolved (and continue to evolve) over time. These templates could be used as a starting point for other Centers to work with their IAB in creating your own reporting templates. However there is a value to a Center of tailoring to ones own needs — not only in content but in commitment from faculty members since they know it came from the IAB.
Full Proposal Template
Project Update Presentation Template
Between Meeting (Mentor Call) Project Update Template
Brief Final Report Template
Full Final Report Template
Project Health Metrics & Dashboard: Project-level metrics and dashboard developed by the Manufacturing & Materials Joining Innovation Center (Ma2JIC) IAB Leadership Task Group, and approved by the Ma2JIC IAB, January 2018. Includes rationale, metrics, and dashboard format for monitoring and visualizing project health.