Page 6 - RFCUNY-2010AnnualReport

About RF

The Research Foundation (RF) is a private, not-for-profit educational corporation chartered by the State of New York in 1963. The City University of New York (CUNY) is the nation’s largest urban public university. The RF supports CUNY faculty and staff in identifying and obtaining external support (pre-award) from government and private sponsors and is responsible for the administration of all such funded programs (post-award). As you will see in the text and diagrams that follow, in 2010, the most recent complete year, awards exceeded $430 million. Program areas included, but were not limited to, research in the natural and social sciences, training, curriculum planning, assessment, job placement, program evaluation, media production, and software development.

Special responsibilities at the Foundation include management of a planned giving program; liaison with governmental agencies and foundations; negotiation of agreements; facility construc tion and renovation; protection and commercialization of intellectual property; and compliance with applicable standards in research involving human subjects, animal care, environmental and radiological safety, and conflicts of interest.

The RF was created because the distinctive environment of sponsored programs demands flexi-bility and the capacity to respond quickly to a wide variety of conditions and changing sponsor requirements. Approximately 12,000 full- and part-time staff are employed by the RF annually and can be found in the laboratories, theaters, studios, libraries, and offices of CUNY’s 23 colleges and professional schools, as well as at numerous off-campus sites.

In addition to supporting CUNY, the RF provides direct administrative services to other not-for-profit organizations through GrantsPlus. The RF and GrantsPlus combine skilled and attentive staff with cutting edge technology to deliver high-quality services to their clients.

The RF owns, and operates out of, its headquarters in New York City’s Times Square through the 230 West 41st Street LLC.

Current Activity

The figures contained in the charts and financial statements in this report reflect results from 2010, the most recent complete year at the time of this document’s preparation. With a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, however, we are actually well into 2011 activity and we can report that 2011 has been a year of continued accomplishment for the Research Foundation Central Office. Our web-based systems continue to offer PIs and field employees alike a fast and effective mechanism to carry out a variety of processes. Central office staffing levels remain at a remark-ably consistent level despite increasing volume, reporting and compliance demands (particularly with respect to federal stimulus funding), fiscal and program audit requirements, and the gener-ally growing complexities of grant and contract administration.

Beginning in 2009 we saw activity increase after several years of relatively stable levels of fund-ing. Last year we wondered if the $375.5 million in 2009 represented a blip on the radar screen or the start of a growth pattern fueled by CUNY’s various initiatives in support of sponsored pro-grams. Given that in 2010 activity increased to $430.3 million, and 2011 is strong, one might be