Research Services

Dedicated to continually expanding and strengthening Penn Nursing’s community knowledge base, the ONR offers colloquia featuring renowned guest lecturers spotlighting research topics of interest to better inform investigators across all levels of expertise. The ONR also presents Responsible Conduct of Research seminars and shares information about funding opportunities as well as opportunities for students to become involved in faculty research projects.

The ONR’s Grants Managers are focused on helping to meet the requirements of the grant proposal, the subsequent award, and the financial requirements of the sponsor. Pre-award services include identification of funding sources, budget creation, mock reviews, routing and approval, and proposal submission. Templates of frequently used documents are also made available to researchers. Post-award support includes award documentation, budget administration and oversight, guidance with regulatory compliance, assistance with filing annual reports, and closeout and audit of the award.

In order to ensure timely and accurate submissions and to provide equitable services to all faculty, ONR has deadline procedures in place for grant submissions

1. Proposal Request Submission Forms should be completed as soon as you think you will be submitting a proposal. The form must be completed prior to a Grants Manager being assigned. If the request is not submitted AT LEAST 10 business days before the sponsor’s deadline, the proposal will not be submitted until the next cycle for submission.

2. Final documents for submission MUST be in your Grants Folder on your shared drive AT LEAST 5 business days before the sponsor’s deadline. Otherwise, the proposal will not be submitted until the next cycle for submission.

ONR now offers several options for Mock Reviews: Specific Aims Mock Review; Abridged Mock Review; and Full Mock Review. Mock reviews are available to SON faculty and Post-Doctoral Fellows for both internal and external proposals. PhD students are able to participate in Specific Aims workshop and Mock Review Sessions with Mentor’s approval and presence at requested sessions. The full Mock Review options chart can be downloaded here.

The data use agreement provides a streamlined process to support research conducted by Penn Nursing that requires access to and use of limited data sets from the Penn Medicine Data Analytics Center.

• Process for Master Data Use Agreement: This document outlines steps that are to be taken prior to submission of the research protocol to the Institutional Review Board.
• Exhibit to the Master Data Use Agreement: An editable form to request a data set from either UPHS or PSOM.
• Master Data Use Agreement: For reference, we have provided the signed Master agreement.

ONR’s team of highly-skilled statisticians not only ensure statistical rigor and appropriateness, but also make sure that a study design is practical, feasible, and scientifically justifiable. Collaboration with a skilled statistician typically yields more clearly articulated results better able to satisfy reviewers’ expectations and stand up to peer-review. Expert at identifying and addressing potential issues, ONR statisticians may suggest exploring alternatives such as more appropriate statistical designs, or perhaps modern modeling techniques. Statistical collaboration provides support for grant or research projects in the areas of sample size, power analysis computation, data management, statistical analysis, and results presentation.

Penn Nursing is one of the few schools of nursing in the U.S. to host a dedicated nursing research lab where Penn Nursing faculty and student investigators explore interactions among biological, behavioral, and social factors to advance health. The lab conducts assays, provides descriptions of assays for grants, regulatory documents and protocols, develops new assays for projects (when equipment allows), and provides a site where faculty may conduct their own explorations under the direction of an experienced lab manager. In addition, the lab provides facilities to store, catalogue, and release biological samples.