2/10/2023 Julia Park
Written by Julia Park
Update May 1, 2023: One of Pankow's presentations was so well-received that she and her co-presenters were asked to write an article on the key topics and takeaways. The article will be included in NCURA's resource compendium, which is a comprehensive 2,500-page reference publication.
MechSE’s Holly Pankow has been invited to present at the 17th Annual NCURA Pre-Award Research Administration (PRA) conference in Las Vegas, March 9-10, 2023.
Pankow, a Senior Research Administration Coordinator in the department’s Research Administration office, will share her perspective at two presentations.
Her interactive session, “When Did You Say Your Proposal Was Due? Working on Short Deadlines!” will focus on last-minute proposal deadlines, building on presenter and audience experiences to generate scenario-based steps to move forward for a successful submission. She and her co-presenters will provide effective models she has used to work with the PI and the campus’ central office to ensure the proposal is compliant and reviewed prior to submission to the sponsor. The session will conclude with additional interactive activities to reinforce learning objectives with real-world examples.
The “Hello? Can You Hear Me Now?” presentation will focus on how to effectively communicate important information to faculty in a way that will be not only read but digested by the targeted recipient. She will also discuss methods for creating information repositories to make communication around those oft-asked questions more efficient.
With more than 500 people in attendance, the Pre-Award Research Administration conference aims to create an annual PRA Conference complimenting the existing FRA (Financial Research Administration) annual conference.
Pankow has worked at the University of Illinois for more than 9 years in research administration at the central and department level. She assists MechSE faculty with proposal submissions to various sponsors including NSF, DOE, DARPA, ARPA-E, NIH, NASA, and private sponsors and also assists faculty with award management which includes providing guidance on policies, forecasts and burn rates, expenditure reviews, various sponsor prior approval requests, and closeout.