The Office of the Vice President for Research is responsible for assessing and addressing the education and information needs of UConn staff and faculty involved in sponsored research and compliance activities across UConn’s schools and colleges on all University campuses.
This section of the website provides educational information and support including tutorials, manuals, job aides, videos, and other reference guides to help and support faculty, staff, and students.
Research IT Services in the Office of the Vice President for Research supports a wide array of services and is a key player in shaping the future of research at the University of Connecticut.
We have embarked on a bold initiative to modernize and boost our portfolio of software solutions in an effort to reduce the administrative burdens on our researchers and make it easier for them to access and monitor their research activity and information.
A full suite of enterprise applications will provide a template for grant proposal development, automate routing and allow for electronic submission to certain sponsors. In addition, it will provide functionality for awards management; human and animal subjects protocol development and review; financial conflict of interest disclosures; effort reporting and commitment management; and core facility management (research store).
We have coined our initiative to modernize our Enterprise Research IT systems and automate research administration functions the electronic Research Administration, or eRA. We have created the eRA Help Desk to assist you with your questions and technical problems. The eRA Help Desk’s contact information is listed below.
Telephone: 860-486-7944
Email: eRA-support@uconn.edu
Staffed 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM Weekdays
Self-Service Portal: https://it.research.uconn.edu/SelfService (secured with UConn NetID) Don’t know your NetID?
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Centola, MHS, CIP | Associate Vice President for Research Integrity | 860.205.3702 | centola@uchc.edu |
| Meg Johnson, JD, CIP | Director, Conflicts of Interest and Research Integrity | 959.262.4139 | meg.johnson@uconn.edu |
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Mroz, PhD | Manager of Research Development Services | 860.486.6378 | matthew.mroz@uconn.edu |
| Julie Schwager | Associate VP for Research Research Financial Services |
860.679.7649 | schwager@uchc.edu |
| Deanna Thibodeau | Director, Research Finance | 860.679.6731 | dthibodeau@uchc.edu |
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bieu Tran | Export Control Officer | 860.486.3994 | bieu.tran@uconn.edu |
| Export Control | General Mailbox | 860.486.3994 | exportcontrol@uconn.edu |
Environmental Health & Safety
UConn Health
263 Farmington Avenue, MC 1514
Farmington, CT 06030-1514
860.679.2723
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jessica Golebiewski | Associate Vice President | 860.679.3781 | jgolebiewski@uchc.edu |
| Steven R. Jacobs | Director | 860.679.2723 | jacobs@uchc.edu |
| Robert Gottlieb | Chemical Safety Officer | 860.679.3512 | gottlieb@uchc.edu |
| Elizabeth Pokorski | Business Services Manager | 860.679.2723 | epokorski@uchc.edu |
| Lucy Piechowski | Administrative Program Coordinator | 860.679.2250 | piechowski@uchc.edu |
| Ryan Cawley | Environmental Health & Safety Specialist II | 860.679.4638 | rcawley@uchc.edu |
| Daniel Sasso | Environmental Health & Safety Specialist II | 860.679.4062 | sasso@uchc.edu |
| Robert Bush | Environmental Health & Safety Specialist I | 860-679-4241 | robush@uchc.edu |
| Thomas Costello | Environmental Health & Safety Specialist I | 86-679-4703 | thcostello@uchc.edu |
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) SPARK Technology Commercialization Fund aims to support innovative proof-of-concept studies seeking to translate research discoveries into products, processes, and other commercial applications. We invite proposals from across all disciplines for projects related to commercialization activities. We are eager to identify and support UConn-developed inventions and technologies that address unmet needs and have potential for commercial application.
To learn more about the SPARK Technology Commercialization Fund, visit the OVPR Storrs site.
Pamir Alpay
Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
Pamir Alpay is UConn’s vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He oversees the University’s $375 million research enterprise at the main campus in Storrs, the UConn Health campus in Farmington, the School of Law in Hartford, and the regional campuses across the state. He was appointed interim vice president following a successful tenure as executive director of the Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park, where he served as the University’s chief advocate for industry-informed research and prime liaison between the research community and government collaborators. In September 2023, President Radenka Maric announced that Dr. Alpay was the permanent Vice President. A professor of materials science & engineering and physics, Alpay was also the associate dean for research and industrial partnerships for the UConn School of Engineering.
Dr. Alpay is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering (CASE). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, ASM International, and the American Ceramic Society. Alpay’s research is at the intersection of materials science, condensed matter physics, and surface chemistry. He has over 200 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings, five invited book chapters, and a book on the physics of functionally graded smart materials.
He has raised more than $30 million for research and development from federal and state agencies and industry. Dr. Alpay is the PI of an $18 million interdisciplinary Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) contract dedicated to optimization of high value-added manufacturing technologies for aerospace components.
As executive director of the UConn Tech Park, Alpay established partnerships with industry, state government, and federal agencies and built several interdisciplinary research teams that successfully competed for large-scale funding. Since 2017, industry partners have invested more than $125 million for applied research at the Tech Park, corresponding to over $30 million per year in research and development funding. Alpay also established partnerships with small to medium-size regional businesses as part of core outreach efforts, critical to UConn’s mission of supporting economic growth in the state.
Alpay earned his B.S. and M.S. from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
pamir.alpay@uconn.edu | 860.486.3621
Executive Assistant: Joanna Desjardin
Training Completion form:
