ACOE_Self-Study

Substantial College resources (exclusive of external grant funding) are devoted to the research program. Laboratory and common research space assigned for research activities is currently 14,457 SF. The college covers a minimum of 0.2 FTE for faculty with active research involvement. Additional time is provided for graduate faculty with research grants. Faculty are not required to fund more than 30% of their base salary from their grants, but may do so to protect time. The College provides bridge funding for faculty members with histories of grant funding when there is a lapse in funding while new grant proposals are being generated. In 2016-17, the College expended approximately $587,000 for graduate student stipends and tuition waivers, and approximately $48,000 to support students in the OD/MS program. In addition, the college holds an NIH T35 training grant that provides approximately $50,000 annually to support a research training program for optometry students. The college maintains the Biological Research Facility (BRF) for animal care, which expends approximately $300,000 annually, mostly from indirect charges and per diem costs to research grants. In addition to these expenditures, research activities at the College are supported internally by the Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research (SIVR), which was founded in 1983 from a generous endowment from Adolf and Ruth Schnurmacher in response to the growing need for scientific knowledge about the visual system and methods of improving visual function. The endowment and funding for the SIVR are managed by the Optometric Center of New York (OCNY) , the College’s affiliated foundation. The associate dean for graduate studies and research is the current director of the SIVR. With an annual budget of at least $90,000, the SIVR supports approved pilot studies for innovative translational and clinical research as well as the SIVR Colloquium Series. The series brings to the college nationally and internationally recognized researchers to lecture, meet with research faculty and graduate students. A partial list of SIVR lectures from the last 3 years is provided in Appendix V-10 or https://www.sunyopt.edu/research/schnurmacher-institute-for-vision-research/sivr- colloquia/past-sivr-colloquia. The College promotes its researchers and their activities and increases their visibility through a number of mechanisms including the following: • The College is an active participant in and hosts meetings of VisioNYC, a collaborative effort of the vision research programs at Columbia, Rockefeller, Cornell, and NYU and SUNY Optometry to promote the interaction of vision scientist in New York City. Examples of programs can be found in Appendix III-2 . • Publications, grant awards, conference presentations, and invited talks are publicized in the College’s quarterly electronic newsletter, FY Eye (http://www.sunyopt.edu/fy-eye- archive). • Notable accomplishments are posted on the news banner on the College’s website. • Research colloquia and graduate student presentations are advertised on the college electronic billboards.

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