TO:
Principals, Deans, Academic Directors and Chairs
FROM:
Professor Paul Young, Vice-President, Research and Innovations
DATE: 17 October 2012
RE:
Associate Vice-President, Research Oversight and Compliance
I am pleased to let you
know that the University has approved a new position of Associate Vice-President
for Research Oversight and Compliance. I am also happy to inform you that
Professor Lori Ferris, a Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health
and who currently serves as Associate Vice-Provost Health Sciences Policy and
Strategy (Office of the Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions),
has agreed to take up this position.
Professor Ferris joined the
VPRI portfolio just over a year ago on a part-time basis as my Special Advisor
on Research Ethics and Protections.
She holds a PhD in psychology and two masters of laws degrees in alternative
dispute resolution and administrative law. Professor Ferris currently chairs
the Ethics and Policy Committee for the World Association of Medical Editors
and in 2012 she became the association’s Vice-President, and Jan 1 2014 she
will become its President. Her research interests include
medico-legal-policy, public health, women’s health and health services
research, with over 100 publications mostly in these areas of interest.
In her role as
Associate Vice-President, Professor Ferris will manage the Research Oversight
and Compliance Office (ROCO) which comprises legal services, research ethics
(human and animal), and research financial reporting and audit. ROCO was
formed in 2009 in response to escalating sponsor and regulatory requirements in
research which place an increasingly heavy burden on research institutions as
well as growing financial, legal and reputational risks. ROCO was the
first office of its kind in Canada and signaled important recognition of the
need to achieve and sustain a level of distributed oversight and compliance
consistent with U of T’s massive and highly decentralized research
enterprise.
We have already
benefitted from Lori’s work to help address our local institutional response to
the international trend towards dramatic increases in allegations of research
misconduct. She has helped create institutional structures and processes
to assist academic divisions to properly manage allegations, and will be
involved in launching ongoing educational programs to increase awareness of
research integrity. I am grateful that she has agreed to extend her
leadership in the VPRI in an expanded role.
Professor Ferris will
take up the AVP position effective November 1st. on a part-time
basis while she transitions out of her Associate Vice Provostial role, and
will start full time in my office Jan 2 2014. Her office will
be in McMurrich on the 2nd floor although she will continue to work
closely with me in Simcoe Hall, as required, on allegations of research
misconduct. Please join me in congratulating Lori on this important
appointment.
No comments:
Post a Comment