Research administrator invited to spend two weeks in South Africa

Jeremy Miner awarded international fellowship

Story by Jessie Tremmel, Staff Writer

Jeremy Miner, director of grants and contracts at the UW-Eau Claire, will spend two weeks in South Africa working to learn the best practices of research administrators in the region on an International Fellowship grant. He will then bring that gained knowledge back to Eau Claire.

The fellowship is a joint initiative between the National Council of University Research Administrators and the South African Research and Innovation Management Association. Miner will be at Cape Peninsula University in Cape Town, South Africa.

“Part of what we are doing then through this type of fellowship is learning more about what are the best practices that are going on in other parts of the world,” Miner said.

The fellowship will allow Miner to see what other universities are doing and how these practices could work at Eau Claire.

“If we are doing our jobs right, it becomes transparent to all the stu- dents and the faculty,” Miner said. “They get to focus on the research and the scholarship, and that’s what’s leading to the great experiences for them. We removed all the administrative roadblocks.”

Miner’s international fellowship fits in with one pillar of the Centen- nial Plan, which is a set of goals to be accomplished in honor of the centennial anniversary of the founding of Eau Claire. One of the components of the Centennial Plan is to accelerate global learning. Miner will spread that knowledge among faculty, staff and students.

“The world seems to be getting smaller and flatter,” Miner said. “So what do we need to do as a university to make sure that you are prepared as a student graduating to go out into that world.”

One person involved in developing that plan is Karen Havholm, the assistant vice chancel- lor for research and sponsored pro- grams. She said she is excited about Miner’s opportunity because he will gain information about how to work with international partners.

“This will be an opportunity for us to get international experience in an area that people might not usu- ally think of,” Havholm said. “And that is seeking funding for whatever efforts people may be doing to either go to another country or bring people here from another country or to do research that involves other countries, that the better we know how to work with other countries then the easier that will be.”

Michael Carney, the interim associate vice chancellor for curriculum, internationalization and immersion, said having Miner recognized raises the quality of research at the university and honors the great work that comes out of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Accelerating global learning and global awareness is a goal of the Centennial Plan, Carney said. The goal of accelerating global learning seeks to ensure all students leave Eau Claire with a basic understand- ing of global issues, which can be achieved in a class or through an international immersion.

“We are a unique institution in the fact that we have student sup- port, in the form of Blugold Commitment, to engage students and faculty, mainly students in international experiences,” Carney said. “That is very rare.”