Nicole Sharkey was recently named the Director of Grants and Contracts for the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI).
In this role, Sharkey will lead SSRI’s newly created Grants and Contracts Office, a team of administrators who support researchers with complex, multi-disciplinary proposal preparation and award management.
“Our goal is to offer quality service, ensuring compliance with both Penn State guidelines and sponsor specific terms and conditions,” Sharkey said. “I'll focus on creating and maintaining collaborative partnerships with other research units, sponsors, and central offices such as Office of Sponsored Programs and Office of Research Accounting.”
Additionally, Sharkey will serve as a resource to faculty, assisting with and resolving complex award issues, reporting, and any non-standard research related tasks. Previously, these tasks were completed by Barbara Rigg, who retired as SSRI’s research operations manager last month.
Sharkey has served at Penn State for 11 years and previously was a research project manager within SSRI’s Population Research Institute, and a proposal and award generalist with the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Engineering.
In her free time, Sharkey enjoys spending time with her family, going on walks, and traveling, preferably somewhere warm.