First Things First

Research Administration Ecosystem

About this Initiative

This initiative aims to make coordinated investments and decisions that improve the grant submission process and post-award management, improve service delivery, and reduce redundancies, gaps, and delays in research administration-related processes, to benefit both researchers and research support staff.

Initiative Team

Sponsors:

  • Richard Allen, interim vice chancellor for Research (VCR)
  • Kelly Sparks, vice chancellor for Finance (VCF)
  • Marc Fisher, vice chancellor for Administration (VCA)

Initiative Manager:

  • Ann Jeffrey, executive advisor

Core Team Members:

  • Elizabeth Brashers, assistant vice chancellor & chief of staff, VCR
  • Mike Cook, director, Business Process Management Office
  • Amy Gardner, assistant vice chancellor & chief of ctaff, VCF
  • Michael Riley, associate vice chancellor & controller, VCF
  • Tracy Shinn, associate vice chancellor, Information Technology, & chief information officer
  • Kairi Williams, assistant vice chancellor, Research Administration and Compliance
  • Seamus Wilmot, assistant vice chancellor and executive director Business Operations

Milestones

1

Completed Items

Goals & Efforts

  1. Simplified vendor Certificate of Insurance process launched
2

2026

Goals & Efforts

  1. New onboarding support for small and nonprofit vendors launched
  2. Core research administration processes documented and improved
  3. New metrics launched to track process timelines and workloads
  4. Design for a single online resource (one-stop hub) for managing research awards approved
  5. First AI-enabled proposal support tool debuts
  6. Initial research funding forecasting/modeling dashboards available for leadership use
3

2027

Goals & Efforts

  1. Online resource (one-stop hub) for managing research awards opens to initial users
  2. AI-driven grant proposal support tools released to pilot users
  3. Research portal pilot launches
  4. Requirements for improved/replacement research administration system(s) are identified
  5. Expanded research funding modeling and forecasting tools available to leadership
4

2028

Goals & Efforts

  1. Online resource (one-stop hub) for managing research awards expands to all research units campus-wide
  2. Next-generation research administration systems decided
  3. Continuous process improvement becomes standard practice