The research administration subgroup, composed of faculty and staff, benefited greatly from interactions with the RA staff in BRS, the Committee on Research of the Academic Senate and the Streamlining Research Pilot work team (as mentioned above in the purchasing and vendoring section). The subgroup reflected upon their conversations and reviewed the survey comments in order to develop these recommendations to improve RA.
Challenges
The survey comments related to RA expressed displeasure with the following three areas: navigation, grant awards and the institutional review board (IRB). Specifically, the comments highlighted the following challenges:
- The current RA structure makes it challenging to navigate the various research support and contracting offices, necessitates numerous handoffs, contributes to inconsistent services and creates confusion around roles and responsibilities.
- The process of accepting, finalizing and establishing grant awards and subcontracts places a substantial administrative burden upon faculty and staff. Additionally, the time associated with establishing a grant award can sometimes have drastically negative impacts on the faculty member and their research.
- The federal regulations, inconsistent review comments and length of time associated with IRB create a significant administrative burden for faculty and staff.
Recommended paths forward
There are some quick wins largely related to managing expectations and better information as to “where to go for something,” but real progress in this landscape is going to require substantive change, possibly in structure and definitely in the funding model.
- Enhance the navigability of the research support offices and structures:
- Identify ways to reduce the number of contacts needed to activate and manage research. Limit the number of touchpoints for the faculty across the various research support offices.
- Assess the current organizational structure of the various research administration support offices and perform a SWOT analysis.
- Initiate a navigator service pilot program to increase support throughout and identify pain points to better understand how to support faculty through the process.
- Provide transparency and guidance to improve the grant awards process from the faculty perspective:
- Create a standing group that monitors and improves grant awards. Monitoring and improving upon the grants awards process should be a continuous process with an executive sponsor.
- If funding was available, the number one priority would be adding FTEs to reduce the number of awards per research administrator and contracts and grants officer.
- Improve the Institutional Review Board process, within the constraints and requirements IRB faces, to improve timelines and the complexity of interface.