Minimizing the Administrative Burden on Faculty Toolkit

Use this toolkit to improve your research administration processes and tackle compliance issues.

As faculty dedicate more of their time to research, a good amount of that time is spent on administrative work rather than time in the lab. Unstable internal and external funding, decreasing award success rates, and increasing regulatory compliance have created an environment where researchers submit more (and more complex) proposals than ever, collectively increasing the administrative workload.

To support chief research officers (CROs) and their staff in reducing administrative burden, the University Research Forum has developed the following toolkit to accompany the 16 tactics outlined in our national meeting study, “Minimizing the Administrative Burden on Faculty.”

Electronic research administration systems: An overview of the ERA market and vendor evaluation process

This updated whitepaper offers additional information on compliance modules and includes a new evaluation framework to help CROs and staff determine which functions and components to prioritize when implementing new ERA tools.

When CROs are in the market for a new electronic research administration system (ERA) they have an expensive decision to make. CROs can use this whitepaper to:

• Provide an overview of the current market for grant and award management, submission, and support products
• Offer tactics for identifying and evaluating best-fit ERA vendors to save time and money
• Help determine which functions and components to prioritize when implementing new ERA tools

Download the White Paper

Roles and responsibility matrix library and template

This tool helps research administrators carefully delineate research administration duties. It includes two components: 1) a library of matrix examples and 2) a customizable matrix template.

Research administrators can utilize the library to create or update their current roles and responsibility matrix. It provides profiles of institutions, like the University of Colorado Boulder, that have created exemplar roles and responsibility matrices and as well as a consolidated list of existing roles and responsibility matrices from other research offices.

Download the Library

Drawing on a sample of 15 existing matrices, the excel template provides the framework for creating a roles and responsibility matrix and includes major pre-and post-award process categories. Research administrators can fill in this template to include the steps within each category and identify the primary and supporting roles for each step.

Download the Template

Research administration metrics compendium

Many research offices collect performance metrics but focus solely on outputs such as the number of proposals and awards. While those are helpful and relevant metrics, they don’t give much insight into how the research office is actually functioning. Even those research offices that do collect research administration data often publicize and analyze it too infrequently, sometimes only in annual reports.

This tool presents CROs and research administrators with a diverse list of research metrics to select from and measure. We recommend the research office creates a dashboard to measure performance on a select set of these measures and share the data at least monthly.

Download the Compendium

Peer-to-peer compliance consultations

As compliance challenges and processes vary campus by campus, this tool allows you to request specific engagements with experts in the areas of greatest interest for individual institutions.

Research administrators interested in how other institutions structure on-campus compliance policies and procedures can select from a menu of regulatory fields, as well as suggest new fields for networking. Our team will then pair interested institutions with self-identified experts to discuss challenges and potential solutions. We will handle all the logistics.

Are you a compliance expert who would be willing to share your knowledge with institutions interested in learning more about your area of expertise? Email us!