As part of Budget and Finance Excellence, one of Finance and Administration's strategic initiatives, the Research Administration project supports the university as it expands its world-renowned research programs. Executive sponsorship for this project includes Amy Dittmar, Kelly Fox, and Ramaroothy Ramesh. The sponsors are responsible for project oversight, providing parameters for working groups, and reviewing recommendations before finalizing decisions. Project leads Katrina Spencer and Carlos Garcia provide daily guidance and oversight of the project, leading the Future State Working Group, which was formed to streamline, ensure an understanding, and improve research administration cohesively. The working group provided diverse perspectives about each step of the process.
The project team held interviews and feedback sessions with campus stakeholders to understand how research administration is currently managed at Rice. These findings led to the creation of four key objectives that have guided the project in planning and implementation:
- Define clear roles and responsibilities for grants management
- Ensure there are adequate resources for research administrators
- Enhance professional development for research administrators
- Create a roadmap for role clarification and training for the grants administration process
The working group thoroughly reviewed the roles and responsibilities of research administrators and uncovered areas for improvement. This review resulted in the clarification of roles and responsibilities for each task of the grant administration process. Additionally, service level commitments were established, which set the expectations for the quality and timeliness of services. These commitments ensure that administrators have a shared understanding of expectations at each point in the grant lifecycle.
To support ongoing administration and grant management, representatives from Research and Cost Accounting, the Office of Sponsored Research, and the Office of the Vice President of Research came together to assess grant support and administrative requirements across all schools and business units. This assessment led to the creation of a training program, Skills Training for Administrative Research Support (STARS), which focuses on skill development and support for grant administrators.
STARS has launched as a pilot program with select representatives from each school and administrative unit. Campus experts lead the ten-series workshop, which provides training on the entire grant lifecycle (pre-award, post-award, compliance). In January 2024, STARS will be available for all university research administrators. Questions regarding STARS training and resources should be sent to researchadmin@rice.edu.
More information on this initiative will be shared at the upcoming in-person Administrators' Forum on December 12.