What barriers to compliance do research administrators face at liberal arts colleges and predominantly undergraduate institutions? What solutions can be offered to overcome these challenges? All academic institutions that receive government funding must abide by the same federally imposed rules and regulations for financial assistance, whether for…

This article focuses on the transferable (soft) skills articulated in a Research Management (RM) Professional Competency Framework (PCF). The Framework was developed, prior to COVID-19, from continentally anchored RM praxis in Africa. While the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) Framework (2016) includes nine…

Like many services globally, the sudden work-from-home mandate due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted research at Canadian post-secondary and affiliated organizations. Research administration professionals, who are an integral part of the research enterprise at these organizations, and who support and manage research activities were no…

The writing retreat has been positioned as an effective response to the pressure to "publish or perish" in higher education. An academic writing retreat is a professional development event that allows scholars to immerse themselves in writing for publication and to receive on-site support for that writing. In 2012, the Office of Research…

Female faculty remain a minority in academic research and women are often perceived to lack the qualities needed to be successful scientists, which may contribute to discrimination and prejudice against female researchers. Research administrators play a pivotal role in the development of strategic, catalytic, and capacity-building activities…

Research universities and the federal government partner to foster societal, scientific, and technological advancements, but the federal research grant process is criticized for its procedural inefficiencies. Principal investigators and research administrators lament losing time to bureaucratic regulations, unwieldy processes, and burgeoning…

Background: Pilot project programs offer early-stage and other investigators support to pursue emerging research areas, explore new methodologies, gain experience as principal investigators, and collect pilot data needed to pursue larger extramural research funding, such as from the National Institutes of Health. Pilot project programs may be…

Among strategies that campus leaders and research administrators employ to spur interdisciplinary research in U.S. higher education, one of the costliest--and increasingly popular--is designated interdisciplinary research spaces and buildings. Yet while interdisciplinary research buildings, often focused on the sciences, stand as significant…

Higher education institutions are moving towards highlighting the importance of research. According to the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa, the status of higher education institutions will be determined by the extent to which they are engaged in research and research-related activities. Higher education institutions…

The scientific endeavour involves not only those working in research performing organisations--but also those in science funding, policy making, and think tank organisations, among others. The workforce in all these entities is composed of researchers, policy decision makers, managers, administrators, technicians, and other supporting staff.…

Like many other countries, Canada's academic system has been challenged to achieve proportionate representation of historically underrepresented groups. Canadian equity law identifies four designated groups (FDG) for whom conditions of disadvantage shall be corrected: women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible…

Research productivity and research excellence are elements essential to the creation of a conducive research environment, in which research publications, research dissemination, and research utilization, are key in fostering the sustainability of higher education institutions. In this study, the current institutional policies, practices, and…

To initiate clinical research studies successfully and efficiently, it is critical to develop a strong, feasible, and well-written study protocol early in the start-up phase. The University of Minnesota's Clinical Research Support Center designed and implemented a structured Feasibility Review process in 2018 that addresses common start-up…

The research administration profession is in a time of significant change. The traditional jack-of-all-trades role has become more fragmented into specialized advanced roles, with a more recent focus on research development. Workflows are increasingly becoming more electronically automated. The introduction of graduate degrees and professional…

The contemporary complex settings under which research and innovation (R&I) activities are executed in academic institutions calls for the definition of suitable management and administration approaches. To this end, (1) the existing literature on the management of R&I projects in the academia is reviewed; (2) major specificities of…