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 2015 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) prompted universities to consider Indigenization. Subsequently, in recognition of the need for a prior step, decolonizing became the focus. At York University (Toronto, Canada), while faculty hiring policies and curriculum development addressed some aspects of…

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.…

Many funding agencies require researchers to include a data management plan with their grant applications explaining how they intend to make the data generated from the research publicly accessible. University administration and campus service providers could potentially leverage the content of data management plans to facilitate compliance and…

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…

Research development in higher education is a service-delivery system. In any service field, when choosing appropriate services, practitioners should reach for 'evidence-based practices.' Limited empirical research has addressed the preferences of research faculty regarding research support services. In this project, we sought to provide research…

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…