This case study describes the plans and innovations that contributed to the successful transition from traditional, in-person working to working virtually at Gallaudet University during the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 13, 2020, Gallaudet closed its campus to non-essential employees and transitioned to remote work due to the global coronavirus…

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a college-level research office has used a variety of services and tools to increase faculty grant activity. A dozen practices will be discussed. Results indicate that the grant dollars received in the most recent fiscal year (FY2019-2020) are almost 150% higher than in the year before these practices…

Departmental research administrators offer a wide range of support services to research communities, university central offices, and fellow research administrators in other departments and institutions around the world. It is important for department-level research administration offices to function as a unit to provide centralized services that…

While most universities in the developed world, by tradition, have research offices to handle research management, structures for the efficient coordination and strong governance of research are nascent within many Sub-Saharan African universities. In this paper we look at the organizational structures, policies and functions of research offices…

Bibliometric benchmarking can be an aid to researchers pondering whether to apply for competitive grants. In this paper, the highly prestigious grants offered by the European Research Council to young scientists of any nationality were scrutinized. The analysis of the 2014-2015 data indicates that over 75% of life science grantees in the starting…

The need to understand efficacy and outcomes from grant-funded activity is common to funders, the academic community, and the public. Yet, few articles in the research administration corpus offer details on and considerations of applying the concept of return on investment (ROI) to grant activity. To determine the volume of material available…

The author knew of no formalized system for appraising grant capacity and readiness so, in an effort to understand the current state of knowledge regarding assessment of these institutional factors, conducted a systematic review of the research administration literature. Every article published from 1982 through 2013 by five major journals in the…

By providing training from the Central Sponsored Programs Office (SPO), departments, and colleges at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) can increase compliance with grant requirements. PUIs usually do not focus on department- or college-level grants administration and lack monetary resources to support this function. However, at the…

On occasion, colleges and universities are confronted with natural or technological disasters that affect their communities or their constituents throughout the state. While these situations demand a coordinated institutional research response, administration and management of these endeavors are extremely complex. In this paper we discuss the…

Experienced grant writers know that reviewers are quick to decide whether they like or do not like the proposals they are reading. Therefore, much of the success of any given proposal rides on the strength of the first page--its capacity to "sell" the research idea to skeptical reviewers. This paper describes a writing technique designed to elicit…

After months of waiting, the grant reviews came back: "excellent," "excellent," and "fair." What?! How can this be? Why is the third review so out of line with the first two? On more than one occasion a principal investigator (PI) has been frustrated not only by a negative funding decision but more so by the accompanying reviewer evaluation forms…

Writing and administering proper subcontracts are essential components of effective grant and contract management. Frequently, prime grantees and contractors issue letters, simple purchase orders, or other brief documents in order to establish subcontracting relationships. The reason why these are not adequate is explained. (MLW)

Issues in sponsored research are addressed: institutional commitment and targeted budget allocations, administrative and faculty commitment--structure and support services; sponsored research and institutional characteristics; and faculty development programs--research-oriented. (MLW)

A survey to determine the role, structure, and function of the research and sponsored programs office at predominantly undergraduate institutions that have a small volume of awards from external funding sources is reviewed. The methods these institutions employ to encourage research and sponsored activity are examined. (Author/MLW)

As researchers turn to industry over government for research funding, it is proposed that research administrators provide substantial assistance to faculty in the different strategies and skills needed to win grants. Differences between corporate and federal sponsors, basic strategies found effective in winning grants, and elements of effective…