Tulane University is one of the nation's leading research universities. From fiscal year FY2018 to FY 2022, Tulane grew research by 32%, from ~$137M to $181M in total research funding. Students, faculty, and staff are pursuing research across colleges, schools, and departments, in research centers and institutes based on campus, and through interdisciplinary programs, partnerships, and affiliations. This enterprising network is supported by administrative offices that manage related issues such as safety, compliance, technology, and finance.
Given the size of the University’s research enterprise, less than efficient processes have developed across the university. The Research Administration Service Units are the approach that has been unanimously approved as the new model to manage our research administrative work.
Each department is assigned a RASU pre-award and post-award staff specialist to manage their grants. For a list of RASU representatives, as well as representatives from Sponsored Projects, Grants and Contracts Accounting, and Corporate and Foundation Relations, please click here.
Research administration describes all day-to-day activities associated with the administration of sponsored awards. These activities are done not only at Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) and Grants & Contracts Accounting (GCA), department, institute, and school levels. Research administration activities could include (but are not limited to): identifying funding, assisting with developing a budget on a proposal, reviewing and approving proposals, managing and reviewing award expenditures, and initiating award set up.
The chosen model is one where there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities between a team of individuals who provide high quality research administration services to a group of faculty, departments, a school or schools and share these responsibilities with SPA and GCA. These units, known as the Research Administration Service Units (RASU), will house pre- and post-award teams to perform research administration functions within one of the four Units – SOM, SPHTM, TNPRC, Uptown/SSE. These units will provide:
- Pre- and post-award activities that are localized within the RASU
- Research Administration personnel staffed at appropriate levels given award volume and activity per unit
- Research support staff that are directly connected to Faculty and principal investigators within each unit
- A measurable accountability and responsibility for Research Administration functions and resources to support research based on metrics
- Consistent application of administrative procedures to create efficiency in Research Administration across the units
Our research funding and activity has grown dramatically over the last decade. The administrative infrastructure, practices, and division of labor to support research are not as effective as they need to be and as they can be. Considering the continued growth in research, coupled with the urgent need to improve the effectiveness of administrative support, we need to change the current model.
To fundamentally rethink how to best provide excellent support to academic research, we charged a group to collect and analyze data about our current state of operations, determine what the current critical issues are and provide recommendations for moving forward. The following issues were identified:
- Unclear roles & responsibilities
- Variability in the quantity and quality of support provided to PIs
- Fragmentation, and at times, communication breakdown between the many operating units at Tulane (lab → department/division → school/unit →central), which can lead to redundancy and rework
- Inconsistent processes across multiple operating units
One clear outcome is that we need to build a new kind of organization, one without the focus on whether it is a central or local function, but rather a focus on performance excellence and the strategic initiative to make necessary changes.
All AAU and nearly all R1 universities operate in distributed model. There are many versions of this model, shared services, centers of excellence, departmental level support, and college/school level support that connect back to central offices. Specifically, as it relates to our future state models, there are several universities that have implemented service centers for part or all their research administration functions. Among these are the University of California San Francisco, University of California Berkeley, George Mason University, the University of Kentucky, Emory University, Texas A&M University System, and Yale University.
- Provide high quality support to faculty
- Create a customer service-oriented culture
- Provide for balancing of workload and back-up resources for staff (especially during FMLA, vacations, etc.)
- Provide knowledgeable and competent staff focused solely on research administration
- Streamline and standardize processes, increasing efficiency of staff and enhancing research compliance
- Deliver a clear definition of roles and responsibilities and accountability
- Mitigate risk involved with research administration activities
Before we roll out this approach campus wide, we plan to pilot in a few schools on the uptown campus, anchored around the School of Science and Engineering and the School of Liberal Arts. Piloting is critical. We need to test if this structure works in our environment and determine how the model will best function at Tulane (i.e., work out the kinks before rolling it out campus wide). We expect the pilot to begin in the Fall of 2023 and last approximately six months. While the pilot is in operation, we will be planning for a campus wide roll out which will likely occur in stages. Roll out is likely to begin in the Winter of 2024, and continue for about 9 months.
Specific evaluation metrics for evaluating the pilot have not yet been determined. However, they are likely to include quantitative and qualitative metrics that are aligned with the goals of implementing these groups. Examples of pilot metrics could include measuring PI and staff satisfaction or evaluating efficiency.
The pilot is anticipated to last about six months. There will likely be some revisions to the process along the way; additional research support is expected to roll-out following the end of the pilot. After the pilot, implementation across campus is expected to last 12 – 18 months (including the pilot).
The first phase of this project included identifying functions and activities should be in the RASUs. A cross-functional team has thoroughly reviewed a list of roles and responsibilities for all research administration functions and activities (from developing the biosketch to closing the award) and proposed comprehensive recommendations where it makes sense for the role to sit (with the PI, RASU, SPA, or GCA)? This process was done by college level and SPA/GCA staff.
This will be determined by the volume of activity (including complexity of activity) and roles and responsibilities that are assigned to each group. Currently, our model shows that there will be approximately 45-55 FTE in the RASUs. We imagine each service unit will be at minimum 10-12 people, however they may be as large as 20. These numbers are for research administrators in the RASUs and does not include the staff who are in SPA or GCA.
Each RASU will have a leader to whom all staff will report. The leader of each group will report to the Associate Vice President of Research Administration with a dotted line to the school they support.
The staff will be located as close to the PIs and schools they serve as possible. We will be working with the schools and university to determine the actual location. An important factor in the success of the units will be the nature of teams. To that end, we will be looking to locate all staff as closely together as possible.
If you perform research administrative activities, it is likely that your job functions change as a result of this new approach. However, at this time, we have not determined how staff will move into those roles. We will be working closely with School, University Leadership, and the Office of Human Resources & Institutional Equity to determine the next steps. During these discussions we will communicate what we can when we can. We want to keep people informed during this transition, so they are prepared for the changes.
If all an individual’s responsibilities are moved, it does not mean that they will automatically be transferred. The new approach will redefine the roles and responsibilities of some positions. There will be skills assessments and one-on-one discussions to determine who has the appropriate skills and personal interest to work within the research administration support group. This new approach will provide opportunities for training and growth for Research Administration staff across the University.
Additionally, there will be a need for new hires, some of these staff will come from outside of Tulane and all internal Tulane candidates will be considered first before making additional external hires. It is important to understand that the changes we are undertaking are not intended to reduce staff headcount. During our background work on this and the Cayuse project it became clear: we need better systems, training, and structures to do our jobs. Mostly, we will need you.
As Tulane increases its impact as a highly functioning R1 university and invests in infrastructure, changes are being made to support this initiative. In the past SPA and GCA has been able to support what, in nearly all R1 universities, would be considered a local activity. As the growth continues at a rapid pace, this is no longer a supportable model. There are many reasons for this but the two most important are: PIs should be supported locally to receive the best support and to focus their efforts on research and proposals rather than administration, and that having inconsistent processes can lead to audit findings and potential difficult corrective action plans. With the new grants management system, Cayuse, and the change in the operating model, the dependence on these offices and their role will change.
The goal of this project is to ensure consistent high levels of service to PIs related to research administration, not to disrupt current areas of success. If you have a person or people that you work well with, our aim is to keep that connection. As we progress, we will gather feedback from PIs to aim to meet their needs.
For general inquiries, please contact the Associate Vice President of Research Administration, Tom Pereira, at tper@tulane.edu.
