Research and Economic Development continues improvements in research administration

Ongoing growth in research activity is a fundamental goal at UNC Charlotte, in keeping with the mission to be North Carolina’s urban research university. Though the challenge of steadily increasing funded research largely falls on the shoulders of the researchers themselves, the University recognizes that constant improvement in administrative support also may be a critical part of getting more and larger grant funding.

Since 2009, a University team has been working to identify and implement changes in the operations of research administration to better support faculty success in securing and managing grants. Known as the Research Administration Project (RAP), the four-year, ongoing effort has made significant strides in making grant administration, including hiring, personnel management and budget, more manageable.

At a large presentation to University research administrators on Nov. 29, UNC Charlotte Research and Economic Development presented a status report on the ongoing effort, and began to introduce the second phase of the project, a new initiative entitled “Advancing University Research Administration” or AURA.

“The RAP project’s goal was to streamline research administration at UNC Charlotte,” noted Bernadette Williams, IT program manager for Research and Economic Development, who is leading the AURA initiative. “The ongoing goal is to make the process more efficient, sustainable and scalable.”

“We have tried to align this effort with the University’s goal to reach at least $50 million in research funding by 2020. We’ve also tried to align this initiative with the strategic goals of Research and Economic Development, which include improving customer service, increasing collaboration with other universities, and continuing to build the culture of research across the colleges of UNC Charlotte.”

Under the RAP initiative, many of the processes involved research administration were improved in order to make it easier for researchers to effectively manage their grants. Examples cited at the forum include an effort by Financial Data Administration at streamlining the system for managing personnel budget; a project to improve reporting by Information Technology Services, with new on-demand Web access and monthly reports to principal investigators; Human Resources improved its system to make hiring under grants faster and more user-friendly; the Graduate School developed a Web tool to allow online processes for hiring graduate students; and Research developed a training program for department administrators to take some of the administrative load off faculty.

The team members who gave status updates on these facets of RAP stressed that the process continues with AURA, and many further enhancements are being planned for the coming years.

“AURA will continue to move research administration forward and it needs to do that collaboratively with the researchers and the colleges,” noted Williams. To that end, future forums (like the Nov. 29 event) are being planned to reach specific audiences of staff and research faculty, along with “road shows” to colleges and University councils. Faculty will be invited to participate in various subcommittees aimed at instituting future modifications and improvements.

Williams also noted that ongoing communication is a critical part of AURA. Research and Economic Development has been upgrading its websites, and future changes will be prominently posted. AURA also has a Moodle site (accessible using your university ID and password) that anyone who is currently interested in further information about the project is encouraged to check out: https://moodle.charlotte.edu/course/view.php?id=114398&edit=off&sesskey=vm01N3o3YJ

Individuals who have specific questions about AURA or who want to be involved in the process should contact Bernadette Williams at Bernadette.williams@uncc.edu.