Kansas State University

Office of Sponsored Programs hosts University of Melbourne, shares research administration modernization tips

Submitted by the Office of the Vice President for Research

On Monday, April 15, leaders from the Office of the Vice President for Research, or OVPR, hosted research administration leaders from the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, for in-depth discussions relating to modernized and automated research administration environments.

During the visit, K-State leaders shared research administration processes from ideation to implementation, including "getting past start." They shared how the office conducted an environmental scan of existing systems and how the team developed a statement of the goals and objectives for modernization, best practices that were deployed regarding data integrity and report visualizations. The development of a list of requirements for developed or procured systems, project planning and support, tips relating to change management, moving fundamental processes from manual to automated, lessons learned, identification, assignment and deployment of subject matter experts for project inclusion, input and communication and more was shared with the visiting leaders.

"The collaboration between these two large institutions of higher education demonstrates the OVPR's commitment to building systems, processes and talent that are exemplary at K-State, but also nationally and abroad," said David Rosowsky, vice president for research. "These mutually beneficial exchanges are just one factor that will drive K-State's Research Growth Plan and further demonstrate the Next-Gen land-grant attitude of K-State leaders and researchers."

Beginning in 2018, the Office of the Vice President for Research started an ambitious program to modernize K-State's research administration systems and business processes in response to various research task force recommendations and in support of the K-State 2025 plan and now K-State's Research Growth Plan, an integral part of the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan.

"The quest to move the OVPR Office of Sponsored Programs to be an innovative and nationwide leader in research administration systems and processes required substantial effort on the part of OSP personnel," said Paul Lowe, associate vice president for research and director. "I am extremely proud of the effort of our staff and of the outcomes we've now been able to share with our colleagues at the University of Melbourne."

Prior to the recent system modernization, the K-State research enterprise was a historic manual, paperwork environment, which contributed to administrative inefficiencies, antiquated business processes and home-grown research admin systems that totaled more than 60 across the academy. These disparate, non-integrated systems, balanced with exponential increases in work volume resulting from substantial growth in externally funded research and scholarly activities, created a perfect storm for potential program failure, during a period in which proposal submissions, awards received and grants managed grew exponentially.

"We were aware that a substantial number of shadow systems were deployed across the academy, but when we completed an environmental scan, we were not expecting to find such a large number of disparate systems or the extent to which these systems were disconnected from each other and central processes," said Lowe.

The entire research community at K-State has benefited from a new innovative and model cutting-edge electronic research administration environment, which includes updated and streamlined business processes that has facilitated across the board increased productivity, increased transparency and access, as well as nearly real-time status updates to pending work products. These impressive results have placed K-State on the list of institutions that have developed exemplary systems and processes, resulting in outreach requests from other institutions, worldwide, who are looking for advice on how to similarly pursue modernization efforts at their own institutions.

"It has been a wonderful journey to place K-State in such an advanced position as it relates to an electronic eRA environment," said Mollie Robbins-Wint, associate director of the Office of Sponsored Programs and project leader for the modernization effort. "It was no easy feat to accomplish what we have in the past five years, but most importantly, we've created a culture within the research enterprise that expects continual improvement and innovation to best serve the university."