The AHS Research Office is changing: Updates and opportunity to share your Input
What have you heard about the changes in the research office?
The AHS Office of Research is growing and changing. Lots of stories are going around. Here are a couple of updates.
"Centralization"
The AHS Office of Research is bringing resources together so that all AHS investigators can access consistent support over the full lifecycle of each project. Our new structure integrates pre-award and post-award services in the college. Day-to-day transactions will continue to be handled at the department level. We already know that not every process falls neatly into one of these categories. Your patience is appreciated as we continue to learn, adapt and improve.
What could possibly go wrong? We really want to know so that we can fix mistakes before they happen whenever possible. Please share your feedback.
Who will you be working with?
There will be a team of highly qualified grants and contracts administrators who will be able to work with you. Here are some of the principles that will determine who you will work with on a given project:
- You will work with the same grants & contracts administrator for the life of the project (i.e. the same person who helped you develop your proposal budget helps you re-budget the award after it gets cut by the NIH!)
- Ideally each PI has one grants & contracts administrator who they usually work with/Each grants and contracts administrator has a portfolio of PIs (like an NIH program officer).
- Each grants & contracts administrator may have areas of particular expertise, but everyone on the team has the skills to manage both pre- and post-award processes for most types of projects.
Other considerations may include current administrator workload, proposal deadline, project complexity. We know there will be hiccups along the way. Please share your feedback.
Communications
I have a deadline coming up. How will I inform the research office team?
Inefficient communication processes are at the root of the most commonly expressed frustrations by both PIs and grants administrators. The Office of Research is joining most AHS administrative processes in implementing a ticketing system that will be customized for our specific needs. PIs will be able to know when their request has been received by their grants administrator, login to monitor the status of their request, and obtain certain status updates automatically. In turn, grants administrators will know that the PI has provided all of the information necessary to begin work. This process will not replace the one-on-one relationships but should make things a little easier on everyone. Please share your feedback.
Continue to watch Inside AHS for accurate updates and share your input here: https://redcap.link/AHS_ResearchOfficeFeedback.