NCURA Region VI & VII 2009 Spring Meeting Re-launching a Sponsored Research Office

NCURA Region VI & VII 2009 Spring MeetingRe-launching a Sponsored Research Office John Carfora, Executive Director Joseph McNicholas, Director of Pre-Award Services Loyola Marymount University

Loyola Marymount University • A great university in the Jesuit tradition founded in 1911 • Predominantly undergraduate, some masters degrees • Teaching focused, inwardly directed • Less than $4 million a year in sponsored projects • John and Joseph were tapped to turn the office around starting in September, 2008

Leadership Goals • To expand our research presence and our ability to attract external funds • To enhance and strategically orient our graduate programs • To rise in regional and national stature as leading Catholic University on the west coast • To better manage our research-related risks and liabilities

Limits of the Office for Sponsored Projects • Reputation for bureaucratic inefficiency • Unclear to faculty and staff how to submit proposal and who to ask • Uncertainty with lines of authority, responsibility for budgeting, regulations, submissions, etc.

So we changed our name! • The Office for Research and Sponsored Projects

Staff Assignments • Top priority for our office: submitting more proposals AND more compliant proposals • We clarified roles and duties based on professional identity as research administrators • The Executive Director coordinates with upper administration and focuses on strategic development • The Director and two staff members have portfolios in addition to service roles to the office • One administrative assistant provide support to the Executive Director and Director

Workflow • Each applicant files an Intent to Apply Form to start and a Routing Form prior to submitting • Each applicant is assigned an ORSP representative to facilitate in all phases of the project

IT choices • Our IT needs had been over-estimated • We boiled it down to the essentials needed for tracking and reporting our work • We assigned the IT component to one person and the administrative implementation to another

Building faculty relations • Once we had some success in making our business processes clearer, we had a service to sell • We visited and talked constantly with faculty and deans, got on committees • We mended fences with operational partners in Corporate and Foundation, in the Controller’s Office and in IT • And improved our website . . .

Strengthening our web presence • www.lmu.edu/orsp • We assigned responsibility for managing the web site to one person in the office • We coordinated the web real estate with the key players in Academic Affairs and IT • We provided real resources there • We designed for simplicity and update-ability

Advocating for research • Our Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies appointed us both to the Research Council where we enjoy a regular bully pulpit for research issues • We worked with Deans to learn more about their visions for research in their schools • We worked with the Controllers Office and HR to develop policies relevant to budgeting and faculty effort

Building Strategic Partnerships • We invited speakers from outside the university to meet with our faculty • Successful scholars and federal representatives can say more with their presence that a year’s worth of haranguing by us • We advocate for working with community partners and building coalitions

Compliance • Improvements to IRB • Improvements to IACUC • Improvements to Environmental Health and Safety • Clearer statements of policy from the Controller and from Human Resources • More coordination between pre and post award

Hope and Humor • Much of what we have been able to accomplish has been through spreading the idea that we might actually succeed and that we might have a good time doing it. • Those qualities have truly been contagious

NCURA Region VI & VII 2009 Spring Meeting Re-launching a Sponsored Research Office