Scope:
Research is a core activity of ASU, whose mission is to increase national and global competitiveness through excellence in research and discovery. As a result, improving research support infrastructure in order to meet the demands of increased research growth, while at the same time ensure compliancy with regulatory agencies, is also a high priority of the university.
The university currently supports 1,144 active researchers on 2,690 projects, expending $220 million in research activity. Based on projected and proposed efforts, ASU will continue to grow its research enterprise at an accelerated pace. This trend supports the university's goal to increase research expenditures to $350 million by 2012.
In order to better serve this growing research enterprise, the Research Enhancement Team has initiated a transition to a distributed-service model for research development and administration. The distributed model takes advantage of the control and consistency of a centralized system and the flexibility and user focus of a decentralized system. The distributed model better serves the distributed campus system and the increasing diversity of locations where research is conducted. The distributed model's management approach bridges a strong, centralized Office for Research and Sponsored Projects Administration with a network of research administrators in colleges and centers (collectively known as "Research Advancement Staff").
An electronic toolset is included in this management plan as the core repository of information and business processes related to research administration, as well as a hub to promote improved communication between administrative offices. The full life cycle of research administration includes the following phases as well as comprehensive reporting during each phase.
· Identifying and developing funding opportunities
· Developing proposals
· Developing budgets
· Approval workflows
· Tracking and monitoring ethical compliance areas and committees
· Negotiating and accepting awards
· Managing projects
· Closing projects
ASU is seeking a system that facilitates and, to the extent possible, automates the full life cycle of research administration. Moreover, this system should be customizable without requiring extensive programming or code modification by the UTO. It should also be a fully integrated software and architecture package that minimizes the number of vendors and separate systems.
The Research Enhancement Team (for this project, its subcommittee: ETC Electronic Tools Committee) evaluates the available research administration systems against a set of requirements and choose the system or systems that can best address the university's needs. The ETC has identified tools to improve research management systems at ASU. The Phase I of the project is receiving UTC & ABOR approvals, releasing and managing RFP process and reaching a decision bythe nd of June, 2008.
