At NEOMED, we love acronyms! Here’s the seventh in our series to help you decode them.
Have you heard the acronym ORSP before? Maybe you’ve worked with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) on a proposal or through the Summer Research Fellowship Program. Led by Becky Hayes, executive director of research and sponsored programs, the ORSP provides administrative support to researchers, staff and students involved in externally funded research and other scholarly activities.
“Our job is to protect both the investigator (researcher) and the University. We make sure that we’re complying with all the federal and state regulations, then regulations specific to any given project as well as university policies,” says Hayes.
The ORSP does everything from preparation, review, approval and submission of proposals to grant and contract award negotiation. Hayes’ team also oversees portions of post-awards, like the financial management of sponsored programs. Most recently, the Office introduced Kuali Research, a new electronic grants management system to help streamline the grant submission process, data management and reporting.
“I think Kuali will help faculty and the investigators by reducing the administrative burden when submitting proposals. By rolling out this system, we were able to eliminate six paper forms,” says Hayes.
Think smarter, not harder, right? Hayes, along with others in the ORSP, recently created a group of research administrators from NEOMED partner schools to work collaboratively to streamline research processes among the University of Akron, Kent State University, Youngstown State University, Cleveland State University and NEOMED. The group is working on creating standardized templates that the universities can use among themselves.
Interested in learning more about the ORSP? Join the Office for its Open Idea Exchange workshop on the first Wednesday of every month at noon, for open discussions on various research topics. All are welcome!