A report by a National Academies committee says, “Ever-growing federal requirements are diminishing the effectiveness of the nation’s research investment.” Anyone in the field of research administration can probably relate. New and changing regulations make life harder for research teams, and yet compliance is important for everyone’s health and safety.

At Cayuse, we understand the regulatory and administrative challenges you face.

When we team with the nation’s leading institutions, it’s clear that the significant administrative burden faced by a typical office of sponsored research is centered on grant management, grant accounting, and effort certification.

Sponsored program administrators operate in a demanding financial and regulatory environment. Compounding the challenge is the ever-shrinking availability of resources. For example, grant accounting is usually handled with limited staffing and a mix of homegrown, manual, or internal systems that were designed for other business purposes. Too often, you just have to make do with what you have. Sound familiar?

Specific research university grant administration challenges

Research administrators at colleges and universities have specific obstacles related to grant management, grant accounting, and effort certification.

We see specific challenges in the following areas:

  • The effort it takes to track and streamline reporting and other administration related to financial and regulatory compliance
  • The hands-on approach research administrators must take to improve administrative efficiency and quality control
  • The multi-step process to manage faculty commitments on sponsored programs and academic appointments
  • Record keeping needed to track funding on pending proposals and active awards

Reporting is another administrative necessity. For example, federal funding sources require grantees to submit a variety of reports, which are due at specific times during the life cycle of a grant award. All reports must be accurate, complete, and submitted on time.

There are other areas, but overall, the tasks noted above will likely constitute some of the more noteworthy findings.

Research university grant administration: next steps

When considering research universities’ grant administration, there are steps to take to work smarter and streamline processes. Many of the nation’s top research institutions rely on grant management software that easily automates report generation, improves effort certification, automates manual handling, and offers a comprehensive set of easily generated reports.

With an automated approach to administrative challenges, nationally acclaimed colleges, universities, and research institutes can address many of the administrative burdens they now experience.

For more information on Cayuse’s grant management software, contact our team today.

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Trends in higher education grant management systems