Central Michigan University Optimizes Sponsored Research with Cayuse

Challenge

Central Michigan University’s Melinda Brakenberry has worn many hats in her 14 years at the mid-sized public institution, from her start as a Post Award Research Officer, to Associate Director for the Office of Sponsored Programs and in her current role as Executive Director for Research and Innovation in which she oversees the Office of Sponsored Programs. 

During this time, CMU’s Office of Sponsored Programs experienced significant growth, with externally sponsored research funding increasing from an annual average of $14 million in the early 2010s to over $38 million in FY 2024. Additionally, a medical school CMU opened in 2010 continued to bring more attention to research on campus, while faculty participation in sponsored research increased significantly starting in 2020. 

With more sponsored funding and continuing clinical research developments driving higher research demands, administrators noticed areas where long-standing practices did not meet their current workload. While the university had already implemented Cayuse Proposals (S2S) for submission routing, many workflows still relied on manual processes like paper records, Excel spreadsheets, and emails that grew overwhelming and time-consuming as research activity increased.

Solution

In 2020, CMU research leaders saw a crucial opportunity to review current administrative processes and assess areas for targeted improvement.

“The [Proposals (S2S)] routing process was great,” Melinda noted of their systems at that time, “but everything else we were doing was outside of Cayuse, and it just wasn’t working.”

Administrators were particularly happy with Proposals (S2S)’s automated notifications and routing functions, both of which helped reduce unnecessary emails and streamlined processes. The tools available in Cayuse Sponsored Projects and Outside Interests supported the team’s goals to enhance their time and effort savings even more.

With this in mind, Central Michigan University soon implemented Sponsored Projects and Outside Interests for comprehensive sponsored research and conflict of interest management.

Results

Integrating Sponsored Projects and Outside Interests software allowed administrators to bring processes spread across several separate systems into a single platform, increasing accessibility and removing redundant or unnecessary steps.

According to Melinda, many parts of the existing processes were outdated, but this allowed the teams involved in implementation to envision their ideal workflows and make them a reality with Cayuse.

Administrators configured their Cayuse systems to ensure consistency across the entire CMU community. “What is really nice about Sponsored Projects is it’s configurable,” Melinda noted. “We were able to work within the system to create different routing chains depending on whether a faculty member is doing an industry-sponsored clinical trial, or if they’re making a foundational research grant submission .”

Increased transparency has been a welcome change for researchers and administrators using the new Cayuse systems. Whereas the older processes often required a physical presence on campus or multiple emails and phone calls to check statuses or access project details, users can now log into the Cayuse Platform anytime through a secure, single sign-on. “It ensures that if a faculty member is working on a Saturday morning and they want to see what they can do on their grant, they can pull it up,” Melinda said. “It’s all right there for them.”

Overall, users across campus have adapted to the new, centralized Cayuse research administration system. Thanks to Cayuse, faculty and staff “can be more self-sufficient and empowered,” Melinda concluded, saving essential time for researchers and administrators alike.