By Tanikka Mitchell, Assistant Grants Officer, Office for Sponsored Research
The NCURA Region IV 2018 Spring Meeting was held in Des Moines, IA on April 15-18, 2018. As a recipient of the 2018 NURAP Travel Grant Award, I received funds to help offset expenses associated with participating in this event as a first time attendee. My professional goals for attending this conference were to learn about the resources available to NCURA members, as well as explore potential careers in research administration. Here are some key takeaways I thought might be helpful to the Northwestern community:
Session: Career Possibilities in Research Administration, Kristin Harmon and Jim Maus
There are multiple paths that can lead to a career in research administration. For example, individuals with a background in science, business, finance, policy, administration, research, humanities, or law might be successful in this field. The first step to exploring a career in research administration is to identify what opportunities are currently available. This might include looking for roles in a university setting or other areas that have a research focus (i.e. healthcare, nonprofits, and sponsors). Second, you should conduct a self-assessment to identify the transferable skills you can bring to roles that match your professional interests. This process would include highlighting your strengths, weaknesses, and workplace preferences. Once you’ve secured a role in research administration, the goal is to become a subject matter expert in your area of focus. A good way to grow as a professional is to take advantage of training and mentoring opportunities. Also, you should consider developing an active network within research administration to stay current on industry changes and potential opportunities for promotion.
Session: Departmental Research Administration 101, Nathan Youngblood and Ben Nelson
The role of a department RA is to oversee and coordinate all aspects of administration in support of a PI’s sponsored project. In addition, the RA is responsible for ensuring there is compliance with university policies and procedures, as well as the sponsor guidelines. Individuals that are successful in these roles have an in-depth understanding of the sponsored project lifecycle, which includes proposal development, award preparation, award set-up, award management, and award closeout. During the proposal development stage, the RA should carefully read the solicitation, meet with the PI to discuss the project, develop a budget, collect any necessary documentation, and work with OSR to review and submit the proposal. If the proposal is awarded, the RA should carefully review the award notice to understand the terms and conditions, as well as help to ensure the award is set-up with the correct account codes. Once award set-up is complete, the RA is responsible for managing the associated chartstring(s) and processing any post award updates, including submitting progress reports to the sponsor. When the project has ended, the RA is responsible for working closely with the PI and ASRSP to ensure all associated expenses were posted to the correct chartstring(s) and all final reports have been submitted to the sponsor.
Session: NCURA Mentoring Our Own (MOO), Sue Grimes, Kaslina Love Mosley, and Peggy Collins Luna
The Mentoring Our Own (MOO) program is open to NCURA Region IV members who want to enhance their research administration knowledge and/or skills (mentees), as well as those who wish to share their experience and leadership skills with others (mentors). The goal of the program is to provide mentees with the knowledge and confidence they need to implement change within their own system and to actively contribute to growth across the field of research administration. Mentees are typically early career (1-5 years) professionals, but participants might also include individuals who want to advance their knowledge or acquire new skill sets. Mentors are typically professionals that have five or more years of experience in research administration who want to take an active role in helping others to succeed in this field. The program pairs mentors and mentees based on areas of common interest and expertise. It involves a commitment of one year, during which time, the mentor guides the mentee through a course of leadership development activities.
Presentations from the NCURA Region IV 2018 Spring Meeting can be found here.