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Following a fall 2024 site inspection by the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), the Office of Research and UGA Finance and Administration have assembled a team to evaluate and supervise the execution of suggestions arising from the NCURA visit — and established a system for the research community to monitor progress on those suggestions.
The Recommendations Prioritization and Implementation Oversight Team (RPIOT), consisting of 18 faculty and staff representing a diverse array of UGA academic and research units, gathered in the spring to examine NCURA’s report and convert its conclusions into actionable measures. The RPIOT team categorized its suggestions into three main sections — personnel and training, processes, and communications — and assigned priority levels for each specific enhancement.
“There is significant and valuable work to be done,” stated Scott Ardoin, professor and associate dean for research in the Mary Frances Early College of Education, who leads the RPIOT team in his role as an Office of Research Faculty Fellow. “The NCURA report highlights two crucial points: We must improve the transparency of the grant awarding procedures and address staffing shortages to bolster our research initiatives.”
Upon presenting its suggestions to interim Vice President for Research Chris King and Ryan Nesbit, vice president for finance and administration, RPIOT transitioned from a review team to an implementation oversight team, with some early successes already achieved.
Tackling the initial concern, RPIOT collaborated with Shawn Hill, director of programs and change management for both the Office of Research and F&A, to develop an online tracker that enables the research community to observe progress on the recommendations. This Research Improvements & Support Enhancements (RISE) tracker is made public and available to anyone at UGA.
In terms of staffing, although Sponsored Projects Administration has created positions in recent years to stay aligned with the expansion of UGA’s sponsored projects portfolio, ensuring adequate staffing remains a continual issue. NCURA suggested cross-training to facilitate greater flexibility and responsiveness within the awarding and contracts teams. Cross-training among SPA was completed last fall, even as NCURA was still formulating its report.
“Our guiding principle in the Office of Research is to provide the highest quality service and support to UGA investigators across the entire research landscape,” King remarked. “Together with Vice President for Finance and Administration Ryan Nesbit, we are ongoing in our efforts with UGA leadership to pinpoint the most strategic requirements — be they related to staffing adequacy, process enhancements, more effective communication, or other aspects of our functions — as well as the necessary resources to meet these needs.
“I appreciate both NCURA for giving us a blueprint for improved research support, and the RPIOT team for transforming NCURA’s recommendations into practical actions we can implement.”
Other focal areas include process automation to maximize the use of current staff time, redistributing workload within the SPA Team, and introducing self-service options through enhanced data and reporting tools.
“Our mission is to ensure the financial and administrative infrastructure keeps pace with the requirements of our research enterprise,” Nesbit commented. “Whether through staffing, process advancements, or technological improvements, we aim to minimize barriers while remaining compliant with necessary regulations so that research can advance more effectively.”
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