Driving Research Improvement

The goal for this initiative is to enhance Duke's research support structure to provide efficient and effective grant administrative support systems, befitting our faculty's national and international status in research. We will develop clear roles and responsibilities for administrative processes for each organizational area, including pre and post award offices, department/center/institutes, research support units and grant administrators. The procedures will be as efficient as possible, and will consider compliance and safety as first level requirements.

As a result of this process review, we will develop the training and human resource requirements necessary to provide the tools for success to our faculty and staff. Information technology tools will be added or modified to enhance efficiency across the research community.

What does this mean to you?

Our goal is to address fundamental issues which our research community deals with on a daily basis:

• Financial status reports
• System "processing time" on contracts
• Appropriate grant administrative support for Principal Investigators
• Accessibility of pre and post award personnel
• Responsibilities of the department versus central administration
• Recruiting, on-going training and career development for grant administrators.