Through the great work of our faculty, Emory’s research funding and activity has grown dramatically over the last decade,  while the administrative infrastructure, practices, and organization of labor to support research has not developed at the same pace. Emory is making significant and exciting improvements to the way that research administration activities are handled throughout the university.  These changes are due in large part to faculty feedback about the need for more research administrative support.  Through an initiative led by the Business Practice Improvement team, the Shared Service Center model, a more efficient and effective model to support the Emory research community, has been developed that moves activities closer to faculty.

Research Administration Shared Service Centers are teams of high quality research administration professionals dedicated to providing all faculty with high quality research administration support, that is delivered in an efficient and effective manner.  Here at Emory, we will use that model to create approximately 10-12 Research Administration Shared Service Centers that will be dispersed across campus and serve the faculty in one or more departments/units.  Each Shared Service Center will include Research Administration professionals, focused on serving faculty.  Customer service and transparency are critical values of the Service Centers.

Since the fall of 2012, a 30 person working group has worked diligently with leaders throughout the University to define the roles & responsibilities of the Shared Service Centers as well as draft both standard operating procedures and job descriptions for the Service Center staff. Now we are ready to pilot this model.  Piloting the Research Administration Shared Service Centers is critical to success before rolling out service centers campus wide (in phases).  There will be two pilots launching in the spring of 2013:

• One at the Rollins School of Public Health
• One supporting a few departments at the School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute, including:
  • Hematology and Medical Oncology,
  • Radiation Oncology,
  • Radiology, and
  • Winship Cancer Institute

During the pilot, the Service Center will provide the following support services to faculty:

Pre-Award activities:

• Assisting with proposal preparation
• Developing budgets
• Entering proposal into EPEX
• Managing JIT process

Post-Award activities:

• Setting up award
• Requesting sub-awards
• Reconciling and projecting expenses
• Invoicing (only for some award types)
• Preparing financial status reports
• Effort reporting
• Facilitating award changes
• Financial close out of award (up to inactivating SmartKey)

Please note that during the pilot, adjustments will likely be made to the list of responsibilities before full campus roll-out.  The pilot is expected to last approximately six to eight months, followed by campus rollouts through 2014.

Because new processes will be implemented, many jobs will change, and there will be an opportunity for many staff to learn new skills.  Overall, service centers should be exciting and energized units in which to work, and they should provide great opportunity for professional development and advancement.  There will be many jobs available for staff with skills and experience in research administration.  The process for staffing Research Administration Shared Service Centers has not yet been finalized, but it will involve skills assessments, discussions with management, and one-on-one discussions to determine who is best suited and who has personal interest to work within the Service Centers.

This is an exciting opportunity for Emory to distinguish itself among leading research institutions and to show our peers how well research administration can function in complex environments.

Emory is not the only school that is implementing this model.  For more information on other schools that are implementing service centers visit:  https://transformresearchadministration.emory.edu/WhatIsChanging/Benchmarking.html

For more information on the project, please visit the Transform Research Administration site at: http://transformresearchadministration.emory.edu/ or contact BPI at bpi@emory.edu for questions. Please note: you will be required to login with your Emory netID and password.