The Office for Research Administration encompasses many individual offices, each of which retain expertise in different areas of the research process. Your first point of contact will usually be your local RAS representative. They will help you determine which of the other touchpoints are necessary to submit a grant application, conduct a clinical trial, or anything in between. Here is a short overview of each office.

• Conflict of Interest Office: COI ensures that individual and institutional financial interests do not impact university research activities. You’ll find frequently asked questions about financial interests here: http://www.coi.emory.edu/faqs/index.html.

• Dragon Team: The ORA’s dedicated improvement team partners with the ORA and Emory stakeholders to optimize research administration operations. Learn more about the steps of process improvement by accessing their toolbox here: http://or.emory.edu/dragon-team/Continuous Process Improvement Toolkit.html.

• Environmental Health and Safety Office: The EHSO keeps our researchers and campus safe, offering trainings and guidance around hazardous materials, tools to maintain compliance, and safety concerns. They also provide a centralized location for required lab trainings for investigators and research staff. You can learn more about their services here: http://www.ehso.emory.edu/about/what-we-do.html.

• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee: If you plan to conduct research with animals, the IACUC ensures compliance and approves all research protocols. Information about submitting your study can be found on their website. You can find a list of their policies here: http://www.iacuc.emory.edu/elements/index.html.

• Institutional Review Board: The IRB reviews all research involving human subjects or FDA-regulated clinical investigations. They maintain a toolbox of documents designed to aid researchers in preparing submissions. They have also prepared a guide for researchers new to Emory, available here: http://www.irb.emory.edu/documents/Information_for_new_researchers.pdf.

• Office for Clinical Research: The OCR has a hand in many operational aspects of conducting clinical research at Emory. Their roles include research staff trainings, clinical trial invoicing, pre-award activities, and ensuring that study data is updated in a variety of internal and external systems. More information is available here: http://www.ocr.emory.edu/forms/index.html.

• Office of Sponsored Programs: The OSP negotiates and signs proposals, non-industry contracts, and awards for non-industry federal grants, foundation grants, corporate grants, government contracts, and any incoming/outgoing subcontracts under the above grants and contracts. You can find an overview of their role here: http://www.osp.emory.edu/about/index.html.

• Office of Technology Transfer: The OTT negotiates industry/corporate contracts and agreements, and associated subcontracts. You’ll work with them if you need to negotiate and execute a material transfer agreement (MTA) or data use agreement (DUA). They work with Emory researchers and industry contacts to bring science to market. Learn more about them here: http://www.ott.emory.edu/about/index.html.

• Research Administration Services: The RAS is separated into different units and co-located among Emory schools. They provide a myriad of pre- and post-award services to investigators, a high-level list of which can be found here: http://ras.emory.edu/services/index.html.

• Research Grants and Contracts: RGC is responsible for post-award fiscal services within sponsored projects. More details can be found here: http://www.rgc.emory.edu/about/rolesandrespons.html.