The Business of Research Review

By: Melanie Lawrence, AVP and Chief Business Officer for Research

We are currently working on a comprehensive process and system architectural review for the grants management life cycle. We are conducting a current state understanding of processes and systems in order to determine the magnitude and inventory of recurring factors that limit our efficiency and cause pain points. We are currently in the information gathering and requirements documenting stages of this review.

Thus far we have held seven focus groups of faculty, administrators, school research staff, RAS, OSP, RGC, and other staff who have been able to talk about what is working, what is not working, what are the pain points, what is needed, what would be ideal, etc…We have captured hundreds of comments and suggestions primarily about our systems, processes, training, and communications from these focus groups. We are currently working to cluster, categorize, and prioritize what we’ve captured in order to develop a requirements document aimed at providing a comprehensive view of the potential future state of grants management at Emory. From this we can create a holistic roadmap for improvement which considers all facets of the grants management life cycle.

We invite you to join us on this journey.  Our ability to collectively evolve has the potential to transform and enhance the success of research at Emory and to allow our teams to be wholly effective, impactful, and efficient. To be sure you are informed, we will continue to provide updates on our progress in these newsletters. Keep an eye out for a more robust update in the October newsletter.