Best Practices in ERA Systems Development and Implementation Lesson Learned from Leading Institution

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Best Practices in ERA Systems Development and
Implementation Lesson Learned from Leading
Institutions

• Presented by
• Bill Kirby
• Principal Investigator
• Research and Management Systems

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• Whats your motivation for being here?
• Bought ERA Validation? Ideas?
• Buying ERA Choices? How to choose?
• Waiting Why now? Why not?
• Couldnt find the session room for my 1st choice

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• Why am I here?
• Its nice here in Mystic ?
• Share results from our NIH-funded research grant
  for eRA
• Share information on available ERA options
• Shed light (possibly) on rapidly changing
  government ERA efforts

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NIH ERA New ERA Models

• NIH ERA Project
• (http//era.nih.gov/Projectmgmt/SBIR/sbir)
• In 2001, NIH decided to approach electronic grant
  submission using a different model than NSF
  Fastlane.
• In 2002, six small businesses were awarded SBIR
  Phase I planning grants to research various
  commercial approaches for submitting grants
  electronically to NIH.
• Five SBIR service providers received Phase II
  SBIR grants to develop their commercial solutions
  and pilot electronic submission with NIH and the
  grantee community.
• eRA achieved a major milestone on January 12,
  2005 when NIH opened electronic submission to all
  applicants for modular, non-consortia grant
  applications (e.g.,R01,R03,R21). Note This means
  that all grantees have the option to work with a
  Service Provider to submit an unlimited number of
  e-grant applications.

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NIH List of ERA Partners
List of Partners on NIH ERA Website
(http//era.nih.gov/areas/com/SBIR_Awarded.pdf)
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ERA Models(Agency Data Control)
NSF
Web Browser
Person to System
Electronic Form
Agency Data
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ERA Models(ASP)
Commercial Provider
NIH
Provider System to Agency System
Person to Provider System
Agency Data
Provider Data
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ERA Models(Local Data Control)
NIH
OSP System to Agency System
Agency Data
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ERA Models(Grants.gov)
NSF
Grants.gov
ePaper
NIH
Person to grants.gov
Agency Data
OSP System to grants.gov
Agency Data
Temp Data
Agency
Agency Data
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Selecting an ERA Solution
Internal Research Administration Strategic Plan
External Sponsor Considerations
ERA Selection Decision
Financial Options Make v.Buy Purchase v. Lease
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Background

• From earlier research we found that while some
  small and mid sized institutions are planning to
  develop or buy eRA systems,
• Many are at very early stages of an eRA planning
  process
• Many are in a wait and see mode
• Some are just unsure what to do about eRA or how
  to proceed

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Phase III Research Purpose

• The purpose of our Phase III research is to
  identify best practices and lessons learned
  in the implementation of Electronic Research
  Administration systems in a small and mid sized
  institutional setting.
• If we can understand what leading institutions
  do to be successful, other institutions could
  learn from that and apply some of those lessons
  to their eRA efforts.

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NIH-funded ERA Research Study

• First phase has consisted of a series of case
  studies examining the practices of leading
  institutions with respect to their ERA systems
  development.
• Second phase will consist of a second series of
  case studies designed to evaluate the
  transferability of the best practices
  identified in leading institutions to ERA systems
  implementation in small and mid sized
  institutions.

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ERA Leading Institutions

• With NIH input, we selected three institutions
  considered top leaders in ERA
• PennState
• MIT
• Colorado State University
• Site Visits were made in late 2004, early 2005
• Results available at http//www.ramscompany.com/??
  ???

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Site Visit Focus Areas

• Focus Areas of Site Visit
• Leadership
• Planning
• Organization and Staffing
• Approach to System Development
• Community and User Involvement

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 1. Have a champion.
• ERA champion at OSP led the way.
• Champion developed a strong business case.
• Champion secured support at senior institutional
  levels.

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 2. Dedicate an ERA person.
• Each leading institution had a dedicated ERA
  person.
• Located in office of the CRO or OSP.
• Focuses solely on ERA no OSP operational
  responsibility.
• ERA does not compete for other institutional IT
  resources.

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 3. Start small. Add more later.
• Do something. There is no perfect ERA system.
• Development is iterative. Do something. Refine
  and fix it. Then do something else.
• ERA is an ongoing process, not an end product.

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 4. Focus on Reporting, not Electronic Submission.
• Leading institutions do not view ERA as
  electronic application submission, and it is
  not their major focus.
• Driven by data and information needs first.
• Started by defining data requirements and
  developing a database.

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 5. Involve Key Constituents Early
• Initial eRA efforts avoided key constituents
  acceptance by limiting the scope to just the
  research offices data and reporting needs.
• Leading institutions have struggled to gain
  acceptance for expanded ERA efforts that have
  more extensive faculty and department involvement
  (e.g., routing approval, application
  submission).
• Successful models involve key constituents early
• Institution-wide grants management network of
  college and departmental administrators
• integrating eRA into the institutions overall
  web-based services

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 6. Make your objective improving research
  administration, not ERA.
• Each leading institution looks at ways to
  improve research administration. ERA is an
  enabler, not the objective.
• None of the leading institutions had a separate
  planning process for eRA eRA was a component of
  overall research administration planning
• Planning is generally informal, flexible, and
  focused on taking advantage of technology as it
  develops

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ERA SYSTEMS

• 7. Indirect costs (FA) can help fund ERA
• Budgets and investment decisions are determined
  at the level of the CRO or CFO
• FA cost recoveries can fund all or a portion of
  ERA expenditures (subject to 26 admin cap).

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Contact
For more information Research Management
Systems, Inc. http//www.ramscompany.com Call
1-800-875-2562 Signup Sheet for ERA newsletter