Investments to drive operational and strategic excellence in research
June 10, 2024
Dear Northwestern colleagues,
We are writing to share updates from the Office for Research. As part of its ongoing commitment to research excellence, Northwestern is investing in its central research administrative functions to support increased efficiency, productivity, and customer service across the research ecosystem.
These actions result from a recent comprehensive self-assessment, a collaborative effort between the Office for Research and the Office of the Provost, facilitated by Huron Consulting. The extensive review included more than 200 interviews with staff and stakeholders, peer benchmarking, and analysis of internal data, policies, and procedures. This information was used to evaluate organizational structure, reporting relationships, and roles and responsibilities. The goal is to ensure that the Office for Research and its partners, including Accounting Services for Research and Sponsored Programs (ASRSP), are equipped to support Northwestern's current $1 billion research enterprise and enable further growth, impact, and eminence.
The evaluation noted the broad team of leaders, administrators, and functional units supporting Northwestern's large and diverse research portfolio. The assessment suggested increasing efficiency, improving communications and collaboration, facilitating staff growth, and ensuring compliance with growing and complex federal regulations. Below, we summarize some of the key recommendations and actions we will take to address them.
Key recommendation categories include:
Cultural transition:
Transforming the culture of research operations is essential to provide investigators with timely and effective customer service while ensuring a supportive environment for staff. Achieving this goal will require addressing the community's high-priority pain points by implementing improved policies and processes within a well-structured and well-resourced organization. Central to this transformation is fostering a service-oriented approach that engages faculty and staff as collaborative partners.
Leadership advancement
By creating and formalizing key leadership roles, the Office for Research can successfully transition to its desired future state, considering demands for increased communication and collaboration, compliance with new and complex regulatory requirements and risk areas, research security infrastructure, and organizational efficiency.
Organizational realignment
To optimize the impact, efficiency, and flexibility of resources, there should be strategic realignment within the Office for Research, including consolidating key functions that benefit the entire office but are now distributed. Examples include systems-level administrative and business operations, analytics and reporting, and training programs. Combining these functions will create a more cohesive and efficient structure that enhances performance and better supports the research community within and outside of the Office.
Workload management
The Office for Research partners with all schools and many administrative offices to serve the University's research enterprise--and should continue to build those relationships. Doing so effectively requires creating more efficient processes and increasing staff numbers to manage workload, deliver high-quality service, and mitigate growing compliance and financial risks.
Specific actions we are taking include:
Strengthening partnerships
In recent months, we have made significant strides reaching across unit lines to create advisory groups and joint committees, expanding communication channels, and reducing barriers to partnership. Examples include a Sponsored Research Advisory Group with representatives from across Northwestern, the quarterly CLEAR meetings, and many networking events. The Office for Research and ASRSP teams have deepened their collaborations, exploring process efficiencies related to financial award modifications and sub-award processing and monitoring. The goal is to create a comprehensive, collaborative, and customer-focused research administration ecosystem for all of Northwestern.
Structural innovation
We are enhancing our organizational structure to manage ongoing research growth, improve communication and collaboration, ensure research security, navigate complex regulatory requirements, and promote organizational efficiency. To begin, we have appointed Renee Gonzales as our inaugural chief research operating officer (CROO). She will oversee research operational functions, including business and finance, compliance, and sponsored research. Renee reports to the vice president for research and will work with him to enhance service delivery in each area she oversees.
Process improvements
We have begun introducing process innovations to streamline the management of proposals, awards, and outgoing subcontracts, providing more flexibility and efficiency while maintaining compliance excellence. Over the next year, we will start restructuring business administration, research analytics, and training activities to create greater capacity and higher service levels within the Office for Research.
Strategic staffing increases
Because of strong institutional support, we will immediately begin increasing staffing to boost productivity and better support all research community members. Critical areas for investment include the IRB Office, Sponsored Research, Export Controls & International Compliance, and in ASRSP.
As we implement these changes, we are committed to continual evaluation and improvement to ensure that our administrative services scale with Northwestern's expanding research portfolio. We will track and report the impact of these organizational and process changes. We are optimistic about the positive effect they will have on our research community, fueling our capacity to produce transformative knowledge that creates a better world.
We thank you for your ongoing partnership as we embark on this journey to elevate Northwestern research to new heights.
Eric J. Perreault
Vice President for Research
Amanda Distel
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Kathleen Hagerty
Provost and Professor