Pre-conference Workshops

Research may look like a world unto itself, but behind every proposal, award, collaboration, and discovery is a legal framework that shapes how the work gets done. This full-day workshop gives new research administrators a practical introduction to that underlying architecture across the research lifecycle—from proposal development and award formation through grants and contracts, intellectual property, compliance, and post-award risk. Participants will learn how to navigate the layered world of regulations, sponsor guidance, and institutional policy; distinguish legal requirements from best practices; identify where governing rules actually come from; and work effectively with counsel and other institutional partners to address issues that arise in day-to-day research administration.  

The federal government remains, by a significant margin, the single largest sponsor of research and other sponsored activities in the United States, even amid continuing fiscal pressures, policy shifts, and heightened oversight. In this dynamic and often unpredictable funding landscape, research administrators must possess more than surface-level familiarity with federal sponsors. They must understand the full spectrum of agencies that fund research and appreciate the complex regulatory architecture that governs federal awards. From statutory mandates and agency supplements to Uniform Guidance requirements and evolving compliance expectations, these frameworks shape every stage of the award lifecycle. This workshop equips research administrators with a strategic, systems-level understanding of the federal award environment and the practical competencies required to operate within it effectively and confidently. Building on a structured informational foundation, participants will analyze practical examples and engage in real-world case studies that demonstrate how federal regulations, agency-specific rules, and shifting national priorities influence institutional procedures, internal controls, documentation standards, and risk management practices. Illustrative examples from NIH, NSF, NASA, and DoD will highlight proven strategies for interpreting award terms and conditions, meeting reporting and prior approval requirements, conducting meaningful subrecipient monitoring, and maintaining audit-ready files capable of withstanding federal review and scrutiny. We will also compare and contrast the individual attributes of contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. 

Developing a clear, accurate, and defensible budget is one of the most critical components of any successful proposal, serving as both the financial framework and a strategic representation of the project’s overall design. A well-constructed budget not only communicates the resources needed to carry out the proposed work but also demonstrates accountability, feasibility, and alignment with sponsor expectations. Because sponsors frequently evaluate proposals not only on scientific or programmatic merit but also on the clarity and appropriateness of the budget, understanding the fundamentals of proposal budgeting is essential for anyone involved in preparing competitive submissions. This half-day seminar provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the foundational principles of proposal budgeting. Participants will be guided step by step through the essential elements of constructing a budget that accurately reflects project goals, adheres to sponsor guidelines, and complies with institutional and regulatory requirements. The workshop is designed for individuals who may be new to proposal preparation, those seeking to strengthen their budgeting skills, or anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of budget development as a strategic component of the proposal process. A significant portion of the seminar will focus on the regulatory structures and cost accounting standards that shape how budgets must be developed and justified. Participants will explore concepts such as allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and consistency, gaining a clearer understanding of how these standards influence decisions about what can, and cannot, be charged to a sponsored project. This includes distinguishing between allowable and unallowable costs, understanding the nuances of direct versus indirect expenses, and applying rate structures such as fringe benefits, tuition, and institutional facilities and administrative (F&A) costs. The seminar will also break down the major budget categories commonly found across federal, state, and private proposals, including personnel, equipment, travel, materials and supplies, consultant and contractor costs, and participant support. Participants will learn how to determine which costs belong in each category and how to ensure that each line item is properly calculated, justified, and aligned with the project’s scope of work. In addition, the workshop will examine the important relationship between the budget, the budget justification, and the scope of work, highlighting how these components must work together to present a cohesive and compelling narrative. Participants will learn strategies for crafting justifications that clearly explain cost assumptions, enhance project credibility, and strengthen the overall proposal package. Through examples, discussion, and hands-on exercises, attendees will gain practical experience estimating costs, avoiding common pitfalls, and applying best practices that increase clarity and compliance. By the end of the seminar, participants will have developed a strong foundation in proposal budgeting fundamentals, enabling them to prepare complete, consistent, and competitive budgets with greater confidence and precision.

Clinical research operates at the intersection of science, ethics, regulation, and operations. This is a comprehensive workshop designed to provide a practical and historical foundation for understanding the regulation, conduct, and oversight of clinical research. The workshop goes beyond theory to address real world challenges faced by sponsors, investigators, coordinators, IRBs, and research administrators. Participants explore key milestones that formed the evolution of human subjects research from early, largely unregulated experimentation through the establishment of modern ethical and regulatory frameworks such as the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, the Belmont Report, and the development of U.S. regulations under the Common Rule and FDA authorities. The workshop contrasts U.S. and international regulatory approaches, including ICH, CIOMS, European Directives, ISO standards, and device specific harmonization efforts. Core topics include IRB structure and responsibilities, informed consent, protection of vulnerable populations, HIPAA and GDPR considerations, expanded access mechanisms, and the roles of sponsors, investigators, coordinators, and oversight bodies. We will discuss how many of the skills ‘traditional’ research administrators bring from grant funded projects apply to clinical trials and where the differences lie. We’ll also explore the differences between industry and federally funded studies, and studies that may be funded internally. In addition, the workshop addresses operational and financial realities of clinical trials, including study feasibility, budgeting, contracts, audits, inspections, and risk management. Through real world case examples, hands-on case studies, and interactive discussion, attendees gain a practical understanding of how to conduct ethically sound, compliant, and efficient clinical research in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

The Research administration profession thrives on community, where sharing knowledge helps us become the most effective and efficient research administrators. Much of this knowledge is not found in training resources but shared through professional-level conversations and presentations. This model relies on experienced research administrators willing to share their expertise and engage in training, mentoring, sponsoring, and coaching with other research administrators. While many of us excel in handling challenging situations, such as managing demanding Principal Investigators (PIs) and changing regulations and compliance, public speaking can be daunting for those who lack confidence or training in submitting presentation proposals. As public speaking and effective verbal communication are crucial skills for advancing in research administration, becoming a confident presenter is essential. This interactive full-day workshop offers training, guidance, and best practices across the entire presentation lifecycle—from selecting a topic and submitting speaking proposals to reviewing feedback. By helping attendees establish personal and professional development goals focused on improving their public speaking skills, this workshop will empower individuals with valuable knowledge to share it effectively with others and grow the Society’s community of speakers willing to share knowledge and experience. Participants will have the opportunity to craft and refine the key components of existing or potential presentations, or create new presentation ideas, receiving feedback along the way. By the end of the workshop, participating research administrators will walk away with a well-developed draft ready for a future conference and will be given tips to gain confidence as effective communicators.

We’ve all had to navigate changes at our respective workplaces, but did you ever stop to figure out why did some transitions flopped and others succeeded? With changes ever-looming ahead, having a blueprint for success will help you face the next challenge with confidence. Regardless of whether you are leading a large-scale change like switching to a new computer system or simply adapting a process to address a new regulation, every successful change includes certain steps that minimize frustration and promote acceptance. The first part of the workshop introduces participants to important concepts that will inform the development of a change management plan. Participants will then be guided through a workbook that enables them to apply the concepts and techniques to their own organizations so they leave with a draft plan in hand. Key concepts include understanding the proper role of leadership, training and communications; ensuring key stakeholder involvement at the right level and the right time; setting realistic expectations about the costs of the project in terms of time and money; addressing barriers, resistance and fatigue; and when and how to communicate throughout the project. The techniques learned in this workshop will help you guide your organization to a new vision with staying power.

Managing research projects in non-commercial institutions presents unique challenges, from securing funding and navigating compliance requirements to coordinating multi-institutional teams and leveraging technology for efficiency. This workshop establishes a shared baseline for Research Project Management and introduces how standard project management practices are adapted for research environments. This full day interactive workshop will provide research administrators, project managers, and researchers with essential skills, strategies, and tools to successfully manage research projects in academic, government, and nonprofit settings. Participants will engage foundational topics across the research lifecycle, including preaward considerations, project kick-offs and structured project initiation and setup, risk and change management, leadership and soft skills, communication practices, financial and compliance management, team management, and evaluation and metrics. Through interactive discussions and hands-on exercises, participants will learn and practice key related skills. They will have the opportunity to explore crisis response frameworks for research disruptions, apply best practices for managing interdisciplinary and multi-institutional teams, and use evaluation frameworks to assess project management effectiveness. Attendees will strengthen their understanding of how to manage projects effectively, establish governance and coordination structures, steward financial and compliance responsibilities, support high-functioning teams, and define meaningful milestones and performance measures with practical examples tailored to diverse institutional roles and levels.

Writing a grant proposal as a principal investigator (PI) represents a significant opportunity for professional development and leadership for research administrators. By leading funded projects, research administrators contribute to the scholarship of research administration, solve real-world problems in research administration, and build critical skills in project management, strategic thinking, and collaboration that can advance one’s career. This half-day interactive workshop will focus on how to turn your institutional expertise into fundable proposals using the National Science Foundation GRANTED initiative as a model, and how to get institutional buy-in and support to lead an externally sponsored project. Participants will learn to identify research administration challenges with national significance and translate those into compelling projects. Practical guidance will be shared on developing concepts, finding collaborators, structuring narratives, and addressing review criteria. Participants will learn how to frame their expertise in research administration, development, compliance, and/or infrastructure into competitive proposals. Essential proposal components will be addressed, including problem statements, timelines, project design, evaluation plans, and budget development, common pitfalls for first-time PIs, and strategies for demonstrating broader impacts/significance. Participants will leave equipped and energized to pursue funding opportunities that support critical research administration needs and establish themselves as thought leaders in the profession.

The changing federal funding landscape is elevating the need for institutions to understand cost efficiencies, recovery of costs, and generally how to optimize the research infrastructure. Service centers will play a significant role in addressing these challenges. This workshop provides a comprehensive overview of the establishment, operation, and oversight of institutional service centers. As research funding models continue to evolve and financial pressures increase, service centers play an increasingly critical role in supporting institutional sustainability, cost recovery, and compliance. This workshop is designed to help participants understand both the strategic importance and the operational realities of service centers across a variety of research environments. Topics covered will include core definitions and classifications of service centers; applicable federal regulations and compliance expectations; best practices for developing budgets and setting billing rates; and the appropriate treatment of subsidies. The workshop will also address considerations for technical service centers, as well as common compliance risks and operational challenges encountered in day-to-day management. Emphasis will be placed on identifying frequent audit findings, documentation pitfalls, and governance issues that can create risk for institutions. The workshop will combine structured presentations with interactive discussion and brief case studies or exercises, allowing participants to apply concepts to real-world scenarios. Attendees will leave with practical insights, tools, and considerations they can use to strengthen service center governance, improve financial sustainability, and enhance institutional compliance.

Are you working to publish a research article? This Learning Lab offers concrete examples and actionable strategies for attendees to boost their potential to become peer-reviewed journal authors and optimize mentoring or co-author relationships. Through a robust, competency-based, evidence-informed, and culturally-responsive curriculum, attendees will gain insights into navigating their writing journey effectively. Drawing upon real-world experiences within the JRA Author Fellowship Program, this session will provide attendees with practical guidance to achieve their goals of contributing to the scholarly discourse in research administration. Additionally, this workshop aims to demonstrate how research administrators can overcome writing anxieties. It introduces the complex academic publishing process and includes targeted exercises to demystify writing, breaking the process into manageable pieces. Participants will develop basic competencies in written communication, including planning, writing, peer-reviewing, revising, and submitting a manuscript for publication. The session also addresses writing-related anxiety, time management, organization, editing, and responding to reviewers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing at an accelerating pace, leaving many institutions struggling to determine how best to harness a technology with such immense potential for both profound benefit and significant risk. There is evidence that integrating AI tools can enhance efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making across the grant lifecycle, yet many pre- and post-award professionals are unsure about how to begin incorporating these tools into their daily work. As proposal volume increases, federal regulations shift, and portfolios grow more complex, AI can serve as a practical support tool for financial oversight, workflow streamlining, and real-time monitoring activities. 
This workshop provides a clear, approachable introduction to AI literacy, focusing on what AI is and how to use it safely within a compliance-driven environment. Participants will explore practical, real-world applications of AI as it pertains to pre- and post-award management. Through live demonstrations, guided examples, and collaborative discussion, attendees will learn how to leverage AI to:  
•    Draft boilerplate language 
•    Manage documentation across multiple proposal versions 
•    Analyze and summarize Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) and Notices of Award (NOAs) to extract key compliance terms and reporting requirements 
•    Generate financial projections, burn-rate analyses, and spending forecast 
•    Improve efficiency in monitoring, reporting, and closeout processes 
In addition to hands on AI demonstrations, attendees will explore which core research administration responsibilities should remain human-led, be AI-augmented, or be shared through human–AI collaboration. We will examine how expanding AI capabilities may shift the balance between administrative burden and compliance demands. This conversation draws on research involving research administrators, including a literature review, in-depth interviews, and a community survey, to inform each subsection, which will begin with a brief presentation of findings followed by interactive discussion to operationalize the concepts.  
Beyond theory, this workshop delivers hands on strategies and ready-to-use prompt examples that participants can immediately implement within their own institutions. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies, sample use cases and practical prompts to begin integrating AI into their daily workflow to save time, improve accuracy, and reduce administrative burden throughout the grant lifecycle, equipping attendees with confidence and a forward-looking mindset that prepares them to thrive in the next generation Research Administration workforce of the future.  

This required half-day workshop serves as the foundation of the Global Research Management Certificate (GRMC). It introduces participants to the fast-evolving global research landscape and examines the expanding role of research management within it.
As international collaborations grow in scale and complexity, research managers must navigate diverse governance systems, funding environments, cultural contexts, and stakeholder expectations. This interactive session explores global research trends, emerging challenges, and strategic opportunities, while highlighting how research management and administration professionals create value across borders.
Participants will reflect on the needs of institutional leaders, funders, and partners, and consider how to foster equitable, sustainable, and impact-driven international collaborations. The workshop sets the conceptual and strategic framework for the required and elective GRMC sessions that follow.

When research administrators in pre-award offices help new investigators learn how to apply for grant funding and more experienced investigators update their grant skills and knowledge, they must be able to assist investigators in understanding the different types of proposals; how to read and interpret proposal guidelines; how to plan the proposal, involving timelines, partners; what proposal parts or sections are expected, how to address them, and the need to relate the various sections to each other.

Department administrators are drowning in data: financial data, personnel data, compliance data, system-generated data, and endless spreadsheets. But few have a clear analytics strategy that can truly empower them. This hands-on workshop offers practical steps and tools to help participants feel confident and valued in transforming raw numbers into insight, foresight, and meaningful action. Explicitly designed for departmental research administration teams, this workshop provides a practical blueprint for leveraging analytics to achieve your goals in forecasting, risk detection, reporting, faculty communications, and workload planning. Participants will learn to identify meaningful metrics, set up data pipelines, evaluate system readiness, and establish realistic analytics maturity goals aligned with your priorities. Using real-world examples, this workshop is designed to be immediately applicable. It focuses on building practical solutions with the tools at hand, helping participants feel capable and ready to implement. They will leave with a ready-to-apply workbook, complete with templates and an actionable plan to support their ongoing efforts. Beyond technical skills, the workshop fosters collaboration and shared understanding across teams, ensuring analytics strategies are sustainable and scalable over time. By equipping administrators with both tools and confidence, this workshop empowers departments to transition from reactive reporting to a proactive, data-driven approach that supports long-term growth, resilience, and continuous improvement.

The presentation will cover multiple key topics critical for success as a grants administrator, beginning with a comprehensive overview of the NIH, including the roles and responsibilities of various NIH staff involved throughout the grants process. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of how program officers, grants management specialists, scientific review officers, and other NIH officials contribute to the lifecycle of a grant. The workshop will then explore the numerous award mechanisms available and provide detailed guidance on the grant application process, including strategies for identifying appropriate funding opportunities and developing accurate, allowable, and well-justified budget costs. In addition, the presentation will address NIH’s Electronic Research Administration (eRA) system and its role in application submission, tracking, and award management. Attendees will learn about the peer review process, how applications are evaluated, and how funding decisions and award levels are determined. Later segments will focus on grants management review and award negotiation, the issuance and interpretation of the Notice of Grant Award, and essential components of post-award administration and monitoring. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of recent NIH policy changes and their practical implications. This information is highly relevant for research administrators and grants management professionals, as it provides a comprehensive overview of the full grant lifecycle, from identifying funding opportunities through post-award oversight, supporting compliance, effective application development, and successful award management.

As NIH expectations surrounding foreign collaborations continue to evolve, institutions are navigating increased transparency requirements, enhanced reporting expectations, and shifting oversight structures, including the transition toward foreign supplements and expanded monitoring of international components. In this ever-changing landscape, research administrators must balance efficiency and compliance while sustaining productive and collaborative global research partnerships. This workshop will focus on practical, operational strategies for managing foreign research partners in a way that supports regulatory accountability without creating unnecessary administrative burden. Rather than reviewing NIH policy language line by line, the discussion will center on understanding the broader intent behind recent changes and translating those expectations into sustainable administrative best practices. Key areas will include strengthening communication and transparency with foreign collaborators; aligning expectations around reporting timelines, effort commitments, financial documentation, and data sharing; implementing enhanced due diligence and risk-based monitoring approaches; and clearly defining roles and responsibilities across institutions. The workshop will also explore the use of shared tools, such as dashboards and centralized tracking mechanisms, to provide real-time visibility into budgeting, expenditures, reporting deadlines, and invoicing. Emphasis will be placed on how administrative, scientific, and financial teams can work together intentionally to remain both compliant and efficient while supporting high-impact international research collaboration.

Generally, leadership in research administration is transactional in nature, i.e., by necessity it is task and outcomes oriented. Many of the processes required for effective grants management and adherence to regulatory controls fall within a transactional framework. In contrast, transformational leadership seeks to harness the ideas and inputs of diverse stakeholders to produce outcomes which increase value to their organization, and at the same time bring all stakeholders into a broader learning environment in which they can flourish and grow. Transformational leadership empowers people and builds their capabilities. In administrative environments it also streamlines and facilitates business and process improvement. Both leadership approaches are necessary in research administration and their implementation often depends on one’s placement in the organization and career stage. This workshop, facilitated by two experienced SRAI leaders will explore how a transformational approach enriches and contributes to a healthy, more effective, and successful research environment. The current state of affairs of US federal funding decisions, requires transformational leadership given our mandate as Research Administrators to support scientific excellence and integrity. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will be encouraged to share their stories, perspectives, challenges, and successes. Synergistically, we will work together to unpack the challenges and triumphs of today’s research administration leaders.

The Uniform Guidance (UG) provides the basis for understanding how to budget and manage federally funded sponsored projects. Learning and applying these regulations is the key to success for any research administrator. This workshop will use the Uniform Guidance itself as a guide to highlight the most commonly used regulations; by the end, participants will have a useful tool to reference when questions of allowability and administrative requirements arise. The impact of proposed changes and additions to the regulations will be emphasized and discussed throughout the workshop. Participants will be asked to print a copy of the Uniform Guidance provided by the faculty or bring a laptop on site to view the pdf version that will be provided. The goal is to ensure each person creates a version of the UG that will be a reference for the future.

Why is it that even when supposedly fully staffed, our workloads are still so overwhelming? Simply put, because fully staffed is not the same thing as adequately staffed. If there are no vacancies and our employees are still overwhelmed, the problem may be rooted in a miscalculation of the number of positions needed to handle the workload in the current environment. Traditional methods of measuring the staffing needs of a department often neglect significant realities around the cognitive nature of the work we do, the amount of non-transactional activities we engage in, and most importantly the high variability of knowledge and experience within the workforce. A more robust and sustainable model of staffing is possible when we start thinking and talking about our profession and the workforce in a more comprehensive, reality-based way. This workshop presents a bold new way of assessing the needs of research administration offices that will result in more balanced workloads, greater employee retention, and more compliant operations. During this interactive workshop, attendees will apply concepts learned in the context of their own office arrangements. We will assess the composition of their current workforce and determine the capacity FTE (capFTE) of their employees. We will discuss at a high level how to more comprehensively assess the workloads of their offices and strategize ways to advocate for additional positions using data points translated to dollars. Attendees will leave with a foundation from which to build more thoughtful workload assessments and staffing models.