Faculty Laud New Online Access to Research Projects

Steve Cummer spends much of his time at Duke studying radio waves for research supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and a few private companies.

But he also spends time managing the grant money he receives from those agencies.

"These grants have to be watched closely to ensure that they are not being spent down too quickly or that we're using funds before a grant ends," said Cummer, associate professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering. "Some of the grants are for three years, while others may last only six months."

This task will become considerably easier for Cummer and hundreds of other faculty managing nearly $800 million in sponsored research at Duke with the introduction of a new website called MyResearch.

The site, which is accessible to all faculty through the Duke@Work self-service website (http://work.duke.edu), offers consolidated access to Duke-sponsored research administration systems, key reports on research activity and remaining account balances, and links to important websites.

Among the features of the site:

• a list of all active grants, contracts, and clinical trials for which faculty are the Principal Investigator (PI), including fund code, project name, sponsor, and project start and end dates

• a current effort distribution list that shows all of a faculty member's funding sources with the percentage of effort for each funding source,

• a personnel report that lists all employees and their percentage of effort on fund codes for which a faculty member is the PI,

• links to websites that provide funding opportunities and grant applications from external funders,

• and disclosure and agreements information (material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, etc.) tracked by the Office of Corporate Research Collaborations.

John Alexander, associate professor in Cardiology, said he believes MyResearch will help address a need for information for faculty across Duke.

"Duke has complex information systems that don't always talk to each other, which has made it difficult for faculty to access information," said Alexander, who currently has about 25 to 30 research projects. "This is an important first step in providing a one-stop shop for faculty to access information on their research projects.

Cummer, the associate professor at the Pratt School of Engineering, described the benefits of MyResearch as three-fold: "It's responsive, it's all compiled in a central location online, and the way the information is delivered is vastly better than what has been done before. It seems ridiculously simple, but just having single click access to see the personnel and percentage of effort associated with each grant is something that was not available before."

The new site is one of several improvements that has resulted from the Research Administration Continuous Improvement (RACI) initiative launched in 2007 following a comprehensive review of research administration at Duke.

RACI steering committee member Scott Gibson, executive vice dean of administration for the School of Medicine, conceived the idea of MyResearch by initially sketching the idea out on a piece of paper after watching a demonstration of the Duke@Work website. Staff in Administrative Systems Management then brought the concept to reality with the input from a faculty advisory committee that helped determine the content and functionality for the site.

"The faculty have been talking to us for some time about the need for systems that make the administration of research more efficient and faculty-friendly," Gibson said. "Several of us sketched out a rough idea, and Dr. Jimmy Tcheng and the RACI faculty advisors worked to really refine the design. It's something that went from a standing start to being rolled out in just a few months."

Alexander said that he was hopeful the site would continue to evolve and change as needs were identified.

"Duke is a huge place, and there are a lot of faculty who have different perspectives and different needs," he said. "We will learn a lot about how faculty use MyResearch in the first six months and hopefully will be able to continue to improve the site over time. Having access to information will initially raise questions among faculty, which is a good thing. Ultimately, it will increase understanding."