California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), a large, comprehensive, primarily undergraduate, Hispanic Serving Institution is undergoing transformative changes in its research enterprise. Six years ago, CSUF put together a plan to re-organize its infrastructure to improve services supporting faculty and student research, and scholarly and creative activities. Since that time substantial resources were invested in this reorganization leading to a significant increase in grant proposal submissions and awards. However, this rapid growth in grant activities placed additional stress on the relatively new research administration infrastructure, unveiling many still existing barriers that affect faculty productivity and success. These barriers include fragmentation of services, inconsistencies in interpreting policies and procedures by staff in decentralized, grant support offices, and the inability to find up-to-date information across multiple websites. Thus, in order to eliminate thes barriers, and to move CSUF into the final phase of its comprehensive overhaul, the PIs are seeking partial support from the National Institutes of Health Biomedical/Biobehavioral Research Administration Development (BRAD) program for the CSUF Research Gateway Project (CSUF RGP). The overarching goal of the CSUF RGP is to increase the institutional grant support capacity and, thus, enhance research productivity of faculty and broaden participation of students in research programs. To reach this goal, the PIs are proposing the following three Specific Aims: 1) policy review, development, alignment and institutionalization in all pre- and post-award services to eliminate gaps and inconsistencies in grant administration processes; 2) Research Gateway design and implementation to eliminate inefficiencies and fragmentation of information by creating a central, comprehensive online repository of CSUF research-related resources; and 3) training, development and institutionalization to minimize discrepancies in interpretation of policies by individuals from various support offices and to provide ongoing grants development and management workshops to faculty, staff, and students. By achieving the above aims, Cal State Fullerton will provide efficient, consistent, and friendly customer service to its faculty and students, while linking compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements, leading to increased research productivity of PIs and ultimately improve the health and well-being of the community at large by increasing the number of NIH and other grants awarded to the institution.
California State University, Fullerton's (Cal State Fullerton - CSUF) 'CSUF Research Gateway Project' will increase institutional capacity to support PIs, students and staff in their research; it will attract and retain a more diverse and research-focused faculty and student body; will increase extramural proposal submissions and awards; will maintain the status as a low-risk grantee through increased compliance; and it will become a model for other Primarily Undergraduate Institutions and California State Universities. By implementing these critical changes, Cal State Fullerton will improve the health and well-being of the community at large through the increase in its biomedical and biobehavioral research portfolio.
