Over the past two years our senior research administration team has been working on a number of new initiatives aimed at increasing UI competitiveness in the funding arena, reducing unnecessary and burdensome administration, and simplifying the faculty’s ability to interface with OVPR and get prompt responses to important questions related to their research and scholarship. Several of these have been successfully launched, including new websites, an electronic grant routing procedure, and a campus-wide conflict of interest reporting platform.  

Recently launched is an online Researcher Handbook (http://researcherhandbook.research.uiowa.edu). This new website is designed to help researchers navigate the complex research environment at the University of Iowa, and easily identify the research support offices, staff, and information they need to transfer to the University and quickly get their research programs started on campus.

Our largest transformative project, an integrated electronic research administration (eRA) system, will upgrade pre-award, animal protocol and COI systems and consolidate all elements of research administration under a user friendly portal. It is evolving rapidly with the support of central administration, OVPR, and the entire research community.   More information about this project is available at  https://research.uiowa.edu/ovpr/eRA.

We will continue to keep you informed of progress and solicit feedback on all of these initiatives. Researchers with questions, comments, concerns or additional input are encouraged to contact Cheryl Reardon, Assistant Vice President for Research, by emailing research-webmaster@uiowa.edu.