In an effort to streamline some its research support processes, the UO has joined a cooperative known as the Federal Demonstration Partnership.

“The partnership includes 217 institutions receiving federal funding and aims to help reduce some of the administrative burden associated with outside grants, contracts and other competitive awards, especially for our faculty,” said Andrew Gray, executive director of Sponsored Projects Services, the unit that works to provide support with proposal planning, preparation and submission and grant and contract administration.

As a member of the partnership, the UO will have exclusive access to expedited business processes and will be able to participate in pilot demonstration projects and adopt national best practices that promote the goal of reducing administrative burden for the university research community.

Last year UO investigators and scholars received 437 awards to fund research and other scholarly projects. Behind each of those awards was an array of different processes — everything from steps taken to ensure human subjects compliance to budgetary requirements to financial management and reporting — facilitated by a small army of research administrators. The cooperative will help streamline some of those steps.

The UO’s involvement in the group will be led by Emily Tanner-Smith, associate vice president for research, who will serve as the faculty representative, and Gray, who will serve as the administrative/technical representative. 

For more information, visit the partnership website.