The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

All three institutions are currently only at early stages of deployment for business process automation
(e.g. proposal development, routing and approval, etc) that involve faculty and departmental
administrators, and in no case is use of the system required.
Our impression, formed in our discussions with institutional officials, is that at least two conditions
appeared to have an impact on system acceptance (usage):
• Community involvement, and
• Integration of eRA into the institution’s overall web based services
Papers
Usage appears to be high where community involvement is high, and only one institution, Penn
State, had a formal mechanism to accomplish this. This mechanism is an institution-wide research
administration network of college and departmental administrators which is used for, among
other things, eRA communication and training.
Colorado State officials indicated that usage of the eRA system, which collects proposal data provided
by faculty and administrators very early in the process, was high. They attributed the high
usage, in part, to having the eRA system seamlessly integrated into the institution’s web portal
system (as is the Penn State system).
MIT officials indicated that system usage by departments and faculty was relatively low. However,
they also indicated that they have only recently made efforts to increase usage a priority. They also
noted that usage had increased after the recent release of a web-based interface for the eRA system
(COEUS Lite).
We also observed that in no case had the eRA system become fully integrated into the research
administration business process for proposal development, routing, and approval. Thus, dual
processes (paper and electronic) were in place. As these systems become more mature, the issue of
standardizing procedures and requiring full deployment will become critical.
MOVING TO FULL DEPLOYMENT OF ERA: SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
The potential benefits of eRA will be achieved only if the resulting systems are accepted and used
by relevant and appropriate segments of the community. The quality and capability of an eRA
system alone will not assure full deployment, and the resources required to achieve it are considerable
and sometimes underestimated. The nexus for institutional eRA deployment is the research/
sponsored programs office. The importance of full deployment suggests that institutions, regardless
of whether they purchase or build an eRa system or ultimately rely on grants.gov, will require
a concentrated and dedicated eRA effort.
Similarly, the success of the government’s e-grants initiative is going to depend heavily on how well
institutions achieve full deployment of grants.gov. While considerable progress has been made in
the development of grants.gov, full deployment across agencies and by institutions does not appear
imminent. Thus, most institutions do not feel the need to actively deploy it, and such deployment
is unlikely to happen by itself. This suggests that the government consider a more strategic
approach to assuring success. Under the current model, it appears that only some institutions
– primarily those with the necessary interest, leadership and resources -- are able to develop a dedicated
eRa effort. While such institutions may account for a significant portion of federal research
dollars, many, perhaps most, institutions will not be able to achieve the full benefits of eRA. This
will not only put many institutions at a competitive disadvantage, but also slow down the
2005 Symposium Proceedings Book 149