Message January 26, 2012

DRDA Transition to ORSP -- An Update

Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to update you on the progress that has been made in the recent months to implement the recommendations of the Division of Research Development and Administration (DRDA) review. As you may recall, over the past year, a senior-level U-M Review Committee examined DRDA's performance, practices and organizational structure in the light of the emerging needs of our research community. Based on this review, we are now rebuilding and reshaping DRDA to be an agile, robust office to meet the challenges of administering the U-M research portfolio by building closer alliances with research administrative staff in the Schools, Colleges, and departments.

Most visibly, you have seen a new name for DRDA. The unit is now named Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP). This reflects the large volume of work related to sponsored projects other than research and brings focus to our current services and responsibilities.
The ORSP website is now http://orsp.umich.edu/
For the time being, you will be rerouted to the new locations of our web pages if you choose old links. We are coordinating with eResearch and other key places that refer to ORSP information pages to update these links.
The search for the full time Executive Director for the new ORSP is underway, and final candidates are being interviewed. We expect to bring aboard the new director this spring.
As the U-M research portfolio has steadily grown over recent decades and various agreements needed for sponsored projects have mushroomed, the DRDA staffing has not kept pace with the volume of work. The Provost has pledged additional salary support for the new ORSP, which will allow to us to add three additional professional and two administrative staff in the next year.
Two Project Reps specializing in Clinical Trials have already been hired. This was made possible with Medical School contributions. A 1/10/2012 message from Elaine Brock to the ORSP-announce list provided more details.
The details of the ORSP organizational model are being refined. As recommended by the review committee, it will retain the strong sponsor expertise while promoting more engagement with units. Unit liaisons from among the senior professional staff at ORSP will be assigned to each unit in the next few months to promote this closer alignment.
Performance metrics are being developed to measure the success of research administration at the University from proposal development to project close, including not only ORSP but also unit level processes.

We appreciate your support, ideas and patience as we undertake these tasks while continuing to meet the usual the daily requirements of proposals and awards.

Cheers,
Marvin

Marvin G. Parnes
Associate VP for Research & Executive Director for Research Administration

Jan. 26, 2012

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