Research Administration Onboarding and Job Aids
Discover a collection of customizable templates, job aids and collaboration tools to assist the research administration community with their tasks.
This page provides research administrators and their managers with onboarding resources, practical job aids, and collaboration tools to support daily work and professional growth. Use these materials to customize onboarding plans, find guidance for common research administration tasks, and connect with peers across the University of Michigan community.
Research Administration Onboarding Checklist
This document serves as a template and starting point for managers to develop an onboarding plan for recently hired research administrators. Instructions:
- Open the link to the Research Administrator Onboarding Checklist Template for Managers (U-M login required)
- Once the template is open, click on File in the top menu.
- Select Make a copy from the dropdown menu.
- A dialog box will appear to name the copy and choose its location / folder in your Google Drive. Click Make a copy to finalize.
- You now have your own editable copy of the Google sheet template. You can modify it as needed.
Job Aids
Browse these job aid materials developed by or shared with the Navigate Training Program. Find:
- Effort Calendar Months Conversion Table
- Checklist for Proposal Development and Submission
- Budgeting Formulas Cheat Sheet
- Research Compliance Resources
- And more
Roles and Responsibilities Documents
Explore essential information on the roles and responsibilities in each phase of the research project lifecycle. Developed by the RAAC Process Subcommittee, these resources identify “who does what” during each phase of the research project lifecycle.
Visit the full Roles and Responsibilities Document.
Roles and Responsibilities key
List of roles
The resources and documents listed above help define the roles and responsibilities of:
- The Principal Investigator (PI)
- The unit administrator (or research administrator or RA)
- The Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP)
- The Finance-Sponsored Programs office
- Other groups involved in the identification, assembly and submission of proposals and the acceptance, management and closeout of awards related to sponsored projects.
RASCI defined
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- R – Responsible for the correct and thorough completion of the work to achieve the task
- A – Accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the task, typically delegating the work to those
- S – Support for those who are responsible or accountable
- C – Consulted as needed in order to complete the task (two-way communication)
- I – Informed that task is underway/completed (one-way communication)
Research Administrators Web Forum on Slack
The Research Administrators (RA) Forum on U-M Slack is an informal online space for discussion and sharing and collaborating with peers. The forum provides a space for people to ask questions of peers, announce events and opportunities, share ideas, discuss challenges, and connect with others.
To gain access, visit the RA Forum on U-M Slack or find it at slack.umich.edu. For those who are not a member on U-M Slack or need assistance, contact [email protected].
To invite colleagues to the RA Forum on Slack, select the RA Forum title in the upper left corner. Be sure to use only the umich.edu domain (e.g., without the med . prefix) for this to work. From the drop-down menu, select “Invite People to RA-Forum.” Please invite anyone at the University of Michigan who has some interest in research administration.