Dear Colleagues,

I would like to express my thanks to you, the UK research community, for your candidness, courage and thoughtfulness in your responses to our survey on Grants Administration Shared Services. Your response was overwhelming — almost 700 researchers and staff took the time to share feedback with us. 

You are frustrated. We have heard you. But you see a path forward, and we are committed to working together to make changes. We will reshape the infrastructure that supports and accelerates your work. Your responses highlighted four vital areas in which we will focus changes: communication, processes, technology and work-life balance. 

In the first area, communication, we will work to ensure that PIs are provided with accurate, concise, consistent and timely information. More effective communication underlies all the areas identified for improvement and as we move forward, specific actions include evaluating our website to make information more accessible for PIs and research teams as we complete the ongoing website migration and intentionally enhancing collaboration within and between VPR, college and departmental units.

The second will center around our processes. We will work to ensure that PIs have a clear understanding of how CGS and OSPA collaborate — from inception of a proposal to project closeout — so you have a picture of who does what in every step in the process. We will create an SOP that describes processes and publish org charts, so PIs know who to contact. Specific timelines for these changes will be forthcoming. 

In our focus on technology, we will enhance our existing platforms while we investigate alternative strategies to increase efficiency, transparency and accountability. These platforms will provide greater accessibility to grant materials, PADRs and other documents throughout the project lifetime. 

After consultation with PI and grant services leaders, we have made the decision to take down the Other Support Portal. We will be migrating to using SciENcv. The use of SciENcv to generate biographical sketches and current and pending (other) support has been required by NSF since October 2023 and will be mandatory for all NIH submissions after May 25, 2025. Going forward, UK investigators should begin the use of SciENcv to generate these documents. The Proposal Development Office offers training sessions for both investigators and support staff on using SciENcv to meet NSF and NIH requirements.

And lastly, but of vital importance, is work-life balance. We will invest in our research staff through improved training, workload assignments and better engagement.

This is the beginning of our work, but we will engage you throughout this work. We will be communicating with you regularly with updates, continue to solicit feedback and follow up with another survey in four months to assess our progress. 

Thank you for your feedback and thank you for partnering with us. 

Ilhem Messaoudi, PhD
Acting Vice President for Research
University of Kentucky