Michael Warnock
University of St Thomas, MN·Education Research
When a college that focuses on teaching undergraduates starts winning more external research grants, the paperwork catches up with it. Grant awards must be tracked, spending documented, and federal rules followed, and if the office handling that work does not grow with the portfolio, the burden lands on the faculty running the projects and the institution takes on compliance risk.
- Fields
Education Research
Social Science
- Topics
research administration
sponsored projects
post-award management
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Test whether targeted initiatives in research administration infrastructure can move a primarily undergraduate institution's grants office from a developing to a mature phase, assessing needs, implementing solutions and measuring effectiveness at the University of St. Thomas.
- Optimize institutional processes for managing sponsored projects and create training and support resources that build grants administration knowledge among both principal investigators and administrative staff.
- Develop an undergraduate training program in research administration to create a pipeline of departmental research administrators, addressing a national shortage of such personnel.
- Assess the transferability of the resulting support model by sharing resources with 17 partner undergraduate institutions through the Minnesota Private College Council and disseminating findings nationally, with each objective evaluated by an external evaluator.
More about the research
This project asks a practical question: can a deliberate set of initiatives move a primarily undergraduate institution's grants office from a "developing" stage to a "mature" one quickly and effectively, and can the resulting model transfer to similar schools?
Why it matters
Undergraduate-focused colleges are taking on more federally funded research, but faculty at these schools often absorb grant administration themselves, which costs research time and exposes institutions to compliance problems. A tested, documented model for building post-award support, plus an undergraduate pipeline into research administration, could help 17 Minnesota colleges and comparable institutions nationally expand research while easing the burden on investigators.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Camelia Kantor
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Education Research
Adapt Penn State's ACOR Certification & Education Series into a modular, open-access curriculum covering proposal development, compliance and post-award management.
Bradley Andersh
Bradley University, IL·Education Research
Strengthen Bradley University's Office of Sponsored Programs through targeted investments in staff and training in grant administration.
Katie Jolicoeur
Minnesota State University-Mankato, MN·Education Research
Establish institutional policies and structures that let primarily undergraduate and emerging research universities form external technology partnerships efficiently and professionally.
The school
University of St Thomas: 1 labs on PI Pages, $6M a year on research, 35 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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