Associate Vice President for Research Administration

The Associate Vice President (AVP) for Research Administration leads university-wide research administration, policy development, and compliance activities. This position oversees the University of Minnesota’s Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) and Office of Cost Analysis (OCA) functions. Partnering with their leadership teams, the AVP delivers a customer-centric approach to research administration and leverages data analytics, key tools and systems to develop innovative solutions to facilitate operational excellence across pre- and post-award processes. They work closely with various offices, departments and colleges across the entire University of Minnesota system to ensure adherence to federal, state, and institutional standards for research proposals and awards. The AVP acts as a policy owner for university-wide research administration policies, including regular updates and comprehensive reviews. They also serve as the institutional approver/signatory for F&A rate agreements, effort compliance, F&A waiver requests, exceptions to financial policy, and other relevant documents. Finally, the AVP provides research administration expertise to the university by serving on key institutional committees including the Senate Research Committee, Research Security Committee, and Institutional Conflict of Interest Committee, among others.

Key Responsibilities

• Research Administration Leadership
  • Lead a customer-focused research administration organization of approximately 60 staff. Provide guidance to the leadership team to effectively manage staff and operations, resulting in strong employee retention, effective budget utilization, and high employee engagement metrics.
  • Mentor the SPA and OCA leadership teams to provide opportunities to build their professional profiles and networks and participate in regional and federal activities for research administration.
  • Ensure the optimal functioning of research administration systems, especially the new MN-GEMS system, while driving ongoing improvements to enhance user experience and efficiency. This includes providing regular and timely updates to meet the essential needs of the university research community.
     
• High-Level Visioning and Strategic Planning
  • Develop strategic plans and metrics for university-wide research administration, to facilitate operational excellence across pre- and post-award processes.
  • Leverage data analytics to regularly measure operational success to drive continuous improvement, equitably allocate workloads, and ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.  
  • Devise innovative solutions that ensure efficient, high-quality services while managing financial, legal, and reputational risks. Activities include both preemptive activities such as training and standard operating procedures, and reactive processes to quickly handle acute challenges. 
     
• Education and Outreach
  • Oversee the development of a structured curriculum to increase knowledge of SPA regulatory procedures and functions across the University and create processes for regular curriculum delivery.
  • Educate and engage the research community with regular presentations on funding agency policy updates, uniform guidance, and other key topics in research administration.  
  • Serve as a visible liaison for SPA, OCA and the Research & Innovation Office (RIO) by holding regular meetings with system campuses to ensure cross-campus navigation and system consistency.
  • Represent RIO on key University committees such as the Senate Research Committee, Research Security Committee, and Institutional Conflict of Interest Committee.
  • Represent the university by participating in external groups such as NCURA, COGR, APLU, and AAU.
     
• Policy Management and Compliance Activities
  • Prepare and manage responses to NIH, agency Offices of the Inspector General, and other notifications requiring official responses, partnering with Office of General Counsel (OGC) as needed, by all applicable deadlines.
  • Monitor agency regulations for reporting requirements and adjust university policies as needed. Provide guidance to the university community based on the assessment of policies.  
  • Build strong relationships with key state and federal agency officials and serve as an institutional representative for regulatory and compliance partnerships.
  • Act as a policy owner for university-wide research administration policies, including regular updates and comprehensive reviews. Ensure consistent implementation and enforcement of policies.
  • Serve as institutional approver/signatory for F&A rate agreements, effort compliance, F&A waiver requests, exceptions to financial policy, and other relevant documents, ensuring prompt and efficient responses to requests.
  • Work with OCA Director on the preparation, submission and review of the University’s F&A rate agreements. 
  • Work with Human Resources (HR), OGC, Office for Institutional Compliance (OIC), and others for the investigation and management of cases related to fraud, misspending, and other non-scientific misconduct. 
  • Work closely with OGC to ensure contract terms adequately protect the University and are consistent with law and University policies.
  • Work closely with Technology Commercialization to ensure Intellectual Property (IP) terms contained in contracts are consistent with University’s IP policies.