OHSU Research Information Services

What is Electronic Research Administration?

With the use of computers and the internet increasing dramatically each year, some funding agencies are creating electronic systems that are changing the way research projects are funded and administered. Already some funding agencies provide notifications of award only via email; others provide interfaces for checking the status of proposals as they move through the funding agency internal evaluation process. eRA is the term generally used to define all aspects of Electronic Research Administration including:

• The improvement of the efficiency of various administrative business processes and communication mechanisms
• The electronic exchange of essential information between applicant institutions and funding agencies (funding opportunities, grant submission, grant reporting, etc.)

eRA and OHSU

Electronic Research Administration (eRA) at OHSU will comprise the business processes and technical infrastructure facilitating beginning-to-end management of research at OHSU. All steps of the research lifecycle will be supported by a coherent, traceable, electronic workflow automating proposal creation, routing and submission while also expediting award processing and management. This workflow is organized around four core modules: Pre-Award, Compliance Review, Sponsored Projects and Technology Transfer. This new infrastructure will be developed in such a way that the eRA core modules will be interoperable with other administrative information systems both within and without the university. With eRA fully implemented the OHSU research community will have a single point of access for all research administration functions and the ability to track the status of any grant throughout its lifecycle. It will also provide reporting and analysis of the entire process.

OHSU eRA Background

In order to prepare the way for eRA, OHSU Research Development and Administration formed the eRA Vision Committee. Its purpose was to support research efforts to attract and manage grants through the design and implementation of an electronic administration system, thereby improving the efficiency of the research administration system at OHSU.

The eRA Vision Committee produced two documents:

• Committee Recommendations
• OHSU Roles and Responsibilities in Research

OHSU applied to be and was selected to participate in the NIH ERA Commons Working Group. This group will represent grantee organization interests in the future development of the NIH ERA Commons. Some facets of eRA are already in use or are being implemented at OHSU. Award management and routing/approval mechanisms for post-award grant management are being implemented as part of the Oracle Grants Accounting (OGA) module, a component of the campus wide Administration Systems Integration Project (ASIP).

In order to evaluate and define institutional needs for the pre-award portion of an eRA system for OHSU, an ad hoc committee of the Research Information Systems Steering Committee was formed. The eRA Steering Committee began by defining some principles to use as a guide in the evaluation process.

The next few years will bring many changes to all facets of research administration. It promises to be a challenging yet ultimately rewarding process. If you have questions or concerns about eRA or would like to participate in future planning for eRA, please send e-mail to OHSU Research Administration.

Last modified on 03/14/2006 by rdaweb@ohsu.edu