An official name + next steps for research award management transformation

From: Jessica Johnson Webb, Associate Director of Award Management; Alicia Reed, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2021, 11:15 a.m.
To: KU Lawrence faculty and staff

KU research community,

Leadership for the Transforming Research Award Support project has officially determined a name for the new unit that will merge the SSC Research and Office of Research Post-Award Grant Management teams. We will be known as Award Management Services (AMS).

Our work groups are deep in the process of designing new workflows. We have excellent staff with great ideas, and we are excited to see their suggestions for improvements. We are also revisiting ideas from the campus listening sessions and survey to incorporate changes wherever possible.

As we test changing processes, we will identify training needs and slate some processes for implementation by our go-live date and others for a later phase if they require additional stakeholder involvement and potential system changes. Once new workflows are finalized, we plan to make relevant high-level process maps available to campus, along with details about changes that might impact PIs, departments and others.

We are also working to make staff assignments based on data, input on current project and sponsor complexity, and a survey of staff time commitments. We will share the initial assignment information with campus by Aug. 30. Training will occur in October, and our new unit will launch Nov. 1.

To optimize success, we will assess new processes and staff assignments throughout our stabilization period in November and December. We expect to make adjustments to ensure that processes are effective and staff assignments are reasonable.

We will continue to provide monthly updates throughout the duration of the transformation. If you have questions along the way, please let us know.

Respectfully, 
Jessica and Alicia 

Jessica Johnson Webb 
Associate Director, Award Management  

Alicia Reed 
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research