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UC BERKELEYCAMPUS SHARED SERVICES RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION:A Central OfficePerspective

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The Road to CSS RA

Presented by: Patrick Schlesinger, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research

Pam Miller, Director of the Sponsored Projects Office University of California Berkeley

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Stops Along the Road• 2009—diagnosis of the campus operational and financial

environment facilitated by Bain & Company– Identified ways to improve effectiveness – Potential $75M in cost savings

• 2010—the design phase of the Operational Excellence (OE) initiated to identify administrative efficiencies/improvements

• 2011—Governor proposed $500M cut from UC budget• 2013 Campus Shared Services implemented to improve

efficiency of administrative services and reduce costs– Included Human Resources (HR), Finance, Research

Administration (RA), Information Technology (IT), and Finance

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The Case for CSS• Administrative resources varied from department to

department, creating an environment of service “haves and have-nots”

• No consistent service culture or training across departments• Inconsistency and lack of transparency of current processes• Staff doing the finance, human resources, research

administration, and information technology often working in isolation without backup

• Administrative burden on faculty, staff and students too high• Higher service delivery costs, lower quality and increased

compliance risk

http://oe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/CSSProjectCharter20120621.pdf

Implementation of CSS RA

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In some ways it has been easier due to precedent…• Establishment of

Engineering Research Support Organization (ERSO) as a hub for engineering research support (2005)

• Budget cut led VCR to expand Research Enterprise Services to support campus organized research units (ORUs) (2009)

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In some ways it has been harder due to faculty expectations…

• Some faculty had good RA support and did not want to lose it

• Some faculty had no RA support and were suspicious of not doing things themselves

• Most faculty wanted “one” RA to deal with “everything”

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In some ways it has been harder due to staff experience…

• The earlier RES reorganization had resulted in lost RA jobs

• Initial OE PR not supportive of staff

• Delays in official OE communications prompted rumors

• Some respected staff left campus for other jobs or retired creating service gaps/problems

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CSS RA Implementation – Mapping the Pre and Post RA Processes (23 maps!)– Determining the CSS RA Team Structure– Creating the Organizational Chart/Reporting Lines– Deciding where to Locate CSS RA Staff– Establishing CSS RA job descriptions– Hiring CSS RA staff: director/team leads/staff– Establishing PI Service Expectations– Establishing the CSS cost model– Involving faculty in CSS implementation

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Central Office Involvement– Help with process mapping—clarifying where CSS RA

and Central Office services interface – Providing feedback on CSS RA job descriptions to

avoid overlap with Central Office CGO positions– Active involvement in developing CSS RA training

curriculum—providing SMEs– Providing feedback to CSS Leadership on CSS RA

product/performance– Adjusting Phoebe capabilities to accommodate CSS

RA needs– Providing central office SLA as model for CSS RA SLA

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CSS RA Service Level Agreement (SLA)

CSS  RA  Performance  Metrics  and  Quality  Review

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CSS RA Service Level Agreement (SLA)CSS  RA  Performance  Metrics  and  Quality  Review

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Central Office Rear View of Dept. RA Services• Prior to CSS RA– Range of departmental support for PIs– Range of departmental RA

understanding/knowledge of pre and post RA– Range department RA training opportunities– Range of conformance/compliance with

University/sponsor policy

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Central Office Future View of CSS RA Services• Future Service under Campus Shared Services RA– Consistent excellence of product/process– Exceptionally well trained partners– Joint training & career opportunities– Seamless/excellent support for PIs– More robust support for the research enterprise

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Benefits to Central Office (to date)

• Responsibilities of Dept. RAs now more in relationship to Central Office CGOs.

• CSS RA has helped SPO to identify/remedy “gaps” in proposal processing e.g. Phoebe system glitches

• CSS RA prompted establishment of SPO service level agreement (SLA)

• CSS RA has prompted central office involvement in development of RA training curriculum

• CSS RA now provides the “missing link” between central pre and post award responsibilities

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Ongoing Challenges• Limited staff resources to fill all available RA job

openings—more jobs available than people!• Coordination and collaboration between central

and CSS RA—an going process• Maintaining effective lines of communication • Managing expectations/stress on both sides• Finding time for necessary meetings• Avoiding meeting overload