New major opens doors to diverse career paths

When Evan Webb applied for an internship with the University of Michigan’s Office of Research and Sponsored Projects last winter, he wasn’t sure what to expect. He’d never considered a job in research administration before. But he was about to graduate with a degree in behavioral and biological sciences, with a minor in public health. Knowing that many public health initiatives are funded by large grants, he thought the internship could be useful in learning how such grants are managed. Now, not only has he gained a better understanding of grants management, he’s considering research administration as a career path.

ORSP processes information on thousands of faculty research grants — often multi-million-dollar awards funding everything from Great Lakes water quality research to development of new cancer therapies — in a massive database. These grants are awarded by government entities like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, as well as corporations and philanthropic foundations, and they typically come with extensive compliance and reporting requirements that must be carefully tracked and followed. The database helps grants managers and faculty members stay on top of these.

But U-M’s database vendor is sunsetting the current platform and all the data has to be migrated to a new system. Before that can happen, the data needs to be cleaned up. So, for the entire winter semester, Webb analyzed records from those thousands of grants to find and correct inconsistencies and missing information. And if that sounds kind of exhausting, well, Webb says, at times it was. But it also came with a lot of satisfaction.

“I'd say it is very tedious, the work, because I'm going through thousands of lines of spreadsheets,” he says. “But it's also making sure that this is correct. Not every case is straightforward, so sometimes it's almost like solving a puzzle. You’re having to search through the system, go through the files, search for different things to make sure that it lines up.”

Not only that, but every puzzle he mastered provided intel for the next one. And his keen sleuthing ability drew his supervisor’s notice. “My manager wants me to help her troubleshoot the new system,” he continues. “Just knowing where we went wrong in the past could really benefit my research administration career within U-M going forward. If I continue working on the data side, I will already know the problems we've had in the past, because I've worked on the various different ones.” 

First-of-its-kind degree opens doors

Webb’s U-M internship was part of a newly launched undergraduate research administration degree program at UM-Dearborn. The program — the first bachelor’s degree of its kind in the U.S. — was finalized earlier this year in partnership with U-M’s Office of the Vice President for Research, of which the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects is a part. Given how new the program is, internships this past year were open to students outside the major, like Webb. He says he utilized some of the skills he developed at U-M in his next internship with the Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veteran Services, where he recently accepted a position as a policy consultant. 

Shandra White, associate vice president for research-sponsored projects at UM-Ann Arbor, spearheaded creation of the new degree and the partnership with UM-Dearborn. 

“Over the last decade, the federal government has issued more than 200 new research requirements, according to the Council on Governmental Relations,” she says. “To put that in perspective, the 2020 Federal Demonstration Partnership Faculty Workload Survey found that principal investigators estimated spending an average of 44.3% of their research time meeting administrative requirements rather than conducting active research. That creates significant challenges for conducting research, but it also creates opportunities for research administrator professionals as vital contributors, using their skills and expertise to keep discovery moving forward.”

OVPR’s research shows that the career outlook for research administration professionals is incredibly promising, with job sites posting tens of thousands of open positions across the U.S. The University of Michigan alone employs about 1,100 RAs across all three campuses and Michigan Medicine.

Industries that hire research administrator professionals include universities, health systems, nonprofits and private companies, including automotive, aerospace and energy companies, as well as public utilities. Employees with research administration skills fill a variety of roles. They may help research and write grant proposals, manage budgets, or oversee compliance with and reporting on grant requirements. Job functions are highly varied depending on the role, and include accounting, research, writing and project management. 

View sample job descriptions for research administration functions at the University of Michigan.

OVPR’s research also shows that the program can help fill a growing workforce need in Michigan as the state’s research enterprise “requires an efficient and effective administrative, financial and compliance infrastructure to support continued growth.” Historically, Michigan universities and businesses have spent more than $22 billion annually on research and development.

Despite recent cutbacks in federal research funding, White says there is still a large, unmet need for skilled research administrator professionals and that job prospects remain promising. “Aspects of federal research funding may look different in the years ahead, but the expertise needed to interpret, implement and manage those changes will always be in demand. As funding models evolve, that expertise will become even more valuable,” she says.

Coursework and career paths are diverse

The coursework toward the RA degree spans communication, ethics, organizational development, accounting and finance, legal and regulatory frameworks, and project management. The program brings in guest speakers from the field and students complete at least one internship.

“Behind every scientific breakthrough there is someone who shepherds the process and helps the team move forward,” says Vadym Pyrozhenko, associate professor of public policy at UM-Dearborn, who oversees the RA program. “In this program, students discover that managing research with integrity, precision and purpose can be its own powerful form of innovation. It is the bridge between bold scientific ideas and real-world impact.”

Martina Vucinic, a UM-Dearborn senior majoring in mathematics, also interned with OVPR last winter. Unlike Webb, she worked at the front end of the grant award process. She analyzed peer institution data for a national research fellowship for early-career scientists, then built an artificial intelligence tool to help identify U-M faculty who might be a fit for the awards so the office could reach out and encourage them to apply.

Vucinic says she was surprised by how much her internship drew on her studies. “I wasn't expecting to do data analysis for them and come up and help inform strategies and everything, so it was very interesting to see how I could apply my major in this internship,” she says.

Until she saw the internship posting, she wasn’t even aware research administration was a field one could pursue.  Now, she says, “I'm very happy I got this internship because it gave me a whole different perspective on what I can do.”

Story by Kristin Palm