Janet Halliwell, Chair CASRAI; Co-Chair Admin Burden Canada collective; Chair CSPC Dominique Bérubé, Vice-President Research Programs, SSHRC Jim Woodgett, Director of Research, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute

1. CSPC 2016
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2.  Janet Halliwell, Chair CASRAI; Co-Chair Admin
Burden Canada collective; Chair CSPC
 Dominique Bérubé, Vice-President Research
Programs, SSHRC
 Jim Woodgett, Director of Research,
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
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3.  THE GOOD - a strong and dynamic academic
research ecosystem; much to celebrate
 THE CHALLENGE - increasing concerns with
research productivity and effectiveness due to
undue administrative burden and associated
barriers to effective research
 THE QUESTION – how best to improve the
research ecosystem and reduce admin burden
without compromising quality and accountability
of the research system
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4.  Documenting research objectives and the
investigator track record in proposals for
research support
 Engagement in the peer review process – both
for research funding and for publication
 Accountability for public funds
 Integrity in research (e.g. ethics)
 Reporting on outcomes
 Diversity and equity in the research system
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5.  Structural – e.g. capacity of the system to
deal with emerging researchers, inter-
disciplinarity, coordination among programs
 Administrative - e.g. efficiency of the process
of application for funds and reporting
throughout the research life cycle
 Policy – e.g. managing compliance, tensions
around balance of funding allocations, roles
and responsibilities of researchers and
institutions
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6. Information Disconnects Span the Research
Lifecycle
Duplication
Complexity
Change
Feasibility
Maturity
Comparability
Can’t reuse existing info - must re-key + across
multiple requesters
Meaning/relevance of info needs
more shared analysis
Granularity higher than warranted by
business step
Info clearly useful but very hard to
collect
Too frequent changes to info
requests + across multiple
requesters
Info cannot be compared across requesters
and suppliers
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7.  Early stage researchers finding this environment
particularly challenging
 Established researchers walking away from
funding opportunities
 Research partners declining collaborations
 New demands emerging, e.g. the move to an
Open Science environment
 Capacity of funding agencies to deal with
competing demands etc
 Collective interest in improving the life and
productivity of researchers (and perhaps even
research administrators and funders)
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8.  In part a victim of our own success -
recognition of the importance of research
◦ More and more comprehensive suite of programs
◦ More sophistication and costs in research
 In part divergence of demand and supply of
resources for research
 In part lack of collective engagement in, and
commitment of resources to, tackling
effective and innovative information
management and system innovation
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10. 0
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Federal govt
Provincial govt
Business
Higher Ed
PNP
Foreign
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11. Two inevitable consequences (which we could
manage better)
 New norms of accountability & expectations
(demonstrating ROI)
 Increasing admin requirements & regulations
(managing risk)
And two perhaps not so inevitable
consequences
 Lack of alignment of programs, processes
and policies
 Multiple proposals and low success rates
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12.  Personnel Recruitment
 Program Design
 Financial Compliance
 Non-Financial Compliance
 Post-Award Management
 Reporting
 Scholarly Communications
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13. Structural
 Improve funding opportunities for emerging
researchers
 Change modes of support for trainees, e.g.
living stipend, direct support
 Rebalance allocations to funding programs,
e.g. less to large prestige programs; more to
discovery
 Coordinate CFI, CRC and TC3 programs to
align research positions and funding
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14. Administrative
 Fix the CCCV (many times!)
 Harmonize and simplify application and
reporting processes X programs and agencies
(many times; many variations)
 Integrate systems to seamlessly share
information on a need-to-know basis across
individuals, institutions and funders
 Improved and proactive institutional support
services for researchers
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15. Policy
 F2F meetings for peer review
 Shift balance of programming to more
support for investigator driven research ++
 Consolidate funding agencies
 More responsiveness to distinctive
characteristics of SSH research
 Adopt/dictate a unified set of metrics with
clear definitions
 More funding for indirect costs of research
 Improve institutional research leadership
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16. A partnership initiative led by post-secondary
education (PSE) institutions and associations,
supported by the Canadian national chapter of
CASRAI.
Short-term goal of reducing undue administrative
burden within the Canadian research life-cycle
Longer-term goal of sustaining these reductions
while enhancing the overall productivity and
efficiency of the Canadian research ecosystem
leading to enhanced research impacts.
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17.  Funding results – automated upload of data on
awards from funders to institutions
 CCCV – working towards a collaborative approach
 Financial audits/monitoring – applying a risk
management framework to low-risk, low-value
transactions
 ORCID – implementation of a persistent digital
identifier for persons – by institutions and others
 Building awareness
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18.  Ecosystem Map - to assist stakeholders in
knowing the various 'moving parts' in the
Canadian research ecosystem for research data
and research information.
 Governance & stewardship practices for research
information in Canada
 Best practices for two-way exchange of research
information within/between Canadian
stakeholders (especially funder <> institution)
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19.  What and how best to tackle ….
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20.  Focus on the desired end state, then seek to
get there as simply as possible
 Work collaboratively among sectors and
communities
 Solicit active engagement of researchers
 Take lessons from those who have been
successful – in Canada and elsewhere
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23.  http://docs.casrai.org/Admin_Burden_in_Ca
nada/Organization
 http://docs.casrai.org/Admin_Burden_in_Ca
nada/Issues
 http://docs.casrai.org/Admin_Burden_in_Ca
nada/Defining_Success
 https://casrai.org/abc_thinkpiece
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24. Janet E. Halliwell
jehalli@telus.net
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