Money, money, money - Did I get it or didn’t I? What do I need to do to get it and how soon can I get it? The CASRAI standard for the announcement of competition results lays the groundwork to allow administrators to answer these questions, sooner, with less work and more accurately – all before love flies out the door.

1. Money makes the world go round
How a CASRAI standard can put $$ into PI
pockets faster with fewer admin $$ - all before
love flies out the door!

2. ABC: the University Perspective
 Financial constraints make business
process optimization essential, not just fun
to do
 Only so much can be achieved
independently; active tri-agency partners
required
 An opportunity for CASRAI to demonstrate
concrete ROI

3. Background - U of T Context
 In 2010 U of T embarked on the Research
Administration Improvement & System
Enhancement (RAISE) project
– A systematic approach to the improvement of
research administration through the use of
information technology

4. RAISE Process
 Under the RAISE rubric a number of
discrete projects/development objects
were identified
 Individual project execution was broken
into 3 phases
1. Analysis of existing practices & tools
2. Design of optimized practice & support tools
3. Programming of the new/improved tool

5. Automated Upload of Tri-Council
Research Competition Results
 Analysis
– Number of applications to be processed
– Different result formats
– Number of APIs needed to process the results
– Longevity of any particular solution
 Resulting Return on Investment

6. Application to Award Pathway
PI Proposal
Development
Sign-off by
University
(Record in
University
Database)
Submission to
Sponsor
Adjudication by
Sponsor
Communication
of Results to
University
Set-up of
restricted
Research
Funds
Communication
to PIs, Chairs, et
al.
PI spending &
analysis of
results

7. U of T path starts with MRA

8. Pothole on the information highway

9. SSHRC Insight Results

10. NSERC Discovery Results

11. CIHR Foundation Results

12. Communication of Results
No Yes

13. Yes

14. U of T Yes Process - FReD

15. What’s in the proposed standard
 First pass for the pilot
– Funder identification
– Recipient identification
• Institution, Person, Award ID
– Award amounts
• By Period

16. What’s the end goal?
Jan 1 – Mar
31, 2016
Apr 1, 2016-
Mar 31, 2107
Apr 1, 2017-
Mar 31, 2108
Apr 1, 2018-
Dec 31, 2018
Open $50,000
Personnel $50,000 $200,000 $200,000 $175,000
Equipment $100,000
Travel $50,000 $50,000 $50,000
Total $100,000 $350,000 $250,000 $225,000
The standard will need to accommodate scenarios where the sponsor
requires control of the budget at a detailed level.
For the pilot, the standard will focus on a single line budget with
multiple periods (Tri-Council standard practice).

17. Return on Investment
 Directly related to the number of
applications which could be processed
 Inversely related to the number of different
result formats
 Inversely related to the # of APIs
 Directly related to the longevity of the
solution

18. Return on Investment - Dollars
 U of T Context
– Approximately 4000 applications submitted to
approximately 650 unique sponsors annually
– Of those sponsors, only 7 receive in excess of 100
applications annually
– 25% - 50% of account set-up could automated
– 6 – 12 weeks of staff time could be saved
– With a widely adopted standard potentially 80%
of award set-up could be automated
– Increases the number of institutions for which
automation provides an ROI

19. Return on Investment - Speed
 Account set-up - hours versus weeks
 Automation of notification
– PI
– Chair
– Dean
– VP
 Improved data quality

20. Why it can work
 The RAISE projects demonstrate that IT
projects can produce real savings
– Of particular relevance to the Results
Standard
• Two implemented projects saving U of T in excess
of $0.5 million annually
• Ability to provide instantaneous notifications
• Huge improvement in data quality and reusability

21.  What’s needed to make a CASRAI
Standard on Research Results work?
– Focus
– Partners to implement

22. money money money money

23. Judith Chadwick
Assistant Vice-President, Research Services & Chief
Administrative Officer, University of Toronto
j.chadwick@utoronto.ca
Robert Dirstein
President, Dirstein Consulting Inc.
bobdirstein@gmail.com