Updates in the Office of Contracts and Grants

Dear Faculty,

The Office of Contracts and Grants in the Division of Research (OCG) has successfully onboarded three full-time research administration personnel and two research administration consultants. In total, these five full-time personnel have doubled the size of Research Administrative Services, the unit responsible for proposals, award review, contract setup and subawards.

Two of the recent hires are Team Leads, responsible for the direct oversight and management of specific colleges and departments, as well as the management of more complex awards. The third, a Research Office Grants Coordinator, is responsible for all incoming proposal, award, subaward, and contract related matters submitted to the various OCG listservs and inboxes, which will ensure all communications are logged, assigned, and tracked until complete. The consultants will provide immediate support to reduce the backlog of award setup and subaward actions.

While staffing alone will not immediately resolve all pending actions, it is one step of several that we are taking to return to the normal operations of OCG that earned praise from the faculty and college leadership before the COVID challenge. I am confident that our primary customers, the faculty, will see a significant improvement in response times in the very short term.

Please note that we have been severely impacted by personnel challenges throughout the year 2022. At one point, our vacancy rate was about 50%. While this creates an enormous challenge, it does not remove our obligation to the research community. I acknowledge and regret the extended wait times and diminished communications that have frustrated our faculty. I offer my unqualified apologies.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Sincerely,

Amr Elnashai, FREng
Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer

Original message sent August 30, 2022