Certificates

Certificates

Certificate Guidelines and Tracking Booklet

Guidelines

The Society of Research Administrators International maintains 10 Certificate programs encompassing every aspect of Research Administration – Hospitals, Universities, Nonprofits, and Commercial Institutions. SRA International’s Certificate programs offer comprehensive training specific to today’s educational needs of research administrators.

  • The curriculum for each program includes required workshop(s), four (4) to eight (8) required sessions and one (1) to six (6) elective sessions.
  • Certificate program course credit is earned and awarded only if full SRAI membership is in effect at the time the course is taken. In other words, only full members may receive credit for taking Certificate program workshops and sessions. Chapter members, non-members and those with lapsed membership will not receive educational credit for any Certificate program sessions or workshops taken during this time.
  • SRAI members have up to three years to complete the courses from a specific Certificate program requirement, allowing you greater flexibility to manage time, travel and budget constraints. 

Certificate Tracking Booklet

The Certificate tracking booklet allows members to easily record their progress. You can write in the name of the meeting and the year on the line that corresponds with the session or workshop. 

Learning Tracks

Learning Tracks are designed to develop the content in a way that assures value added opportunities for attendees. A secondary aim is to assist attendees to effectively plan their educational time. The tracks represent major subject and issue areas for research administration.

View Learning Tracks

Financial Management & Post-Award

Provides administrative research staff with an understanding of best post-award and financial management practices that include the regulatory framework for the direct and indirect costing of sponsored program activities, financial management decision-making and fiscal compliance of sponsored funds. Topics include: research cost accounting; auditing; OMB requirements; matching funds/cost sharing; financial conflict of interest; facilities and administration costs; purchasing; equipment and property management; salaries, compensation, honoraria; and travel allocability and allowability; working with sponsoring agencies and sub-recipient monitoring.

Pre-Award & Sponsored Programs 

How to develop collaborative partnerships with industry, government and non-profit sectors; identifying strategies in developing public-private partnerships; institutional capacity building, including supply-side partnerships; faculty, positioning; effective grant writing techniques; the role of the research administrator in sponsored programs development; diversifying funding sources; communication strategies in sponsored programs development; and organizational and team structures to support successful program development.

Professional Development

Continuing education commitment; building on personal growth and development; leadership; quality of life development; self-assessment; supervisor/staff relations; industrial/workplace psychology; and the emerging role of research administrators within the culture of research.

Proposal Development/Management Infrastructure

Provide opportunities to discuss the following topics essential to research administration: Supporting PI’s in identifying proposal opportunities and assembling competitive proposals; Understanding research administration budgets; Submitting proposals and accepting awards; Managing the award—financial management and compliance; Managing the project team to achieve outcomes/deliverables; and Creating and maintaining ongoing research infrastructure—facilities, equipment, and collaborations.

Science and Security/Research Protection and Compliance

Provide opportunities to share insights about challenges in the following areas: Human/animal research protections; scientific/research misconduct; foreign influence and conflict of interest; data sharing, management, security, and ownership—including data use agreements; and required compliance training including management of any Responsible Conduct of Research and Scholarship programs.