Concurrent Sessions

This session will include presentations from several institutions in Virginia regarding how each handles effort reporting or an alternative to effort reporting given the flexibility in the Uniform Guidance.

This session is intended for all post-award research administrators.

Learning Objectives:

• Basic understanding of effort reporting requirements
• How several institutions handle the process
• How attendees might be able to improve their process

Speaker(s): Beth Ives, George Mason University; Mike Ludwick, MA, CRA, PCM, ODU Research Foundation; Catherine Short, Virginia Commonwealth University

This session will cover what the speaker has learned as a new research administrator working at a PUI. The session will briefly touch on a variety of topics such as initial impressions of the field, fears, and realizations of working with PIs, navigating the “It Depends” realm and setting a precedent for future relationships. In addition, the audience’s research administration knowledge will be tested and expertise solicited with interactive questions via a real-time audience poll app via Glisser or Poll Everywhere based on pivotal information that helped the speaker become acclimated to the field.

This session is intended for all research administrators and those with PUI interest.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify areas of research administration that impact those entering the field
• Better support those new to the field through understanding their experiences
• Foster a research administrator community through shared experiences and common knowledge among all experience levels of research administrators
• Employ best practices to help navigate typical occurrences in research administration

Speaker(s): Loralin Welch, James Madison University

Everyone is aware that overspending on grants and the resulting budget deficits is a problem that must be dealt with. But focusing on deficits alone does not give a complete picture of the financial health of grant awards. For large institutions with hundreds or thousands of grant budgets to deal with, how is it possible to identify spending that may be going off the rails?

In this session we will discuss a model for the Central monitoring of grant balances. This method identifies key elements of an award and how to monitor those elements monthly to highlight when things may be going wrong. It can be used at the Institutional, School or Departmental level. Potential problems are flagged for follow up with grant managers, who can take action to resolve them. Regular communication between schools and departments has resulted in significant improvement of the overall management of grant funds.

This session is intended for all post-award financial administrators.

Speaker(s): Angela Behrend, CRA, University of Virginia

Impostor syndrome is a common phenomenon among high achieving professionals, academics and students. Despite its prevalence, many people are unaware of its impact on the workplace. Perhaps you or your colleagues exhibit signs of impostor syndrome. Do you play down your achievements as some sort of luck or chance occurrence? Do you wonder how you have your job and feel unqualified? Do you always apologize for mistakes or for not knowing something? Do you have a fear of failure or worry about being exposed as a fraud? This session will explore this phenomenon in practice and will help research administrators recognize its signs.  An interactive exercise will also be used to facilitate discussion. 

This session is intended for all research administrators.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and describe symptoms and manifestations of impostor syndrome in the workplace.
• Describe strategies for coping with impostor syndrome in the workplace.

Speaker(s): Jose Alcaine, PhD, MBA, CRA, Virginia Commonwealth University