Data Analytic Legos® Building Blocks for Meaningful Research Administration Data

Presenters William Mitchell, MPSA Supervisor, Systems & Reporting Sponsored Projects Administration Jodi S. Ogden, MBA, CRA Associate Vice President Sponsored Projects Administration

Purpose How do you craft data and reports in research administration that are meaningful to university leadership, departmental administrators, and yourself?

Agenda  Data resources  Past sponsored projects reporting  Current sponsored projects reporting  Get the conversation started  Question and answer

Data Resources

SPAR Database  Sponsored Project Activity Record  Homegrown preaward database  All sponsored projects recorded –Grants, Contracts, Subcontracts, Non-mon  Over 30 years of data  Proposals, Awards, Subcontracts  Entire lifespan of the project

SPAR Database

 Technical Details –25 separate record tables –Approximately 175 data points/single year –Hosted on an Oracle platform –Queried using Oracle SQL interface –33,200+ Project records –42,700+ Proposal records

Other Resources  Financial Management Systems  IRB submission/approval system  Effort reporting system  Ad hoc data sets

Past Reporting

Past Reports  Static Excel award and proposal reports –Manually created –1+ hour per report –12 queries per report –Aggregate data  Little analysis of data  Unable to quickly answer questions

Data points  Award/Proposal Amounts (Direct, Indirect, Total) by School  Number of awards/proposals  Types (Contract, Grant, Subcontract In/Out)  Fund source (Federal, State, Local, Private)  Number of non-monetary awards

Past Reports Graphic provided at conference

Who used it and how?  Excel reports sent to small group –Finance & Business Services –Research Affairs  Mostly an FYI –Some decision-making

Current Reports

 Award/Proposal reports  Federal award reports  School level reports  Department/division level reports  SPA internal workload reports

What changed?  Change in thinking –Dollar decrease after ARRA –Data oriented President  Shift from aggregate one-off data points  Detailed data kept for future reports –Data for fiscal years 2006-current –Largest dataset contains 11,000+ rows

What changed?  Data visualization software used  Reporting much less manual –20 minutes –1 query per report  Built in analysis on the page  Quickly provide answers to questions

What changed?  New reports provide context  Color used to highlight points  Additional crosstab analyses

Award Reports Graphic provided at conference

Proposal Reports Graphic provided at conference

Who uses them now?  Original group –Finance & Bus Services –Research Affairs  Expanded group – President – Faculty Chairs – Faculty Reviewers – Administrators – Development – Governmental Relations – Directors of Management Operations – Financial Decision makers – Sponsored Projects Administration Leadership – UT System Governmental Relations

Additional Reports  Successful transition caught attention  Outside requests for reports increased  School level detail requested –Faculty trends and analysis  Additional data sources used –Project Expense data –Internal workload data

School Reports Graphic provided at conference

Internal Workload Reports Graphic provided at conference

Internal Workload Reports Graphic provided at conference

Starting the Conversation

Key Points  Identify a champion –Director or Vice President  Broadcast the availability of data –Management meetings –AURA bimonthly meeting –In conversation –Internal news blast

Key Points  Be willing to expand reports –Accept ad hoc requests –Volunteer to provide at every opportunity  Craft useful metrics  Gather feedback from users

Questions

Thank you! William Mitchell Jodi S. Ogden Direct Main