The document is a summary of a comprehensive survey—jointly conducted by AAU, Yale, COGR, and APLU—focusing on various aspects of research administration and compliance activities for fiscal year 2014. The survey addresses multiple operational domains, including financial reporting, grants management, effort reporting, financial conflict of interest (FCOI), subrecipient monitoring, human subjects research, and animal research protocols. Data collection centers around quantifiable workload metrics such as numbers of reports filed, staff involvement and associated costs, faculty and staff time commitments, and compliance requirements before and after the implementation of specific federal regulations. Specific topics explored include the frequency and method of financial reporting, the granularity and complexity of cost allocation across grants, and the administrative burden associated with FCOI disclosures and management, emphasizing changes following new public health service guidelines.
Additionally, the survey delves into monitoring and managing subrecipients under federal awards, including audit compliance and staff resource allocation. Detailed inquiries are made regarding the review and oversight processes for both human and animal subjects research protocols, including time and effort expended by institutional review bodies. The instrument seeks to quantify the impact of compliance requirements by delineating the staff resources and procedural redundancies, such as the potential for reducing administrative workload by eliminating duplicate reporting obligations. Overall, the survey is intended to provide an empirical basis for understanding the scope and cost of compliance in major research institutions, thereby informing policy decisions and advocacy efforts related to federal research administration.
