Event
Event Details
Where:
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
When:
August 6 - 9, 2023
August 6 - 9, 2023
Meet Attain Partners’ experts—read our NCURA 65th Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight here!
Attain Partners is proud to sponsor the NCURA 65th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Connect with our experts at Booth #313 and discover how our tailored research enterprise services can help address issues your institution may be facing. Learn more about the event here.
Are you attending? Add these informative sessions, workshops, and discussion groups to your meeting agenda—or meet one-on-one with our experts. We’d love to schedule a time to discuss solutions for any current issues your institution may be facing. Contact us today.
Monday, August 7
The Impact of Incorporating Project Management Skills Within the Workplace
Monday, August 7 | 1:30p – 2:30p | Columbia 11&12, Terrace Level
Session hosted by Benjamin Garvin, Attain Partners; Rosemary Madnick, Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; and Jennifer Vessio, Johns Hopkins University
Research Administrators have a significant role within their Institutions. They must keep all projects on time, within budget, and match the goals with strategies. They need to have a guide to be successful in their new role and be an asset for the Institution. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. The session will focus and take a new perspective on integrating project management techniques into daily work performed by research administrators.
Same Same, But Different: Departmental Challenges and Successes
Monday, August 7 | 1:30p – 2:30p | Monroe, Concourse Level
Session hosted by Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Attain Partners; Robyn Remotigue, University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth; and Tanya Blackwell, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Borrowing from this popular phrase with origins in Southeast Asia, this session will explore the similarities and differences between research administration offices of all sizes whether central or departmental. While our research volumes are drastically different, the workloads, per capita funding for staffing, and stressors are quite similar. Join us as we provide our perspectives from our different vantage points. We will discuss staffing challenges, remote/hybrid workforces, and dealing with last-minute proposals along with the challenge of being all things to all people.
Same Same, But Different: Departmental Challenges and Successes (Follow-up Discussion Group)
Monday, August 7 | 4p – 5p | Northwest, Lobby Level
Discussion Group hosted by Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Attain Partners, and Tanya Blackwell, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Tuesday, August 8
Leadership Success Planning and Staff Development: Creating an Effective Roadmap
Tuesday, August 8 | 10:15a – 11:30a | Lincoln East, Concourse Level
Session hosted by Benjamin Garvin, Attain Partners; Nancy Lews, University of California, Irvine; Rosemary Madnick, The Lundquist Institute (UCLA)
As organizations grow they often allow a layer of bureaucracy to trickle into their organization that inhibits their strongest resources — their people. It’s critical that employees are engaged at work. Nothing less than your institution’s ability to develop long-term growth is at stake. An engaged workforce is your competitive advantage. It often establishes itself in an ethos that believes organizations grow from the outside in it is a misguided and flawed model. Department success and customer satisfaction are a result of engaged people, and growth begins on the inside when individuals are engaged.
This workshop will focus on developing a staff development and leadership succession plan. Having a strategy is a valuable tool to grow future leaders and to ensure continuous development within a shifting market. Success by succession planning is an investment that leaders are recognizing as an important strategy with long-term benefits.
Addressing the Great Recruitment Crisis: Providing Graduate Students Access to Careers in Research Administration
Tuesday, August 8 | 2:45p – 3:45p | Lincoln West, Concourse Level
Session hosted by Kathleen Halley-Octa, Attain Partners; Candice Ferguson and Kay Gilstrap, Georgia State University
As anyone who has attempted to fill an open position recently knows, competition for talented research administrators is fierce. Issues with recruitment and retention of younger research administrators have been discussed at length, but there has been little success in attracting younger workers to careers in research administration.
Join us in this session to learn how research administrators at Georgia State University utilized support from the NCURA Research Program and engaged executive leadership at their institution to develop a pipeline to recruit and train the next generation of research administrators. As part of training, participants developed capstone projects to address research administration challenges. Two participants will share the results of their projects during this session.
CRA: Mentoring and RACC Certifications. How Do I Study for the CRA?
Tuesday, August 8 | 2:45p – 3:45p | Fairchild East, Terrace Level
Discussion Group hosted by Georgetta Dennis, Attain Partners; Denise Rouleau, Tufts University
Have you thought about attaining a RACC Certification or starting a mentoring group at your institution? Want to explore and hear how different institutions have developed mentoring and study groups? Join us as we share our successes and failures – or what to do and what not to do – in developing these types of cohorts.
At Your Service: Addressing Interim Staffing and Leadership with Professional Services
Tuesday, August 8 | 2:45p – 3:45p | Cardozo, Terrace Level
Session hosted by Susan Wyatt Sedwick, Courtney Swaney, and Shacey Temperly, Attain Partners
Work-life balance is critical to job satisfaction. Unfortunately, few organizations are adequately staffed to absorb the workload when a member departs or when large system implementations (e.g., ERP) demand more time of critical leaders and staff.
Unless you are overstaffed (said no one ever), asking staff members to absorb workload and responsibility is not a feasible or wise solution. It often leads to a disengaged team which can be more detrimental to your organization than the loss of a single leader or a team member.
Burnout arising from too many demands is the number one reason given to Attain Partners by research administrators seeking to join our firm. Overloading your best employees, even for short periods of time, not only affects morale and productivity but can also alienate faculty and impede your mission.
Learn through real-life examples how Attain Partners’ Interim Staffing services can alleviate the pressures on your workforce by providing qualified experts.
NIH Transfers—The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Tuesday, August 8 | 2:45p – 3:45p | Fairchild West, Terrace Level
Discussion Group hosted by Lindsey Demeritt, Attain Partners; Sydney Bair, University of Texas at Austin
The process of transferring an NIH award from one institution to another can be both daunting and complicated, and often there are variations in instructions between institutes and centers. This discussion group will focus on best practices around these actions, discussing how to manage faculty/department expectations as well as what actions can be done upfront to ensure the process is as smooth as possible. We will also discuss transfers done on on-cycle (for the annual non-competing renewal date), off-cycle (mid-project year), as well as those transferred prior to award, and how these different timings impact what is required and how this action is completed.
The STTRuggle is Real: SBIR/STTR Pre- and Post-Award Pitfalls
Tuesday, August 8 | 2:45p – 3:45p | Gunston East, Terrace Level
Discussion Group hosted by Laney McLean, Attain Partners; Scott Niles, Georgia Institute of Technology
This discussion group is for participants to share and discover best practices for proposing, negotiating, and managing SBIR/STTR projects with small business industry partners. Understanding/sharing processes and procedures at the proposal stage of an SBIR/STTR can help ensure compliance and streamline the award process. Understanding troublesome negotiation pitfalls can help departmental staff understand why it seems like award negotiations can take FOREVER. We will also discuss how to manage projects (personnel, effort, procurement) proactively at the department level to avoid messy closeouts.
Wednesday, August 9
Let’s Make a Deal—Looking Through the Doors of Sub-award Compliance to Make Everyone a Winner
Wednesday, August 9 | 8:30a – 10a | Columbia 3&4, Terrace Level
Session hosted by Laney McLean, Attain Partners; Angela Rowe, Florida State University
The major obstacle of issuing the sub-award has been met, but how do you maintain compliance while keeping an excellent rapport with your Principal Investigator, especially when the going gets tough? This session will provide an overview of the requirements of pass-through entities, including sub-recipient monitoring responsibilities. Additionally, case studies will be shared, which involve complicated Post-Award issues with recommended solutions to ensure you refine your sub-award management skills. Finally, recent audit trends related to sub-awards will also be discussed. As every fantastic dealer knows, having a bag of multiple tools is required to wheel and deal because you never know what you will be asked!
Surviving the Mass Exodus: A Discussion for Managers
Wednesday, August 9 | 8:30a – 10a | Fairchild West, Terrace Level
Discussion Group hosted by Benjamin Garvin, Attain Partners; Anna Dampf, Rutgers University
In this session, presenters will share experiences and perspectives on surviving the loss of your team members, assessing internal needs, and developing short-term and long-term strategies for how to stay afloat while minimizing risk to your institution.
Addressing the Great Recruitment Crisis: Providing Graduate Students Access to Careers in Research Administration (Follow-up Discussion Group)
Wednesday, August 9 | 10:30a – 12p | Dupont, Terrace Level
Discussion Group hosted by Kathleen Halley-Octa, Attain Partners; Candice Ferguson and Kay Gilstrap, Georgia State University
Join us to continue the conversation from Tuesday’s session about how research administrators at Georgia State University utilized support from the NCURA Research Program and engaged executive leadership at their institution to develop a pipeline to recruit and train the next generation of research administrators.
Master’s Degree vs. Certifications: Choose Your Own Adventure
Wednesday, August 9 | 10:30a – 12p | Lincoln West, Concourse Level
Session hosted by Georgetta Dennis, Attain Partners; Kimberly J. Smith, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Sheleza Mohamed, American Heart Association
Have you thought about getting your Master’s Degree or Certification in Research Administration? This is the session for you!
We will take participants on a deep dive from people who have lived and breathed both directions of this topic. It will cover different Master’s options that are common among research administrators as well as the struggle of studying for the CRA, CPRA, and CFRA. We compare costs, time commitments, and so much more on this topic. If you have thought about advancing your career, this is the session you won’t want to miss.
