Blog
May 14, 2025
Meet Attain Research Principal Stephen Fratantaro
Stephen Fratantaro joined Attain Partners’ Attain Research practice earlier this year to enhance the portfolio of work and impact of our research leadership experts. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education, Fratantaro utilizes a modern system-to-system approach drawn from experience as a business administrator and amplifies the efficiency and quality of solutions we offer our clients to meet established goals in accordance with updated policy in an always evolving research market.
Under the leadership of Managing Partner Mark Davis, Attain Research unites the firm’s core research enterprise services to enhance market focus, elevate delivery excellence, and address diverse client needs. The practice provides enterprise-wide strategy and technology transformation expertise at scale. Istvan rounds out our esteemed team of industry experts, including Partner Wally Davis, as well as Bob Cohen, Shacey Temperly, Nadia Kikilo, Courtney Swaney, Stephen Fratantaro, Gil Tran, and Hilary Craiglow.
Our team delivers a grants management process with technology defined by collective data-driven reporting and individualized sets of responsibilities for our clients that maintain assuredness of a direction from the beginning to end of a project life cycle.
Read the below interview with Stephen Fratantaro to get to know more.
Attain Partners (AP): How did you become passionate about electronic research administration?
Stephen Fratantaro (SF): I began my career in research administration as a business administrator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry. I was responsible for managing the lifecycle of grants for about a dozen faculty members; one of the critical functions of this position was managing and organizing grant applications. This was back when the “sneaker net” was the only way to obtain approvals around campus which meant we had to walk several copies of the grant application to obtain signatures and then update individual sections of the application manually as corrections were suggested. I can remember thinking there had to be a better way to do this, and once system-to-system submissions were introduced, I dived right in and developed a passion for understanding and implementing the systems that support them.
AP: What did you do before joining Attain Partners, and what brings you to this role now?
SF: I held a number of positions in research administration and software implementation at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Harvard Medical School, Yale University, and the Huron Consulting Group. When I was approached about this position, not only was I impressed by the people I spoke with, but was particularly drawn to the relatively small size of the company, and the opportunity to have an impact internally as Attain continues to grow.
AP: How do you want to leverage your new role with Attain Partners to create an impact?
SF: In addition to delivering high-quality services to our clients, I want to leverage my industry and consulting experience to augment internal operations and methodologies.
AP: Which of our seven core values speaks to you the most?
SF: Execute with Discipline. With over 20 years of experience navigating through higher education, I have learned that these institutions present unique challenges. I learned quickly to value people who can “get things done” in these environments.
AP: What do you like most about the work you do?
SF: While I’m not directly involved in actual research activities, knowing that the work I do helps facilitate scientific discoveries is very rewarding, and drives me to continue to improve the way research is conducted at our clients’ institutions.
AP: What are the biggest ways you’ve seen research administration initiatives impact organizations?
SF: From a software perspective, I’ve seen how new software can reduce investigator burden as well as improve operational efficiency within central offices. When new software replaces legacy home-grown systems, internal IT support can focus on implementing and improving other areas of the research enterprise rather than focusing their attention on supporting outdated systems. From a consulting perspective, being able to staff critical positions with high-performing talent allows research institutions to recruit from a position of strength rather than a position of desperation.
AP: What do you enjoy outside of work?
SF: I am an avid Philadelphia sports fan, I love to cook, to read, and to travel.
Learn more – Stephen Fratantaro
Stephen Fratantaro is a Principal in the Attain Research practice of Attain Partners. Stephen has a wealth of experience navigating through the unique challenges research institutions present to plan, implement, and maintain software across the research suite; lead teams performing research administration activities; and help these institutions react to changes in regulations and challenges with staffing.
Prior to joining Attain Partners, Stephen served as Director, Research Enterprise Operations at Yale University. Before Yale, Stephen worked at University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Harvard Medical School, and the Huron Consulting Group in a variety of positions related to research administration and software implementation. In these roles, he managed the day-to-day operations of a small research center, served as a signing official in the central pre-award office, a project manager for the implementation of research administration software from the client and vendor perspective, directed the development of analytic reports and the collection of data, and was the interim director of an IACUC office.
