OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR -
BUSINESS AFFAIRS
March 31, 1995
FACULTY
KEY ADMINISTRATORS/KEY SUPPORT STAFF SPEAR LISTSERV
(Since this is going to multiple mailing lists, please excuse if you receive more than one copy of this notice).
SUBJECT: Sponsored Projects Administration Update
Over the past three years, a program known as "Sustaining Excellence at UCSD" has resulted in a review and simplification of a number of institutional support
processes. The most recent project in this program, described by Chancellor Atkinson in a Campus Notice dated February 10, 1995, is an effort to streamline the campus process that supports sponsored projects administration. The following summarizes the status of this effort.
The project, known as SPEAR (Sponsored Project Excellence Achieved through Redesign), has progressed significantly in the ensuing 45 days as a result of the support and participation of a wide spectrum of the campus community. On Tuesday, March 28, the first phase culminated in a midstream status presentation
to the project steering team.
The presentation revealed that in a remarkably short span of time, the overall process was defined and a detailed map was generated for each of its seven elements--Conduct Marketing Research, Generate Proposal, Negotiate/Accept Award,
Set Up Project, Manage Finances, Create Knowledge, and Close Out Project. In addition, the current deployment level of enabling technology at UCSD was assessed. And finally, several focus groups were convened to obtain direct feedback on current issues from the users of the sponsored projects process, including principal investigators.
In the remaining phases, other public and private sector organizations will be studied to determine potential "best practices" which may be employed at our own
campus, an ensemble of "quick wins" will be identified which can be put in place
to improve our process in the near term, and an overall redesign of the sponsored project administration process will be synthesized and presented to the steering team at the end of the project.
Clearly, this project will be successful only if the streamlined process meets the needs of our principal investigators and sponsoring agencies to a much greater degree than our current methods. To help ensure a positive outcome, you
are encouraged to continue to articulate those needs through the ongoing forum, SPEAR@ucsd.edu, to which you may subscribe via listserv@ucsd.edu.
Steven W. Relyea
Vice Chancellor