We often reflect on the meaning and purpose of our job titles, but in our everyday interactions our work tasks serve as a reminder of the complicated symphony it takes to successfully perform research administration.
A research administrator is anyone – from administrative assistant to Vice President for Research – that performs administrative maintenance, compliance, review, or oversight for a sponsored program. In every aspect of a research administrator’s interactions with researchers/research staff, there serves a greater role of fully realizing the project to completion. Are you negotiating the contract? Are you processing a purchase for materials? Are you editing a research proposal for submission? Each of these functions serves the greater umbrella term research administrator and each is vitally important to meet the University’s research mission.
So next time you’re mindlessly copy and pasting that budget data, take a moment to appreciate your important role in keeping research running at The University of Texas at Austin.
What do you think a research administrator is? Let us know in the comments below!
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