I'd add to Larry's list that things like your offices relationship to
the financial office (how much are you doing, how much are they taking
on), if you're research involves human subjects or lab animals, if your
managing conflict of interest, effort, and other tertiary
responsibilities like these can have a real impact as well.  Larry's
right, there's no one answer (shocking in the Research Administration
field I know).

-Chris

On 5/22/2014 8:33 AM, Lawrence Waxler wrote:
> Kristen,
>
> While I'm sure that you will get some response to your query, what you probably will not get is the institutional context.
>
> As you know there are many different models around which sponsored programs offices are organized:
>> some sponsored programs management is highly centralized,
>> some sponsored programs management is highly decentralized,
>> some sponsored programs offices are soup-to-nuts operations,
>> some sponsored programs offices are rubber stamp operations,
>> etc.
> Without that context, it is hard to compare yourself to others.
>
> What we have done is develop a set of metrics by which we can track our work load and performance, i.e. we compare ourselves to ourselves over time. We have found that workload and performance - as you might expect - are inversely related.
>
> As a simple example, when measures such as completing reporting requirements on time deteriorate, we may need to add staff (again, this is oversimplified).
>
> While we have a couple of dozen measures that make some sense to us, one of the things that is difficult to assess is the impact of every increasing complexity.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Larry
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Larry Waxler, Director
> Office of Sponsored Programs
> University of Southern Maine
> 1 Chamberlain Avenue
> P.O. Box 9300
> Portland, ME  04104-9300
> Telephone: 207-780-4413
> Telefax: 207-780-4927
>
>
>
>
>>>> Kirsten Torguson <xxxxxx@KGI.EDU> 5/21/2014 5:41 PM >>>
> Good afternoon friends,
>
> I have been asked by my Faculty Director of Research to poll the group to find out the a) number of pre-award staff in your office and the number of proposals that you submit each year (proposals to federal, state, local, foundation and contract proposals to corporate entities); b) the number of post-award staff in your office and the number of awards managed each year; and c) the number of dedicated compliance staff in your office.  We're trying to build a case for adding new staff to the office (of one!) and would like to come up with some metrics.
>
> If you have existing data that might be useful (e.g., ratio of proposals submitted to pre-award staff, or number of full-time FTEs in your sponsored research office versus the dollar volume of your awards) that would be appreciated as well.
>
> I'm particularly interested in small- to mid-sized institutions' responses.
>
> Please feel free to contact me offline.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Kirsten Torguson
> Kirsten Torguson, MRA, CRA | Director | Sponsored Research Services
>
> Keck Graduate Institute | 535 Watson Drive | Claremont, CA 91711-3978
> Phone 909.607.9313 | Fax 909.607.9826 | xxxxxx@KGI.edu
>
> [Description: Description: cid:image006.jpg@01CC76DE.CE7B0DD0]
>
>
>
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