The Resource Allocation Program at the University of California, San Francisco: Getting More from Intramural Funding Bucks

摘要

Intramural funding programs within both large and small research institutions are an essential mechanism to foster collaborative, novel, or preliminary research activity, and to further institutional research strategic goals. At most research institutions in the United States, these funding opportunities are managed by each funding agency or program, independently of each other. The lack of a shared administrative structure for these independent programs can lead to inefficiency and ineffectiveness of any one program. For example, a researcher must navigate several websites to determine which funding opportunities are available and then face multiple submission deadlines scattered across the entire academic year. The Resource Allocation Program (RAP), a shared administrative structure at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has centralized the announcement, submission and review process for opportunities offered by multiple intramural funding sources. Results of the shared structure include increased efficiency due to consolidation of internal review committees, increased visibility of funding opportunities, increased transparency and consistency of the selection process, and enhanced availability of valuable review feedback.