Shaping Our Research Support Services

Dear Colleagues,

As President Jahanian shared in his message last week, Carnegie Mellon is advancing a series of efforts guided by the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Board on Enterprise Creation, Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement and in line with input from faculty, staff and alumni. Together, these efforts already have strengthened how we support research, foster entrepreneurship and expand partnerships.

As a next step, we are launching a strategic initiative to modernize our research infrastructure: the university-wide systems, processes, structures and resources that enable CMU’s research and commercialization enterprise. The goals are clear — reduce administrative burden and improve service delivery throughout the entire research lifecycle for everyone engaged in supporting and conducting research at CMU.

Enhancing Our Support Systems

Over the last year, in collaboration with our schools and colleges, we conducted a thorough review of our current enterprise research systems and services. Additionally, we built out expertise on our university-level research support teams and selected vendors for two new enterprise software solutions for sponsored research and technology transfer:

Sponsored Research: We are making a significant investment to implement a new cloud-based research software solution, using the Huron Research Suite platform, that will replace SPARCS and modernize the entire grant management process from pre-award — including planning and proposal — through post-award accounting and compliance. Over the next three months, we will be working to develop a comprehensive technology roadmap to inform our implementation strategy. The first set of new tools will go live in 2026, with new functionality to support proposals, awards and agreements and more to follow in 2027.

Technology Transfer: We are upgrading to a new, comprehensive intellectual property (IP) management system. This solution, based on the Inteum Minuet platform, will provide enhanced capabilities to more effectively manage and leverage CMU’s significant IP assets. Testing is underway, and we anticipate a launch of the system by the end of the calendar year.

Elevating Our Understanding

Launching a new enterprise research software solution will require us to adapt processes and procedures and ensure that our university-wide research support teams are positioned and prepared to administer the new workflows. Such work necessitates a full understanding of current operations now as well as our future vision for CMU research infrastructure. In the coming months, members of our research community will have opportunities to share their insights and perspectives on our processes, procedures and operations. This input is critical to our success, and we encourage all to participate.

Planning for Success in a Shifting Landscape

The timing of this initiative will better position us to adapt to changes at the federal level, even more rapidly than our peers, as evolving agency priorities and new political dynamics are reshaping the contours of research investment and regulation.

One such example is a likely change to facilities and administrative (F&A) rates for universities, which President Jahanian detailed in his Aug. 20 message. We are continuing to work with the AAU and our peer universities to advance the Financial Accountability for Institutional Research (FAIR) model, which is meant to bring greater transparency and accountability to the true costs of research while strengthening the federal-university partnership. While this represents a promising way forward, implementing a model such as FAIR would require significant modifications to our systems, processes and structures. Accordingly, we are embedding the concepts of the FAIR model in the roadmap and implementation plan for our next generation research support system.

Staying Informed and Involved

We will host a webinar in October to share more about the federal research funding landscape and funding opportunities, the new research support system and our overall efforts to modernize CMU’s research support services. In the meantime, please visit the Building Next-Generation Research Support at CMU webpage for FAQs and updates.

Finally, we want to emphasize that this will be a collaborative journey. In addition to the October webinar, we will continue to engage our research community through group meetings and regular updates. Your perspectives are essential, and your participation will ensure that the systems, services and structures that we advance will meet the needs of our research enterprise.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we navigate this time of change and tremendous opportunity. Together, we will ensure that CMU remains a leader in research and innovation for decades to come.

Sincerely,

Theresa Mayer
Vice President for Research

Angela Blanton
Chief Financial Officer