For years, research administration has been stuck in the same unproductive debates—centralization vs. decentralization, administrative burden vs. compliance, homegrown tech vs. third-party. We argue over structures and approaches as if one model will solve all problems when, in reality, the ground b...

Research administration is bogged down by outdated, manual processes. While other industries embrace innovation, universities and hospitals have lagged in tech solutions and hesitate to adopt third-party tech due to [valid?] financial data security concerns. But this caution comes at a cost: adminis...

The federal government is undergoing an unprecedented shakeup: mass firings of federal workers, funding freezes, and policy shifts that include proposals to cap indirect costs for universities and research institutes at 15%. The research funding landscape is changing rapidly, and research administra...

This is the first in a series of essays on strategy, planning, and organizational design in higher education. It is intentionally diagnostic by naming the problem and sets up the question the subsequent pieces work through. If you want the framework first, start with Sequence Is Everything and retur...