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To re-imagine and streamline Duke’s research proposal submission process by aligning business workflows and technology solutions to produce higher-quality proposals with less administrative churn.
Goals
- Increase faculty focus on proposal quality by reducing time spent on administrative tasks
- Enable controlled flexibility in proposal development while maintaining compliance requirements
- Reduce late-stage administrative churn by identifying and resolving errors earlier in the process
Strategies to Achieve the Goals
Automate activities
Automate activities that do not require human judgment.
Shorten review times
Shorten review times by improving proposal accuracy and completeness upstream.
Redesign processes and tools
Redesign processes and tools to be more collaborative, simple, and streamlined.
Continue to create proposal tools
Continue to create a cohesive, interoperable ecosystem of proposal tools (OIT and OASIS) that supports both faculty success and administrative rigor.
Identify appropriate roles and tactics
Identify appropriate technical team roles and implementation tactics to maximize benefit to the goals and minimize policy or process disruption
Deliver continuous “quick wins”
Deliver continuous “quick wins” for researchers while evaluation, planning and development of new features and tools is underway.
Key Workstreams
1. Process Discovery and Mapping
2. Technology Landscape Assessment
3. Governance and Alignment
4. Tool Strategy and Development Path
5. Implementation and Change Management
Timeline
| Phase | Timeframe |
|---|---|
| Foundation & Discovery | Dec 2025 – Feb 2026 |
| Refinement and Development of Process & Tools | Mar 2026 – Aug 2026 |
| Continuous Evaluation & Scaling | Sep 2026 – onward |
Who is involved?
- Leadership: Jenny Lodge, Christopher Freel, Tracy Futhey, Paula Morrison, Geeta Swamy
- Operations and Feasibility: Rebecca Brouwer, Keith Hurka-Owen, Dave McAlpine, Blake Perrault, Laurianne Torres, Jen Vizas, Lara Whittaker