What is Research Administration and Management?

Research can only advance as far as it can be funded, trusted, and sustained.

Every Discovery Has a Backstory

Before the work began, someone secured the funding. While it ran, someone made sure it honored every obligation: to people and animals, to data and ideas, to each dollar spent. Until the last report was filed, someone kept it on course. Research administrators and managers are that someone. Whether research heals, builds, or explains, their work is part of it.

Great Research Takes More Than Great Researchers

Funding turns an idea into a project: finding opportunities, building proposals and budgets, and securing awards. Trust keeps that project worthy of support, by protecting people, animals, data, and ideas while upholding the rules that govern research. Sustaining it carries the work from award to closeout, backed by the teams and systems research depends on. Take away any one, and research stalls. Research administrators and managers keep all three in place.

A Shared Language and a Clear Path

No one masters a profession they can’t put into words. SRAI’s Research Administration Glossary supplies the words. The Professional Development Framework charts the way forward. Consult the Glossary for the work of today, the Framework for the ambitions of tomorrow.

SRAI Research Administration Glossary

A comprehensive reference for the language of the profession. Look up terms, align your team around shared definitions, and build fluency across every area of research administration.

EXPLORE THE GLOSSARY

SRAI Professional Development Framework

An interactive roadmap of the profession. Explore nine areas of practice, benchmark your skills across five levels from Untrained to Expert, and find your next step, including LevelUP micro-credentials.

VIEW THE FRAMEWORK

New to the Field? Start Here

Every research administrator started somewhere. These are good places to begin.

BECOME A MEMBER

FIND A MENTOR

EXPLORE LEVELUP

FIND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES