Education

The SRAI Lifecycle Summit offers a flexible learning experience designed around the way research administration actually works. Through Pre-Award, Compliance, and Post-Award Journeys, attendees can focus on the areas most relevant to their role while gaining a broader understanding of how each stage of the research lifecycle connects.
 
Choose the Journey—or combination of Journeys—that aligns with your responsibilities and career goals, and leave with practical knowledge, strategies, and solutions you can apply immediately.

Journeys & Tracks

What is a Journey?

A Journey is two days of focused education built around one stage of the research lifecycle. The Summit runs three in sequence: Pre-Award, Compliance, then Post-Award, in the same order the work happens. A fourth focus, Specialized Research Management Areas, runs across all four days.

Within each Journey, tracks group related sessions so you can build depth in your area of expertise or move across tracks to build breadth. Follow one Journey and go deep. Combine two and see how the stages hand off. Stay all four days and follow a project from proposal to closeout.

Everything that happens before the money arrives, and everything that determines whether it does. The Pre-Award Journey takes you from funding strategy through proposal development, budgeting, institutional review, and submission, to award negotiation and the handoff into active management. You'll leave with sharper processes, cleaner submissions, and fewer surprises at award time.

  • Funding Strategy & Research Development
  • Proposal Review, Submission & Budgeting
  • Award Review, Negotiation & Acceptance
  • Subawards & Consortium Management 

Compliance is where the research enterprise earns its trust, and where the regulatory ground is shifting fastest. The Compliance Journey covers research security and export controls, responsible conduct and research integrity, human subjects and animal care, biosafety, and the agreements and data governance that hold it all together. You'll work through the current regulatory environment with people who navigate it daily and return with approaches your institution can put into practice right away.

  • Research Security & Export Controls
  • Responsible Conduct & Research Integrity
  • Human Subjects, Animal Care & Biosafety
  • Research Agreements & Data Governance

The award is made. Now deliver it. The Post-Award Journey covers award setup, financial monitoring, internal controls, audit readiness, reporting, and a clean closeout. You'll leave with practices that keep sponsors satisfied, auditors calm, and investigators focused on the science.

  • Award Setup, Monitoring & Departmental Practice
  • Financial Management & the F&A Landscape
  • Internal Controls, Audit & Risk
  • Reporting, Closeout & Deliverables 

Some of the most important work in research administration doesn't belong to a single stage of the lifecycle. It runs through all of them. Woven across all four days, these sessions cover leadership and career development, technology, systems and AI, commercialization and innovation, and clinical and translational research. Add them to any Journey to round out your experience.

  • Leadership, Management, Teams & Career Development
  • Technology, Systems & AI
  • Commercialization & Innovation
  • Clinical & Translational Research

Certificates

Certificate program course credit is earned and awarded only if full SRAI membership is in effect at the time the course is taken. In other words, only full members may receive credit for taking Certificate program workshops and sessions. Chapter members, non-members and those with lapsed membership will not receive educational credit for any Certificate program sessions or workshops taken during this time.

    Earn a recognized professional SRAI certificate by completing a defined set of workshops and sessions offered during this meeting. The program is designed to build practical skills and support professional growth in research management.

    Certificates Offered at This Meeting

    • Financial Management (FM)

      Provides best practices for managing the financial aspects of sponsored programs, including budgeting, compliance, reporting, and regulatory standards related to both direct and indirect costs.

      Tracking Sheet Coming Soon

    • Pre-Award (PA)

      Presents research administrators with the knowledge and skills needed to support investigators in developing and submitting competitive grant proposals, covering key areas in funding identification, proposal preparation, budgeting, eRA systems, and pre-award compliance to ensure successful submission and award acceptance.

      Tracking Sheet Coming Soon

    • Research Compliance and Integrity (RCI)

      Provides the background vital to managing research integrity programs. Core topics include research misconduct, compliance reviews, foreign influence, and research security across various research institutions and sectors.

      Tracking Sheet Coming Soon

    Tracking Your Certificate Progress

    Attendance for certificate-eligible sessions is tracked as part of the meeting experience. 

    Learn more about certificate tracking and completion

    About SRAI Certificates

    SRAI certificates are designed to signal professional growth, practical experience, and sustained engagement in the research management community. Detailed information about certificate eligibility, requirements, timelines, CEUs, and recognition is maintained on the SRAI Certificates page.
     
    Learn more about the SRAI Certificate Program

    Workshops & Sessions

    Workshops are 3 ½ or 7-hour deep dives into specific learning topics, led by one or more experts. These are designed to allow attendees to explore an area of interest, learn new skills and develop new strategies. Workshops may include more hands-on exercises, discussion groups, and other in-depth experiences. Workshops are an additional fee and are NOT included in the meeting registration.

    A 60-minute Concurrent Session can be in the form of presentation, case study, discussion, panel or step-by-step presentation. Presenters are encouraged to use active learning techniques to engage audiences, distribute materials, and respond to follow-up requests for more information. 

    A 90-minute Deep Dive is a longer session perfect for a panel discussion or an in-depth topic. 

    A 30-minute Quick Session can be in the form of a presentation, case study, discussion, or step-by-step course. They are shorter in time to spark discussion or leave attendees with some quick tips. 

    Learn More

    The Lifecycle Summit is an event designed for research management professionals, addressing the unique challenges and opportunities in the research lifecycle.

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