ESR Hits the Road for RAAD Event

Vice Chancellor of Research Sandra Brown speaks to campus research administrators

The third annual Research Administrator Appreciation Day celebrating the dedication and support of UC San Diego’s research administrators (RA) drew a crowd of over 300! At the September 7 event, Vice Chancellor of Research Sandra Brown was the guest of honor, welcoming and thanking RAs for their work in helping the university reach over $1B in funding.

Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) program representatives from the Kuali Research Administration and Financial Information System (FIS) projects were there to talk to attendees and answer questions. Both projects will directly impact and improve the RA workflow.

Research Administration Team:
Pam Tallarida, Francisco Mejia, Trevor Johnson, Nicole Joyce, Emi Oda

“I enjoyed talking with my colleagues about what we are doing in ESR to improve our research administration processes at UC San Diego,” said Jason DeFay, business process and configuration lead on the Kuali Research team. “Everyone I talked to seemed really excited about the changes we are making to streamline and improve the [sponsored research] proposal review and approval process.”

Marisol Christinson, Kuali Research’s data analytics and reporting lead, added, “Everyone I spoke with was very excited to hear that the new Kuali system is on its way. Some of the people that approached the booth let us know about some areas of the existing system that they think could be improved and they were very delighted when they heard that most of the areas they mentioned are actively being looked at for improvements.”

Marisol Christinson and Jason DeFay at the RAAD table
talked to attendees about the Kuali Research Administration project

The new financial system impacts all departments and will have strong tie-ins to research. Arlynn Renslow and Adam DiProfio, FIS change leads, were on hand to talk to the RAs. “I am always impressed with the sophistication of the RA group and how engaged they are with learning about our new systems,” said Adam.

ESR teams will be seen at more events as Fall Quarter unfolds. Stop by and ask questions or just say, “Hi!”