Fellowship in Research Administration

Three Nigerian university research administrators recently began their virtual visits with the Division of Research (DOR) to gain insight into the daily operations of a U.S. research administrative office, increase their skill set and be a catalyst for innovation in their environment.

Participants include Innocent Inegbe and Funmilayo Temiloluwa Ajagbe from the University of Ibadan, and Bolarinwa Ajigboye from the University of Lagos.

The administrators spent six weeks learning from the different units within the division and how each unit connects to operate within the division. This collaboration is in partnership with the University Administration Support Program, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, to support the development of research management, knowledge, skills and perspective capacity of universities in participating international countries.

“We are seeing great progress with each research administrator and their desire to improve their institution and we are learning how their research office functions to better assist them,” said Karin Scarpinato, Ph.D., senior associate vice president for the Division of Research. “Our hopes are that this will be the start of other research collaborations in the future.”

Each visit connected the trio to different DOR departments, like research accounting and sponsored programs, who gave presentations demonstrating how they collaborate with researchers and run day-to-day activities. For example, during their first few virtual meetings, the trio said they learned about office budgets, organizational structures, how to support researchers with grants and ways to help improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of their research management office, while understanding the different forms of magazines and communication tools presented to the research community.

“My experience with the Division of Research at the FAU has been exciting, insightful and amazing … It’s interesting to know that there are various divisions and four pillars of research at FAU, I’m excited to know more about how each research pillar works and how this could be adapted in our own research office at the University of Ibadan,” Innocent said.

When the visits were complete, the three plan to implement new ideas and practices learned from FAU, increasing their institution’s capacity for research.

“I truly hope to take this knowledge and use it as a foundation to build our university into a leading research institution that can support our community and our country,” Bolarinwa said.