Abstract

In this session we will address the different ways in which the ISGlobal’s Grants Office is evaluated and how we measure and act on the level of satisfaction of the 'internal clients'.
The goal of the Grants Office is to provide advice and specialized support in proposals preparation, budgeting, expense tracking, and project auditing, to increase applicants’ chances of success in being awarded, and ensuring their correct execution. The Grants Office is divided into two areas:
The Preaward area aims to increase funding opportunities for science and transfer through specialized advice and support in managing proposals and contracts.
The Postaward area leads the economic management of projects through specialized advice, ensuring compliance with internal and external regulations.
The Grants Office is a Department within the Administration Unit and also forms part of the Projects Unit.
The Administration supports the activities carried out by researchers and other staff, guaranteeing transparency, responsiveness, compliance, and efficiency in the management of resources. Its ultimate goal is to create a professional and supportive environment for world-leading research and other activities by providing dedicated, timely, and effective services. It has an ongoing commitment to quality, sustainability and continuous improvement. By providing the best service to its internal clients in an atmosphere of mutual trust, the Administration takes part in the process of creating value in the institute.
The Projects Unit serves the ISGlobal community by developing and implementing institutional and internal scientific policies and providing advice on funding opportunities and funding agencies requirements. The unit works closely with ISGlobal research teams to prepare grant submissions, including costing, management aspects, and ethical issues, and to support funded projects regarding contracting, financial reporting and auditing.
ISGlobal's management values are giving ‘value, service and trust’ to our internal clients through its administration. To ensure that these are not only empty words, different actions are carried out to detect strengths and weaknesses, and to implement corrective measures, if needed.
On one hand, since 2014 and every two years, we have been conducting a satisfaction survey addressed to researchers and other actors, served by the administration, to gain insights on their perception of the different services provided by the departments.
On the other hand, and for the first time in 2019, an Evaluation of the Administration has been carried out by an external Committee with members from several international research institutions. In this evaluation, the past and present of the administration were analyzed, with their goals and achievements, together with the planned actions for the following years. The committee evaluated the administration and sent a report with recommendations for the following years, being now part of the administration's roadmap for the coming years.
In March 2022 we had the Mid-Term review, to follow-up on the recommendations and the status of the implementation of the actions, and the commitment is to evaluate, every 4 years, the Administration as we first started in 2019.
Last, periodic meetings are held with each research group leader. In these meetings we go through their scientific career, ongoing projects and future proposals, needs of their teams and related issues that may arise (need for funding, equipment, spaces) are analyzed. Researchers also give us their feedback on the support received and potential areas of improvement.
With these 3 inputs (satisfaction survey – Recommendations from the External Committee – meetings with the research group leaders), the Grants office prepares its annual Action Plan and strategic actions.
So, as a result of these surveys and evaluations, we implement improvement actions addressing the needs of the main user of the Administration.