Research Centre Administration
The Research Project Administration Team provides a bought-in support service for DCU Research Centres.
The available support packages can be reviewed below. Tailored packages may also be built to accommodate a specific Centre's requirements.
The packages put in place for a Centre by the Centre Director will extend to Centre-affiliated PIs unless otherwise indicated. Packages are priced according to the number of PIs in the Centre who will avail of the support. Support package pricing is per annum.
Customary DCU Research Centre Support Packages
RPA recognise the specific role required in the Directorship of a Research Centre. The Director Support package provides specific support to the Director by assisting in the Management activities of the Centre. The package is made available to a Centre's Director in the form of a 25% FTE allocation of time of a member of the RPA Front Office team. This assignment guarantees one point of contact per Centre Director in RPA. The role also has a built-in back up for any planned and unplanned office outages.
The Director Support remit could include the following
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Guest Travel |
VIVA Organisation |
Document Collation |
Space Allocation |
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Centre email address monitoring |
Centre Staffing list and mailing list maintenance |
One day meeting and event support |
Requisitions/Purchasing Order arrangements |
|
Centre Director Travel arrangements |
Quality Review/Site Visit support |
Metrics support (data entry) |
Assistance with queries (from Centre Director and Centre affiliated PIs) |
|
Steering Committee Meeting arrangements (Room bookings/catering etc) |
Issue meeting agenda, minute taking, follow up actions |
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Services available to: All Centre Directors who buy in the various RPA administrative support services available to UDR Centres.
If you are a Research Centre associated PI working with RPA, it means that your Centre has bought in a support package from RPA. It is important for you to be aware of which package (as seen in the table at the top of this page) is in place for your Centre, as this will inform the RPA Operational supports available to you.
The 'Research Centre Support Packages Defined' listed below shows a description of individual support areas.
When transitioning to work with RPA for the first time, it is worth noting there may be differences to any local administration SOPs you may already be familiar with. The below points indicate some of these potential changes per adherence to RPA's SOPs, and are fundamental to the streamlined and effective operation of RPA.
- All requisitioners send their own POs to suppliers
- All deliveries go to NRF Stores
- All subcosts require an interventionist
- All PIs arrange their own travel (with the exception of Centre Directors)
Services available to: All PIs associated with a Research Centre where one of the various administrative package (plus specific add-ons as appliocable) ave been bought in for the individual Centre by the Centre Director(s).
| Buyer | Invoice Approver | New Supplier set up |
| Agresso queries | New Customer set up | Sales Invoice generation |
| Deliveries (where applicable) | Requisition/PO queries | Finance Systems tickets |
| RPA Purchasing Card | Invoice Queries | |
| Research award financial planning | Monthly snapshot reporting |
| Budget projection | Subcost hierarchy set up |
| Staffing Budgets | Record maintenance |
| Reporting | BRR |
| General financial queries | Procurement tender and competition assistance |
| Finance Office liaison | Industrial Partner liaison |
| Funding Agency liaison | NCEs |
| Centre staffing and recruiment support | Liaise with HR to organise interviews (setting dates) |
| Raising SRAs | Liaise with HR regarding DCU leaver form |
| Keep track of contract end dates for extensions | Liaise with HR to post job adverts o DCU website |
| Follow up with approvers on SRA chain of approval | |
Centre Event Support - defined as 1 day Centre-specfic events. Larger events on funded basis.
| Couriers (FedEx) | Equipment Upgrade calls |
| General enquiries | Equipment maintenance calls |
| Metrics support (data entry) | PG student queries |
| Liaison for internal and external stakeholders | Room bookings |
| Point of contact for internal and external issues and items | |
|
Guest Travel |
VIVA Organisation |
Document Collation |
Space Allocation |
|
Centre email address monitoring |
Centre Staffing list and mailing list maintenance |
One day meeting and event support |
Requisitions/Purchasing Order arrangements |
|
Centre Director Travel arrangements |
Quality Review/Site Visit support |
Metrics support (data entry) |
Assistance with queries (from Centre Director and Centre affiliated PIs) |
|
Steering Committee Meeting arrangements (Room bookings/catering etc) |
Issue meeting agenda, minute taking, follow up actions |
||
| Set up coordination assistance | Liaise with DTS/C&M for high level maintenance issues | Regular bulletin to PIs for news updates |
| Website management - basic maintenance | Updates: News, PI bios (ready to copy and paste) | Headshot scheduling |
Services available to: All Centres who buy in to the various administrative support services available.
Contact
To contact us with queries regarding available support packages, or for prices based on your particular Centre requirements,
email rpa.enquiries@dcu.ie