Electronic Research Administration University of Wyoming

Project Background

The University of Wyoming (UW) has used InfoEd as its research administration system since 2009.  Since then, electronic research administration (eRA) systems like InfoEd, have evolved greatly and UW’s internal systems have also changed.  In 2017, UW implemented a new cloud-based financial system, a human capital management system, and an effort reporting system.  These system changes led to ORED’s recommendation of issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for eRA vendor evaluation and competition. In March 2021, the University released a request for proposals to solicit vendors for eRA system for campus.  Of the proposals received, three were selected for final interviews.  A UW selection team included representation from the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) Pre-Award and  Compliance units; the Office of Sponsored Programs; PIs; a Departmental Administrator; and Faculty Senate. This committee selected Cayuse due to the quality and ease of use of their product and their customer service record.  Cayuse serves over 500 universities in the US and abroad and has the largest market share of the top three eRA vendors.  Here is a link to the Cayuse, LLC website: https://cayuse.com/about/.  

UW will be branding the new eRA system with its own unique name, ROAMWyo (Research Organization, Administration, and Management ).   Our eRA system vendor is Cayuse, but the system will be known as ROAMWyo.

ROAMWyo will streamline and improve the management of the grant life cycle. In addition, it will reduce administrative burden, improve collaboration between researchers and administrators, mitigate compliance risks, and increase efficiency. Five applications will be implemented for this platform: Proposals, Sponsored Projects, Animal Oversight, Human Ethics, and Outside Interests.

Announcements & Training

Update on ROAMWyo Implementation

Dear University Research Community,

As you may recall, the Research and Economic Development Division has been working activing on a major development project to streamline and improve management of the grant life cycle at the University of Wyoming by implementing a new electronic Research Administration (eRA) System, ROAMWyo. The goals with this implementation are: streamline and reduce administrative burden, improve collaboration between researchers and administrators, mitigate compliance risks, and increase efficiency. Five applications were purchase from Cayuse: Proposals, Sponsored Projects, Animal Oversight, Human Ethics, and Outside Interests. Implementation is ongoing for Proposals, Sponsored Projects and Animal Oversight. We will be embarking on Human Ethics and Outside Interests implementation in the near future. We wanted to provide campus with some updates with where we are at in regards to this implementation.

ROAMWyo Sponsored Projects/Proposals

Overview: The ROAMWyo Proposals and Sponsored Projects applications will allow PIs to prepare proposals for internal routing and review. ROAMWyo will provide researchers a dashboard that gives an overview of proposal progress and awards. ROAMWyo allows direct system-to-system submission capabilities with Grants.gov, which ensures proposal accuracy with real-time error validations.

ROAMWyo Training:

Live Virtual Animal Oversight Training Sessions:

(all presentations will be the same, expected to last ~90mins)

• Weds 1/18 – 10 am
• Thurs 1/19 - 10 am
• Mon 1/23 – 1 pm
• Tues 1/24 – 1 pm

ROAMWyo Demonstration

Please join us for a demonstration of the Sponsored Projects module of our new eRA, ROAMWyo
Date: 01/20/2023
When: 12:30-2:00 p.m.
Where: https://uwyo.zoom.us/j/94872268288

Please note that this is not a training session, only a demonstration.

1. What Have We Completed So Far
   1. Developed the proposal, subaward, and award forms so that the forms are consistent with UW policies and processes and enhance our reporting and metric capabilities.
   2. Cleaned up the current external organizations list so that the data is clean and consistent for the new system to the extent possible.
   3. Assembled a project steering committee comprised of PIs from various departments and a staff member to test the ROAMWyo Sponsored Projects system and provide feedback through a survey and additional comments. We are reviewing the feedback to strengthen our training plan and applying suggestions, as necessary.
2. What Are We Working On Now
   1. Analyzing our current processes and looking for any areas to improve and streamline within the ROAMWyo system.
   2. Developing documentation for faculty and staff to utilize during training.
   3. Developing a training schedule for all end users.
   4. Continuing to develop an integration between ROAMWyo and WyoCloud to ensure applicable data elements will transfer smoothly between systems.
   5. Award Legacy Data Conversion.

ROAMWyo Animal Oversight

Overview: The Animal Oversight application will assist with IACUC compliance by streamlining the protocol review and approval process. In addition, a dashboard will be available to researchers, which will display the status of their protocols.

1. What Have We Completed So Far
   1. Built out the Animal Use Protocol (AUP) form.
   2. Transferred legacy data known as “Shell Protocols” in the system. PIs will have to update the details on their protocols during the annual or DeNovo update (whichever comes first).
   3. Assembled a project steering committee comprised of PIs from various departments to test the ROAMWyo Animals Oversight module and provide feedback through a survey and additional comments. We analyzed the feedback and applied some suggestions to the form content. We found areas that would be addressed in training.
2. What Are We Working on Now
   1. Developing documentation for faculty and staff to utilize during training.
   2. Finalizing a training plan (Dates are TBD but will be announced very soon).

As you can imagine, this implementation has been and continues to be a significant undertaking with many moving parts. The Research and Economic Development Division is committed to making the transition from our current processes to the ROAMWyo system as smooth as possible. End user training for each application will be provided prior to launching these applications.

We appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to improve research administration processes here at the University of Wyoming. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ashlee Kupilik at ROAMWyo@uwyo.edu.

Regards,
The ROAMWyo Implementation Team

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