The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently developed a program called GRANTED: Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Economic Development. Its purpose is to focus on “addressing systemic barriers within the nation’s research enterprise” by supporting institutions that are lacking in the proper resources to conduct quality research.

As part of the GRANTED program, the NSF has awarded UW-Eau Claire a $1.6 million grant which is estimated to last until 2029.

The name of this new project is BRIDGE: Building Research Infrastructure and Development to Grow Emerging Research Institutions. For the next four years, UW-Eau Claire will be collaborating with UW-Oshkosh to help eliminate the logistical roadblocks that often prevent faculty and students from seeking out grant-funded research opportunities.

Heather Johnson Schmitz, the manager of grants and contracts in UW-Eau Claire’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), has been the principal investigator of this project. She said that about a year ago, their office began to discuss the burdens that faculty face during the external grant-seeking and research process.

“They have this great research idea or a project, they get the grant — yay — but then they discover there are all these other administrative tasks that aren’t research directly but still have to be done,” Johnson Schmitz said. “So we said, ‘Well, what could we do to start to tackle that?’”

Before applying for the NSF’s grant, Johnson Schmitz said they sent out a survey to eight UW campuses to get an idea of how much extra time researchers were spending on the administrative pieces to external grant seeking. 

Participants reported spending an average of 70 hours per month on tasks like hiring students, tracking grant budgets and sourcing supplies. 

Erica Benson is the executive director of the ORSP. She said she played a “supportive” role by reviewing and providing feedback on drafts of the proposal later sent to the NSF.

“Our hope is that by removing some of the administrative burdens from faculty and departments, that may encourage more faculty to apply for additional funding,” Benson said. “We’re laying the groundwork to allow faculty to be able to have more time to apply for grants and then also to support students on those grants. It’s kind of like a domino effect.”

After considering the survey’s feedback, Johnson Schmitz began drafting the proposal to the NSF with the help of Esther Eke, the director of the UW-Oshkosh ORSP. She said that including those “preliminary results” in their application strengthened their case.

“We could really point to facts and numbers and say, ‘We don’t just think that there’s an issue. We have some hard data to back that up,’” Johnson Schmitz said.

Now that UW-Eau Claire has received this $1.6 million grant, the BRIDGE project will consist of three main components. The first action is to implement a new position called the post-award research concierge, or post-ARC, at both UW-Eau Claire and UW-Oshkosh. 

This new role will be critical to supporting faculty and connecting with campus stakeholders. Johnson Schmitz said they are looking for someone who is detail-oriented with strong interpersonal skills.

According to Benson, they are currently receiving applications, and the role will be filled and utilized starting in January of 2026. She said the new hire will have multiple on-campus mentors to support and train them.

“The benefits I see is if we can take away some of that burden, our faculty can 1) maybe apply for more grants and 2) have more time to mentor students and to work on the research that’s related to their grant proposal,” Benson said.

The second component is the universities’ partnership with the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA). Together, they will be conducting a system-wide peer review to examine research practices of all 11 UW comprehensive campuses.

Benson said that although they received a letter of commitment from each of these campuses, it will be difficult to find meeting times that work for all participating individuals. However, they are determined to make it work.

“There are a lot of things we could do not only here at UW-Eau Claire but potentially across the entire UW system for the four-year comprehensive colleges that are not the research institutions like UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee,” Benson said. 

The last component of the BRIDGE project is to address and discuss these peer-review findings with the NCURA, as well as other relevant topics within the current research climate.

Johnson Schmitz said she is looking forward to witnessing the impact this award from the NSF will have on both faculty and students seeking collaborative research experiences.

“You write a plan, you envision something in your head … I just am excited to really start all these tasks that were only on paper, and now they’re going to become reality,” Johnson Schmitz said.

Matczak can be reached at [email protected].