Collaborative research: primer - a model to strengthen the research enterprise at predominantly undergraduate institutions

The College of New Jersey received a $2.53M Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Integrative Activities (CFDA 47.083) awarded June 15, 2025, for the PRIMER (Primarily Undergraduate Institution Management Excellence in Research) program, extending through May 31, 2030. PRIMER develops and validates a comprehensive post-award research administration model designed to strengthen the research enterprise at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). The program delivers structured training modules, compliance coaching, stage-by-stage support structures, and stackable micro-credentials covering grant accounting, compliance, reporting, and data management. These services target research administrators at PUIs to enhance their capacity to support faculty in managing federal awards more effectively.

The project leverages the Colleges of Liberal Arts Sponsored Programs (CLASP) community, representing 1,921 public and private institutions, to test and scale the model through 12 pilot sites and 30 demonstration sites. A key deliverable is an open-source, searchable resource repository permanently housed at the University of South Florida Digital Commons that provides post-award templates and training materials for institutional knowledge sharing across participating institutions. The College of New Jersey serves as the initial development site, with implementation case studies to be published for broader adoption by rural colleges, nonprofits, small businesses, and other research organizations. This initiative directly supports NSF's mission to build capacity and broaden participation in the nation's research and STEM enterprise.

Abstract

Primer ? The primarily undergraduate institution management excellence in research program - will develop a new model for post-award training to advance the research enterprise at primarily undergraduate institutions (puis). Primer aims to upskill research administrators so they can better assist researchers in more successfully managing their awards. Primer will leverage the colleges of liberal arts sponsored programs (clasp) community, representative of 1,921 public and private puis, to test and validate a relational model for strengthening grants management including stage-by-stage support structures, training modules, compliance coaching, and a resource repository. The resource repository will be a searchable, open-source platform for training materials and post-award templates, collaboratively conceived and designed to share institutional knowledge within and across participating institutions. The repository will be permanently housed as a university of south florida digital commons collection. The college of new jersey (tcnj) serves as the initial development site for the primer model that will then be adapted and scaled through the clasp community, with 12 pilot sites providing baseline and preliminary data to inform studies of impact at scale at 30 demonstration sites. Training modules will address topics of grant accounting, compliance, reporting and data management for post-award research administrators. The modules will enable quick upskilling through stackable micro credentials to improve the quality of grants management and increase the pipeline to research administration careers. Primer will publish detailed case studies of the implementation of the model at tcnj and other clasp institutions, which can serve as a starting point for rural colleges, non-profits, small businesses, private research laboratories, and local education agencies. The adoption of the primer model will improve award management and support increased institutional research activities by producing a better trained workforce to support the research enterprise. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.