26010 Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Sys Implement. & Sup

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for an Electronic Research Administration (eRA) System Implementation and Support Services contract, seeking a comprehensive system to manage the entire research administration lifecycle. The procurement covers implementation services, annual system licensing, and annual support for a three-year period from September 1, 2025, to August 31, 2028. The selected system must integrate with the university's existing Ellucian Banner ERP and provide robust functionality including researcher profiles, proposal development, routing and approvals, conflict of interest management, subrecipient monitoring, effort reporting, and advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. Proposals are due by August 6, 2025, at 2:00 pm Central Time, with the evaluation criteria focusing on system capabilities, implementation approach, and cost. The university aims to improve research administration efficiency for its current portfolio of approximately 390 active awards totaling $225,000,000, with the new system expected to streamline processes, enhance proposal quality, improve compliance, and reduce administrative burden.

The RFP includes specific provisions for veteran-owned and small entrepreneurship participation, allocating up to 12% of evaluation points to businesses meeting these criteria. The total evaluated cost will be calculated by multiplying the annual license and support service costs by three and adding the implementation fee. While no incumbent vendor is specifically mentioned, the requirement to integrate with the existing Ellucian Banner ERP system suggests potential technical constraints for potential bidders. The procurement emphasizes the need for a system that can facilitate system-to-system submissions to Grants.gov and provide comprehensive research administration support. Though the exact budget is not explicitly stated, the university's research portfolio value of $225,000,000 and the multi-year contract structure indicate a significant investment in this electronic research administration solution.