Research Analytics Summit

This conference was funded by a grant from the NSF GRANTED program. GRANTED focuses on addressing systemic barriers within the nation's research enterprise by improving research support and service capacity at emerging research institutions. The content of this summit is solely the responsibility of the authors/presenters and does not necessarily represent the official views of NSF.

Baron serves as Assistant Vice President for Research & Chief of Staff at the University of Kentucky and Director of Research Analytics. His work focuses on data analytics for strategic business decisions and process improvement. He is a member of the INORMS Research Evaluation Working Group.

Associate Director for Data Strategy and Insights at the University of Arkansas. BSc in Astrophysics, Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Science. Over ten years in research analytics, integrating data from Academic Analytics, GrantForward, IPEDS, HERD, and other institutional systems. Proficient in Power BI, the Microsoft analytics suite, and multiple programming languages.

Nearly 30 years in research administration spanning the full lifecycle from preaward through postaward. Works on evidence-based policies and using data to forecast and plan strategies. Presentations at AAU, APLU, NCURA, SRAI, FDP, COGR, and Educause. Board of Directors of ORCID.

Responsible for college-wide research and scholarship advocacy, managing the Office of Research including the Institutional Grants Office and Diné Policy Institute. Previously at UT Austin supporting the Good Systems AI research initiative and the World Economic Forum collaboration.

Degrees in biology, classics, and English (Rutgers). Expertise in academic editing and grant writing for federal, local, and private sponsors. Primary agency responsibilities include DoD, NIH, and the university's UNITE Research Priority Area.

This national summit focuses on data-informed decision-making within research administration. Many professionals in this space have taken it on as only a small part of their position duties and are often not trained in data analysis or business intelligence systems. Outcomes include a professional mentoring program, collaboration, professional development, and conference proceedings.

GRANTED highlights the need to encourage academic inquiry from a wide variety of higher education institutions, especially emerging research institutions and minority-serving institutions. At Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), there is a unique opportunity to support innovative frameworks that may offer important insights for issues like climate change, food security, and environmental change.

Host a national summit focused on data-informed decision-making in research administration — the first conference dedicated to research analytics and data practitioners. Outcomes include a professional mentoring framework, collaboration, conference proceedings, and identification of future funding opportunities. The summit includes participants from research-intensive institutions, emerging research institutions, TCUs, and other MSIs, focusing on human capital, technology, and skills.