U of I awarded $4.5 million to pioneer AI tools for research administration

MOSCOW, Idaho — University of Idaho has been awarded a $4.5 million grant leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline administrative processes and drive efficiency in research management. The project represents a transformative step toward reducing administrative burdens.

U of I’s project is led by Principal Investigator Sarah Martonick, director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), and is funded through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) GRANTED program. The NSF program’s goal is to enhance the U.S. research enterprise by improving administration support infrastructure, increasing service capacity and broadening participation by developing institutions across the national research landscape.

Every grant earned by a university entails a lot of paperwork, ranging from accounting and payment information to human and animal subject procedures. Information from granting agencies must be transferred to the university’s computing system, currently done by employees in research management. Martonick wants to create artificial intelligence programs to transfer that information from the granting agency documents to the university system quickly and accurately.

“I believe this project will transform the entire field and allow universities to better meet compliance requirements and improve efficiencies,” said Chris Nomura, vice president of U of I’s Office of Research and Economic Development. “The new AI tools should allow research administrators, often an overworked field, to reduce their time spent on repetitive, monotonous tasks and free up time for them to spend on more interesting, thoughtful projects.”

The award highlights U of I’s expertise in artificial intelligence research and represents a unique collaboration between the OSP and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Data Sciences (IIDS). Together, OSP and IIDS will pioneer innovative applications of AI that solve complex institutional challenges and support the broader research community.

“Through IIDS, U of I possesses a powerful combination of technical expertise and advanced infrastructure in artificial intelligence,” said Luke Sheneman, co-principal investigator and director of IIDS’s Research Computing and Data Services unit. “We are uniquely positioned to address these challenges. As a smaller institution, we acutely feel the administrative burdens of research management as we outgrow the current research infrastructure, but we also have the resources to develop innovative AI-driven solutions.”

Sheneman’s team is already working on a number of large language models and other generative AI approaches to automate and streamline research administration.

The impacts of the new grant extend beyond U of I. A central goal is to foster a “community of practice” to share generative AI tools and insights with other institutions. The project focuses on supporting smaller universities, particularly undergraduate and emerging research institutions, which face similar administrative challenges but often lack the resources to address them effectively.

To begin this collaborative effort, U of I is partnering with Southern Utah University as a sub-awardee and plans to expand the initiative to two or three additional institutions by the third year of the project.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation GRANTED program under award 2427549. The total project funding is $4,546,903, of which 100% is the federal share.

MEDIA NOTE: A more in-depth article on this topic can be viewed here.

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Media Contact:

Michelle Reagan
Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences (IIDS)
Scientific Communications and Design Specialist
208-885-9076
mreagan@uidaho.edu