research • technology • people
Explore the AI4RA ecosystem.
Tools, shared infrastructure, learning resources, and a community built around practical AI for research administration.
Find the right starting point for your team.
Explore AI4RA projects for document workflows, model access, data structure, regulatory research, budget narratives, training, and peer exchange. Each entry includes the direct links and contacts provided by its project team.
Platforms & Infrastructure
Foundational software and shared data structures for institution-led AI work.
Document Intelligence
Vandalizer
A self-hosted AI platform for research administration that institutions run on their own infrastructure with the AI provider of their choice. Users upload and organize proposals, awards, and regulatory documents, then apply repeatable, customizable workflows that extract structured data. This data is then provided in multiple downloadable output types. Workflows can be tested, validated against expected answers, run in batches, shared as templates, and automated to process new files on arrival, on a schedule, or via API. An AI-powered chat answers plain-language questions with citations to the exact source document and page, drawing on reusable knowledge bases (contained, searchable, context documents), URLs, and notes that can be kept personal or shared between team members. Projects gather everything for a grant or compliance effort into one scoped workspace with its own files, knowledge base, chat, and pinned workflows. Teams collaborate through role-based sharing and review steps, and the built-in Vandal Workflow Architect certification course builds the AI literacy users need to work productively, securely, and in compliance.
GPL v3 • One codebase for every installation, with no separate community, enterprise, or trial tier.
Primary contact: John Brunsfeld
AI Infrastructure
MindRouter
An open-source LLM gateway and load balancer for university-managed GPUs. It routes requests to vLLM and Ollama backends and translates OpenAI, Ollama, and Anthropic API protocols so compatible clients can connect. Built around institutional control of models and data.
Keeping prompts and data on institution-managed infrastructure can support research-data and FERPA needs, lower latency, predictable costs, and control over deployed models. Includes web chat, tool calling, speech features, GPU telemetry, throughput and audit logs, SSO, and quotas. Apache 2.0 licensed.
Primary contact: Luke Sheneman
Shared Data Foundation
Unified Data Model
The shared schema and ontology behind AI4RA tools. It maps each institution’s source data to a common structure so AI systems can work more consistently across research administration. Explore entity and field definitions, relationships, and the concept hierarchy.
The site presents a data dictionary, entity-relationship diagram, and ontology. AI4RA maintains this shared foundation for projects including its prompt library, evaluation resources, and Vandalizer.
Primary contact: Nate Layman
Practical Tools
Focused applications for the day-to-day work of research administration teams
Regulatory Research
eCFR 200 MCP Server
Search and read the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations from a Claude conversation. Ask plain-language questions and retrieve regulatory text, browse titles, find agencies, review amendment history, and compare a regulation between dates.
Seven tools cover keyword search across all 50 CFR titles and targeted regulation lookups. Hosted on Hugging Face Spaces and available as a Claude custom connector.
Primary contact: Nate Layman
Budget Justification
Just-In-Time
Draft and review grant budget justifications from a budget spreadsheet and project summary. Every dollar figure in a generated draft comes from the spreadsheet; existing justifications can be checked for discrepancies. Finished drafts export to Word.
Runs in the browser so budget files stay on the user’s device.
Primary contact: Nathan Wiggins
Project Management
SOAR
A lightweight project management system built inside Google Workspace for small and mid-sized teams. The supplied description mentions a visual project and task board, subtasks, and recurring deadlines.
Visit the repository for further project details.
Primary contact: Nathan Wiggins
Learning & Community
Build skills, share ideas, and learn from other research administrators.
Workshop & guides
REACH Vandalizer Workshop
Materials from the April 20, 2026 REACH workshop on data organization, governance, AI literacy, and context engineering. Work through three modules with slides, facilitator guides, and activities, then use role-specific follow-up guides and a 30-day pilot roadmap.
Presented by Barrie Robison, Nate Layman, and Nathan Wiggins. Some activities use a free Google Gemini API key.
Primary contact: Nate Layman
prompt practice
Promptulous
Practice writing AI prompts and get iterative feedback from animal characters, each focused on a discipline in the AI workflow. Designed to strengthen how you think about and use AI.
Primary contact: Nate Layman
Peer Exchange
AI4RA Groups.io
Join the AI4RA listserv for project updates, blog posts about AI in research administration, weekly practical tips, and conversation with other research administrators.
Visit the repository for further project details.
Primary contact: Dashiell Tyler