AI4RA Tip of the Week #27

Come Learn from the AI4RA Team in Denver! 

Want to learn more about using AI safely and effectively in your research administration office? AI4RA team members are presenting a workshop and several concurrent sessions at the 2026 NCURA Region VI/VII Regional Meeting, “Saddle Up for Success,” November 8–11 in Denver, CO. We’d love to see you there! 

Workshop

Augmenting Research Administration with AI 
Sunday, November 8 | 1:00 PM | Lawrence B | Post Award / Intermediate 
Presenters: Nathan Layman, University of Idaho, and Bert Baumgaertner, University of Idaho
Every AI tool is limited by two things: the quality of the data underneath it, and the nature of the work itself. Research administration runs on ethical judgment, regulatory interpretation, and human relationships, and much of that can’t be automated. The workshop covers:

  • How AI works: how large language models generate output, what they do well, and how they fail
  • Where AI fits: which RA activities benefit from AI, which depend on institutional data infrastructure, and which should stay human-driven
  • Hands-on practice with open-source AI4RA tools: a prompt engineering trainer, a document extraction and review workflow, and a data lakehouse architecture for preparing institutional data for AI

You’ll leave with a practical way to evaluate AI output and know when to verify before relying on it. 

Concurrent Sessions

Roping In Trustworthy Results from AI Tools
Monday, November 9 | 2:45 PM | Lawrence B | Basic/Overview 
Presenters: Julie Wenzel, Colorado State University, and Sarah Martonick, University of Idaho 
Tired of AI tools that buck you off halfway through the task? This interactive session covers the core skills for getting dependable results from AI in daily RA work:

  • Crafting clear prompts
  • Designing workflows you can use again and again
  • Breaking big, messy tasks into pieces an AI can handle 

Taming the Endless To-Do Lists: Strategies for Wrangling Compliance Issues in Grant Financial Accounts
Tuesday, November 10 | 2:45 PM | Confluence C | Basic 
Presenters: Courtney Wessling, Southern Utah University; Nathan Wiggins, Southern Utah University; Carrie Childs, Southern Utah University; and Alex Hartvigsen, Utah Valley University 
Post-award work often means juggling a thousand things at once, and finding compliance issues in grant budgets too late makes it worse. This session shares strategies you can put in place quickly to simplify budget and account monitoring, spot high-risk situations, and catch compliance problems as they happen. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ungoverned: Evaluating AI Outputs at Scale
Tuesday, November 10 | 4:00 PM | Platte | Intermediate 
Presenter: Barrie Robison, University of Idaho
As RA offices use AI for document review, data extraction, drafting, and policy interpretation, they need practical ways to evaluate AI outputs across many tasks, documents, prompts, and tools. This session shares an emerging AI4RA evaluation framework that covers:

  • Testing many examples
  • Comparing results to validated answers
  • Checking consistency across repeated runs
  • Tracing outputs back to their sources 

The presenters are also inviting community feedback on what RAs need to evaluate AI responsibly. 

PROSPER Beyond the 8 Second Ride in a Dept/PUI: Saddling Staff for Success 
Wednesday, November 11 | 9:00 AM | Lawrence B | Basic/Overview
Presenter: Sylvia Bradshaw, Southern Utah University 
Small research offices of 1–5 people are often treated as the norm. This session challenges that model. Southern Utah University will share how new models developed through the NSF GRANTED program helped it grow its PUI office into a well-rounded 13-person team, along with the challenges it faced and its plans to sustain that growth. 

Your Risk-Averse Mindset Needed: Responsibly Navigating the AI Adoption Rodeo 
Wednesday, November 11 | 10:45 AM | Platte | Basic/Overview 
Presenters: Nathan Wiggins, Southern Utah University, and Jessica Robins, Arizona State University 
Many research administrators aren’t sure how secure AI systems really are, or whether using them puts institutional data at risk. This session explains, in plain terms, how data moves through AI systems and what institutions can do to use AI responsibly while protecting their data. You’ll leave ready to make informed decisions about when and how AI can be used safely at your institution. 

How can I learn more about this topic?

Share your questions or success stories

 Heading to Denver? Let us know on the AI4RA community forum. We’d love to connect! Your tips help the whole research‑admin community thrive. 

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