The eCFR MCP Server is a free, open-source tool created by Sabrina Woo and Nathan Layman of Artificial Intelligence for Research Administration (AI4RA) that connects AI assistants directly to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) API.
At the 2026 REACH Research Analytic Summit, the AI4RA (AI for Research Administration) team delivered a hands-on workshop titled “The Intersection Between AI and Data.” The full workshop (including slides, interactive tools, and a post-workshop guide) is now freely available online.
One of the most difficult parts of incorporating AI into your daily workflow happens before you ever touch a computer: identifying the processes to be automated.
Have questions about Vandalizer, research data, or AI? Come join us for monthly office hours!
When: Fourth Tuesday of every month at 11:00am PDT
Where: Zoom
The blog post explains the shift from prompt engineering, carefully wording individual requests to get better AI responses, to context engineering, which focuses on designing the entire information environment an AI uses to produce results.
What is Vandalizer, how do I get access, and how do I get support?
by Michael Overton, PhD Original post
When Can AI Be Used in Research Administration? It Comes Down to One Question: Does It Matter How the Work Got Done? By Nate Layman AI tools are remarkably capable, and they are getting better fast. They can digest hundreds of pages of sponsor guidelines in seconds, draft polished narrative text from rough notes, and…
Research administration has always been a profession defined by reaction. New regulations arrive and we react.
University research departments receive billions of dollars in federal grants each year, but managing those grants is surprisingly old-fashioned. When a university gets a grant award, the official notice arrives as a PDF, and staff have to manually copy all the important details