NCURA 2026 Region VI/VII Regional Meeting: Augmenting Research Administration with AI (WORKSHOP) – Artificial Intelligence for Research Administration

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.