myRESEARCHpath: An Interactive Tool for Investigators and Research Administrators

Research-intensive institutions rely on specialized central offices to support research administrators and investigators through various processes and requirements. This helps researchers successfully and compliantly conduct and manage research. However, when these support offices communicate their processes and resources from disparate locations, it can be challenging for research administrators and investigators to locate what they need at the time they need it, and to understand how this information relates with that provided by other research support offices. This can result in research administrators and investigators lacking a clear understanding of critical information and an underutilization of available support. Duke University sought to address this issue by developing a web-based interactive research roadmap to consolidate and organize information from research support offices around the institution. In this roadmap, all support office content is integrated by topic and organized across the research project life cycle. To achieve this, a dedicated project team (1) convened the research support offices to develop integrated content and a process for contributing their resources on the website, (2) solicited researcher feedback to determine the critical features and functionality of the site, (3) engaged a technical development partner to build the site, (4) engaged researchers for beta-testing, and (5) devised a communication strategy to raise awareness and adoption of the site. The interactive research roadmap, "myRESEARCHpath," launched in 2021, and has experienced steady growth in utilization. Initial data shows that users are accessing the site to find relevant information for research information and guidance, and research support offices are encouraged by the improved discoverability of resources and services. This model of a single location to access research support office information needed to navigate the research project life cycle could be beneficial for other research-intensive institutions.