Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™

Clinical & Academic Health Research Pathway™

Half Series | Modules 1–6

Build Foundational Academic Health Research Administration Capability

Build the foundational institutional perspective needed to understand academic health center structures, organizational relationships, research administration models, research-enterprise funding, academic medicine finance, and research strategy.

6 Modules | 6 Contact Hours | Self-Paced | 90-Day Access | Certificate Awarded

Academic health research administration is not the management of one research office. It is the stewardship of an interconnected enterprise where research, care, education, people, resources, and institutional responsibility meet.

Why This Series Matters

Academic health centers bring research, education, patient care, workforce development, institutional resources, and community responsibility into one complex enterprise.

The Half Series provides a focused introduction to the organizational and financial foundations that shape research administration within academic health systems.

The Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™ Half Series consists of Modules 1–6 of the same governed curriculum used in the Full Series.

Grounded in the CODE™ Standard

The CODE™ Standard guides learning throughout the series.

Competence
Build foundational knowledge of academic health center structures, research administration models, finance, organizational relationships, and research strategy.

Oversight
Strengthen understanding of governance relationships, decision rights, institutional accountability, and the organizational interfaces that affect research administration.

Documentation
Recognize the importance of clear responsibility, reliable information, and defensible institutional decision-making across interconnected academic health environments.

Execution
Apply foundational enterprise thinking to research administration operations, institutional coordination, financial context, and research-growth decisions.

What You’ll Learn

Upon successful completion of the Half Series, learners will be able to:

• Analyze academic health center structures, missions, governance relationships, and decision rights.
• Understand how medical schools, teaching hospitals, health systems, departments, institutes, affiliates, and faculty practices interact.
• Compare centralized, decentralized, hybrid, departmental, institute-based, clinical, and shared-service research administration models.
• Examine how faculty practice structures, academic departments, institutional commitments, sponsored funding, and research support intersect.
• Develop stronger literacy in academic medicine finance, revenue interfaces, institutional investment, shared infrastructure, and mission integration.
• Connect research administration to institutional research strategy, growth, infrastructure investment, performance, and competitiveness.

Who Should Enroll

The Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™ Half Series is designed for professionals and institutional leaders who need a foundational understanding of research administration within academic health centers.

This series may be especially valuable for:

• Academic Health Center Research Administrators
• Clinical Research Administrators
• Research Operations Professionals
• Sponsored Programs Professionals
• Research Finance Professionals
• Research Compliance Professionals
• School of Medicine and Health Sciences Administrators
• Hospital and Healthcare Research Leaders
• Professionals transitioning into academic health research administration responsibilities

What Makes This Series Distinct

The Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™ focuses on the interconnected institutional environment in which academic health research operates.

The Half Series concentrates on the first six governed modules, establishing a foundation in institutional structure, organizational relationships, research administration models, research-enterprise funding, academic medicine finance, and research strategy before learners move into the Full Series continuation.

Explore the Curriculum

Module 1: Academic Health Centers: Structure, Mission & Governance

Understand the academic health center as an interconnected enterprise where research, education, patient care, workforce development, community responsibility, and institutional sustainability meet. Examine common organizational structures, governance relationships, mission tensions, decision rights, and the role research administration plays across the enterprise.

Module 2: Medical Schools, Teaching Hospitals & Integrated Health Systems

Examine how medical schools, teaching hospitals, health systems, clinical enterprises, departments, institutes, affiliates, and faculty practices interact. Learn to recognize where authority, funding, operations, data, and accountability cross organizational boundaries and why those interfaces matter for research administration.

Module 3: Research Administration Models in Academic Medicine

Compare centralized, decentralized, hybrid, departmental, institute-based, clinical, and shared-service research administration models. Evaluate how organizational design affects service delivery, role clarity, escalation, workforce capacity, consistency, accountability, and the ability to support a growing academic health research enterprise.

Module 4: Faculty Practice Plans, Academic Departments & Research Enterprise Funding

Explore how faculty practice structures, academic departments, clinical activity, institutional commitments, effort, sponsored funding, and research support intersect. Focus on the administrative and governance implications of these relationships without becoming a physician-compensation or technical finance course.

Module 5: Academic Medicine Finance, Revenue Streams & Mission Integration

Develop executive-level literacy in the financial ecosystem supporting academic health research. Examine sponsored funding, clinical revenue interfaces, institutional investment, philanthropy, F&A recovery, shared infrastructure, cross-mission resource decisions, and the financial dependencies that influence research growth and sustainability.

Module 6: Research Strategy, Growth & Institutional Competitiveness

Connect research administration to institutional research strategy. Explore portfolio priorities, research growth, faculty recruitment, infrastructure investment, strategic positioning, funding concentration, partnership development, performance indicators, and the decisions required to build sustainable and competitive research capacity.

Explore the Learning Experience

Each module follows the Purple Sheep Institute™ Research Center learning structure:

Instructional Lecture
Engage with focused instruction designed to strengthen professional knowledge and institutional understanding.

Applied Learning
Connect module concepts to institutional context through the governed applied-learning experience for the module.

Knowledge Assessment
Demonstrate understanding of the module’s core concepts and their application within research administration practice.

Applied Learning & Practical Value

The Half Series moves learners beyond passive instruction by connecting foundational enterprise concepts to the institutional environments in which academic health research is administered.

Applied learning is governed at the module level and is designed to support reflection, analysis, professional judgment, and practical application without changing the approved curriculum sequence or substantive learning objectives.

Credential Alignment & Professional Development

This pathway supports continuing education and professional development aligned with:

• Certified Research Administrator (CRA)
• Certified Pre-Award Research Administrator (CPRA)
• Certified Financial Research Administrator (CFRA)
• SOCRA Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP) Domains
• Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) Competencies
• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) Principles

Learners remain responsible for determining how earned contact hours apply toward certification renewal, licensure, recertification, or professional development requirements.

Completion Information

Modules: 1–6
Contact Hours: 6
Format: Self-Paced
Access Period: 90 Days
Certificate: Awarded Upon Successful Completion

The Half Series consists of Modules 1–6 of the Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™.

The Half Series is derived directly from the Full Series curriculum and is not a separately developed or independently sequenced curriculum.

Course completion does not remove access during the active enrollment period. Learners retain access for the duration of their 90-day enrollment period.

Content Currency & Governance

Purple Sheep Institute™ designs its research administration curriculum around enduring principles, institutional capabilities, professional judgment, and applied practice rather than temporary requirements alone.

Curriculum is reviewed through the Institute’s governance process and updated when meaningful changes in regulation, sponsorship, technology, professional practice, or the research environment require governed revision.

Operational requirements, systems, policies, sponsor expectations, and other current details may change. Where current requirements are discussed, learners remain responsible for confirming the requirements applicable to their institution and circumstances when an operational decision is made.

Build Capability Across Your Organization

Academic health research capability depends on coordinated people, systems, governance, infrastructure, and decision-making across the enterprise.

The Half Series can support foundational workforce development, cross-functional learning, onboarding, institutional alignment, and professional development across academic health research environments.

Organizations seeking deeper institution-specific application may also explore Institutional Labs™.

Institute Reflection

“Academic health research excellence emerges when interconnected missions, people, systems, and responsibilities are governed as one enterprise.”

Purple Sheep Institute™

Continue Your Learning Journey

Complete the Full Series

Learners seeking deeper academic health research administration capability may continue with Modules 7–18 to complete the Academic Health Center Research Administration Series™ Full Series.

Ready to Build Your Academic Health Research Administration Foundation?

Build the foundational institutional perspective needed to understand how research administration operates across complex academic health environments.

Enrollment Opening Soon