Ann Arbor's research community operates at a scale and ambition that few universities match. Build platforms that help Michigan researchers focus on discovery, not administration.
The Ann Arbor Research Platform Challenge
University of Michigan's research enterprise generates over $1.5 billion in annual research expenditures. Managing this volume — thousands of active grants, hundreds of clinical trials, multiple IRB-reviewed protocols — requires research administration infrastructure that scales with ambition. Spreadsheets and disconnected systems cannot support a research enterprise competing at this level.
Academic Research Platform Solutions
Grant Management
Win and manage funding efficiently:
- Pre-award tools: Budget development, proposal assembly, and submission workflow
- Award setup: Grant activation, account establishment, and compliance checklist
- Financial management: Expenditure tracking, burn rate monitoring, and projections
- Closeout: Final report preparation and carryforward management
IRB and Compliance
Protect human subjects with rigor:
- Protocol submission: Structured IRB application with document management
- Review tracking: Committee assignment, reviewer deadlines, and decision recording
- Continuing review: Renewal reminders and amendment management
- Adverse event reporting: UNANTICIPATED problem classification and reporting
Research Collaboration
Enable cross-disciplinary teams:
- Researcher profiles: Expertise directory for collaboration discovery
- Project workspaces: Shared document storage and communication tools
- Data sharing: Controlled-access data repository for collaborative studies
- Publication management: Faculty publication tracking and reporting
Technology Commercialization
Turn discovery into impact:
- Invention disclosure: Structured disclosure intake and assessment workflow
- IP portfolio: Patent filing tracking and maintenance schedule
- Licensing management: Agreement tracking and royalty calculation
- Startup support: Equity tracking and startup program management
Ann Arbor Research Ecosystem
Michigan's top research performance in engineering, medicine, business, and social science creates genuinely interdisciplinary research opportunities that require technology flexible enough to serve each discipline's unique data and compliance requirements.
Ready to build your research platform? Contact ZIRA Software to discuss your academic research technology needs.