The outcomes of research, just like new products and services sold by companies, maximize their significance by effectively delivering them to those who need them in the world.
However, laboratories do not have salespeople to promote the results, nor do they have management strategy staff to acquire investment in research or to expand the scope of research through joint ventures with other researchers. Researchers and laboratories are like small businesses that must perform all these roles independently.
We, University Research Administrators, make sure that research results that are outstanding enough to develop a new research field (=market) are not buried due to lack of management skills or forced to stop development due to lack of funding acquisition skills. URAs sometimes supplement these skills and help researchers to develop them, so that researchers can devote maximum energy to their research under optimal conditions.
URAs help researchers to maximize their research performance by streamlining their management tasks, optimizing the research environment, including opportunities for inspirational interdisciplinary discussions, and obtaining funding to advance their research.
We contribute to the revitalization of the process of disseminating research results to the world, triggering the development of new academic disciplines through their academic impact (measured by number of citations), and creating social, economic, and cultural value when the results reach the industrial and social welfare sectors.
The University of Tsukuba established the URA Research Support Office (currently The University of Tsukuba Research Administration/Management Office) in 2012 in order to become a world-class research university.
Headquarters URA and divisional URAs collaborate and sometimes divide their work to accomplish the following tasks, which were difficult for university administrative staff and researchers to handle systematically.
