Georgia Tech Organizational Structure

Situated in the heart of the metropolitan city of Atlanta, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is recognized for producing students that exhibit excellence and leadership that extends beyond their collegiate tenure. Most recently, Georgia Tech was recognized as the top seventh public university by U.S. News & World Report (http://www.gatech.edu/about/facts-and-figures) for its leadership in both academia and research. Though Georgia Tech continuously maintains top rankings for its undergraduate and graduate academic programs, this paper focuses on the functional units responsible for the innovation and entrepreneurship that comes from this prestigious university by way of research. Chartered in 1937, the Georgia Tech Research

Here you will see that five major departments report directly to Mrs. Garton. Responsible for the business aspects of GTRC, the Board of Trustees (represented in yellow) is led by offices that provide the administration of the other offices. For example, Barbara Alexander’s offices are responsible for the accounting aspects of GTRC. When employees of GTRC travel on official business or order supplies, these expenditures are managed and processed by this branch of offices. Similarly, Nick Perez and his team offer operational and IT support for everyone whose roles ultimately fall under the guidance of Mrs. Garton. He is responsible for ensuring that GTRC’s buildings and computers are safe, secure, and functional. Though not typically considered for their contributions to the support of research at universities, their vital roles allow the other administrative office to thrive with proper management and

Under the direction of Duane Hutchison, this office serves as the face of research administration because those professionals interface with sponsoring agencies on behalf of the institution, and work closely with research faculty and departmental administrators to provide adequate support for receiving and managing grants and contracts. Dana Simpson manages five pre-award teams organized by sponsor that provide centralized pre-award support through review, approval, and submission of proposals. While the proposal development and budget building aspects of the process are decentralized and handled by departmental administrators, the only individuals at GTRC that have signature authority to submit proposals for sponsored research on behalf of Georgia Tech are contracting officers (COs) in OSP. At GTRC, COs are responsible for compliance reviews and provide representations, certifications, and assurances to the sponsoring agencies for the institution. Therefore, COs bear a heavy portion of the administrative burden because “ensuring that proposals comply with federal regulations must be taken with the utmost seriousness” (Kulalowski & Chronister, 2006, page 47). Additionally, Dana oversees the functions of a subcontracting team that issues and manages outgoing subcontracts and subawards when GTRC is the prime-recipient of funding. The OSP contracting