About ORA

The Office of Research Administration (ORA) is the pre-award and non-financial post-award administration office for the University of Maryland. ORA works to facilitate the submission of all sponsored project proposals on behalf of the University, and helps researchers and business officers administer projects when contracts and grants are awarded to the UM. ORA's Contract Administrators review each proposal to ensure compliance with laws and regulations and university policy. They work with researchers, business officers and other administrators to resolve problems of institutional financing, cost sharing, contractual terms and budget matters. ORA reviews and advises UM on matters of new or revised federal and state laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that affect research administration at UM.

Additionally, ORA assists researchers and business officers in coordinating and submitting proposal applications and interacting with a variety of electronic systems. ORA maintains Kuali Research, the UM system of record for proposal and award information and publishes proposal and award data for campus. We also conduct a variety of training for the UM research community - interacting with the UM research enterprise, using electronic submission systems, navigating and using Kuali Research, and creating specific reports regarding sponsored projects.