AIGH GRANTS SOP
Service Design for Grants Application Processes.
Context
The AIGH at Mount Sinai was historically funded by philanthropic organizations and grants. Since 2019 the funding core has shifted from philanthropy to federal research-based grants. These grants not only provide funding but advance the careers of researchers and faculty members at the institution.
The Problem
Developing and managing competitive applications for federal research-based grants is a multilayered and complex process, often producing stress and frustration due its importance and difficulty. The level of familiarity with these procedures varies across the board, and the Grant Management team is overwhelmed with these tasks.
The Solution
A Grants Pre-Award Standard Operating Procedure that is developed through users and stakeholders participation for a streamlined and cohesive process.
The Process
Explore + Empathize + Understand
Our process started by having exploratory conversations with the grants management team members, principal investigators, researchers, leadership members, partners, and external experts to understand the intricacies of the application development process.
Definition: Findings Categorization
After conducting interviews with the Department's team and external experts, our team organized thematic categories to group data and insights. Based on our conversations we were able to start defining the phases of the application development and submission process.
Definition: Current User Journey Map
The first outcome resulting from data processing was the user journey map that reflects the current experiences and highlights opportunities for improvement.
Definition: Process Phases
Based on the experiences described by principal investigators, project managers, researchers, and the grants management team members, we defined the phases that compose a standard operating procedure for grants application development.
Definition: Design principles
The input from participants created a list of 9 design principles for touch-points and procedures inclusion and improvement. These principles shape the aspects to consider while incorporating tools and interactions into de grants development SOP.
Ideation: New and Improved Touch-points and procedures generation
Once identified areas of opportunity and defined process phases and design principles, our team extracted concepts for needed touch-points and procedures to be included throughout grants application—the list of initial ideas resulted from participants' input and the assessment of existing tools and practices.
Ideation: Prioritization exercise - Concept cards
After developing initial concepts, we faced the need to prioritize and evaluate these ideas to unveil which ones had the highest value and required the lowest effort. We facilitated a sorting exercise conducted in focus groups in which we encapsulated concepts for touch-points as cards to be sorted and placed on each phase of the process.
Ideation: Prioritization exercise - Sorting boards
We divided the sorting exercise to evaluate two aspects: value and effort. Team members who are directly in charge of grants applications sorted the cards prioritizing each concept's value. In contrast, team members who are part of operations and leadership areas assessed effort, which resulted from a combination of technical feasibility and financial viability.
Ideation: Prioritization exercise - Scoring
After completing the card sorting exercises, we assigned a score to each concept based on where they were placed along the scale.
Ideation: Action Prioritization Matrix
Our team developed action priority matrices to unveil where each concept falls into regarding value and effort based on the assigned scoring. The intersection of these assessments describe four quadrants for action prioritization:
Quick Wins: High valued concepts that require low effort
Big Projects: High valued concepts that require high effort
Fill-ins: Low valued concepts that require low effort
Time sinks: Low valued concepts that require high effort
Outcomes and Deliverables: Summary and Recommendations reports
The results obtained through the matrices were organized and elaborated in two reports for leadership to make decisions on the next steps and implementation.
Outcomes and Deliverables: Grants SOP Journey Map
Our team designed a proposed journey map that reflects a streamlined and thorough process in response to the current journey map.
Outcomes and Deliverables: Grants SOP Service Blueprint
The Grants SOP Service Blueprint clarifies the interactions involved throughout the grants application process, reflecting the defined phases and required touch-points for a successful system.
