Research Resources

Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA)

The Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) is a University-wide office authorized to submit research proposals and receive awards from external sources on behalf of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota. SPA is also the fiduciary for the U on grant-related matters. 

SPA creates a seamless process throughout the sponsored project lifecycle, with the goals of reducing administrative burden, increasing faculty and staff knowledge, and providing the highest level of support possible in research, creative, and programmatic external funding pursuits. SPA also houses a set of frequently asked for institutional information such as the legal applicant of the institution, IRS Identification Number (EIN), IRB Federal Wide Assurance number and more.

Liberal Arts Technology & Innovation Services (Latis)

LATIS exists to elevate liberal arts teaching, learning, and research. We’re a team of highly-skilled, liberal arts-first experts that are passionate about the college mission and driven to help faculty and students succeed. We specialize in the technologies that are critical to liberal arts disciplines, and we strive to provide services that help faculty, students, and staff be innovative in their work. You will find us working one-on-one with PIs, teaching workshops for both researchers and instructors, facilitating college-wide process improvement initiatives, connecting people with experts around the U, managing the computing infrastructure needed to run entire departments, and distributing CLA’s internal grant funding. Our services also support units outside CLA, including the Carlson School of Management and more. It is our job to foster a culture of innovation and make the U a place where faculty and graduate students can do their best work.

UMN Libraries

The UMN Libraries support faculty and graduate student researchers by facilitating open scholarship, by training on data management, and by partnering on systematic reviews. Research support services include: helping researchers measure, maximize, and understand the impact of their work; funding and grants research, workshops, and consultations; systematic review and evidence synthesis; research data management training and more.

U-Spatial

U-Spatial is a nationally recognized model that serves and drives a fast-growing need for expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and spatial computing across the University. This infrastructure eliminates duplication and fragmentation of resources by providing a framework of spatial data, equipment, and expertise. U-Spatial supports researchers through the help desk, training, consulting, and events.

Research Data Services at the UMN Libraries

The University Libraries offer data management education, consultation, and services for individuals, lab groups, departments, and courses. Their services include creating data management plans - offering templates and boilerplate language for using the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) in your proposals, finding and accessing data repositories, and a series of best practices for managing research data.

Research Policy Library

The Office of Institutional Compliance houses policies and procedures for Grants Management including information on how to: charge facilities and administrative/indirect costs to sponsored projects; charging sponsored costs outside the award period; certifying effort; managing University capital equipment and more. The policy library also holds university policy and information on clinical human research participants, research ethics and compliance, research health and safety, and technology and information security. Research-specific forms can be found here: https://policy.umn.edu/forms/research.

Minnesota Supercomputing Institute

The MSI provides advanced research computing infrastructure and expertise to the University of Minnesota research and scholarly community and the State of Minnesota in order to advance and accelerate research and foster innovation and discoveries through advanced computing technologies, scientific computing and informatics, application development, and services.