The Research Grant Application Process through a Lean Sigma Lens

Universities as Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) operate in a climate of reduced state funding and increased oversight and performance pressures. As centres of education and research, universities are mandated to provide courses of study, conduct examinations and award degrees and other qualifications in addition to promoting and facilitating research. The availability of ranking schemes such as the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings has meant that a universitys performance is readily visible and is increasingly being used as one of the selection criteria by high ability students in their undergraduate and postgraduate application decisions. A universitys income typically stems from student fees, state funding and research. The increased competition for research funding from both an inter and intra university perspective has resulted in researchers having a lower probability of funding success (Opipari, Lumeng, Youmans, Silverstein, 2019). A lower rate of research funding success negatively impacts income generation and increases waste associated with researcher time and the use of other resources. Unsuccessful research funding bids also result in opportunity costs in lost research output (p. 1) (Barnett, Herbert, Clarke, Graves, 2014). Increased competition for funding coupled with the drive towards better quality publication output has meant that researchers (both academic and those who are funded solely by research awards) can spend between 2 to 8 months in preparing research grant applications. Aggravating the challenges inherent in preparing a research grant application, are unintended internal processes complexities and extant barriers. HEIs need to examine the internal process steps required of applicants in the research grant application process in order to identify wastes and integrate the voice of the applicant as a driver for efficiency. It is reasonable to assume that any effort to maximise the success rate of research grant funding applications will provide gains not just for the researchers (invested in the process) in terms of output and the university in terms of reputation and financial stability but also for society in terms of new knowledge generation and potential innovation.