Only 44% of U.S. faculty report adequate institutional IT support for grant-funded projects

The EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) Supporting Faculty Research with Information Technology survey (June 2018, 11,141 faculty respondents from 131 U.S. institutions) finds that a plurality of faculty (44%) agreed or strongly agreed that their institution made adequate technology support provisions for grant-funded projects. The same fraction reported access to IT staff with specialized research-computing knowledge. Central IT typically spends ~2% of annual resources on research-computing services.

For C-0026: the inverse of the 44% — i.e., 56% of U.S. faculty do not consider their institutional IT support adequate for their grant-funded research — is the operational pre-condition for the failed-recruiting risk. A faculty candidate weighing an offer against a competing offer at an institution with stronger infrastructure (or against a European Choose Europe for Science package, E-0106) is comparing the two on capability, not on aspiration. Institutions that present 56%-inadequacy infrastructure are at a structural disadvantage in faculty recruiting against institutions that have actually deployed Tier 3 capability.