The Florida Research Development Alliance (FL-RDA) consists of research development professionals and administrators from Florida universities, colleges and other institutions engaged in research. Alliance members share best practices and facilitate collaborations in order to foster multi- and interdisciplinary research efforts within the State of Florida.
Our Strategic Goal: Creating comprehensive internal and external strategies to promote Research Development and administrative activities that will lead to further investment in Florida’s growing research enterprise.
History of the Alliance
In the fast-paced world of higher education, innovation can stem from unexpected places. In the case of Florida’s colleges, this wide-ranging collaborative effort began as a series of informal lunch gatherings among several university administrators from neighboring institutions. Beginning in 2016, Karin Scarpinato (founder and first president of the Alliance) recognized the untapped potential of these casual conversations and campus visits. Karin and colleagues saw an opportunity to transform these interactions into a structured platform for collaboration. Leveraging their network and reaching out to individuals from diverse backgrounds, including contacts made at academic conferences, the first members started a recurring phone meeting as a grassroots growth effort (at that time known as the Florida Research Development Group (FRDG)). The vision behind this initiative was to harness the collective expertise and resources of Florida’s colleges and universities to drive innovation and excellence in research, teaching, and community engagement.
In 2017, members held their first in-person large group meeting at University of Central Florida to lay the groundwork for an organizational mission promoting impactful collaboration and professional development among research development and administration professionals at educational institutions across the state. At that meeting, the inaugural executive committee members (President, VP, Secretary) were elected, bylaws were established, and members voted to change the organizational name to the Florida Research Development Alliance. Since that time, the number of members and member institutions have steadily grown. The Alliance continues to hold virtual monthly meetings with guest speakers and in-person annual conferences at member institutions across the state, with the intention to foster professional development, knowledge exchange, campus tours, and networking to strengthen the overall research enterprise of the state of Florida. From 2020 to 2022, the Alliance held conferences virtually to allow maximum participation when operations at many institutions were adapting to virtual/hybrid work contexts.
From 2022 to 2024, the Alliance has been experiencing new areas of engagement, growth, and impact. In 2022, the Alliance began hosting virtual interactive networking events for researchers from across the state, with broad themes strongly relevant to the state and with potential for interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g., topics like Space and Water), with a format that has researchers share collaboration interests and research specifically within the shared context of the event. Also in 2022, the Alliance was awarded an NSF Germination grant to form and foster growth of interdisciplinary teams with an RD member training/serving as a “coach” to work with the research teams and foster Team Science best practices. In 2023, the Alliance adopted a nontraditional approach to its annual member conference with a format that emphasizes member engagement, participation, contribution, and ideation. In 2024, the Alliance has been serving as a collaborator helping spur on the creation of similar networks in other states. By harnessing the power of collaboration, innovation, and shared purpose, the Alliance is poised to shape the future of higher education and research and development initiatives in Florida and beyond.