Lead by Gus Cervini, our Research Administration departments provide Boston Children’s Hospital’s scientific community with a broad spectrum of resources and training to fulfill the needs and fuel the advancement of scientific discovery. These departments manage the research enterprise’s strategic planning opportunities and challenges, while ensuring regulatory compliance and facilitating excellence in the conduct of research. They provide administrative support services to manage grants processing, maintain laboratory resources and facilities, ensure regulatory research compliance, manage technological and innovation development, support research governance committees, provide access to digital tools and technologies, work safety training, professional development, and more.
Research Administration main objectives:
August Cervini, MBA - Senior Vice President, Research Administration
Contact: resadmin@childrens.harvard.edu | MS: BCH 3396
Location: Landmark Center East, 7th Floor
Brian Lobao – Vice President, Research Operations
Contact: ResOps@childrens.harvard.edu | Karp: 617-919-2280 | MS: BCH 3145
Research Operations provides operational support to the research enterprise by administering programs that positively impact research objectives and resources and ensure compliance with regulatory agencies. Policies, procedures, and practices must keep pace with the changing needs of the research community in a cost-effective manner. The Research Operations departments are responsible for providing laboratories with resources and training for research safety and animal research compliance, with value-added service, while maintaining a high standard of administrative efficiency.
Susan Kornetsky, MPH – Senior Director, Clinical Research Compliance
Contact: IRB@childrens.harvard.edu | 617-355-7052 | MS: BCH 3164
Location: Landmark Center East, 7th Floor
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) Office serves as a mechanism for continual education and improvement for the human research protection, upholding the principles of the Belmont Report, and delivers administrative support to the IRB Committee, which oversees the protection of all human subjects in research projects by reviewing and approving all research that involves human subjects conducted by anyone on the premises of, or under the auspices of Boston Children's.
The IRB office provides education and assist investigators conducting human subjects research according to the highest ethical standards, in compliance with federal, state and institutional regulations, and according to Good Clinical Practice guidelines through randomized or voluntary study reviews, personalized tools and recommendations.
Theresa Applegate, MPA, CRA – Senior Director, Sponsored Programs
Contact: OSP@childrens.harvard.edu | 617-355-2729 | MS: BCH 3158
Location: Landmark Center East, 7th Floor
The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) administers the institutional pre-award requirements for sponsored grants and contracts. OSP manages governmental, foundation, and other non-profit funding arrangements. Grant officers assigned research departments, divisions, and programs serve as the primary points of contact for grant application review, submission, award acceptance and administration, sponsor relations, and inter-institutional contractual agreements related to governmental, foundation, and other non-profit sources of funding. OSP is committed to facilitating and supporting the research mission of the institution.
Aisling Driscoll – Director, Research Administration
Contact: ResAdmin@childrens.harvard.edu | MS: BCH 3396
Location: Landmark Center East, 7th Floor
The Research Administration Office (RAO) serves as the central point of contact for the research enterprise and liaison between the research community and hospital administration. The office delivers support for the research enterprise’s operational efforts across several functional areas: executive committee management and analytics, operations management, compliance information systems, communication, and training. The team monitors and reports enterprise data and comparative analytics to enable strategic planning, facilitates strategic initiatives and implements operational projects, manages enterprise compliance platforms and infrastructure, safeguards regulatory compliance with systems implementation, and develops community engagement communication resources.
Karen Renaud – Director, Research Finance
Contact: RFhelp@childrens.harvard.edu | 857-218-3518 | MS: BCH 3113
Location: 1295 Boylston 3
The Research Finance Office administers the institutional post-award requirements of sponsored grants and contracts, supporting biomedical research at Boston Children's Hospital by directly supporting the research community with day-to-day financial operations, and managing the institutional compliance risk.
Irene Abrams, MA – Vice President, Technology Development and New Ventures
Contact: TIDO@childrens.harvard.edu | 617-919-3019 | MS: BCH 3183
Location: Landmark Center East, 7th Floor
The mission of the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) is to maximize the impact of Boston Children’s innovations on patient health while enhancing the research endeavor. The TIDO team works closely with investigators and clinicians within Boston Children’s community to promote, support, and develop innovations by protecting and licensing intellectual property. TIDO builds partnerships between the hospital and companies across the life science industry to accelerate the translation of academic research into life-saving products. TIDO is also responsible for industry sponsored research relationships.