Scaling Internal Funding | University of Nevada Las Vegas

The Challenge

At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the Division of Research manages a wide range of programs designed to support faculty success—from seed grants and internal faculty awards to limited submission opportunities. These programs play a critical role in helping researchers secure external funding and build impactful collaborations.

But as these initiatives expanded, the administrative workload grew more complex.

Each program required collecting applications, coordinating peer reviews, communicating with applicants, and tracking outcomes long after funding decisions were made. Without a centralized system, managing these processes could quickly become time-consuming and difficult to scale.

The research development team also wanted to go further than simply managing competitions—they wanted to track the long-term impact of the funding they awarded, including publications, grants, collaborations, and patents resulting from those investments.

“We use it for internal faculty awards, seed grants, and limited submissions,” explains Sheets.

The team needed a system that could help them streamline program administration while also capturing meaningful outcome data. And with plans to expand the platform across campus, it had to be flexible enough to support a wide range of use cases.

The Solution

UNLV adopted InfoReady as the central platform for managing internal funding competitions and limited submissions.

With InfoReady, the team could design and launch programs from a single system that handles the entire lifecycle of a competition—from collecting applications to notifying applicants and tracking results.

One of the first steps was creating reusable templates for applications and forms. Using InfoReady’s Form Designer, the team built standardized structures that make launching new programs faster and easier.

“We've built strong templates in Form Designer and that has really streamlined our setup process,” Sheets says.

The platform also simplified communication and reporting. Automated notifications keep applicants and reviewers informed about deadlines and decisions, reducing the need for manual follow-ups and email coordination.

For UNLV’s seed funding programs, InfoReady’s progress reporting features became especially valuable. The team now collects structured updates from awardees at multiple stages—including interim reports, final reports, and follow-up data years after the initial award.

This allows the research office to track outcomes such as publications, external grants, collaborations, patents, and broader impacts resulting from the university’s internal investments.

Instead of searching through spreadsheets or scattered documents, the data is captured directly within the platform—making it easy to generate reports and demonstrate the value of these programs.

The Results

By centralizing its internal funding processes in InfoReady, UNLV’s research office has gained greater efficiency, transparency, and insight.

Administrative tasks that once required significant manual effort—such as managing applications, sending notifications, and collecting reports—are now automated or streamlined.

But perhaps most importantly, the research office can now clearly demonstrate the return on investment of its programs.

“This allows us to calculate annual and cumulative return on investment,” Sheets says.

With structured data on outcomes and impacts, the team can provide leadership with clear evidence of how internal funding programs are helping faculty advance their research and attract external support.

As a result, the Division of Research is now preparing to expand InfoReady across campus to support additional offices and programs.

By establishing standardized processes and centralized data, UNLV is building a stronger foundation for research development while freeing administrators to focus on what matters most: helping faculty succeed.