Basics in business administration

STEMskiller: Skill Set Map for Mentors of Early Career Researchers

CAREER MANAGEMENT: Where academia & the private sector intersect

Basics in business administration, accounting, budgets

Definition:

Early career researchers—whether they choose career paths in academia or in other sectors—can benefit from learning basic business administration, accounting, and budgeting concepts, because later in their careers they will likely be called upon to either communicate with specialists in these areas (often in the corporate sector) or to build/manage grants that include budgeting creation and accounting skills. By understanding key concepts, these areas become “demystified”, allowing mentees to be more confident in their dealings with them. While local institutional practices may vary, larger concepts are often similar across institutions.

Useful resources on Basics in business administration:

Horizon Europe. (2021). Programme Standard Application Form (HE RIA, IA). https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/temp-form/af/af_he-ria-ia_en.pdf

Sample budget templates for Horizon Europe proposals, starting on page 15 of the PDF.

Gilabert, P. & O'Neill, M. (Fall 2019 Edition). Socialism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.) https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/socialism/

Section 1, “Socialism and Capitalism,” provides a brief description of capitalism, useful in clearly understanding its main principles upon which business administrative bureaucracies operate.

Lees, N.D., Malik, D.J., Williams, J.R. (2019). Budgeting Basics for New Academic Chairpersons. Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings. https://newprairiepress.org/accp/2019/keynote/1

Concise (15 page) overview of how departmental budgets are typically organized (in the U.S. setting). Includes tips for gaining more freedom in expenditures and for increasing the “resource pie.” Includes descriptions of typical budgeting models (with links to additional reading about these); definition of income streams and why understanding them is important; budget structure definition; tips for communicating with Deans (how to ask for funds to be reallocated, how to deal with end-of-year surpluses or deficits); and descriptions of personnel budgets, pathways to budget expansion including through grant accounts, philanthropic/foundation accounts, advisory boards, and alumni donations.

Pain, E. (2017). How to budget your grant proposal. Science Careers. https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/09/how-budget-your-grant-proposal

Commentaries from experienced researchers on putting together successful proposal budgets.

Tags: IPS WC; IPS OC; IPS R; IPS QL; IPS IL; IPS T; IPS PS; PSR CE; PSR IKC; PSR ER; PSR LL; CompS

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STEMskiller: Skill Set Map for Mentors of Early Career Researchers

CAREER MANAGEMENT: Where academia & the private sector intersect

Basics in business administration, accounting, budgets

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