National Compliance and Ethics Week

November 5, 2022

Baylor Faculty,

As we recognize National Compliance and Ethics Week for the first time as an R1 institution, I’m struck by the alignment between the focus of this week and who we are as an institution. This week affords organizations across the nation an opportunity to highlight the importance of compliance and ethics and encourages us to rededicate ourselves to excellence in these areas.

As a preeminent Christian research university, it is only natural that ethics and integrity are at the forefront of what we do. As we continue to elevate our research enterprise, one of the ways we will steward our growth is in the area of research integrity—strengthening our culture of compliance. You can see this prioritized through investment in research infrastructure and services that support faculty throughout the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. We’ve grown our research administration staff in recent years, and are expanding resources to facilitate the award process: coming soon, we’ll launch a new electronic research administration system.

The new system is known as Compliance and Research Administration—or, CARA, in shorthand.
CARA represents an important step in further enhancing the University’s research infrastructure, providing an online portal for faculty and OVPR staff to navigate the grant process, including regulatory and compliance management. The new system will launch next year, and you can learn more on our FAQ page. We’re excited to implement this tool to further support our vision of 100 percent compliance throughout our research enterprise.

These last few years have brought a great deal of change—much of it is exciting and some of it is unexpected, but through it all, Baylor has thrived. Since we are now recognized as an institution with “very high research activity,” we all continue to elevate our games accordingly. On this National Compliance and Ethics Week, thank you for all you do to live out the Baylor mission through the highest levels of ethics and excellence in your work.

Kevin Chambliss
Vice Provost for Research.