Thanks so much, Donna!

Just following up on my action item to share a bit more with the group here about the database developed at SFU for grant tracking purposes. As I'd mentioned, the SFU OER grants program originally tracked projects via a master Excel spreadsheet -- but when the Institute for the Study of Teaching & Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD) took on administration of these grants (in addition to a number of other SFU teaching & learning grants) last year, we benefited greatly from having these OER projects added to their existing database.

My colleague Tara McFarlane from the ISTLD has given me permission to share the following info about the database set up. She notes that:

"We created a custom database within FileMaker. We built it ourselves to meet our needs – FM was chosen because our research support person was familiar with it. It tracks participants, applicants, research assistants, project coding, consultations & interactions, project finances, track check-ins based on project timelines and dissemination associated with each project. We have it set up to run reports on an academic year basis. It’s not really adaptable, as it is custom [...] I recommend really planning it out. We didn’t do that as much as we should have. The person who made it didn’t really think of tracking some of the administrative/finance data points until after the database was complete. They were added on later, but it would have been more integrated if more forethought had happened. "

If anyone has follow up questions about this, just let me know. Have a great weekend!
Cheers, Hope