Research Universities

Research Universities

McAllister & Quinn partners with R1 and R2 universities to build, strengthen, and diversify their research enterprises—helping institutions become more strategic, proactive, and productive in securing sponsored funding.

Our approach integrates strategic intelligence, faculty training, proposal development, and federal engagement. This approach serves as a force multiplier, positioning universities to compete more effectively for both current and emerging sponsored opportunities while cultivating new funding aligned with national priorities.

Because we work in partnership with our clients’ research enterprise infrastructure, we tailor our services to enhance, rather than duplicate resources. Ultimately, we aim to develop customized strategies to help universities achieve their research goals.

We are a force multiplier, positioning universities to compete more effectively for both current and emerging sponsored opportunities while cultivating new funding aligned with national priorities

We work in close partnership with our clients’ existing research infrastructure, tailoring our services to complement and enhance internal capacity, resulting in a customized, institution-wide strategy that delivers measurable results.

Gain a Competitive Advantage

In an increasingly competitive federal funding landscape, early insight and informed decision-making are critical.  We help research R1 and R2 universities strengthen their competitive positioning through advanced strategic intelligence on federal funding trends, priority programs, and sponsor activity. 

Our strategic intelligence experts conduct systematic monitoring, collection and analysis of the federal landscape including:

  • Legislative and policy developments
  • Federal agency priorities and research programs
  • Sponsored funding opportunities and forecasts

These insights enable university leadership and research teams to make data-driven decisions, align investments with sponsor priorities, and pursue funding opportunities with confidence.

Learn more about our strategic Intelligence Services here. 

Develop Winning Grant Proposals

Our dedicated proposal managers work closely with your team to assess your specific needs and ensure you receive the right level of expert support at every stage of the process. From early planning through submission, we help keep teams on track, meet critical deadlines, and deliver high quality, competitive proposals. We offer a comprehensive suite of services, including principal investigator or team coaching, color team reviews, proposal writing and editing, graphic design, facilitation, and full-scale proposal management. Our approach is flexible and scalable, whether you’re supporting a single investigator or coordinating a large, multi-institutional team.

Learn more about the full range of our proposal development and grant writing services here.

McAllister & Quinn Vice President, Kellianne Lauer, discusses McAllister & Quinn’s assistance with managing large and complex proposals.

Invest in Your Faculty’s Grantseeking Skills

University faculty are the engine of a successful research enterprise. We design and deliver customized training programs that build grant seeking capacity across the campus research community.

Our capacity building training programs help investigators:

  • Understand sponsor priorities, review criteria, and decision-making processes
  • Develop individualized grant seeking plans
  • Strengthen proposal development and grant writing skills

Our training is tailored to your institutional needs. Our trainers collaborate with your institution to define agendas, curricula, learning outcomes, and follow-up activities that support long-term faculty success. Programs can be delivered on-campus, in Washington, DC, or virtually.

Learn more about our training services here

 

Advance Your Federal Agenda


We provide comprehensive federal relations support to help research universities advance your federal advocacy and funding opportunities<p/p>

Whether you are seeking assistance with federal marketing, congressionally directed programmatic funding increases, or community project funding requests, our government relations experts develop and execute strategies aligned with your institutional goals.

Our work with research universities includes:

  • Planning and managing meetings with Congressional delegations and Executive Branch agencies
  • Coordinating campus visits with senior federal officials
  • Supporting congressionally directed programmatic funding increase requests
  • Assisting with community project funding requests and appropriations tracking
  • Tracking relevant research and higher education policy and supporting advocacy efforts

We help research universities engage effectively with federal stakeholders to ensure their priorities are clearly articulated and well positioned for success.

Learn more about our government relations, federal agency engagement, and appropriations tracking here

Our Results

Secured nearly $700M in congressional funding support for our clients since 2018 through our government relations efforts.

Assisted in the development of more than 1,000 proposals for competitive extramural funding in 2020.

Garnered more than $17B in competitive grant awards due to our efforts to engage federal agencies.

Representative Clients

Dartmouth College

University of California Irvine

The Catholic University of America

University of Idaho

University of Pittsburgh

Recent Insights

Research Universities Team

Our clients work directly with an in-house team with backgrounds in academia, research development, technology transfer, and the Executive and Congressional branches, and are supported by a network of more than 250 consultants, including subject matter experts and former program officers who provide unique insights into federal agency priorities.