When it comes to conducting cutting-edge research, higher education institutions are among the most prolific organizations. They’re likely experienced at using incentives, just like any research firm, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement by exploring the latest digital reward solutions.
Academic researchers often face even more pressure, more requirements, and tighter budgets than those who work in-house at a company or for an agency. There are a lot of different parties involved, and that means any incentives plan is open to extra scrutiny. A rewards platform can help you make sure your project’s incentives are as streamlined, cost-effective, and compliant as possible.
Check out how digital reward solutions can help you overcome these four major challenges in academic research.
READ MORE: Gift Card Incentives Help VCU Lab Boost Survey Response Rates, Save Time and Money
Academic research projects are often done on tight budgets with not a lot of administrative support, since they are funded by grants, fellowships, and nonprofits. By taking advantage of digital reward solutions, you can at least simplify and streamline the tedious task of managing your research incentives. A platform like BHN Rewards integrates with many popular research tools, including Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, so you can automate reward delivery immediately upon survey completion.
Many academic research projects must meet requirements from an Institutional Review Board (IRB). That most often means you need to keep your research participants’ identities anonymous, especially for projects and surveys that deal with sensitive personal or health information. There are many online survey tools that can accommodate anonymous submissions, but you also need digital reward solutions that will allow you to incentivize anonymous research and maintain your project’s IRB compliance. BHN Rewards, for instance, supports decoupling and data masking, so you can protect recipients’ identities while still compensating them fairly for their participation.
Leading research institutions have a lot of studies going on at once, even within the same department. It’s important to keep those budgets separate, since each researcher will need to report on their spending. With the right digital reward solutions and features, you can set up different budget groups for each project and assign the appropriate users to those groups. That way, your research team can select the correct budget before sending out incentives for a particular survey or study.
Speaking of reporting, higher ed institutions typically under more scrutiny, whether it’s from an IRB, a grant provider, a benefactor, or even the IRS. Juggling spreadsheets and calculating numbers manually to collect the necessary information is a very error-prone process and creates more administrative work. Instead, consider digital reward solutions that offer self-service reports, with detailed tracking and filters. In addition, a tool with flexible user permissions will let your finance colleagues access the information they need without constantly having to request status reports or documentation for each individual research project.
Research isn’t the only area that colleges and universities can use digital reward solutions. Here are 6 ways to use incentives in higher ed.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
