Soft Skills

The Importance of Soft Skills for US Research Administrators

Simon Kerridge, University of Kent

Melinda Fischer, Clemson University

January 2026

Analysis of the RAAAP-1 Dataset (Kerridge & Scott, 2018a) has revealed which skills are deemed most important by research administrators.  In this paper we focus on the subset (n=941) of respondents from the USA to the initial RAAAP survey (Kerridge & Scott, 2018b) and their responses to the questions about the importance of different skills to their roles as research administrators.

The worldwide survey was conducted in 2016 and received a total of 2,691 responses, however here we focus on the (n=941) from the USA in order to provide a coherent picture.  In all, 31 skills were asked about, of which, 13 were deemed as soft (transferable) skills and 18 as hard (research administration related technical) skills.  For each skill, a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 Not, 2 Some, 3 Yes, 4 Very, 5 Extremely, with an additional option for No Response) was used.  Table 1 shows the skill type, skill, and the average response value (excluding No Response answers - these only account for 0.6-2.5% of responses).

Table 1: Average Importance of Skills to US Research Administrators

Type Skill Importance

Soft CommsImp 4.50

Soft ProblemSolvingImp 4.49

Soft CollaborationImp 4.42

Soft InitiativeImp 4.26

Soft TakingResponsibilityImp 4.17

Soft DecisionMakingImp 4.14

Soft AdaptabilityImp 3.99

Soft ProjectManagementImp 3.76

Soft EDIImp 3.74

Soft ObservationImp 3.73

Soft MentoringImp 3.60

Soft ManagementImp 3.59

Hard ProposalPrepImp 3.59

Hard CostingImp 3.57

Soft ConflictResolutionImp 3.35

Hard PolicyImp 3.23

Hard FinancesImp 3.18

Hard EthicsImp 3.16

Hard ReportingImp 3.03

Hard ERAImp 2.99

Hard AuditImp 2.85

Hard ContractsImp 2.64

Hard FundingOppsImp 2.59

Hard KEImp 2.36

Hard ExternalAuditImp 2.28

Hard RecruitmentImp 2.15

Hard REFImp 1.93

Hard ImpactImp 1.91

Hard TechTransImp 1.86

Hard PGRImp 1.80

Hard ShortCourseImp 1.63

The data clearly show that US research administrators view soft transferable skills as more important for their roles than the hard research administration specific skills.  Apart from Conflict Resolution, every soft skill ranked higher than all the hard skills. 

Communication, Problem Solving, and Collaboration were ranked highest, with Initiative, Taking Responsibility, Decision Making, and Adaptability ranking next.

Author Contributions

Simon Kerridge: Orcid 0000-0003-4094-3719, CRediT: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Melinda Fischer: Orcid 0000-0003-1503-3369, CRediT: Conceptualization, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

References

Kerridge, S., & Scott, S. F. (2018a). RAAAP Main Dataset (csv export) and related datasets (Version 1). figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7504220.v1 

Kerridge, S., & Scott, S. F. (2018b). Research administration around the world. Research Management Review, 23(1), 34.