RADF (CASRAI)

Research Administration Foundations Certification — Foundation

LevelFoundationRADRADF (CASRAI)

Lessons

8 modules

Domains

Exam blueprint

Exam items

Per attempt

70%

Pass mark

Fixed, uncurved

Retake wait

Days

What you earn

The credential itself

Pass the examination and CASRAI issues this certificate and the post-nominal RADF (CASRAI), signed by the Programme Director and verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.

CASRAI Certification

Certificate of Professional Competence

This is to certify that

Dr. Amelia R. Hartley

has completed the prescribed programme of study and passed the examination in

Research Administration Foundations — Foundation

and is admitted to the designationRADF (CASRAI)

Verify atcasrai.org/verify/CASRAI-RAD-2026-J5SJE5

Specimen. Issued as a signed PDF and as a machine-readable Open Badge; the holder and code shown are illustrative.

How it appears on your CV

Certifications

RADF (CASRAI) — Research Administration Foundations, Foundation

CASRAI·Issued Mar 2026·Credential ID CASRAI-RAD-2026-J5SJE5

casrai.org/verify/CASRAI-RAD-2026-J5SJE5

Every certificate is issued under the signature of Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director of CASRAI Certification, who sets the syllabus, blueprint and pass mark for this credential.

It certifies that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published on this page — and anyone can confirm it from the verification code, without an account and without contacting us.

About this credential

What it covers

Body of knowledge

Exam blueprint

The exam is assembled to these weights on every attempt. They are published before purchase because a blueprint you cannot see is not a blueprint.

Domains and weights8 domains · 38 scored items
Domain	Weight	Items
The research funding landscape and sponsor ecosystemF1	15%≈ 6 items	≈ 6
Institutional structures, roles and the sponsored programs officeF2	14%≈ 5 items	≈ 5
The award lifecycle end to endF3	20%≈ 8 items	≈ 8
Pre-award fundamentalsF4	13%≈ 5 items	≈ 5
Post-award fundamentalsF5	13%≈ 5 items	≈ 5
Compliance touchpoints across the lifecycleF6	14%≈ 5 items	≈ 5
Research administration systems, data and information flowsF7	6%≈ 2 items	≈ 2
Professional ethics, conduct and developmentF8	5%≈ 2 items	≈ 2
Total	100%	38

Item counts are approximate. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the weights above, so the exact number of items per domain varies between attempts.

Syllabus

8 modules, 8 lessons

Every lesson and every learning outcome is listed. The lesson bodies open on enrolment; nothing else about the course is withheld.

8 modules · 8 lessons

Lesson material opens once you are enrolled. The full syllabus and every learning outcome are shown here so you can judge the coverage before you pay.

Module 1
F1
1 lesson
1. Locked.What research funding is, and who provides itLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - By the end, the learner can:
  - F1.1 [R] Describe the principal sponsor classes — government agency, research council, charitable foundation, industry, intergovernmental, internal — and state one administrative characteristic that distinguishes each.
  - F1.2 [R] Distinguish a grant, a cooperative agreement and a contract by the degree of sponsor involvement and the nature of what is owed back.
  - F1.3 [A] Given a short description of an incoming award, classify it by instrument and sponsor class.
  - F1.4 [R] Describe, in outline, the structure of the funding system in each of the five jurisdictions the credential covers.
  - F1.5 [R] Define prime award, subaward, pass-through entity, subrecipient and contractor, and state the relationship between them.
Module 2
F2
1 lesson
1. Locked.How institutions organise to administer researchLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F2.1 [R] Describe the functions typically found in or alongside a sponsored programs office and state the purpose of each.
  - F2.2 [R] Explain the difference between central and departmental research administration and why most large institutions run both.
  - F2.3 [R] Explain what an authorised organisational representative is and why an investigator cannot be one.
  - F2.4 [A] Given a routine task, assign it to the correct office or role in a described institutional structure.
  - F2.5 [R] Distinguish the principal investigator's non-delegable responsibilities from those that may be delegated.
  - F2.6 [R] Name the principal professional societies in the field and their geographic scope.
Module 3
F3
1 lesson
1. Locked.The award lifecycle, end to endLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F3.1 [R] Sequence the lifecycle stages in order.
  - F3.2 [R] Name the defining artefact produced at each stage.
  - F3.3 [A] Given a described situation, identify which stage the award is in and what must happen next.
  - F3.4 [A] Given an early decision, identify one downstream consequence of it.
  - F3.5 [R] Identify the points after which a mistake becomes materially expensive.
  - F3.6 [A] Given a stage performed out of order, state what has gone wrong.
  - F3.7 [R] State which obligations survive the end of the award.
Module 4
F4
1 lesson
1. Locked.Pre-award, at literacy levelLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F4.1 [A] Extract the eligibility, deadline, award limits, required components and format requirements from a funding opportunity announcement.
  - F4.2 [R] Name the standard budget categories and state what belongs in each.
  - F4.3 [R] Explain what indirect costs are, that they are recovered by applying a rate to a defined base, and that both are governed.
  - F4.4 [R] Distinguish mandatory from voluntary committed cost sharing and state why the latter is dangerous.
  - F4.5 [R] Name the non-budget components a proposal typically requires.
  - F4.6 [A] Given a described proposal, identify who must approve it before submission.
  - F4.7 [R] Explain that submission is an institutional act performed by an authorised representative.
Module 5
F5
1 lesson
1. Locked.Post-award, at literacy levelLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F5.1 [R] Describe what happens at award set-up.
  - F5.2 [A] Apply the allowable/allocable/reasonable/consistently-treated test to a described transaction and state which limb is in doubt.
  - F5.3 [R] Explain what prior approval means and give three examples of actions that commonly require it.
  - F5.4 [R] Explain the relationship between payroll, effort and the award charge.
  - F5.5 [R] Explain what subrecipient monitoring is and why accepting invoices is insufficient.
  - F5.6 [R] Name the reporting obligations attached to a typical award.
  - F5.7 [R] Explain why cost transfers attract scrutiny.
  - F5.8 [R] Describe what closeout involves and what survives it.
Module 6
F6
1 lesson
1. Locked.Compliance: what is engaged, and whenLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F6.1 [A] Given a plain-language project description, identify which compliance regimes are engaged.
  - F6.2 [R] State, for each regime, when in the lifecycle approval or disclosure must be in place.
  - F6.3 [R] Name the office or committee responsible for each regime.
  - F6.4 [A] Given a described situation, identify who to escalate to.
  - F6.5 [R] State the consequences of proceeding without a required approval.
Module 7
F7
1 lesson
1. Locked.Systems, records and research informationLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F7.1 [R] Name the functional system categories in a research institution's administrative estate.
  - F7.2 [A] Trace a data element across the systems it must appear in and identify where it can diverge.
  - F7.3 [R] Explain why persistent identifiers matter for joining records.
  - F7.4 [R] State why upstream data quality determines downstream reporting.
Module 8
F8
1 lesson
1. Locked.Professional ethics and the administrator’s own conductLocked
  On completion you will be able to
  - F8.1 [R] Identify the conflicts of interest that arise in the administrator's own role.
  - F8.2 [R] State the confidentiality obligations attaching to proposal and personnel information.
  - F8.3 [A] Given a request to process something improper, identify the correct response.
  - F8.4 [R] Explain why stewardship of public funds creates obligations beyond those owed to the employer.

Assessment

How the exam works

The exam is closed-book and multiple choice. Each attempt draws a fresh form to the domain weights above, so no two attempts are the same paper and no answer key circulates. The pass mark is 70% and is fixed — there is no curve, no quota and no adjustment by cohort.

Scoring is immediate. You are shown your overall result and, for every item, the option you chose, the correct option and the reasoning behind it — whether you passed or not. A failed attempt may be retaken after 90 days. The wait exists so a retake is a second attempt at the material rather than a second attempt at remembering the paper.

Forms are assembled to the blueprint above or not at all: where a domain cannot yet be sampled to that standard, the exam declines to start rather than issue an unbalanced paper. Your material and progress are never affected, and there is no time limit on when you sit.

Passing candidates are issued a certificate with a verification code. Anyone can check that code on our public verification page without an account and without contacting us.

Certifying authority

Signed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD

CASRAI’s certification programme is academically and medically directed by Dr. Diana Nieves Castro, MD, Programme Director, who sets the syllabus and blueprint for this credential and signs every certificate issued under it.

CASRAI has maintained the terminology and reporting standards of research administration for over a decade. It assumed leadership of the CRediT contributor-roles taxonomy in 2014 and carried it through to adoption as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, now in use by publishers, funders and institutions worldwide. This examination is drawn from that body of work.

What the credential certifies: that its holder passed the CASRAI examination for this course on the date shown, scored against the blueprint and pass mark published above — verifiable by anyone, permanently, from the code on its face.

Before you buy

The syllabus, learning outcomes, exam blueprint, pass mark and retake policy on this page are the complete specification of this credential. Everything that determines whether you pass is published here before you pay.

Questions about this credential →

The ladder