NCURA 2026 Annual Meeting

Registration for the 68th Annual Meeting will open in April 2026.

For more information , visit https://www.ncura.edu/education/meetingsconferences.aspx

The NCURA Annual Meeting of the Membership is the defining professional development event for university research administrators in the United States. Each year, more than 2,000 professionals drawn from NCURA's 9,000+ member community gather to work through the challenges that define this role: navigating federal sponsor requirements, managing pre-award submissions under pressure, keeping post-award financial compliance on track, and staying current as regulations and institutional expectations shift. The 68th Annual Meeting brings that community to New York City for four days of workshops, sessions, and conversations across every dimension of research administration. If you work in sponsored programs, grants management, post-award compliance, research finance, or institutional oversight, this is where your professional community convenes.

Why Attend?

Comprehensive Programming for Every Role: The Annual Meeting is structured to serve the full span of research administration, from professionals who are new to the field through senior institutional leaders. Pre-conference workshops on August 1 and 2 offer half-day and full-day hands-on training taught by subject matter experts across the profession. The main conference sessions run across eleven dedicated tracks: Pre-Award and Research Development, Financial and Post-Award, Research Compliance and Ethics, Systems, Data and Artificial Intelligence, Departmental Administration, Federal Sponsors and Agencies, Medical, Clinical and Industry Research, Organizational and Executive Leadership, International and Global, Predominantly Undergraduate and Emerging Research Institutions, and Human Capital and DEI.

‍Learn from Industry Leaders: Sessions at the Annual Meeting are presented by working professionals in research administration, federal agency representatives, and subject matter experts who bring current, practitioner-level knowledge to every topic. Concurrent sessions pair 2-4 presenters and include structured question-and-answer time.

‍Explore Innovative Solutions: The Annual Meeting brings together a broad community of technology and service providers who support research administration operations. The exhibit hall is where you can evaluate grants management platforms, electronic research administration systems, post-award financial tools, conflict of interest disclosure solutions, and compliance workflow software side by side. Key Solutions will be at NCURA 2026. Our team will be available to walk through eGrants, eCOI, and our Post-Award Grants Management Software with research administrators who are navigating the same sponsored programs challenges these products were built to solve. If you want to schedule time with us at the event, use the meeting request form on this page.

‍Network with Your Professional Community: The Annual Meeting is, in practice, an annual reunion for the research administration profession. Beyond the session programming, the event includes a Sunday Evening Dinner, a Tuesday Evening Celebration, regional networking events that connect attendees by geography, organized Dinner Groups for smaller conversations, and a Meeting Mentor Program that connects first-time attendees with experienced conference-goers. Volunteer activities run throughout the event, and they create the kind of informal peer connections that turn into the professional relationships you rely on throughout your career.