Why we started ReThink Higher

Research offices are the engine room of the university, and they’re under more pressure than at any point in a generation. Funding is tighter. Compliance is heavier. The expectation to “use AI” arrived before anyone explained how.

We started ReThink Higher because the people best positioned to help — those who have actually run research enterprises — were mostly absent from the AI conversation. The field was being defined by technologists with no feel for a sponsored-programs office, and by generic AI training that didn’t know what a NOFO was.

Our bet is simple: the institutions that get AI right in research administration will be the ones that treat it as a leadership and policy problem first and a technology problem second. That’s what we teach, what we consult on, and what we build.