Mountie Roots and Research Routes

This month we talk with Tania Tost, who, as OVPR’s director of post-award for the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP), leads a team of more than 60. We learn how her 24 years at UT have led to — and prepared her for — her current job, how the Canadian-born-and-bred daughter of a Mountie ended up in Texas, and why she dreams about soup.

What does your role entail as director of post-award for the OSP?

I like to think of myself as part navigator, part troubleshooter and part financial wizard. Once the confetti settles and the award is executed, my amazing team and I step in to ensure the research dollars are managed wisely and compliantly and reported accurately. We monitor spending, interpret sponsor requirements, support our principal investigators (PIs) and departmental research administrators (DRAs), and keep the awards in good standing with our sponsors.

OVPR is about advancing research excellence, and that doesn't stop with winning the award. My team is the support behind the scenes, and by ensuring awards are managed well, we empower our researchers to focus on what they do best: innovation, discovery and pushing the boundaries of knowledge.

I see that you’ve been at UT for a while. What other positions have you had, and how did they prepare you for your current role?

Truly, I can't believe it's been almost 25 years since joining UT Austin. It's been an exciting and rewarding journey. Every position I've had along the way has helped prepare me for my current role.

My first role was in a research center, and it was there that I had my first exposure to the world of research, progress reports, milestones, sponsor guidelines and proposals. I learned so much about the challenges of developing a proposal, the thrill of celebrating its successful completion and news it will be funded, and the pressure after it's awarded and it’s time to meet deliverable deadlines.

When I transitioned into my role as a senior grants & contracts specialist on what we now refer to as the post-award team in OSP, I found my home in research administration. I love doing all kinds of puzzles and discovered in post-award the magic of a well-crafted spreadsheet for reconciling expenditures, the satisfaction of reporting down to the penny (yes, in post-award financial reporting, the penny matters!), and, most enjoyably, interacting with the various PIs and DRAs across campus.

It was the satisfaction of assisting PIs and DRAs that I realized I would regret never having had the experience of supporting the research enterprise at a college level, so when the opportunity arose in 2017 to join the Moody College of Communication, I grabbed it. I gained so much knowledge about how a college operates and the challenges DRAs and faculty have outside of the research enterprise, and I learned new things like what a buy-out is and how academic salaries work.

Now that I'm back with my team in OVPR, I'm grateful for all the opportunities I've experienced at this amazing institution.

What is your favorite thing about your job and working at UT? Any big surprises?

Helping others, sharing resources and supporting our mission are all the things I cherish about working at UT. It doesn't hurt that there are some wonderful people I get to interact with, too.  

It's not really a big surprise, but after almost 25 years of working in research administration, there are still new problems to navigate and fresh policies to implement, keeping every day interesting, challenging and rewarding.

I see you went to the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. Did you grow up in Canada? What brought you to the States?

I did grow up in Saskatchewan. My dad was a Mountie in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, so we moved around the province a lot, and fortunately we were transferred to Regina when I was in Grade 12, so I was able to go to university and still live at home.  

I was an elementary teacher in Saskatchewan and moved to Japan to teach English for a small school that sought out Canadian teachers from Saskatchewan (their sales pitch was that all the teachers had a similar English accent). My plan was to stay for one year, but it was a fun place to live, and I ended up staying almost four years.

To make a really long story short, I met my now ex-husband there, and when we decided to move back to North America to be closer to our families, we settled on Austin, and I've been in this great city ever since.

What do you like most about Austin? How has it changed since you arrived?

Now that you've learned I grew up in the Great White North, you're probably assuming I'm going to say the weather is what I like most... and you're not wrong. Well, at least September through April, you're not wrong. I still love to go home and play in the snow, but I don't miss living in it. 

I love Austin — it's home. I moved here in 1999, and while it has grown in size (and traffic), it remains vibrant and active. The people are still warm and full of character, and the city has retained its unique mix of laid-back energy and innovation. 

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love to do puzzles. I'm also a mosaic artist — I even have a glass kiln for firing my own pieces — and I love to cook a variety of cuisines, from Ukrainian dishes passed down from my baba to Persian food and everything in between. Right now, I'm mastering a vegetarian miso ramen recipe. We really enjoy decorating cookies (and eating them), too.

I also love to travel, and my husband and I take our watercolors with us and paint scenic pictures from the trip. We're not very good, but it's super fun and we have a good laugh.

And finally, most important: If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Soup! I love to make soup, eat soup, dream of things to put in my soup. I never get tired of it.