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Academic Researcher Experience & Support Survey

Measures how graduate students, postdocs, and faculty actually spend their research time, and how well funding, mentorship, protected time, and collaboration support their work. An AI follow-up interview digs into the single biggest obstacle each respondent names, reconstructing a concrete recent example instead of a vague complaint. Built for research offices, deans, and PIs benchmarking research support.

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Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

14 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share your experience as a researcher here. Your honest input helps us improve funding, mentorship, and support for research — this takes about 8 minutes.

Q02
Point AllocationRequired

Thinking about the past month, how did your working time split across these research-related activities? Allocate 100 points across the categories below.

  • Conducting research / collecting data
  • Writing and publishing
  • Applying for grants or funding
  • Teaching or mentoring
  • Administrative tasks (compliance, reporting, procurement)
  • Peer review or service work
Allocate 100 points
Q03
MatrixRequired

How much do you agree or disagree with each statement about research support at your institution?

5 rows × 5 columns
  • I have adequate funding to pursue my research questions
  • I receive meaningful mentorship for my research
  • I have access to the equipment or facilities I need
  • Administrative processes (IRB, procurement, reporting) do not slow down my research
  • I have protected time dedicated to research
Columns: Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree
Q04
Opinion ScaleRequired

Overall, how satisfied are you with the research environment at your institution right now?

Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Not satisfied at allMax:Extremely satisfied
Q05
Multiple ChoiceRequired

What is the single biggest barrier to your research productivity right now?

  • Funding or grant availability
  • Protected research time
  • Administrative burden
  • Access to mentorship
  • Collaboration opportunities
  • Equipment or facilities access
Q06
RankingRequired

Rank these resources from most to least important for improving your research over the next year.

  1. More funding
  2. Dedicated research time
  3. Stronger mentorship
  4. Collaboration opportunities
  5. Training or professional development
  6. Better equipment or facilities access
Drag to rank
Q07
AI Interview

Probe the barrier the respondent just named as biggest: ask for a specific recent example of when it actually got in the way, what they were trying to accomplish, and what happened as a result. Push to distinguish whether this is a one-off frustration or a structural, recurring problem, and ask what a realistic fix would look like from where they sit. If they picked 'Other', first clarify what the barrier actually is before probing.

Q08
Opinion ScaleRequired

How likely are you to still be doing academic research in five years?

Scale: 0 – 10
Min:Not at all likelyMax:Extremely likely
Q09
Rating Scale

How would you rate the quality of collaboration opportunities available to you (e.g., co-authorship, interdisciplinary projects, conferences)?

Range: 1 – 5
Min:PoorMax:Excellent
Q10
Long Text

What one change would most improve your ability to do research here?

Q11
Multiple Choice

Which best describes your current role?

  • Graduate student
  • Postdoctoral researcher
  • Early-career faculty (untenured)
  • Tenured or senior faculty
  • Research staff or administrator
  • Other
  • Prefer not to say
Q12
Short Text

What is your primary field or discipline? (Optional — leave blank if you'd rather not say.)

Q13
Multiple Choice

Which best describes your institution?

  • Public research university
  • Private research university
  • Liberal arts college
  • Government research institution
  • Industry-affiliated research lab
  • Other
  • Prefer not to say
Q14
Message

Thank you for sharing your experience! Your responses will be pooled with others to identify where research support most needs to improve — no individual answers will be shared with your department.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Goes beyond a single satisfaction score by first splitting time across research activities (constant sum) and then benchmarking agreement on funding, mentorship, protected time, and collaboration support in one matrix.
  • Identifies each respondent's single biggest productivity barrier via multiple choice, then triggers an AI follow-up interview that asks for a specific recent example instead of settling for a vague complaint.
  • Pairs quantitative benchmarking (satisfaction, five-year retention likelihood, collaboration rating, resource ranking) with a long-text improvement suggestion and role/field/institution context for segmentation.
  • Designed specifically for research offices, deans, and PIs to benchmark research support and retention risk, not as a generic academic form.

Jotform

Academic Research Form Template

This is a static, fielding-ready form built on Jotform's general-purpose drag-and-drop form builder rather than a survey purpose-built to benchmark research support. It can collect structured responses and integrates with Jotform's wider form ecosystem, but it does not probe individual answers further. It's a fine starting point for basic data collection, not for uncovering the 'why' behind a barrier.

What it does well

  • Easy to customize within Jotform's drag-and-drop form builder
  • Likely integrates with Jotform's broader suite (payments, workflows, storage)
  • Simple to deploy quickly for basic data collection

Where it falls short

  • Fixed question set with no adaptive follow-up — cannot dig into a respondent's stated barrier
  • No mention of AI-driven interviewing, voice interviews, or automated per-response quality scoring
  • No evidence of research-support-specific benchmarking structure (e.g., time allocation, mentorship/protected-time agreement scales)

Typeform

Academic Research Form Template

Typeform offers a conversational, one-question-at-a-time static form template for academic research topics, which tends to feel more engaging than a traditional grid form. However, it's still a fixed-path survey with no mechanism to adaptively follow up on an open-ended barrier or complaint. It's better suited to general research data collection than to institutional benchmarking of researcher support.

What it does well

  • Conversational, mobile-friendly question flow that can improve completion rates
  • Clean, on-brand presentation typical of Typeform templates
  • Easy to edit and reorder questions within Typeform's builder

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI follow-up interview — every respondent sees the same fixed sequence regardless of their answers
  • No voice AI interview option or screen-share guided tasks
  • No automated per-response quality scoring or transparent prompt methodology

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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