Meeting scheduling for research groups

Purpose

1.1. Automate the scheduling of meetings for research groups to coordinate collaborative efforts, discuss project progress, allocate resources, and ensure compliance with grant timelines, by integrating calendar, communication, and document management platforms.
1.2. Automates participant availability checks, sends invites, synchronizes with institutional calendars, reserves rooms or virtual meeting spaces, issues reminders, and documents meeting outcomes.
1.3. Enables automating multi-timezone scheduling, handles recurring meeting patterns, and manages last-minute changes or cancellations with automated notifications.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. New research project initiation automates the setup of recurring meetings.
2.2. Funding milestone reached automates special meeting scheduling.
2.3. Manual trigger by project lead for ad-hoc meeting requests.
2.4. Automated trigger by deadline or key event approaching (e.g., grant application due date).
2.5. Automated detection of conflicts in calendars, prompting for automated rescheduling.

Platform Variants

3.1. Microsoft Outlook 365
• Feature/Setting: Calendar API – configure to automate creation and updating of group events, send invites, and handle RSVP status.
3.2. Google Calendar
• Feature/Setting: Calendar Events API – enable automated event insertion, patch for updates, and automated attendee management via APIs.
3.3. Zoom
• Feature/Setting: Meetings API – automate meeting creation, unique link generation, and sending automated invites.
3.4. Cisco Webex
• Feature/Setting: Meetings REST API – automate scheduling, user invitation, attendee sync, and reminder automation.
3.5. Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Graph API / Online Meetings – automate scheduling group calls, sharing links, notifications through chat.
3.6. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Events API – automate meeting notifications, reminders, and direct user prompts for availability.
3.7. Asana
• Feature/Setting: Asana API – automate task creation for meeting follow-ups, automate assignment to attendees.
3.8. Trello
• Feature/Setting: Cards API – automate creation of cards for meeting topics or action points, automate commenting for updates.
3.9. Google Sheets
• Feature/Setting: Sheets API – automate reading/writing attendance lists, synchronize with automated meeting schedules.
3.10. Doodle
• Feature/Setting: Doodle API – automate polling of group availability and automate conversion to calendar event.
3.11. Calendly
• Feature/Setting: Scheduling API – automate scheduling links creation, embedding in invites, automate notifications.
3.12. ZoomInfo
• Feature/Setting: Contact Enrichment API – automate email lookup for missing participant details.
3.13. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: Messaging API – automate SMS invites, automated reminders pre/post meeting.
3.14. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Mail Send API – automate sending HTML meeting invitations, responses, and reminders.
3.15. HubSpot
• Feature/Setting: Meetings API – automate event creation for external collaborator invites, sync with CRM.
3.16. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Calendar Events API – automate synchronization of research group schedules with sales/partnership meetings.
3.17. JIRA
• Feature/Setting: Issues API – automate ticket creation for agenda items and action points discussed in meetings.
3.18. Notion
• Feature/Setting: Notion API – automate creation of meeting notes pages, automate linking with scheduled events.
3.19. Zoho Calendar
• Feature/Setting: Zoho API – automate event scheduling and track RSVP in university environment.
3.20. SAP SuccessFactors
• Feature/Setting: Time Management API – automate calendar syncing with HR leave or research group absences.
3.21. Adobe Sign
• Feature/Setting: API – automate distribution and signing of attendance or consent forms pre- or post-meeting.
3.22. Box
• Feature/Setting: File Request API – automate sharing and collecting pre-meeting documents or research files.

Benefits

4.1. Automates elimination of manual coordination, saving staff time.
4.2. Improved reliability via automated reminders and notifications.
4.3. Automated rescheduling reduces conflict and improves group participation.
4.4. Centralizes documentation and task follow-up using automation.
4.5. Automator-driven scheduling supports cross-timezone and remote teams.
4.6. Automated integration ensures calendar accuracy across all platforms.
4.7. Automatable compliance logs for grant reporting.
4.8. Automation reduces errors due to miscommunication.
4.9. Automated workflow scale-up for larger research initiatives.
4.10. Automated data flows streamline preparation, invitation, and post-meeting documentation.