Dr Simon Kerridge RMAS Steering Group

Financial pressures on HEIs Efficiency Agenda Vfm in Research Shared Services Funding Context

RMAS Feasibility Study 2009 Cashable Benefits Staff efficiencies: 10-20% Non-cashable Benefits Free research active staff Enable growth Better management Info Data exchange efficiencies

RMAS Benefits Analysis 2012 Productivity gains £75k per RMAS module Qualitative Benefits Enable growth Improved data quality Flexible platform for future developments

Universities Modernisation Fund HEFCE approach: Could have left to the market Focusing public funds to: share risk accelerate timescales and tailor to HEIs’ needs helping address the cultural issues

£½m benchmarking £1m shared services £6m procurement £2½m Admin applications £10m data centres and research applications Universities Modernisation Fund

UMF Delivery RMAS: RMAS product suite Data integration and standards Pilot HEI efficiencies Cloud based delivery model UMF Programme: £14.9m efficiencies – Year 1

HEFCE vision

RMAS is NOT a single, off-the-shelf system What is RMAS? But it is: A procurement framework containing the ‘best-of-breed’ research systems on the market, plus a set of free integration tools and methodologies, being built around a data standard for research information, CERIF

How does that help you?

How does RMAS help you?

How does that help you?

Then, when adding or upgrading…

What has the RMAS Project Done? created a procurement framework containing products that meet your needs – select & buy! developed a set of free tools and ‘how-to guides’ so you can integrate your systems and data – no need to re- invent the wheel! Enhanced CERIF to include more data sets, created CERIF conversion tools & convinced suppliers to develop their systems to communicate via CERIF.

RMAS Procurement RMAS Launch Event, July 10 th, 2012

RMAS Feasibility Studies 2008/9 Clear demand Similar customer requirements Improve the procurement process for the sector Create a collaborative environment Issues of coverage and integration Lack of clarity on standards Why Create the RMAS Procurement Framework

The average OJEU timetable of 6-9 months can be reduced to 4 weeks or less There are no full tenders to assess - suppliers can be appointed through mini-competitions Pre-agreed Terms and Conditions provide solid contractual safeguards and reduced professional legal costs, while allowing amendments to suit particular projects Benefits of the Framework

What it Means in £££££

You can access the Framework for free Long-term relationships between clients and suppliers through a framework encourage improvements in service Having several suppliers allows flexibility to cater for a range of requirements, and maintains competition Frameworks help to maintain security of supply Capture of knowledge and best practice Further Benefits of the Framework

Educational Establishments in England and Wales including Schools, Universities and Colleges Scottish Further and Higher Education Bodies Further and Higher Education in Northern Ireland Central Government Departments, Executive Agencies and NDPBs Welsh Public Bodies National Assembly for Wales, Welsh Assembly Government and Welsh Local Authorities Who Can Use the Framework

How to Use the Framework

RMAS Framework Lots

RMAS Framework Suppliers

On campus Cloud based Integration options Supplier web services where they exist Create your own adapter Use the Nexus ESB Deployment Options

Moving toward CERIF compliance Integration using recognised standards and processes Improvements for customers Management of the Framework

RMAS Integration RMAS Launch Event, July 10 th, 2012

RMAS Launch Event, July 10 th, 2012

The Role of CERIF in RMAS RMAS Launch Event, July 10 th, 2012

What is CERIF? Common European Research Information Format An EC-Recommendation to Member States Development since late 1980s The responsibility of euroCRIS since 2002 CERIF

EU Working Group on Research Databases Workshop CERIF 91 PROJECT Similar Ideas UN/UNESCO OECD CODATA Acronym: ERGO Participant: Keith Jeffery, Anne Asser son, many more Organisations: Rutherford Appleton, Uni- versity of Bergen, … Acronym: ERGO Participant: Keith Jeffery, Anne Asser son, many more Organisations: Rutherford Appleton, Uni- versity of Bergen, … 2000 CLASSIFICATION RESULTSEQUIPMENT PROJECT OrgUnitPERSON EXPERTISE Roles CERIF 2000 Model - Networking of DBs - Exchange of Records - EC Recommendation to Member States - Data Model - Multilinguality - Controlled Vocabulary - Roles / Types - User-driven - EC Recommendation to Member States 2ndLevel Base Language Semantics Link CERIF 2006 / 2008 Model - Data Model - Model Normalization - Robust/Consistent Structure - Extensible Structure - Semantic Layer - XML Exchange Specification - Elaboration on Publication - CERIF Core Semantics ( ) Measurement GEO Citation CV Prize Qualification ExpertiseAndSkills Equipment Facility Funding Service ElectronicAddresse PostalAddress Country Currency Language Event MetricsIndicator Measurement 2ndLevel Base CERIF 1.3 Semantics Language Link Infrastructure - Data Model - Infrastructure - Facility, Equipment, Service - Measurement & Indicator - Entities and Link Tables - Geographic Bounding Box - CERIF 1.3 Vocabulary - UUIDs - Terms - Schemes CERIF 1.5 (XML) CERIF 1.5 FORMALSEMANTICSFORMALSEMANTICS + Linked Data + CERIF Ontology The CERIF Evolution

A formal Model of the Research Domain Research Entities Relationships (Contexts) Enables Contextual Vocabularies (i.e. Semantics) Common European Research Information Format CERIF

Common European Research Information Format Research Context: Finance, Funding, Output, HR, Project-MM, Infrast... CERIF

Common European Research Information Format Research Contexts: Finance, Funding, Output, HR, Project-MM, Infrast.. CERIF

A particular use-case (context) Person A Publication X OrgUnit O OrgUnit M OrgUnit N Project P member employee Part of owns IPR author Project leader CERIF

Human Resources Projects Outputs Finance Students OrgUnit A Output X Measure Y Funding X Project P Person P agreement member performance budget income / expenditure owns IPR author employer The RMAS use-cases (areas) peer- reviewed result CERIF

CERIF for N use-cases OrgUnit Output Measure Funding Project Person C A B D E Z Y X F G Formal Syntax Declared Semantics i.e. open to any vocabulary... A, B, C, D, E,... X, Y, Z CERIF

Benefits of employing CERIF CERIF Standardisation allows for re-use; saves time, thus costs Finance Project HR Output Infrastructure Learning Funding

a tangible formal model for re-use, communication, comparison to support interoperability, exchange to support area identification, process modeling, vocabulary development it scales; is open for any vocabularies Benefits of employing CERIF CERIF Standardisation allows for re-use; saves time, thus costs

In areas: HR, Project, Output, Finance, Students (by analysis of existing systems) (comparable to supplier products) entity identification and disambiguation entity relationship identification vocabulary identification (quality) vocabulary definition Benefits of employing CERIF with RMAS CERIF

CERIF-driven RMAS Vocabularies Persons: Title, Qualification, Contact Type, Event Involvement, Employment Type, Professional Relationship, Output Contribution, Degree Level of Study, Person Project Role Projects: Activity Type; Subtype, Organisation Project Role, Activity Funding Type, Activity Status, Activity Finance Category, Activity Finance Category Amount Outputs: Output Type, Publication Status, Peer-Review, Output Quality Level, Output Output Relationship, Open Science Cost Finance: Funder Type, Funding Source Type Students: -> Person-Person Role, -> Output Type Overall: Verification Status Results from euroCRIS/RMAS collaboration CERIF Also imported in part vocabularies from CASRAI, CIA project, CERIF itself, HESA

CERIF-driven RMAS Vocabularies Will be formalized in latest CERIF XML A starting point for suppliers Have been published on Will be supported by RMAS SAC* Results from euroCRIS / RMAS collaboration CERIF SAC = Supplier Agnostic Connector

RMAS Pathfinders University of Kent Simon Kerridge University of Sunderland Kevin Ginty University of Exeter Steve Trowell Or contact JISC Advance - Simon Foster

University of Kent Research Led ~£12M, ~600 proposals

University of Kent Funding Sourcing Costing & Financial Outputs & Outcomes Academic Expertise Proposal Management Post Award HRSIS/PGR Financial Planning Finance REF DCS Je-S, eGAP, EPSS.. ROS External Data sources (UKRISS) Reporting

University of Kent Research Professional pFACT EPrints PSE Cognos Agresso Funding Sourcing Costing & Financial Outputs & Outcomes Academic Expertise Proposal Management Post Award HRSIS/PGR Financial Planning Finance REF DCS Je-S, eGAP, EPSS.. ROS External Data sources (UKRISS) Reporting In-house Microsoft Reporting Services

University of Kent Funding Sourcing Costing & Financial Outputs & Outcomes Academic Expertise Proposal Management Post Award HRSIS/PGR Financial Planning Finance REF DCS Je-S, eGAP, EPSS.. ROS External Data sources (UKRISS) Communication Bus Reporting

University of Kent Challenge: Connect everyone to everyone Different suppliers Different technologies Different data schemas RMAS CERIF Proposal-created Proposal-updated Proposal-removed Proposal-submitted Proposal-approved Proposal-rejected Start small Release often Build a community

University of Sunderland Research Active ~£2M, ~100 proposals

Central Enterprise Service Bus CRM Workflow Electronic Document Management Academic Expertise Funding Sourcing Tool Proposal Management Costing & Financial Management Post Award Management Outputs & Outcomes Costing & Financial Management Proposal Management Local ESB

RMAS – Sunderland evolution Pre- award Costing & Pricing ESB

RMAS – Sunderland evolution (Converis)* pFACT ESB ColdFusion ESB ColdFusion * Alternatively CRM (UNIS)

Top Level Components UNIS pFACT CF Converis

Sunderland – systems integration Chris21 (HR) Oracle Projects (Finance) SITS (Student records) EPrints (Institutional repository) [SURE]

Sunderland – Comms Bus

Further Information RMAS Recipe Book RMAS Roadmap

Exeter Overview Research intensive ~800 Academics; ~3000 projects Ambitious growth in research income ~ £50m in , doubled every 4 years

Exeter Research Systems Existing System Publication Management Publication Storage Research Data Storage Outputs Monitoring Funding Opportunities Proposal Management Project Costing Projects & CRM Post Award Management Pre-Award Post-Award Research Output HR (Trent) Finance (APTOS) PGR (SITS) Planned for Future Developed During RMAS Core Corporate System Key Prior to RMAS Following RMAS Publication Management Publication Storage Research Data Storage Outputs Monitoring Funding Opportunities Proposal Management Project Costing Projects & CRM Post Award Management Pre-Award Post-Award Research Output HR (Trent) Finance (APTOS) PGR (SITS)

In-house Systems Development: iPAC and ROMeiPAC Rapid system development e.g. iPAC 16 weeks from conception to deployment ROMe demonstrates mapping from non-CERIF source into CERIF within integration Total benefits around £150k per annum in operational productivity gains Systems Integration SQL – methods based on freely available tools, industrial standards Supplier Agnostic Connector – open source tool, freely available from RMAS website, designed to facilitate connecting existing systems Data Standards With other Pathfinders, mapped data fields used in research systems to CERIF With EuroCRIS, developed new vocabularies for HR, Finance, Project, Student and Publications entities Framework for Analysis of Benefits - led to a benefits-driven approach RMAS Developments

iPAC – Project Overview

iPAC – Spend Against Budget Profiles

iPAC – Data Quality Grid

ROMe – Outputs & Outcomes

Improvements in Data Quality in Source Systems RMAS integration techniques reliably combine data from disparate sources enabling verification by those who know the data best Avoidance of ‘hidden costs’ of poor data quality [duplication, discrepancy analysis] RMAS integration facilitates conversion of data into information, adding value through graphical displays and customer-centric user interfaces Positive experience of users and increased confidence in data quality makes user engagement easier to secure aiding future developments Agreed data standards [CERIF] are essential for external communications Expertise in use of CERIF internally, connecting to non-CERIF source systems Lessons Learned

RMAS has been integral to delivery of major advances in our research systems infrastructure during last 12 months Gaps remain – plan to use RMAS procurement framework in coming weeks to procure a pre-award solution Development of expertise in system integration and rapid system specification, design and implementation Benefits-driven approach rippling through entire research system development programme Dissemination of learning into other projects e.g. UKRISS and DESCRIBE Summary

RMAS Supplier Agnostic Connector

What is the RMAS Supplier Agnostic Connector ? A tool to integrate data from research management and administration systems It uses an Extract Transform & Load (ETL) Pattern Compatible with CERIF Built on a mature open source platform Custom built for RMAS Includes working examples – HR to supplier specific CSV – Publications to CERIF XML – Publications to CERIF XML for project costings – Key mapping using an ESB with CERIF XML

How Do I Use It ? 1. Access the connector at 2. Download and install the working demonstrators 3. Use the documentation to move from demo to real data sources and targets RMAS Website

What is Extract, Transform and Load An ETL is a three stage system for moving data ExtractTransform Load Sources Targets HR Finance Publications Projects HR Finance Publications Projects CERIF XML

CERIF Compatibility Extract Stages – Reads data sources and converts to CERIF compatible data model Transform Stages – Works with a collection of data fields defined within the CERIF vocabulary Load Stages – Includes a CDM to CERIF XML export stage

Summary A tool kit to enable data integration Working examples to speed development Freely available, open source, community based CERIF compatible Available from

The future of RMAS RMAS Launch Event, July 10 th, 2012

Single point of contact Provide support and signposting for RMAS adopters Maintain & develop relationships with key stakeholders Manage transition to Nexus RMAS Coordinator Role (Simon Foster)

Support for RMAS Adopters Continuation of RMAS/CERIF development Moving suppliers toward CERIF/RMAS compliance Working with suppliers in areas that benefit the sector Sustainability phase work areas

Support for RMAS Adopters -RMAS Repository -Web Resource -Technical Support from RMAS Pathfinders -RMAS Community -Support in utilising CERIF Sustainability phase work areas

RMAS Repository

RMAS Tools

RMAS Web Resource

RMAS Framework Suppliers UK Universities RMAS Coordinator CERIF Support National Coordinator / Managing Relationships & Strands

New Commercial Service from JISC Advance Open Source Enterprise Service Bus Technology Ongoing Management of RMAS Transition to Nexus

RMAS & JISC Advance Nexus

Nexus is a new commercial service by not-for-profit service organisation JISC Advance Nexus enables seamless data transfer within institutions and to remote services and external agencies. Connected approach uses Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) technology to provide secure information exchange between software applications. Nexus delivers the crucial connections between academic administration systems, teaching and learning environments, remote services and external agencies. What is Nexus

Joining up services Cost effective integration options for the sector The role of Nexus in the sector

Management of the framework Provision of liaison support for early adopters Interpretation of the contract Dissemination of information JISC Advance Nexus’s role in RMAS

Enterprise Service Bus technology Deployed centrally or as a Local ESB Cloud-based systems routed through the Nexus ESB Remote and Shared services Where RMAS fits in with Nexus

The Nexus Vision

Towards and evolving standard Integration of new & existing systems Working collaboratively with suppliers Where will Nexus take RMAS

VLE SR HESA UK BA HEFCE UCAS L A’s SLC NHS TfL RMAS DARE University ESB or Adapter HR VLE SR ID University Universities Nexus HEDD Data Standard Bodies Data Standard Bodies ESB Community University Suppliers Services and Products Suppliers Services and Products Data Standards & Adapters RMAS Modules RMAS Modules

The Nexus cloud evolution - Breadth

FINALLY, a manageable solution

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔✔✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Benefits ESBs have been used to – Make processes better faster cheaper – Improve the student experience – Automate information provision – Free up administrator time – Reduce/eliminate provisioning delays – Improve cash flows – Reduce the cost of IT – Improve data quality

What does it cost? Not-for-profit Annual subscription of – £5k for the first endpoint pair – £1K for subsequent endpoint pairs Plus very competitive implementation costs – However if an institution asks them to solve a problem for which there is substantial demand, Nexus may choose to waive to cost of implementation for the first customer.

Want to know more? Join the linked in group – JISC Advance Nexus – – Phone –

Are there any questions? Simon Kerridge or contact Simon Foster