Research Management System Use at the University of Saskatchewan Susan Blum, PhD, Director Research Services and Ethics Office University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

research.usask.ca 1907 : Established as an agricultural college in a province only 2 years old A Place of Growth Now : member of the U15 group: Canada’s top research-intensive universities

research.usask.ca U of S Overview 21,000+ Students 17 Colleges and Schools 58 Degree and Certificate programs 100 research / support centres

research.usask.ca Research Revenue $183 million in average annual research revenue (past 5 years)

research.usask.ca Leading Research Facilities VIDO-Intervac (Biosafety Level 3 laboratory) Canadian Light Source Canada’s national synchrotron Largest academic toxicology research / training centre in Canada

research.usask.ca  Complex  Exchange of data with many stakeholders Research teams, researchers Administration units Colleges, Centres, Institutes, Departments Research Management

research.usask.ca  Exchange of data with many stakeholders  Government agencies  Research sponsors Research Management

research.usask.ca Variable Timely Accurate Compliant Needs of Stakeholders

research.usask.ca  Research management enterprise system  Transformative and evolutionary in the way support is provided to both faculty and administration  Full research life-cycle  Complements the needs of faculty and the university in:  research administration  management  reporting  compliance

research.usask.ca  Creation and electronic routing of project and ethics applications (paperless)  Creation of funds  Tracking capabilities for projects  Access to project documentation  Robust search, analytics and reporting capabilities

research.usask.ca Researcher Funding Opportunities Reporting Facilitation Collaborators Graduate Students Post-award Management Metrics Ideas CV Ethics Internal Review Commercialization Applications Approvals Publications

research.usask.ca  “One Stop Shop”  Reduced administrative burden  System provides them a direct benefit Vision for Researcher

research.usask.ca  Cater the system to the Research Process which best supports “researchers” Vision for Researcher

research.usask.ca  A central communication tool to manage the complete pre-and post-award process  Tracks tasks and deadlines, including auto reminders  Offers dedicated reports throughout the process One Stop Shop Project Idea Project Application Project

research.usask.ca  Provides opportunities to record and track research projects  Purpose is to build project teams, identify funding sources, develop necessary documents  Assign tasks to assist in the development  Research Facilitators  Funding One Stop Shop

research.usask.ca  Only request information when it is required from the “researcher”  Auto-fill forms/ templates Reduced Administration

research.usask.ca  Online collaboration  Assignment of tasks  Workflow process is simple and streamlined  They only see what they “need to” on the system  Only input information when it is required Benefit for Researchers

research.usask.ca  Obtaining peer reviews and internal approvals electronically  Workflow process is transparent and standardized Benefit for Researchers

research.usask.ca  System to search and provide information to update:  CVs  Publications  Websites  Alert of funding opportunities Have the System Work for the Researcher

research.usask.ca  Standardized data exchange  Improved service delivery and client satisfaction through:  Integration of business functions and systems  Inherent standards and controls Vision for Administration

research.usask.ca  Accessible by all stakeholders with varying levels of access to cater to information needs  Minimize labour-intensive process to collect data  Uniform processes  Reduce effort, workload and delays  Targeted investment  Collective sharing and integration Administration

research.usask.ca  Standardization  Have Application Programming Interface (APIs)  Push and Pull data  Bidirectional Sponsors and Universities

research.usask.ca  Funding opportunities  Application forms  Results/awards  Metrics  Eligibility of people  Eligibility of budgets Common Areas of Interest

research.usask.ca  UnivRS team  Project Lead (myself)  Functional Lead (new)  Technical Lead (new)  Developer (new)  Content Expert (seconded) First Steps

research.usask.ca  One-year  Very configurable  Aligned all grants and contracts into three workflow, templates  External  Internal  Other Configuration

research.usask.ca  Beta testing occurred for staff in July-Aug  Migration of all records – last 15 years  Training occurred for  Staff  Approvers  Account setters (system is role-based) Testing and Training

research.usask.ca

 September 22 nd released UnivRS 1.0 internally to Research Services  Hired additional.75 FTE to manage implementation  Completing electronic internal approvals for Board of Governors and University Secretary  All documentation uploaded into system Where are we now?

research.usask.ca  Current  University Data Warehouse  Biosafety Access Database  Ethics Access Database  Future  PeopleSoft – HR  Banner – Financial Linkages

research.usask.ca Next Steps - Team ICT and OVPR Financial Specialist(s) ICT and OVPR Communication Specialist(s) ICT Platform Services ICT Web Applications Functional Lead Business Analyst Project Assistant Subject Matter Expert(s) Technical Lead Quality Assurance Analyst Programmer Analyst Business Intelligence Developer

research.usask.ca  On-line Funding Opportunities Database  Functionality already in UnivRS (CONVERIS)  Agency and agency program, shared web functionality, RSS feeds etc.  Publications Module  Reduces researchers’ time and effort entering research outcomes and generating CVs  Enhances communication and fosters collaboration within the campus community  Reduces administrative effort to analyze research outcomes and develop annual reports Next Steps - Support Faculty–UnivRS 1.5

research.usask.ca  Pre- and Post-Award Administration  Beta testing with three colleges in January  Western College of Veterinary Medicine  College of Agriculture and Bioresources  College of Pharmacy and Nutrition  Electronic approvals  Limited number of input fields by faculty  Fields only required when information is necessary Next Steps - Deployment

research.usask.ca  Once logged in, researcher required to click three times to access internal or external project application  To submit an application for approval, researcher required to fill in seven items to submit an application for approval - some are auto- populated  Once awarded funding, researcher clicks nine additional fields (yes-no) related to ethics requirements and institutional signature areas Effort by Faculty

research.usask.ca  Spring: Staged deployment across campus  Deployment completed by summer Deployment 2015

research.usask.ca  Configuration of Ethics Templates (start Dec)  Human  Animal  Biosafety  Radiation  CV Management  Huge demand by faculty for connection to CCV Next Steps - Configuration

research.usask.ca Don’t name your system One Lesson

Then they expect you to deliver: Thank you!