1. NRF RISA RENEWAL CONSOLIDATED
8Th Annual Research Administrator Workshop
Lord Charles Hotel Somerset West,
Western Cape
October 2017

2. NRF Mandate
Support and promote research and knowledge generation through human capacity development
Support and promote research and knowledge generation through the provision of National Research Platforms
Strengthen the relationship between Science and Society through Science Engagement
Contribute to National Imperatives

3. NRF Positioning Statement
An NRF that has influence and impact, which is productive, efficient and effective as a research support, performing and engaged organisation to transform and enhance a globally competitive and contextually relevant NSI for societal benefit.
Unwavering commitment to Excellence; Transformation; Service Culture; Good Governance and Sustainability
To the community that we serve, the NRF must be transparent, fair, equitable and fiscally prudent

4. Why the need for Change?
Align the Organization to deliver on Strategy 2020.
Respond to the NRF Review recommendations, e.g. the need for internal analytical and advisory capacity
Ensuring organisational focus for Effective and Impactful Delivery on Statutory Mandate
Optimisation of processes, especially in the granting domain, including optimal use of IT
Optimisation of use of resources (financial and other)
Ensuring appropriate fit between function and resources, people

5. Guiding Principles for the new Structure
Reduce Complexity
design the structure for implementation of strategy;
avoid making leadership roles too complex.
Focus on Core Activities
remove clutter (inefficiency in processes) and enhance the core role and deliverables.
Feasible Roles
avoid overloading;
realistic groupings and clustering of activities or functions.
Balance
number of staff and functions directly managed (span of control);
amount of expected “own tasks” on top of NRF leadership demands.

6. Guiding Principles for the new Structure - Continue
Flexible and Reconfigurable Organisation
active leadership enabling staff to deliver excellence;
ability to collect and share knowledge across organisational boundaries;
flexible – high tolerance for ambiguity, change, and unpredictability;
integration – where possible and appropriate, people should be able to move around the organisation, understand how different parts of the organisation work and feel part of a whole.
Sustainability
the proposed structure must be delivered within the current allocation for human resources and operational costs. No redundancies as an outcome.

7. NEW HIGH LEVEL STRUCTURE
NRF Board
LEGEND
Internal Audit
Corporate Secretary
New
Office of the CEO
Redefine / Refocus
National Infrastructure Platforms
Research & Innovation Support & Advancement (RISA)
Science Engagement & Corporate Relations
No Change
Cluster
SAEON
SAIAB
Biodiversity
Reviews & Evaluation (RE)
Science Awareness
Science Communication
Science Education
Science Engagement
SAASTA
Operational Divisions
Grant Management & Systems Administration (GMSA)
Knowledge Advancement & Support
iThemba LABS
Nuclear
Research Chairs & Centre of Excellence (RCCE)
SARAO
SAAO
Astronomy
Human Infrastructure Capacity Development (HICD)
Databases
SADA
NEXUS
Corporate Relations
Strategy, Planning & Partnerships
Information & Analysis
Planning & Development
Strategic Partnerships
Support the NRF with information and data analytics for operational, planning and strategic purposes through the creation and accessing of a data warehouse, including the management of organizational intelligence and analytical systems
Provide (i) macro-organizational system planning, foresight, including evaluating and reporting on the status and needs of national research as well as research trends and interests within and across disciplines and knowledge fields; and (ii) assessment of the state and development needs of individual institutions and interventions in order to be responsive to the requirements of a differentiated Higher Education Sector
Identify, nurture and advance strategic partnerships of the NRF and South Africa both locally and internationally in support of the mandate of the NRF; to facilitate and promote national and international scientific exchange and collaboration between researchers and research institutions
Corporate Services
Finance & Business Systems
Human Resources & Legal Services
Finance & SCM
Human Resources
Knowledge Management (KM)
Legal Services
Governance
ICT

8. Benefits of the new Structure
Greater focus on the granting function of the NRF to improve efficiency, effectiveness and impact. In this regard, we shall also be exploring new ways to tap into technology and innovation;
Cohesive leadership and management of infrastructure platforms, including local national platforms, international platforms, research databases and national facilities;
Respond to the need for the NRF to become a stronger learning organization;
Improved capacity and capability to respond to additional statutory mandates as proposed in the NRF Amendment Bill;
Respond to the need for the NRF to be financially and operationally sustainable.

9. RISA Renewal Initiative
The RISA Renewal began in 2012, with a objective to transform RISA to better respond to the complex and often demanding needs of its client base. This has resulted in a renewal exercise specifically implemented at RISA with the following objectives:
Improve quality of engagements with stakeholders/customers;
Utilise expertise present in the organisation effectively;
Encourage sharing of skills for effective implementation of projects; and
Manage turnaround time on grants applications.
As a result of the RISA renewal, all funding instruments are now managed within the integrated matrix model.

10. Matrix Organisation – Some Benefits
Offers great flexibility for adaptation,
Encourages interfacing of activities across departments, reducing ‘silo’ approach
Creates strong problem-solving or goal focus
Results in clear and visible project objectives
Uses staff resources efficiently
Creates vertical and horizontal information flow
Conducive to innovation
Are these issues with the matrix system part of the finding relating to the processes which were being mapped?
If not delete slides

11. RISA High Level Granting Process
MoAs and Contracts from Funders
Core Funding
RISA High Level Granting Process
RISA Finance
Conceptualisation of a Funding Instrument
Registering of Funding Instrument as Project
Request for Call on NRF Online Submission System
Issuing Call for Proposals
NRF Legal Department
MFAAs with Beneficiaries
Call Closes
Internal Screening Process
Review Process
Successful
applications
Funding Decision
Grant Management Process
Reporting to Funder
Review of Funding Instrument
Award Process
Audits
Feedback to applicants
Appeals Process
Project Office
RISA
Unsuccessful
applications
Funding Domain RE
GMSA
RISA IT

12. RISA Value Chain Post Award: Pre-Award:
Research & Innovation Support & Advancement (RISA)
Human and Infrastructure Capacity Development (HICD)
Award Management
Research Chairs & Centres of Excellence
Knowledge Fields Development (Including IRC)
Rating of individuals
Funding Decision
Post Award:
Grant Management & Systems Administration (GMSA)
,Progress Reports, Student Admin & Monitoring
Funding Instrument
Development
Funding Domain
Project Management Office
Internal Audit
Contract Management
Rating Decision
GMSA Support Desk
Pre-Award:
Call Management, Verification, Screening (GMSA)
Reviews & Evaluation (RE)
Appeals Management
Funding Instruments Evaluations

13. Update on the RISA Business Process Mapping
In 2016 RISA embarked on mapping process of its granting activities to improve its efficiency
The objective of the RISA BPM was to provide a baseline on which to improve efficiencies and effectiveness within RISA
To ensure overall alignment with the NRF Vision 2020

14. Some Benefits of Business Process Mapping
Redundancy – from a Governance perspective, having documented artefacts (policies and procedures) that meet internal and external audit requirements;
Baseline – mapping business processes that establish a baseline to look at continuous improvement opportunities;
Training – the business process maps can be used to train new employees within the business units regarding policy processes and standards; and
Integration – once process has been baselined – opportunities for streamlining and integration can be established.

15. Update on the Rationalisation of Applications, Progress Reports and Calls
The aim of this exercise is to:
Minimise business reliance on IT through the development of a Call Provisioning Tool;
Streamline the review processes for cost effectiveness and efficiency by NRF; and
Make greater use of technology to improve efficiencies such as turn-around-times
by:
Following international standards;
Reviewing and rationalising the sections of the application templates
Streamlining the Application content and alleviate unnecessary information requested;
Simplify the Application templates for the NRF stakeholders; and
Reduce the number of types of Applications by grouping them in categories.

16. Objectives of the Rationalisation of NRF Applications, Progress Reports and Calls (Cont.)
In order to:
Eliminate time delays in opening Calls for Proposals on the NRF Online Submission System;
Free time for IT developers for system improvements;
Streamline Calls for Proposals and their duplicity (over 80 Calls);
Streamline possible Reviews and Evaluation processes; and
Optimise granting Turn around Time.

17. Recommendations from RISA BPM
Evolve the RISA going forward along the following three organizational architecture guiding principles:
Simplify:
Simplify products (funding instruments) business processes, systems and organisational structure in support of the Fit-for-Purpose vision
Reduction of application templates (currently)
Reduction of funding instruments and lead to simplification of business processes
Call Rationalisation
Standardise:
Standardise similar business processes between functions, divisions and systems within the matrix organisational structure and share and devolve proven best-practice to other business units
Automate:
Identify opportunities where common processes can be automated, such as current initiatives
Further development on the call provisioning tool,
the ERP investigation that is underway
Possible future opportunities such as integration between application, review, funding decision and grant management
Other opportunities for integration with supporting systems, such as filing, current excel spreadsheets, the BI systems (Gerhard)
Enhancements of NRF Submission & Phoenix system.