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

2. 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

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

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

5. 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

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

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

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

9. 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

10. 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

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

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

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

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

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

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

26. 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

27. research.usask.ca

29.  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?

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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

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

36. 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

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

38. Then they expect you to deliver: Thank you!