ERI has had its current pre-award research management system, InfoEd for 12 years. Our installed version of the software is unstable and performs poorly costing a considerable amount of operator time. Significant effort has been made in the past 5 years to maximise the functionality, securing real efficiencies in the process, but it has not been possible to implement electronic application authorisation or develop anything other than rudimentary outputs.  The system is now too inflexible to support significant changes to the research administration process and insufficiently intuitive or reliable to roll out to the wider University community. Reporting requirements from senior management in the University also exceed the capabilities of the system. The recent implementation of the Infinite service, which was developed to link InfoEd with the University Finance system, has further highlighted the inadequacies of the current solution. The current situation is unsatisfactory functionally and the University is seriously exposed to system failure in this key business area. This project will revisit with key stakeholder groups in the University community the requirements and optimal process for the costing and administration of research applications and awards. The ultimate aim will be to identify revised business processes and supporting technology meets the needs of these stakeholders. For ERI, an efficient system will release a substantial amount of its Research Support Advisors' time enabling them to provide a greater degree of higher value knowledge based services. For Schools the system should enable costing and data entry to be completed at School level and provide direct access to accurate and up to date management information. As a result it should be possible to discontinue ERI's current data warehouse which populates the KPI and other management information outputs. The new system will be fully compatible with the University's new Research Information System, PURE, allowing the option of generating more sophisticated reports. The project will deliver improved research administration processes that will result in greater efficiency centrally and within Schools. This will enable significantly greater time being made available to provide essential support to UoE Principal Investigators applying for grant funding. An improved Research Management and Administration System (RMAS) will enable data population to be done by multiple stakeholders, improving efficiency and providing management information to better target resources to enhancing the University research profile. Although the primary focus will be on improving the business processes and technology support for pre-award research administration, the project will also explore post award processes and technology options with to indentify the most beneficial complete end to end research admistration solution for the University. The analysis of post award requirements will be at a higher level sufficient to provide recommendations for future work.

This project was started before the move to the new projects website, so documentation is only shown from 6th August 2012.   Documentation prior to this can be found on the old projects web site (EASE login required) at:

https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/RES038/Index+Page

There is also a user facing wiki (EASE login required) at:

https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/RES038/Research+Management+and+Administration+System+-+Project+Homepage