In a recent letter to the Telegraph, signatories from leading global research institutions claim major 20th century scientific breakthroughs would have been crushed under the weight of excessive modern administrative demands. At UNIT4 we have witnessed the increase in the demands placed on universities in the last few years and this is not limited to the peer preview process refered to in the letter. Complicated funding requirements, the inflexibility of existing systems, the trend towards bigger, more collaborative projects and greater competition for grants have combined to place huge pressure on institutions and the researchers themselves. There has to be a balance between enforcing quality measures and allowing innovation, finding the right mix will be difficult. Until that time however technology can help make this complex process simpler. Our five-minute guide to choosing and implementing research management technology has been designed to give you an overview of the challenges and opportunities presented by the new funding landscape.

1. Research is
changing
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1
It’s becoming more important
to organisations,
institutions,
even nations.

2. 2
 China aims to increase its research
spending by 72 per cent.
 In 1991 it created 10,000 research papers,
in 2011 that number was 150,0001.
 In fact, China will overtake the US as the
world's top producer of research by 20202.
East
1 Thomson Reuters
2 The Royal Society's 2011 report Knowledge, Networks and Nations
Just look
2

3. In many domestic markets, funding rules
are changing for Higher Education
Institutions and research revenue has
taken on greater significance.
This is driving greater competition for
funds from local and international
research organisations.
3
back yard
And in your own

4. 44
We've gone from a fairly relaxed
environment about five years ago to one
which is viciously competitive. All
research organisations are bidding for
funds and we need a very well managed
process to submit top quality
applications to enhance the chances of
success.
The fact is if you submit an application
with even a basic error it will
be rejected immediately.

ANDREW GRICE
D E P U T Y D I R E C T O R O F F I N A N C E A T
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H A M P T O N
R e a d A n d r e w ’ s b l o g s h e r e :

5. So, enlightened
research
organisations are
looking to:
Provide a better service.
Attract better people.
Be more competitive.
Do better research.
5
Easy, right?
Well things are getting
(more)……complicated

6. 66
It is research
after all
Projects are more involved.
There’s more collaboration.
There are increasingly complex institutional rules.
Snowballing funder and government compliance.
Disparate people in disparate departments.
Unconnected systems that operate in silos.
There’s more administration.
Controlled research management
practices are crucial for universities with
ambitions in this area. Research intensive
institutions have historically struggled with
the complexity of proper management
processes.

I A N T E B B E T T , C I O ,
M O N A S H U N I V E R S I T Y


7. 7
How you manage these
variables will make a lot of
difference to the quality
& quantity
of your research output
With all the changes in the market, we
had to adapt our strategy
to try and stay ahead.

P A U L D A M P I E R
M I S D I R E C T O R
U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E

G L E N N S W A F F O R D
D I R E C T O R O F R E S E A R C H S E R V I C E S
U N I V E R S I T Y O F O X F O R D
&

8. The five-minute guide
to choosing and
implementing research
management technology*
*(a taster, some key takeaways...)
8

9. 99
CONSIDER THESE
TECHNOLOGIES…
That’s the background, but what
kind of technology applications
address these challenges?
Modern, integrated research
management solutions.

10. 10
Marketing & innovation:
Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)
Research organisations have many
people with different objectives dealing
with the same customer.
CRM provides a single platform from
which to record customer contacts and
activities. This promotes customer
intelligence to identify opportunities and
provides a more ‘joined-up’ customer
experience.
1
B O T T O M L I N E
Improve opportunities
and awareness of funding

11. 1111
Pre-award
Management
2
Using technology, involve the right
stakeholders at the right time in the award
management process:
 Is this project the right ‘fit’ for us?
 Do we have the right people complete it?
 When are they available?
B O T T O M L I N E
Engage on projects that enhance
your institution’s reputation

12. 12
full Economic
Costing (fEC)
Funders increasingly demand accurate
reporting of direct and indirect costs.
Stakeholders also need to ensure that
projects are not completed at a loss.
3
B O T T O M L I N E
Transparency across the institution. Trying to
forecast and report costs manually is difficult to
do and difficult to do right. fEC software can remove
the headache by automatically calculating costs according
to the specific rules of individual funders.

13. 1313
Post-award management:
Running the project
4
B O T T O M L I N E
Deliver projects on time and on budget
Find the right people: With integration
into an HR system, skills can be
identified.
Project management: Have the right
people, with the right skills, in the right
place, at the right time.
Project billing: With integration into
finance systems, claim funds at the
right time and record costs.

14. 14
Finance
systems
With the growing importance of research
comes the responsibility to record and
provide visibility of strategic financial
information like budget vs spend, projected
costs and exchange rates.
5
B O T T O M L I N E
Automate administration and have
accurate visibility of real-time finances.

15. 1515
HR and recruitment
systems
6
B O T T O M L I N E
Look after and nurture
your most important asset
Every effort must be made to attract
and retain the best people, and also record
their achievements and skills.
HR technology is designed to do just this and
help you make the most of your people.

16. 16
All these technologies
can help you redirect
unnecessary
administration effort
toward improving
research output.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS ON
HOW TO IMPLEMENT THEM...

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TIP 1
Get the
vision right
Analyse your current
situation against what you
want to achieve
Engage with internal stakeholders.
Engage with potential technology.
partners
Understand what is possible.

18. 18
Research is one of the most scrutinised
and regulated industries. Choose
technology that can work with an ever-
changing environment
TIP 2
Choose the right
technology & choose
flexible technology
UNIT4’s research management solution,
including the unique Research Costing and
Pricing, along with the company’s experience in
the sector, promises the control universities like
Monash require to be world leading in
the field of research

I A N T E B B E T T, C I O
M O N A S H U N I V E R S I T Y

19. 1919
Give the project the
attention it deserves
TIP 3
Be thoroughly
prepared
Research is a strategic activity, growing
in importance, but it is also complex.
Put a dedicated project team together
and build a comprehensive plan.
Plan everything
& track everything

20. 20
TIP 4
Get your project
team in place
Make sure that
responsibilities and
deadlines are clear
Accountability compels individuals,
teams and partners to act.
It speeds decision making, and
ultimately helps hit deadlines faster.
U N I T 4 T E C H N O L O G Y T I P
A virtual common workspace for all stakeholders will guide
the flow of work and ideas to the right person at the right
time, optimising collective energy and exposing bottlenecks
before they become problematic

21. 2121
Win hearts and minds.
Reduce the shock factor.
Build project momentum.
Harness their skills to create
something world-class.
TIP 5
Get early buy-in from
research staff
Managing change is often the biggest
challenge of any technology project;
involve individuals from the departments
that will be use the system like
academics, human resource and finance
executives.

22. 22
TIP 6
Fuse
Integrate your
systems for joined-
up working and
joined-up thinking.
This is where the
most compelling
benefits lie.

23. 2323
When one system talks to another
everything becomes easier. Information
can be pulled, with relative ease, for
funder reports and audits. Data need only
be inputted once, in fact any changes are
made just once rather than many times for
many systems.
Workflow can cross functions alerting HR,
finance, academics and business
developers of events that may
need their input or approval.

INTERNATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR
EDUCATION & RESEARCH, UNIT4
N I C K G I B S O N


24. All this may
sound complicated,
but chances are you are doing it already,
just without the automation, and with a
high degree of effort.

25. 25
 Better management of customer
relationships.
 Automated administration for
reduced costs.
 Rapid and accurate reports for
audits and decision making.
 Simpler compliance to funder and
government rules.
B O T T O M L I N E
You bring control to the
research management process
Linking processes
across functions means:

26. 2626
TIP 7
Remember your
strengths
At all times during this
process think about how to
best bring to the fore your
institution’s strengths.

INTERNATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR
EDUCATION & RESEARCH, UNIT4
N I C K G I B S O N


27. 2727
Great administration can create
a ‘virtuous circle’ in which a better
managed process brings in more
revenue, which can be used to
improve research and teaching
facilities and makes the university
more attractive for funders and
students.
Our chosen technology in itself will
not change the world (it's an
administrative solution, after all) but
it is freeing up the time of our highly
skilled staff, who sometimes can.

P A U L D A M P I E R
M I S D I R E C T O R
U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E
G L E N N S W A F F O R D
D I R E C T O R O F R E S E A R C H S E R V I C E S
U N I V E R S I T Y O F O X F O R D
&

28. You may also be interested in this article by
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
on the challenges of costing and pricing.
During this period of exceptional challenges, and
opportunities, we are all still learning, do you have
questions or experiences you would like to share?
28
That’s some of the tips we
believe you should have
top of mind.
Comment, Tweet, LinkedIn, or email us yours…
And please share if you found this
useful using the SlideShare “Share”
button above

29. 2929
The Agresso Campus Platform
makes perfect strategic sense for
modern Higher Education institutions.
It automates administration through
workflow whilst also providing the right
information at the right time to
personnel. This enables our experts to
have a more strategic focus on finance
strategy, world-class research or
business development.


DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
A L L A N S P E N C E R

30. 30
FUTURE?
What of the
We see a bright outlook
for, and are investing in:
 Social collaboration
 Mobile working
 Enhanced analytics
And we think it will all be
delivered via the cloud…

31. 31
H AV E A N Y Q U E S T I O N S ? C O M E A N D S AY H E L L O …
UNIT4 will be on Stand 4 at this year’s ARMA Conference from 9th to
11th June 2014.