The changing face of research support

Key points:

• Work underway to improve our support for researchers and their research in face of increased scale, complexity and funder requirements  
• Information about our ambitions for digital research management systems and tools, and a new research ethics system and dashboard project for REF 2029 
• Supporting Oxford’s researchers and their research through Digital Transformation and Professional Services Together 

Oxford is widely known for its world-leading research and the profound impact that the work of our outstanding researchers has across the globe. It’s a defining characteristic of the University, and core to our academic mission – and one that we’re proud to support in Research Services.  

Protecting that research excellence and helping our researchers succeed requires continued creativity and innovation in our ways of working – particularly as the scale and complexity of our research portfolio increases, we move through a digital transformation at Oxford, and we navigate the changing external environment.  

Findings from the Research Finance Management (Post Award) Service Review 

A critically important piece of recent work has been a service review of how we support the financial management of research funding. Oxford's annual research income is now over £200m more than any other UK university and this in-depth review considered ways to respond to the growing scale, complexity and diversity of our external funding.   

The review identified nine priority actions. These are focused on improving planning and coordination across the University; addressing workforce pinch points; seizing new technology opportunities; using digital tools and automation to streamline processes; and improving guidance and support resources for researchers and research support staff.  

The Service Review was part of Professional Services Together, working with colleagues across Oxford and with the expert support of the Focus team. It was informed by researchers and professional services staff, as well as benchmarking and best practice at other institutions. The full report is available on the Focus webpages, we look forward to working with you on the implementation.  

Improving digital experiences 

One of the most important pieces of work underway is focused on improving how we manage research projects across their full lifecycle. To support this, we are transforming our systems and tools for preparing and costing funding applications, managing and reporting on awards, handling research contract negotiations, and supporting research governance and assurance activities.  

We want end-to-end systems that are researcher-centred, better promote transparency of tasks and workflow between researchers, departments and central teams, improve process efficiency and allow us to reuse research management data wherever possible.  

We are progressing well understanding our requirements for upgraded systems, reviewing potential suppliers and finding out about the experience of other research-intensive UK institutions – and plan to seek input on a recommended solution in autumn 2024.  

A new research ethics application system 

As a first step in moving to this joined up digital environment, we are implementing Worktribe Ethics as a new online system to manage the preparation, submission, review and approval of research ethics applications. This will replace the current offline and email-based process. 

The University’s Department of Education and its ethics committee will shortly begin testing the new system. Subject to a successful pilot, we will test and roll the system out to other departments, divisions and ethics committees across the University over the rest of 2024. 

REF preparation: creation of dashboards 

While the timing of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) may have slipped to 2029, we want to make sure that, as an institution, our research leaders are able to access reliable and comprehensive information on research quality and research activities to support their modelling and strategic decision-making, including in preparation for REF 2029.  

The Research Strategy and Policy Unit in Research Services is leading on the development of dashboards for use at departmental, divisional and central University levels. This includes topics such as research income data; researcher career development; and volumes, value, trend and distribution by department, research and funders.  

This is a complex project, needing us to combine data, analysed across multiple dimensions, from many different systems – Symplectic, ORA, Oracle Financials, the PeopleXD HR system, CoSy training records and more.  

The first stages involve us assessing whether data is available, and assessing its quality and how well it can work across different systems. We will then take action to address any gaps. We are hugely grateful for the support of colleagues in these areas for their continued support in this work. 

Find out more and get involved 

This is a small snapshot of activity that is underway to support the research community, which I believe will significantly improve the quality, efficiency and usability of the services we offer. 

If you’d like to get involved in individual projects, details will be shared through the Research Services (RS) newsletter and the Research and Innovation Support Network (RISN) in due course.  

For more detail of the wider research component of the Digital Transformation programme, please refer to the website. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.