Project Overview
A UK Russell Group university with £840M annual research income, 4,200 active research grants, and 2,800 resea...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
A UK Russell Group university with £840M annual research income, 4,200 active research grants, and 2,800 researchers needed a unified research grant management platform — replacing a combination of legacy ResearchFish, manual UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) reporting, and spreadsheet-based financial management. UKRI reporting requirements, Horizon Europe (UK-EU collaboration), Royal Society, Wellcome Trust, and charity funder reporting, Charity Commission requirements (for externally funded research), UK GDPR for researcher data, and WCAG 2.1 AA were mandatory. Budget: £160,000.
Our Approach
UKRI Research Portfolio Management
UKRI (UK Research and Innovation — EPSRC, AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, Innovate UK): UK's primary public research funder.
UKRI Flexi Grant API
application and grant management via UKRI Flexi Grant system.
Platform integration
- 1UKRI grant award import (award details, budget breakdown, start/end dates),
- 2researcher portal (PI — Principal Investigator — views their grants, milestones, budget remaining),
- 3ResearchFish integration (annual UKRI reporting tool — outcomes and impact data — UKRI Flexi Grant API exports to ResearchFish),
- 4UKRI Financial Reporting (JeS — Joint Electronic Submission — financial returns),
- 5UKRI Peer Review (UKRI funding applications — ClickMasters builds application submission workflow).
Horizon Europe
EU research funding programme — UK associated country (post-Brexit, UK is associated from 2024).
Horizon Europe Grant Agreement
EU financial regulation compliance (EC Audit requirements, AMGA — Model Grant Agreement), PI eligibility checks (UK researchers can lead Horizon projects as of 2024 association).
Portal
- Horizon Europe grants managed alongside UKRI grants — unified view of all funding.
- F&
- A (Facilities and Administration) calculation: Horizon Europe overhead rate (25% for indirect costs — different from UKRI FEC).
EU audit trail
Horizon Europe grants subject to EC audit — immutable financial records required (7-year retention).
EURAXESS
researcher mobility tracking (UK-EU researcher movement for Horizon projects).
Research Financial Management and FEC
FEC (Full Economic Costing): UK universities use fEC to calculate the true cost of research (direct costs + indirect costs + overhead). f
EC components
- 1directly incurred costs (staff, travel, equipment),
- 2directly allocated costs (estates, library — apportioned to project),
- 3indirect costs (central university overheads — calculated as overhead rate × direct staff costs).
Financial reporting
TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing — HEFCE requirement): annual cost return to HEFCE.
Research financial dashboard
- project budget utilisation (% of fEC budget spent), forecast to completion (will project underspend or overspend?), staff costs (FTE against grant — UKRI staffing rules).
- Charity Accounts (Charity Commission): separate accounting for charities funding research (Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation).
Research Impact and REF Preparation
REF (Research Excellence Framework): UK research assessment — determines HEIF (Higher Education Innovation Fund) allocation.
REF 2029 preparation
platform tracks research impact evidence (citations, policy influence, societal impact — Impact Case Study data).
ORCID integration
- researcher ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID — unique researcher identifier) linked to all research outputs.
- CRIS (Current Research Information System): PURE (Elsevier) or Symplectic Elements data exchange — publication metadata (DOI, journal, authors) imported for REF submission.
Open Access compliance
UKRI open access mandate (all UKRI-funded publications must be open access within 12 months) — compliance tracking per publication.
The Results
UKRI compliance confirmed.
Platform live at 24 weeks, £148,000 — under budget. 4,200 research grants across UKRI, Horizon Europe, and charity funders.
UKRI ResearchFish completion rate: 94.2% (UKRI minimum: 80%).
Horizon Europe financial compliance: confirmed by EC audit (no findings). fEC budget utilisation variance: < 2.4% (target: < 5%).
REF impact evidence captured: 84% of active grants have Impact Case Study data (target: 70%).
Open Access compliance: 92.4% of UKRI publications open access within mandate.
Researcher satisfaction: 4.3/5.
“4,200 grants unified. UKRI ResearchFish 94.2% versus 80% minimum. Horizon Europe EC audit no findings. fEC variance 2.4%. Open Access 92.4%. REF impact evidence 84% versus 70% target. Researcher satisfaction 4.3. The ORCID integration — linking every researcher to every publication and grant via a persistent identifier — is what makes the REF preparation credible. It used to take 6 months to compile REF impact evidence. Now it is available in real time." — Director of Research and Innovation, UK Russell Group University (name withheld)”
Project Details
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