*ARTICLE UPDATED 20 MARCH WITH NEW SUTTON BONINGTON DATE/VENUE*

Roadshows showcasing the Research Information System (RIS) take place from Tuesday 20 March onwards, giving colleagues the opportunity to find out about the new functionality that will be coming online over the next few months.

RIS provides a structured way of managing the preparation, approval and submission of grant applications, as well as providing a user-friendly interface to enable projects to be managed more effectively. RIS has already replaced pFact and will replace a number of other university systems with a single, modern, integrated tool.

The RIS project sponsor and Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science, Prof Kevin Shakesheff, will host a series of roadshows to showcase new functionality within RIS prior to its launch across the university. This will include a demo as well as an opportunity to ask questions. There’s no need to sign up – just turn up on the day.

• 4-5pm, Tuesday 20 March: A48, Clive Granger, University Park
• 3-4pm, Wednesday 21 March: CLT2, Exchange Building, Jubilee
• 3-4pm, Monday 26 March: B3, Life Sciences
• 9:30am, Tuesday 17 April: DSN 205, School of Health Sciences, Derby City Hospital
• 3:30-4:30pm,Tuesday 17 April: A50, Clinical Science Building, City Hospital
• 10:30am-11:30am, Friday 27 April: A3, Lecture block, Sutton Bonington

The first part of the RIS programme – enabling research staff to find funding opportunities and develop funding applications – went live within all faculties last June.

RIS is now being linked to the Agresso system to automatically generate project codes and budgets and to enable expenditure to be tracked against awards. The first part of the award management process, which includes the formal acceptance of an award and credit split approvals, has successfully passed user acceptance testing and a pilot has started in the Faculty of Engineering.

Work is also underway to use RIS to support the University’s REF 2021 submission. The first part of this work focuses on using RIS to deposit and manage outputs. The RIS deposit process will be demonstrated in the roadshows and will then be piloted and rolled out across the University over the coming months.