Since my last report as Programme Sponsor in July, I’d like to update the University community on recent changes as well as the planned roll out of awards management though RIS from January 2021 onwards – which is the final major element of the UK implementation programme.

In September all academic staff’s profiles in the online RIS repository were linked to their staff profile page on the University website, so that their existing publications lists are now being supplemented with the latest output information in RIS.

Work is currently underway to add additional data into the REF module in preparation for our submission to Research England by the end of March. To facilitate this user permissions have been extended to a wide range of colleagues involved in inputting outstanding information and validating the submission data held in RIS to ensure that our final REF return is as robust as possible.

Phase 1 of the development work to link the RIS and Finance systems has been completed. This will enable academic staff to check progress and to track spend on their projects in RIS.

This new interface will be rolled out on a phased basis in 2021. In mid-January it will be switched on for the majority of new awards that are made LIVE in RIS, resulting in finance codes being automatically assigned to these projects as well as budget information and expenditure being transferred between the RIS and Finance systems. Subsequent changes to these projects, for example start date changes, will also be managed in this way.

When this initial pilot phase has been completed the next stage of the roll out will begin, resulting in the transfer of all historic and new expenditure to other LIVE projects in RIS that currently have finance codes on them. When this process has been concluded the final part of the roll out will also enable key changes to LIVE projects being managed through the integration to ensure that project and financial data in the two systems remain in sync.

I sincerely hope that you all have a good break over the festive period. In the meantime if you have any questions or would like any further information about any of these developments then please email:RIS-Enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk.

Professor Kevin Shakesheff
PVC Faculty of Science