Research IT

The Future of the Research Lifecycle Programme

The Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP) scoping phase is drawing to a conclusion. Over the past six months there has been an intense period of consultation with the research and support community staff through workshops, one to one interviews, deep dives, and a Thought Exchange survey. The Thought Exchange provided us with a comprehensive insight of the ideas of the community from PhD students to professors and support staff of how they envisage future e-infrastructure data management and support.

As a result, a series of requirements for better functioning research administrative processes, e-infrastructure and databases have been compiled. These requirements were translated into options of competing solution which were then assessed by the Research IT Strategic Change Management Board who settled on a core of projects for change.

A business case is currently being written which will be recommending solutions to the University Senior Leadership Team and there will hopefully be an update on this next month.

The work of the RLP has been divided into three streams to begin with:

Administrative support: better integrated administrative and IT support in research applications from inception to close of research grants, including unfunded research and beyond.e-Infrastructure: better provision of capabilities and support especially for growing areas in Humanities.Data Life Cycle: the community consultation identified this as a major area for further work, requiring major investment.

Find out more about proposals for the direction of the programme at the open house event on Wednesday 13 June, open to anyone whose day-to-day life at the University touches on research in any way.