Ashley Stewart2, Jeremy Gibson1, Mr. Daniel Boydell1, Viji Chinnamani2, Dr. Simon Barrett2
1Elsevier, Australia, 2Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Ashley Stewart – Manager Research Information: A key theme throughout Ashley’s career has been embracing new technologies to manage data in an ever-changing world. From helping a small business move to a cloud-based accounting package; to helping to design database solutions for clinical research studies to designing and maintaining an automated reporting system, Ashley has a broad experience with data throughout business and research life cycles. In her current role, Ashley is helping to manage Monash University's Research Information Management System working closely with stakeholders to improve the use of the system and increase accessibility of data to support data-driven decision making.
Jeremy Gibson – Integration Delivery Manager: Jeremy has been working to leverage technology to support better research management practices for the last 15 years. He has worked at Queensland University of Technology in various roles before joining Elsevier in 2021
Daniel Boydell – Software Solutions Manager: Dan has over 15 years in Research Intelligence and Higher Education Technology. Leading complex IT projects across APAC. Helping research institutions understand and improve the impact and performance of their research, leading their strategic direction through technological innovation.
Abstract:
Large amounts of research project funding is provided by national agencies. Monash University administered over $380,000,000 in grants commencing 2020-2023, through the National Competitive Grant Scheme. These agencies have distinct systems to handle their application processes, while universities must replicate this in their own research systems to support their academics.
This requires significant resourcing from research offices for administrative staff to handle the repetitive and often manual task of keeping both systems aligned, in order to fulfil internal approval, reporting and operational obligations. During major grant rounds, the magnitude of applications creates enormous administrative overhead for institutions. These processes can lead to issues in data quality, inaccuracies across systems, confusion in communication and delays in processing applications.
Monash have partnered with Elsevier to develop the Funding Agency Application Integration (FAAI). Coupled with Pure, their Research Management System, we can build seamless synchronisation between the parallel application and grant management processes. This component uses innovative integration patterns, supporting easy configuration for different institutions. The result ensures data quality across systems, giving executives across the institution confidence in reporting to make data-driven decisions around budgets and research strategy. It alleviates the administrative burden of having to manage information accuracy and the painstaking communications with researchers. All while freeing up grants office staff to focus on the more complex tasks and allowing them to provide improved support to the institution’s researchers to submit the highest quality applications.