The Research Lifecycle is a 5 year programme of investments to support The University of Manchester in meeting its goal of being one of the top 25 research universities in the world, through a series of strategic investments in IT and associated change

We have identified three areas that the programme will impact:

• e-Research Infrastructure – which is a combination and interworking of digitally-based technology; hardware and software, resources (data, services, digital libraries) communications, and the people and organisational structures needed to support modern, internationally leading collaborative research.
• Research Data Lifecycle –covering the processes and technologies of data creation and deposit, management of active data; publication; data repositories and archives; data catalogues and registries.
• Processes and systems that support the administration of Research.

What is the Research Lifecycle to achieve, and how?

The programme has 6 key areas of focus:

• Researchers will have research capabilities and support services to achieve the research goals set out in the University’s Vision. Through wide consultation we will create a strategic investment roadmap covering investment in e-Research Infrastructure, Research Data Life Cycle and Administration of Research that will deliver an uplift in capability for researchers.
• Researchers will have the capabilities to achieve demonstrable compliance with University, funding body and regulatory authorities’ data management publishing policies through investment in facilities and processes.
• All of these capabilities will be brought together in a single dashboard – bringing the simplicity of one place for researchers to access the services they need.
• The capabilities will be integrated with the University’s management reporting capability, to improve timely reporting and ensure the University has the right information to work with funding and regulatory bodies.
• Monitoring and planning processes will be joined up for research facilities, giving proactive capacity management to ensure timely investment.
• The cost of delivering research centric services will be better understood in advance of researchers preparing proposals, so that reclaiming of these expenditures via grant applications is at appropriate levels, and the researchers and the University maximise recovery of costs.

What is happening now?

The Research Lifecycle programme is currently undertaking significant scoping activities from January to June 2018. The outcomes of this work will be the strategic investment roadmaps, which will drive a number of delivery projects.

PA Consulting have been appointed as consultants to help us with the scoping work on Administration of Research, and they are conducting workshops over the next 8 weeks to gather information and views. In February a second consultancy will join us to work on e-Research Infrastructure and Research Data Life Cycle, who will be looking for lots of input from researchers.

When the workshops are complete, PA Consulting will work with us to examine the options going forward and prepare the business case to draw down on the earmarked £15M.

The project team are based in the Sackville Building and can be contacted via rlp@manchester.ac.uk.