Discovery update - August 2016

1 Aug 2016

ESS Discovery Project updates

Human Ethics (Project Manager: Ms Helen Fraser) 
The project team has commenced the detailed design of the faculty-based Low and Negligible Risk sub-committee model and will be collaborating closely with faculties and institutes to develop the model, working towards a pilot later this year.  The team is also continuing to review draft procedures to assist researchers to interpret the National Statement Guidelines in relation to research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants.
 
Animal Ethics (Project Manager: Prof. Craig Franklin)  
The project team and key stakeholders undertook a design workshop in July to redesign the current application form, incorporating best practice attributes from leading universities. Subgroups are continuing the detailed development of the form which is planned to be completed by November. A proposal is being drafted to address resource support for the Animal Ethics Unit, including the provision of competency training and assessment. 

Grants Management (Project Manager: Ms Cordelia Jackson)
The project team has commenced the development of user specifications and systems requirements for a new research management system, replacing Research Master. A process has commenced to engage a specialist IT project manager to manage the detailed development of technical specifications and the systems procurement. The team is continuing to map the grants management process and workflows, including links with ethics approval, research data management, corporate data management reporting and other core components of the research process.

Research Data Management (Project Manager: Prof Nick Hawkins) 
Development of shared data storage options is continuing and the electronic data management plan pilot is progressing with the Graduate School, The team is developing two further proposals for provisioning of software to enable best practice data management, The digital research notebooks group is assessing software options to enable electronic documentation of research and the project team is identifying potential software solutions for enhanced clinical data management.                      

Corporate Research Data (Project Manager: Dr Amberyn Thomas)  
The team is developing a proposal to increase the uptake of ORCID by researchers, supporting increased visibility of research contributions and protecting each researcher's unique identity. The team is also developing options to enhance research and researcher metrics, catalogue individual data requirements and improve access to data on research performance. 

Research Higher Degrees (Project Manager: Assoc Prof. Jane Stadler)
The project team is continuing to work with the UQ Graduate School to identify opportunities for improvement across the three primary work streams - advisor training and development needs; improving candidature evaluation and management; and enhancing graduate outcomes, student training and development). The team is also supporting the Graduate School to develop and roll out an electronic graduate management system - this will be piloted in MABS commencing January 2017.

Research Partnerships and Contracts (Project Manager: Prof. Ian Godwin) 
Work has commenced benchmarking exemplar universities and organisations to identify areas of potential improvement in the management of partnerships and contracts, as well as developing initial process maps of major categories of contract/agreement workflows. The team is also progressing consideration of options for improving access to archived contract and partnership data. 

Research Infrastructure (Project Manager: Ms Rebecca Osborne)
Nominations for the project team have closed and the first meeting will take place in August. This project will enhance the use and maximise the benefit of UQ's research resources, including identifying opportunities to increase the operational efficiency and utilisation of infrastructure and to engage in stronger collaboration for research infrastructure funding.  

Email enhancingservices@uq.edu.au for further information.

Protecting Researchers’ Identity and Reputation – Introducing ORCID

As the research funding environment continues to become more competitive, it is vital that universities can accurately record and report their performance for publications, their performance for citations and their demonstrable research impact. However, difficulties arise when authors use variants of their name, change their name or have a common name.

The Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) is a unique and persistent digital identifier for​researchers that is internationally recognized across disciplines and allows researchers to create clear links to their professional activities.

Through the UQ Researcher Identifiers Application, UQ researchers can link ORCIDs to their UQ identity, allowing the University to identify, report and promote the research of our staff. However, only researchers with a UQ staff identification number can currently use the system, and, to date fewer than 600 researchers across the institution have linked ORCIDs.

This presents a significant lost opportunity to the University and individual researchers, so the ESS Corporate Research Data team, in partnership with the UQ Library, is developing solutions to enhance the sophistication and coverage of the UQ Researcher Identifiers Application. The application is currently being modified to allow UQ RHD students to link an ORCID to their student number, as well as their Staff ID (where they have one), and the team is investigating an upgrade of the UQ Researcher Identifiers Application to enable researchers to upload publications linked to them in UQ eSpace to their ORCID. In the longer term, this  will enable the university to map RHD students to their Staff ID, track RHD contributions to the publication output of the University, and track the research career trajectories of RHD graduates.

Thorough knowledge of the research output of staff and students supports the university to meet its Federal Government reporting requirements, enables evidence-based decision making regarding the research portfolio across the university, and promotes the University’s research strengths and expert capability. Ensuring that we are able to track the contributions of all our individual researchers is a vital first step.

Read more about the ESS Corporate Research Data project. 
Read more about Open Researcher and Contributor Identifiers (ORCID). 
Read more about author identifiers and profiles.

Important Dates and Events

26 August 2016 - HREA Beta Testing concludes. Access the form and survey.

Download the original ESS Discovery Update email. 

Latest