Researchfish

Background

Researchfish is a Research Outcomes System designed to enable researchers to report once across multiple funders, re-use their data for their own use and control who sees and accesses their data. It has a simple one-click environment for adding research outcomes to be stored and/or attributed to an award. A researcher, or one of their delegates, can add, edit and delete entries, and attribute entries to awards they hold or to one of their CV’s held in the Researchfish Portal.

On this page we will give you updates when certain funders ask researchers to report outputs relating to their projects via Researchfish.

Funders who currently use Researchfish include BHF, MRC and STFC. More funders are going to join, so for a full list please see the Researchfish website.

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Sources of advice

  • Researchers can raise any questions regarding the system via an online help centre which can be accessed via the top of any Researchfish page.
  • There are general webinars for PIs which may be of interest to researchers and research administrators – see https://www.researchfish.com/contact/webinar.
  • If you would like any help with Researchfish sections dealing with IP and commercialisation please contact Isis Innovation. Isis colleagues can also provide information on existing patent filings such as progress status, filing numbers and dates as well as details of licences and commercial interactions that are already in the public domain. Please direct your questions to either:
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MRC Outputs Collection 2013

The MRC is shortly due to open its 2013 outputs collection round.  After 1 October 2013 it will be contacting PIs who hold or have held MRC grant funding since 2006 to update and submit feedback on the results of their MRC-funded research. The system used for this is hosted and supported by Researchfish (www.researchfish.com). The deadline for these returns to be submitted to the MRC in 2013 is 14 November 2013.

Researchfish is currently used by more than seventy other public and charitable research funding agencies (including the BHF, Arthritis Research UK, Cancer Research UK, and NIHR), and some of these funders will also be asking researchers to submit data to a similar deadline.  Researchers will be contacted separately by the individual funders.

MRC have recently supplied a list of awards made to Oxford to Research Services.  Research Services is currently checking this information to make sure it is accurate, and will feed any corrections and amendments back to the MRC.

Once the collection period is open, Research Services will be monitoring submission rates and will update Departments with submission status during the collection period, as well as following up with individual PIs (where appropriate) as we get closer to the deadline date.

Please note: all PIs who hold or have held MRC grant funding since 2006 are obliged under the terms of their award to report for the lifetime of their award plus 5 years thereafter.  Consequences of a failure to report for a current award are the suspension of funds; for awards that are closed but within the 5 year reporting period PIs who do not submit a report are barred from applying for further MRC funds until a suitable report is submitted.

During the 2012 collection more than 98% of Oxford-held awards reported outputs and no financial sanctions were incurred.  The excellent response from PIs in the collection rounds to date have greatly improved the quality of the information that the MRC has been able to gather about the research it funds, enabling it to make a much more coherent case for continued funding in this area, and the impact of that funding, to BIS.

If you would like further information about the exercise please contact Liz Beckett in Research Services (elizabeth.beckett@admin.ox.ac.uk).

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MRC: Interim Report on the MRC Research Outcomes and Outputs Collection via Researchfish (Dec 2012)

Elizabeth Beckett, Research Services, has written the following Interim Report on MRC Research Outcomes and Outputs Collection via Researchfish (217kb).
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STFC Researchfish: new look and functionality (July 2013)

Thanks to user feedback the STFC Researchfish online data collection tool has a brand new look, with an updated user-friendly design and new features including an improved sorting function, easier search option, redesigned submit button and more. You can find the new look website at https://www.Researchfish.com.

Users are reminded that the system is continuously open for data entry and STFC encourage you to continue adding outputs as they occur, therefore aiding you with spreading the workload throughout the year. If you have not yet had a chance to access Researchfish you can do so via your invitation email. If you require a new invitation, please let STFC know. They will keep you fully updated until they launch the review and submit period in early 2014.

Your outputs are important to STFC - they have already collected over 20,000 outputs. Their Evaluation team is currently analysing all data submitted and plan to send institutional output reports to all their institutional contacts by the end of July 2013. Principal Investigators are able to obtain copies of their outputs using the Download function from the ‘My Portfolio’ page.

STFC as part of RCUK (Research Councils UK) are required to take part in the BIS initiative Gateway to Research. This is why it is key that users continue to inform STFC via Researchfish of all their outputs. By collecting this information, STFC will be in a better position to demonstrate to funders the benefits of their investments in research.

The goal of Gateway to Research is to give the public better access to information on research funded by the Research Councils. It contains information currently held on grants across all seven Research Councils, and the output information will derive from data submitted to ROS and Researchfish. All submitted outputs information will be available via Gateway to Research when the system goes live in December 2013.

Any questions or comments relating to STFC’s Researchfish data collection should be directed to the Researchfish team at evaluation@stfc.ac.uk

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Report on the STFC Research Outputs Collection via Researchfish 2013 (April 2013)

STFC undertook its first data collection round to capture accurate data on the outputs of its research funding in Spring 2011.  From January 2013 it rolled out the Researchfish system to gather this information.
Researchfish is an online tool that gathers data about the outputs and outcomes of research.  It was initially developed by the Medical Research Council who worked with a group of 10 or so other funders to create a 'federated' outputs collection system (launched in June 2012), which works across funders so that researchers need only enter an output once and can then associate it with the relevant funder or funders.

Award holders are asked by STFC to report each year during the lifetime of an award and for five years after the end date. There are currently no sanctions imposed by STFC if a Principal Investigator (PI) does not submit their outcomes using Researchfish, although this may change in future.  Researchfish is open for researchers to add and edit output information all year, however there is an annual submission period with a closing date for STFC of 4 April this year.

Of the 137 programmes/awards held at Oxford and expected to submit information this year, 62% (85 awards/programmes) submitted by 4 April 2013.

STFC has agreed to return to the University a data file of the material submitted by Oxford researchers by July 2013. Research Services will liaise with divisions and departments to discuss how that data might be best made available for their use.

Researchfish is currently being adopted by a number of other funding agencies. Those set to implement the system in the near future include Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research as well as a large number of the smaller medical charities under the AMRC umbrella.

Please view a copy of the full report: Report on the STFC Research Outputs Collection via Researchfish 2013 (258kb)

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