THIS MESSAGE IS GOING TO ALL PI’S, RESEARCH ADMINS, AND DEPARTMENT CHAIRS
Dear Colleagues,
This summer, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors will launch two key components of the UT Research Management Suite. On June 27, 2022, the UT Research Management Suite Grants and Conflict of Interest (COI) modules will replace legacy systems used for proposal preparation and submission and conflict of interest management: RMS and eProtocol FID.
I write now to ask you to help us to make the transition as smooth as possible. We will be running a pilot test of the new Grants software from April 11 to May 4. If you are planning to submit a proposal during this window, we ask if you would be willing to submit through the new system. If you are willing to help out by doing so, please contact the UT Research Management Suite project team at era@austin.utexas.edu for information about participating in the pilot. If you do not choose to participate, you may continue to use RMS during this period. If you volunteer, we will provide backup support to make sure that the test does not cause submission problems. Your participation can help the whole campus by allowing us to find and fix bugs before the suite goes live in June.
We know that the transition to new software will have an impact on investigators and research support staff. Our team is working to maximize the improvements and benefits the new system will bring to UT Austin and to minimize the pain of the transition. On the benefit side, our ultimate goal is to reduce the administrative and regulatory burden on investigators and research support staff. While not all of the features that will assist in reaching this goal will be present at launch, over time upgrades to the system will improve support to the UT research community by shortening the time needed to set up funding for new awards, and by providing robust reporting capabilities and direct system-to-system submission of proposals to Research.gov.
On the pain minimization side, we have prepared a series of outreach and communication activities with the UT research community. Prior to the launch and in the months afterwards, we will provide training and help to assist users with the transition to the new system. Look for additional updates in the coming weeks from the UT Research Management Suite project team, the Office of Sponsored Projects, and the Office of Research Support and Compliance on support options that will be available to investigators and research support staff, as well as specific keys dates to be aware of during the transition to the new system.
We look forward to working with all of you as the project moves forward. For more information on the UT Research Management Suite, please visit the project website at https://research.utexas.edu/eraproject/. If you have any questions or concerns on the transition to the new system, please contact the UT Research Management Suite project team at era@austin.utexas.edu.
Sincerely,
