Simpler and Better: issue 3, May 2023

The newsletter from the UKRI Simpler and Better Funding Programme keeping you up to date on the development of UKRI's new Funding Service

SBF Programme Director Anne Sofield

Hello,

Welcome to the latest issue of our ‘Simpler and Better’ newsletter. As the SBF Programme Director, I wanted personally to introduce the latest updates in our development of a new Funding Service for UKRI.

We have been building the Funding Service iteratively, with enhancements informed by feedback from users like you. If you have given us feedback, I would like to thank you for your help in making the service better. There are many ways to get involved in our journey; please see the end of this newsletter to find out more.

We have made great progress and we now offer an end-to-end service that covers application submission through to making an award.

Many more features and enhancements are coming over the course of this year. For example, we will:

• roll out harmonised question sets and guidance to replace the ‘case for support,’ making it easier for colleagues who apply for and manage awards from more than one research council
• develop the service to support higher volumes of applications
• continue to broaden the range of opportunities made available through the Funding Service.

We will update you about these changes in future newsletters. 

I hope you find this newsletter useful and informative. We welcome feedback on our engagement, communications, or the service itself, so do please get in touch and let us know how we are doing.

Thank you for your support in helping us create a simpler and better funding service for all our users.

Anne Sofield, Simpler and Better Funding Programme Director

In this issue: 

• The Funding Service design principles – learn why we’re developing the Funding Service in this way
• Policy Pulse – find out what’s new and what’s coming soon
• Using the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI) – understand how it will be used in the Funding Service
• Staff roles in the Funding Service – find out how roles might change
• Upcoming events and further information

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The Funding Service Design Principles 

Many of you will have seen and heard a number of updates and news about the Funding Service over the past months. We thought it might be worthwhile here to remind you of the principles which inform the design of the service and our programme decision-making.

The Funding Service is a new grants platform that simplifies and makes the application experience easier for applicants and research offices. The service is designed to enable:

• A simpler logical model for opportunities
• Simplified policies for opportunities and awards
• Reduced variation or single guidance for applicants and assessors
• A reduced number of opportunity types
• Opportunities to ask applicants to supply information for assessment only once
• Standard questions across opportunities and councils
• Fewer attachments
• Fewer administrative checks, such as for font sizes or page counts
• Far fewer returns for amendment resulting from procedural errors
• Requests for capability information using the R4RI structure and logic.

Standardised guidance, terms and conditions will make running funding opportunities more efficient, and increased consistency means the service will be easier to understand and navigate.

We are taking an iterative approach in our development of the service, learning from external and internal users to continuously refine and enhance what is being offered. This gradual and careful introduction of features mean that new and current systems will run in parallel until the end of 2023 when Je-S goes offline.

Policy Pulse 

The Funding Service will offer a simpler and better experience through a funding process supported by more consistent policies and guidance. Below we explain a recent policy that has been harmonised in the new service:

Question set and assessment criteria 

The new Funding Service will make applying for funding more streamlined. We are: 

• simplifying and standardising the questions we ask researchers to explain their ideas
• using a more intuitive digital question and answer format, making it easier for applicants to explain their idea, and easier for assessors to review it
• introducing a ‘core question set’ – a set of standard questions that will apply across all councils and funding opportunity types, with a small number of additional questions if needed.

Guidance for specific opportunities will be published on the Funding Finder as each opportunity goes live.

The question set and assessment criteria for responsive mode research opportunities are now available on our website.

Digital applications

We’re replacing attachments with the introduction of a fully digital application to:

• provide a clearer layout for applications and reviewers, structured around questions and guidance that relate to the criteria used for deciding on an application
• improve accessibility for users
• reduce the need to ask for information twice as data submitted once can be carried over to later stages
• reduce return for amendments and rejections due to font size, margins, and exceeding page numbers by automating word count.

Applicants to most opportunities will be asked to submit digital responses as part of their application. In the coming months, however, some opportunities will ask applicants to submit their answers for the ‘vision’ and ‘approach’’ sections as a PDF file.

Using the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI) 

UKRI is supporting the adoption of Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI) – a flexible narrative CV - across funding opportunities that require track record information.

The Funding Service is designed to help widen access to researchers. By incorporating the logic and principles of R4RI into its design, the Funding Service is making it easier for applicants, as individuals or in teams, to demonstrate and be assessed on, their relevant skills and capabilities. This will support applicants, at any stage of their careers, to evidence the value they can bring to a project. 

Find out more on our website.

Staff roles in the Funding Service 

Research organisation staff that support submissions

Until now the programme’s priority has been, as you might expect, to build out the end-to-end service to process applications and awards. Now we are devoting more resources to help those who manage applications.

For example, we have recently added functionality to help research officers filter by application status, sort applications by ‘recently started’ and ‘ending soon,’ and to search for applications.

Research officers can also see when an application is first created and view all applications from their organisation. They are also able to return applications to the applicant for editing and can authorise and submit the application to UKRI.

Over time we aim to reduce some of the administrative burdens Je-S users currently experience, such as:

• large numbers of attachments to administer and difficulties in getting data from these
• too many returns for amendment
• checking of page length and formatting
• high variation in cases for support.

We recognise that there is some administrative functionality available on Je-S that will not immediately be available on the Funding Service, including:

• enhanced filtering and sorting of opportunities and applications
• assigning applications to individuals and departments
• co-editing application text with colleagues including applicants
• assigning and managing permissions for viewing and editing applications.

We are aware of these, and more research office functionality such as advanced filtering by departments will be added in later updates of the service, expected by September 2023, with more to come after that.

Research organisation staff that support grant maintenance

As part of our iterative development, we continue to research how research organisation finance and post-award staff needs are best addressed within the Funding Service, including for example, self-service, permissions, and structures.

Increased grant maintenance functionality is coming and over the next three months research organisation staff who support grant maintenance will be able to:

• accept a Grant Agreement 
• start an Award, enabling the payment cycle to begin
• submit change requests
• sort and filter applications or awards.

We will keep you updated on new functionality and enhancements coming for research offices. If you would like to be involved in our ongoing user research, please use the email address at the end of this newsletter.

Upcoming events and further information 

Over the next few months, we will be running several workshops to familiarise administrators with the Funding Service. This includes joint study tour sessions with ARMA.

Also look out for a forthcoming interview with SBF Programme Director Anne Sofield in Research Fortnight, and join our next webinar for research offices in June. Webinar details will be published on the UKRI website. 

 Further information

• Sign up to receive Simpler and Better direct to your mailbox
• Visit our website for more information
• Watch a recording of our webinar for research offices held on 16 March 2023
• Check the Funding Finder for new opportunities launching on the Funding Service
• Get involved with testing and user research by emailing:

  userresearch@ukri.org

If you’d like to see something covered in future issues, let us know. We’d also like your feedback so we can bring you the most relevant topics. Please send us your ideas or tell us what you think via: support@funding-service.ukri.org

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