A NEW STANDARD FOR

RESEARCH BENCHMARKING
University of Kent Case Study
THOMSON REUTERS CONVERIS

Publish or perish; its a challenge thats existed

in academia since the days of Plato. While there
was once a time when scholarly publication
statistics were manually tracked on basic
spreadsheets to determine tenure track, todays
global research institutions have come to rely
on citation metrics for everything from research
grants and funding opportunities to university
rankings and league tables.
With more than 600 faculty staff producing
research throughout the world, the University of
Kent needed a solution that would enable them
to accurately track this vast amount of publishing
activity. This meant much more than keeping a
tally of the grant applications they are actively
submitting; they also needed to be able to link
this to funding opportunities and forecast budget
requirements for accurate assessment and to
enable benchmarking.
To accomplish this, the University chose Thomson
Reuters ConverisTM as the core of its global
research management solution.
THE CHALLENGE

The amount of information R&D directors at major

research institutions must now track and analyze
on a daily basis has grown exponentially over the
last several years. Consider some basic statistics:
According to the report Building Bricks: Exploring
the Global Research Impact of Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Korea, in 1973, the database
platform, now known as Thomson Reuters Web
of ScienceTM, contained approximately 400,000
research papers. Today that number has jumped
to more than 1.75 million journal articles. Global
patent volumes have also shot through the roof.
China alone produced over 600,000 patents in
2013, up from just 40,000 in 2003.
Now, put yourself in the shoes of a research
services professional at a university. In addition
to this ever-growing mountain of foundational
content, you are juggling projects from teams
located around the globe, while balancing
budgeting and funding requirements from
business segments and outside sponsorsand
keeping track of every new input to ensure it can
be benchmarked and ultimately incorporated into
a rights protection process.

Converis makes it really easy for us to not just keep track of the
research process, but to also chart its impact on the school. We
are able to record costs and which staff will need to be freed-up
to complete the project, distribute information directly to the right
administrators for sign-off and provide up-to-the-minute, accurate
status updates on the entire process. Try comparing that to the
old-fashioned way of passing a tattered manila envelope from
department-to-department until everyone was on the same page.
Simon Kerridge, Director of Research Services
University of Kent
Chair, Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA)

Simon Kerridge, Director of Research Services at

the University of Kent and chair of the Association
of Research Managers and Administrators
(ARMA), characterized the process as akin to
trying to herd jellyfish.
He explained, We have more than 600 faculty
staff producing research across multiple locations
and we need to be able to accurately track not
just what they are actively submitting, but also

To view Building BRICKS: Exploring the Global Research Impact of Brazil,

Russia, India, China and South visit: sciencewatch.com/grr/building-bricks

PAGE 2: A NEW STANDARD FOR RESEARCH BENCHMARKING

identify funding opportunities, forecast budget

requirements and keep track of everything for
accurate benchmarking.
Just as the researchers themselves are becoming
increasingly data-driven, so too are the funding
authorities that sponsor that research. In the
hyper-competitive world of scholarly research,
the benchmarking data Kerridge tracks is used
for everything from establishing league tables of
top research organizations to informing faculty
promotion and tenure track.
We need to have, at our fingertips, a repository of
information on which funding opportunities exist,
where we are in our process with each of them and
all associated details, such as which faculty are
involved in the project, how much time they are
spending on it, etc. These all factor heavily in our
ability to negotiate contracts with study sponsors,
coordinate peer reviews and monitor ongoing
progress.
A FULL RESEARCH LIFECYLE SOLUTION

In choosing Converis, Kerridge and his team

adopted the worlds only fully configurable
research information management system that
can manage the complete research lifecycle, from
the earliest stages of the grant process through
the final publication and application of research
results.
To build widespread adoption throughout our
geographically disparate research staff, it was
critical for us to have a centralized, University-wide
repository that serves as the single standard to
track proposal status, facilitate peer review and
align budgeting needs. We need a solution that is
rigorous enough that we can tell our researchers
that if its not in the system, it doesnt exist.

Contact:
Americas
+1 800 333 4656
+1 651 244 5375
Europe, Middle East, Africa
+44 20 7433 4000
Asia-Pacific
+65 6775 5088 (Singapore)
+81 3 5218 6500 (Tokyo)

ip.thomsonreuters.com
1009168
012015

Copyright 2015 Thomson Reuters

Kents Converis solution, which is branded

internally as KRIMSON (Kents Research and
Innovation Management System Online), enables
University staff to submit project proposals using
a single, centralized University log-in, submit
the proposal for internal approval and to the
research services department to add cost and
pricing information, and export all related data
into various formats and channels for internal
recording and as appropriate, submission to
funders.
Converis makes it really easy for us to not just
keep track of the research process, but to also
chart its impact on the school. We are able to
record costs and which staff will need to be freedup to complete the project, distribute information
directly to the right administrators for sign-off and
provide up-to-the-minute, accurate status updates
on the entire process. Try comparing that to the
old-fashioned way of passing a tattered manila
envelope from department-to-department until
everyone was on the same page.

THE THOMSON REUTERS DIFFERENCE

Converis is a complete and integrated workflow

solution utilizing data and analytics to track the
research proposal and project management
processes from start to finish. As the University of
Kent has found, the solution makes the process
of managing research from the initial idea, to
applying for funding, through day-to-day support
of ongoing projects a seamless exercise.
In addition, Converis supports the interaction
between stakeholders throughout the workflow,
and brings an increased visibility of complete
research profiles.
LESSONS LEARNED
Centralization is key.
With more than 600 faculty staff conducting
research in multiple locations across Europe, the
ability to track progress and report success relies
on accurate reporting from a disparate group of
sources, most of whom would much rather be
conducting research than inputting progress reports
and filling out applications. To work, the centralized
repository of research information needs to be
operationalized across the entire organization; it
needs to be seamless; and it needs to be reliable
enough to serve as the single source for reporting.
It cant be funded if it cant be measured.
As of 2015, in the United Kingdom, research
impact accounts for 20 percent of all of the coregovernment funding universities receive each
year. Thats approximately 3 million per annum
at stake for Kent based on its ability to prove the
global impact of its research over the previous
period. Without the ability to track every last
research project and its subsequent impact outside
academia, universities risk losing critical funding.
Automated workflows streamline review
processes.
Major research projects do not occur in silos. They
touch many parts of the research organization,
affecting everything from staff schedules to budget
to relationships with outside sponsors, peer
reviewers and government agencies. By building
the review workflow into their research system, the
University of Kent is able to streamline all parts
of the review and reporting process into a single
electronic interface, greatly increasing the efficiency
and accuracy of the entire organization.

To learn more, visit converis.thomsonreuters.com.