Complete Research Life Cycle Solution

1. Introduction

This Request for Information (“RFI”) is issued by the University of Ottawa (the “University”) for the purposes of gathering information about the marketplace to assist in the determination of future purchasing options or requirements for the implementation of a Research Life Cycle Management Solution to support our research processes and activities.  This would include Grants and Contracts Management along with ethics compliance handling. Participation in this RFI is completely optional and is not a requirement to participate in a potential future RFP.
 

2. Background

Founded in 1848, the University of Ottawa is the largest French-English bilingual university in the world and ranks among Canada’s top 10 research universities.

The University of Ottawa’s current Research Lifecycle, in particular the Pre-Award phase, includes many manual processes and is an area in much need of standardization across the University. Most of the work done by Research teams, in preparation of a grant or contract is done manually. Activities such as grant matching, developing proposals, contracts, reviews, approvals, and signatures are mostly done by emails. Many of the activities require cycles of reviews in the development of proposals, causing delays and inefficiencies. For many Research-intensive Universities, this is an area where automated processes help to reduce the administrative burdens and overhead for Researchers, Research Facilitators and Research Management Services and other supporting research services.

The University is looking to implement an end-to-end comprehensive solution for the management of research administrative activities. This will encompass Pre-Award and Post-Award activities within the University’s Research Lifecycle, including Grant and Contract Management, Ethics Management (human and animal, including Animal Research Laboratory Management), using an integrated and accessible platform. The goal of this implementation is to have better follow-ups and control over research processes, to maximize successful proposal outcomes.
 

1. Core functionality

The University would expect the following core functionalities in a Research Life Cycle Management Solution, a complete platform that supports Research Administration processes including Grants and Contracts Management workflows for research activities. The solution must encompass the following areas:

• Grants Management
• Contracts Management
• Ethics compliance (submission, reviews & approvals):
  • Human ethics
  • Animal ethics and Research Laboratory Management
• Collaboration:
  • Document Management / repository
  • Workflow management and Status Tracking
  • e-Signature and approvals
• Business Intelligence / reporting

2. Key Considerations

The following are key considerations to provide Respondents with a framework for understanding the University’s requirements:

• The University anticipates an implementation by phases. The solution must be adaptable/scalable to allow us to implement in this fashion.  
• The University is a bilingual institution, French and English, with all students and staff having the right to use university resources in the language of their choice. The solution must support an English and French interface for Researchers with the ability to toggle between the two languages.
• The solution needs to be a SaaS solution.
• The University is committed to maintaining and protecting the integrity of personal and confidential information. The solution must meet our Access to Information and Protection of Privacy policy (see Policy 90)
• The solution needs to meet accessibility regulations as defined by Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
• API support is expected for connecting to the University systems (e.g. Workday, Microsoft Azure, PeopleSoft Campus Solution, webservices). Our standard is REST Api (Json or XML) using oAuth 2.0.
• Data migration or import from our existing research applications is expected (e.g. eReviews, eAwards, Topaz, Minuet for contract management).

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