Published on 13 December 2024
Worktribe: reaching the finish line for 2024
The pre-award and contracts modules of Worktribe have now launched in all schools and most research active institutions. A final review will take place soon to ensure everybody else still needing some form of access to Worktribe will be appropriately onboarded. Jo Dekkers, Transforming Research Support (TRS) Programme Sponsor and Head of Research Operations, comments:
"Thank you all. Your unwavering commitment, dedication, and collaborative spirit have been the driving force behind our success this year. The launch of Worktribe was made possible by your invaluable input and feedback, and we are deeply grateful to the staff and academics across all departments. I also want to acknowledge the incredible support provided by the TRS team and the central Research Office."
More than one thousand staff and academics are now using Worktribe. Users Simone, Ollie, Natacha and Helen discuss some of the benefits on the University Staff Hub. Guidance for using Worktribe can be found on the Supporting Research at Cambridge Sharepoint site and is linked to from the Research Operations Office website.
Early next year, feedback sessions will take place with the Worktribe Readiness Groups across the Schools and institutions. The next phase of work will be introducing the post-award module across the University in 2025. The TRS team will provide updates and opportunities for involvement in the New Year.
Identifying export controls and sanctions
The government’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) recently launched the first tranche of Trusted Research related videos, which help to illustrate risks, mitigations and compliance for the Higher Education sector. The Research Policy, Governance and Integrity team will be highlighting key videos from the series across the next few ROO Bulletins.
The first to be showcased is provided here. It explains how an academic successfully navigated their institution’s collaborations policy and worked with their research office to avoid breaching UK export controls and sanctions. Please use this video in your own communications in your Department or Faculty and draw attention to the accompanying University guidance and external resources highlighted below
The Research Office guidance for export control and sanctions is available on our website.
Other useful resources include:
- The Export Control Joint Unit’s (ECJU) guidance on Export controls applying to academic research and on dual-use items
- The Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) OGEL and Goods Checker Tools
- The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) guidance on UK Sanctions.
RGUG & Researchfish meeting 5th December - recording now available
The Research Grants User Group Meeting (RGUG) took place on 5th December 2024 and the recording and slides are now available. Presentations included the Financial Systems Replacement (FSR) project and Worktribe rollout. This was followed by a session for Node Administrators about preparations for the forthcoming Researchfish submission period.
Finance System Replacement - Research User Groups
The project is looking for volunteers to join a research user group from the New Year. This user group will consist of up to 20 volunteers from across the University with experience of managing research projects in the finance system. The group will support the main workstream, providing feedback and validation of design principles in the Oracle Fusion projects module. You will also be the local voice working between the main project team and end users out in your respective sites.
If you would like to register your interest in joining, please email Carly Esson – Projects Lead (carly.esson@admin.cam.ac.uk) by the 18th December. The project team will then be reviewing volunteers and contacting them directly with a role profile outlining the required commitment alongside the role expectations.
Please see slides from the recent RGUG.
Wellcome Trust Organisation Spend Report – Departmental expenditure checks
An Organisational Spend Report (OSR) is submitted quarterly to the Wellcome Trust (WT) by the Research Operations Office (ROO) for the months of March, June, September and December. Before ROO submits the next OSR, please could Departments check and verify all their WT expenditure on CUFS and make any amendments before the December 2024 General Ledger period closes.
If you have any queries, please contact Sarah.Saemian@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Reminder - Research Office Christmas closure
Due to the Christmas vacation, the Research Office will close from 1pm on Tuesday 24th December 2024 and will re-open on Thursday 2nd January 2025.
Please be aware of the following deadlines and ensure that your researchers are made aware of these arrangements.
If you have applications with a funder deadline in early January, when counting back the number of working days, Monday 23rd December will be the last full “working day” before Christmas. For example -
| Funder deadline | Friday 3rd January 2025, 5pm |
| 2 working days | Monday 23rd December 2024, 5pm |
| 5 working days | Wednesday 18th December 2024, 5pm |
As a reminder, the ROO asks for a minimum of four weeks’ notice of the intention to submit to a particular scheme. Full details of the deadline policy and the application deadline calculator can be found on the ROO website.