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ORCA

ORCA is the Online Management of Research Contracts and Awards project.   (Guidance notes supporting the use of this tool are available)

What will this project deliver?

The ORCA project will put in place a new web based database to enable:

1. Finance, RED and Departments to have one database to manage the process of notification of an award or potential contract to and running project.
2. Improved visibility of the progress of an award or contract to completion
3. Improved visibility of where there are current actions and who is responsible for a particular contract or award
4. Improved visibility for the contract negotiators of existing relationships and precedence
5. Linked records enabling applications in FEC to be tracked through to award.
6. A source of robust and timely management information

Why are we doing this?

During the UoB-INFORMS consultation to understand what the information needs are across the University, a recurring theme was the challenges encountered when departments try to track the progress of an awarded application through the contract negotiations, acceptance of the award and opening of the grant code. This is partly because the processes for getting the awarded application through to an up and running research project often involve at least the host department, the Finance Office and Research and Enterprise Development; each of which keep their own database of information and have their own systems and processes for managing the activity. Furthermore these databases are not sophisticated and have not been set up with shared access in mind so visibility of the progress of an application is weak.

This project has now been prioritised by the University and a project team was established to take forward preparing the statement of requirements, overseeing the internal development, and finally implementation of the system across the University.

For progress reports relating to this project please see the news page and if you have any queries please contact us.