Posted August 22, 2019 by Tiffany Lee
The University of Nebraska is beginning its transition to a common research administration platform that will allow for greater collaboration and efficiency between campuses as faculty and staff work together on grant submissions, award tracking and other key functions.
The first module of the new platform – allowing research and academic officers to create seed grant opportunities for which faculty can compete – will go live Aug. 26. Other modules, including those for offices of sponsored programs and compliance, will come online later in the year in a phased approach that will allow faculty and staff time to adjust.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska at Kearney will fully transition to the new platform. The University of Nebraska Medical Center will use selected modules. UNL faculty can access the new platform, called NuRamp, through the current NUgrant system. NUgrant will remain accessible until the transition to NuRamp is complete.
UNL, UNO and UNK currently use NUgrant software and while the systems operate similarly, they do not interface with each other, limiting the collaborative opportunities that could be achieved with a systemwide platform. With a common interface, faculty from different campuses will be able to more efficiently work together on grant submissions, and greater efficiencies can be achieved in training and leveraging expertise across campuses.
“Particularly at a time when interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaboration is vital to our success in growing our research competitiveness, we should do everything we can to create opportunities for our faculty and staff to work together effectively,” said NU Interim Executive Vice President and Provost David Jackson. “The implementation of NuRamp is an important step in that direction, and I thank the research officers for their engagement and leadership to get us to this point. We’re excited about the collaborative opportunities this new platform will provide.”
NuRamp is being built by Bolero Information Systems, a technology spinoff of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The university’s agreement with Bolero to create a systemwide platform was approved by the Board of Regents in June 2018.
UNL faculty and staff can email unlresearch@unl.edu with questions.
