RCUK has requested that research council funded colleagues should be reminded about the Research Outcomes Harmonisation Project and their obligation to submit data on the outcomes of their research.

RCUK have a responsibility to demonstrate the value and impact of research supported through public funding. The seven research councils collect information that researchers provide on outputs, outcomes and impact to report to and engage with both the Government and the public. Responding to a drive from BIS, the RCUK Research Outcomes Harmonisation Project is an initiative designed to increase the uniformity of data collection and to improve analysis, reporting and communications.

From September 2014, all RCUK funded research outcomes must be recorded on Researchfish.

Using software originally developed for the MRC, Researchfish is currently used by 90+ funders to gather information from researchers about the outcomes of their work.

It is an online facility that enables research funders and research organisations to track the impacts of their investments and researchers to log the outputs, outcomes and impacts of their work.

In September, PIs holding awards from the Councils which used the previous system (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC and NERC) were sent an email with a link to register with Researchfish.  New grant holders for MRC and STFC were also sent registration emails.  If PIs have lost this email they can request that it be resent by emailing support@researchfish.com.

RCUK are now requesting that outstanding data be submitted as a matter of urgency.

Data should be uploaded to Researchfish by 4pm on 13^th November 2014 at which point the system will not accept any more submissions.

For further information about the Research Outcomes Harmonisation Project go to: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/researchoutcomes/project/

Contact researchoutcomes@rcuk.ac.uk if you have any questions about the research outcomes collection process.

To register on Researchfish go to https://www.researchfish.com/

External Projects Team can be contacted on externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk