Dear colleagues

This announcement aims to keep members of the research community informed about news and updates in the research space.

eRA post-awards module rolls out to bring greater transparency to your research project administration

The next module in the UCT electronic Research Administration (eRA) system to come online is the post-awards module. This is a project management tool designed to help PIs track the administrative processes around their grants or awards. Phase I of this module will be rolled out in November but will only affect new project awards, where the contract has been signed off in eRA from the roll-out date of 1 November 2019.
 
Phase II, which includes several additional features, is still in development and the eRA team request that you, as the researcher, engage with us to ensure the end product matches your project award management needs.

If you wish to give input or join the focus groups for the eRA post-awards module please contact Deborah O Ajumobi here.
 
Or read more about eRA post awards here.

Find out more about eRA at our November information sessions.

Research at UCT has grown significantly in the past two decades. The university needs to support this growth, both to enable continued and even increased success at winning international grants, and to ensure that it manages the financial, human-resource and legal risks involved.

The eRA system is designed to help both researchers and their support staff to more easily capture and track the administrative processes around the research lifecycle.

Find out more about the eRA project at one of our two November information sessions:

Date: Friday 8 November 2019
Time: 10.30am to 12pm
Venue: RISR Seminar Room, Allan Cormack House (Research Office)
2 Rhodes Avenue, Mowbray 
Parking available on top of Shoprite
RSVP: Natalie Simon by the 6 November 2019.

or

Date: Friday 15 November 2019
Time: 12pm to 1:30pm
Venue: RISR Seminar Room, Allan Cormack House (Research Office)
2 Rhodes Avenue, Mowbray 
Parking available on top of Shoprite
RSVP: Natalie Simon by the 13 November 2019.

NRF guidelines for unspent research funds

NRF grant holders are expected to spend 100% of their grant within the funding year, but the NRF does make some allowances for funds to be carried over within very specific terms. These terms are laid out in the 2019 carry-forward guidelines for unspent/unclaimed funds recently distributed by the NRF and are available for download here.

We would like to highlight a few key points from these guidelines for your attention:

• Funds brought forward from 2018 will not be carried forward to 2020 and must therefore be spent by the end of this year. (There are a few exceptions, please see the guidelines for more information.)
• The NRF has indicated that they may not allow funds to be carried over to 2020 if less than 70% of the operating expenses is spent.
• During the progress report process, grant holders will be required to:
  • ​justify the non-expenditure of the grant; and
  • strongly motivate for unspent funds to be carried forward.
•  No requests to carry forward unspent funds will be considered for the following categories/programmes:
  • ​Scholarship or grant holder-linked student funding;
  • Postdoctoral fellowships;
  • Incentive Funding for Rated Researchers Programme;
  • Collaborative Postgraduate Training Programme;
  •  Professional Development Programme.
• The NRF recommends that grant holders submit special motivations via the Research Office for the funds to be adjusted to 2020 if they anticipate that they will be unable to spend a considerable portion of their grant by year-end. Kindly note that is only applicable if: 
  • you are not in the last year of your grant;
  • your 2019 research plan was significantly affected and activities could not be completed due to unforeseen circumstances i.e. this process requires a strong motivation and valid reasons for the adjustment request. 

For more information download the carry-forward guidelines here.

For any questions around NRF balances or the carry-forward process please contact the Central Research Finance officer responsible for your department or faculty. Download the list of contact people here.

For more information about the motivations to adjust funds please e-mail Research Support Services Post Award.
 

ZivaHub adds a ‘Non-Commercial’ Creative Commons licence (CC-BY-NC)

Many researchers are still nervous about openly sharing their research data. Fears of misuse of data, of being scooped and someone else making money from your work still often result in the sequestering of research data. In response to these concerns Digital Library Services (DLS) have added a non-commercial licence as an additional licensing option on UCT’s data repository, ZivaHub: Open Data UCT.

The CC-BY-NC licence allows others to copy, distribute, display, and perform your work (and derivative works based upon your work) as long as they credit you fully as the author, and do not do so for commercial gain. 

Read more about Creative Commons licences here.

You are now subscribed to Times Higher Education Academic & University news

All UCT staff and students can now get free access to the Times Higher Education news through our institutional subscription. This means you can now read all the articles online (with no monthly limits), and also access the digital version of the weekly magazine as well as all previous editions going back to 2013.

How to register:

• From the Times Higher Education website click on the user account icon (the red person icon towards the top right).
• Register using your UCT email address.
• Choose a username and password (please note that your username will appear in public facing parts of the site – for example if you choose to leave comments on articles).
• Click on ‘Join us’ at the bottom and you will be logged in.
• You will receive a confirmation email.
• Once you have successfully registered your personal account, just click on ‘Login’ the next time you use the service.

Are you a new inventor?

Research Contracts & Innovation (RC&I) is holding one-on-one sessions with researchers who may be unfamiliar with the patenting process but are interested in finding out more and learning about patenting in their field specifically. We are happy to meet with you in your office to review your current research activities and to potentially identify IP (intellectual property) protection opportunities. We are also happy to participate in lab group meetings, etc.
 
If you would like to set up a meeting with one of the team, please contact Yandi Sopete who will make the arrangements.

Appointment of Senior Manager: Postgraduate Funding Office (PGFO)

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Chantal Swartz as the new Senior Manager of our Postgraduate Centre and Funding Office. Chantal joins us from Stellenbosch University (SU), where she headed the SU Postgraduate Funding Office, and has extensive experience with funders such as the NRF as well as a range of donors.

She takes over the leadership of the PGFO at a crucial time as our funding environment continues to evolve, and is working closely with ICTS on a project to improve postgraduate awards processing via PeopleSoft.

Tell the world about your research

UCT is one of eight funding universities of The Conversation Africa: a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary. The Conversation publishes brief research-based analytical articles and stories on research findings for more than 1.6 million readers.

UCT-affiliated researchers are free to submit research stories and commentary to The Conversation Africa via their website. You are also welcome to find out more from Lisa Boonzaier. 

The Research Office hosts regular writing workshops with The Conversation Africa. The next is on 4 November. For more information and to RSVP, please contact Judith Rix. 

The Conversation’s content is free to read and republish under Creative Commons, and 95% of The Conversation Africa’s content is republished at least twice.

The Research Announcement is produced by the Research Office, University of Cape Town.