Tag: UFIRST

Supporting UF’s $1Billion Research Portfolio

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UF’s research portfolio exceeded $1 billion for the first time in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. UFIT supports two applications– UFIRST and myinvestiGator–that enable researchers to manage their sponsored funding. Numerous financial analysts, developers, and data engineering staff are involved each week with the maintenance of these applications.

“A world-class research institution requires world-class administrative tools. Keeping our faculty and research support teams empowered through easily accessed, up-to-date information is key,” wrote Stephanie Gray, assistant vice president & director, Division of Sponsored Programs. “UFIT helps keep UF Research running with their excellent support of UFIRST and myinvestiGator.”

UFIRST Numbers
4,244 active users in FY22
14,677 new projects added to UFIRST in FY22

myinvestiGator Numbers
2,000 faculty and staff users in FY22
Approximately 17,000+ system logins in FY22

Assistance getting started on both applications is available through UF Research. Training materials and helpful companion docs for UFIRST and myinvestiGator are online:
https://learn-and-grow.hr.ufl.edu/toolkits-resource-center/financial-toolkits/grants/.

Phase III of UFIRST Service Available July 6

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Phase III of UFIRST went live on July 6 and brings the post-awards business process online. UFIRST Awards creates a more efficient award management process for researchers and administrators and introduces a streamlined environment for the $700+ million in research funding currently managed at UF.

Completed in nine months, the new functionality represents the third and final phase of the UFIRST initiative. Phase III also introduced a new proposal management system with electronic integration to grants.gov for federal submissions. This has enabled the Office of Research to retire Cayuse, its previous software for electronic grants submissions, resulting in savings of $180,000 per year. The entire grants management process is now more transparent, as relevant information for the processing of awards is visible in one location.

There are multiple resources to help research staff with the transition to UFIRST Awards. Training is available as are instruction guides located in myUFL’s Grants Toolkit. An article covering more specific dates, training requirements, and the functionalities of the UFIRST service was published in FYI. Anyone with questions about using UFIRST may email ufirst@research.ufl.edu.

UFIRST – New Grants Proposal System

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UFIT has been working with the Office of Research on the University of Florida Integrated Research Support Tool (UFIRST). A new proposal routing system for the university, the first phase of the UFIRST implementation, goes live March 23.

UFIRST will significantly improve the way research is administered at UF, from proposal submissions through the awards process. Among the improvements is a streamlined workflow process designed to improve transparency, tracking, and reporting throughout the life-cycle of the proposal.

This is not the end of UFIT’s work in support of this new Office of Research system. Subsequent stages of implementation will occur in fall 2015, when UFIRST replaces Cayuse as the submission tool to http://www.grants.gov/, and the new awards system, expected to go live in spring 2016.

Resources for UFIRST, including information on training and security roles needed to use the system, are available via the UFIRST website. The UF research community is invited to submit questions, suggestions for any of the implementation phases, or general feedback to the UFIRST project team.