The first part of Vidatum, our new research management system for grants and research projects, went live at the start of November for the support and management of externally funded research projects. Remco de Kler, a project control coordinator at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, shares his first experiences with the system. 

 ‘I’ve just entered the very first project in Vidatum (project number V0000001!). It takes a bit of getting used to but the program is very user-friendly, and entering the master data and budget is really intuitive. It’s all quite self-explanatory. The in-built workflow for starting a project, which means the four-eyes principle is automatically applied, also works brilliantly. 

 We used to have to enter the master data and budgets in separate places in SAP, and, apart from the monthly report, the project leader had no oversight of the current project status. We can now manage everything in one place and the project leader can view their project in real time, keep track of the deliverables and add comments for the project controllers, for example if the project is extended or the budget changes. 

 Setting up the pre-award phase (including the RfA procedure), time tracking and additional reports will still take a bit of effort from the various working groups. But if that works in the same way as the post-award phase, I’m confident this tool will take the control of externally funded projects at Leiden University to the next level.’  
 
More information   
For more information about Vidatum, see the page on the staff members site or contact Robbert Bosch, the Vidatum implementation project manager. 

The first part of the new research management tooling for grants and research projects (Vidatum) will go live on 11 November to support and manage externally funded research projects. The Faculties of Science, Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Archeology will be the first to use this system.    
  
The first phase of the implementation will focus on the post-award financial project management of new projects. From 4 November, all financial aspects of these new projects will be managed in Vidatum. Existing projects will be migrated Vidatum from the start of 2025.   

The system is undergoing extensive testing to ensure everything is working properly and any problems are resolved. A range of colleagues, including project controllers from different faculties, are taking part in these tests. Training sessions will also be held for the first users of Vidatum (especially project controllers) explaining how best to use it.      
  
In the next phases, functionality will be added to Vidatum to support grant application preparation (pre-award), digitalise approval processes (request for approval) and create management reports. Time recording for research projects will also be possible in Vidatum from 2025.   

Questions?   

If you have questions or would like more information about using Vidatum, see this page for more information or contact Vidatum project manager, Robbert Bosch.

Implementation of the Research Management tooling for grants and research projects began successfully with supplier Vidatum in January. What is the aim of the project and what can we expect in the coming period? Project manager Robbert Bosch explains more. 

Let’s start by refreshing our memories: what is the aim of the project?

‘The aim of the project is to implement the Research Management tooling for grants and research projects. The focus is on grant applications and the financial management and accountability of research projects. An extensive tendering procedure ran last year and Vidatum emerged as the best supplier.’

Who and what is Vidatum?

‘Vidatum is a software supplier specialising in solutions for the complex world of research and grant management. They have extensive experience in streamlining solutions at universities and offer specialised software and services. Vidatum’s solution is called ‘Vidatum’ and looks to be a great fit for a needs and ambitions. And it is a user-friendly tool, which was an important criterion in the tender. We are also pleased that, with their experience at other universities, Vidatum is helping us implement the tooling.’

Why is it important to have this tooling?

‘In terms of research funding, there is a strong development towards larger complex programmes with a greater focus on strategic research objectives. This results in strict compliance requirements in various areas, including financial accountability, transparency, verifiability of conducted research and academic integrity. This increasing complexity makes it essential to have streamlined procedures and workflows that reduce the workload of researchers and research support professionals.’

What are the advantages of this tooling?

‘This tooling makes it as efficient as possible for researchers to meet requirements relating to acquiring, conducting and accounting for externally funded research. This makes it faster and easier for researchers and research support professionals alike to do their work. Vidatum also provides project leaders with real-time project budget tracking, reduces compliance vulnerability and offers extensive information for steering the project. Its implementation will also help us move closer towards common processes and practices and knowledge sharing about these.’

What can we expect in the coming period?

‘Over the next year and a half, Vidatum will be phased in at all institutes and faculties, in cooperation with the users involved. This will be a gradual process.’

Anything else you’d like to tell the network?

‘Keep a close eye on this newsletter for updates on the project. And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me via r.a.bosch@science.leidenuniv.nl.’

In response to the tender for the selection of Research Management tooling for grants and research projects, four suppliers submitted proposals and provided quotations for their tools and services. 

The quotations from the suppliers were thoroughly evaluated by an assessment committee comprising representatives from various organizational units. Additionally, all four tools were tested in a trial setup by a broad group of potential users to assess their user-friendliness. 

Based on these qualitative assessments combined with pricing considerations, the supplier Vidatum emerged as the best choice. An agreement has been reached with this supplier, and the implementation is set to commence in January. Vidatum's tooling will be introduced collaboratively with the involved users of all faculties and institutes over the next one and a half years. 

More information about Vidatum and the implementation will follow soon. For questions or suggestions, feel free to contact Robbert Bosch (r.a.bosch@science.leidenuniv.nl) or Dennis Janssen (d.c.f.m.janssen@bb.leidenuniv.nl). 

The European call for tender (public tender) for research management tooling was published on 22 July. This tooling contributes to the long-term, professional and user-friendly support of grant applications and the budgeting, monitoring and accounting of research projects, including time sheets.

A number of suppliers of research management solutions have shown serious interest in the tender. We expect, by 22 September, several offers from which to choose. In order to make this choice objectively, the bids will be evaluated, based on criteria announced in advance, by an evaluation committee with representatives from different disciplines and faculties.

One of the evaluation criteria is the user-friendliness of the tooling. This will be tested in a demo environment provided by the suppliers. Besides the members of the evaluation committee, we would like to invite other colleagues for whom this is relevant or interesting to participate. 

Call for participation in the usability test
From the tender project group, we invite you to participate in the usability test. Participation in the test is possible from 25 September to 20 October. The test can be done individually and location independent, and will require an estimated time investment of two hours. Register before 22 September. 

Although everyone is welcome, we would like to make a special appeal to researchers who have experience in conducting externally funded research projects. We would like to test the usability of the offered solution on, among other things, registration of hours. Do you know researchers who might be interested? Please feel free to forward this call.
 
Please contact project manager Robbert Bosch to apply or for more information via: r.a.bosch@science.leidenuniv.nl, 06 45658881.