Data collected within ECU research administration systems are the basis of internal and external reporting regarding the University’s research activities.
Elements of the research performance data are reported annually to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment for the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC), which informs the allocation of Research Block Grant Funding to the University, and may be reported to the Australian Research Council as part of ECU’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and Engagement and Impact (EI) submissions which assess the quality and impact of the University’s research, with outcomes publicly reported for all Australian universities.
Within ECU, aggregated summaries of performance are produced at the University, School, ECU Strategic Research Institute and Centres level.
Research performance data are then used to determine internal Research Block Grant Funding distributions – that is, the sharing of the funding provided by the Federal Government for University research – and also inform School and Research Institute/Centre reviews, individual staff performance management discussions and academic promotion applications.
The ECU Analytics Portal is the University’s central reporting hub, providing access to timely and accurate data to facilitate planning and managerial decision-making aligning with strategic priorities. The portal provides documentation to support understanding, including a business glossary, and search/select functionality assists with locating relevant reporting options.
Within the portal, there is a dedicated Enterprise Research Reporting section where all staff can access reports at the institutional, School and individual researcher level across the following key domains of research activity:
Reports are also accessible directly via the following dashboards:
A range of reports have been developed within Discoverer providing speedy access to grants applications and submissions data, and projects with overdue reports. Available reporting includes:
Ad hoc reporting of grants data from the ECU Research Management System (ECURMS) can be requested by contacting researchsystemssupport@ecu.edu.au outlining your reporting requirements, the period to be reported upon, and when the report is required by.
In addition to more targeted reporting within ECURMS, several external grants data reports have been prepared within Discoverer. Instructions on how to access Discoverer are available via the ECURMS homepage within the Reporting in Discoverer (PDF) document. If the list of available reports does not meet your needs, contact researchsystemssupport@ecu.edu.au to discuss your requirements.
Users can generate reports based upon research outputs within the Research Activity System (RAS). The Generating Reports within RAS Guide has been designed to assist users with this process. For assistance with reporting within RAS, contact researchsystemssupport@ecu.edu.au.
Reports that are required on a regular basis can be scheduled on a daily, weekly or monthly basis within RMS by contacting researchsystemssupport@ecu.edu.au. As with ad hoc reports, outline your reporting requirements, the period to be reported upon, and your desired schedule.
For any queries associated with the ECU Analytics Portal, contact analytics@ecu.edu.au.
For assistance with internal reporting, contact researchsystemssupport@ecu.edu.au.