Organisation and Financing Research Information Management
- Which of the following statements most closely reflects the organisation of Research Information Management in your institution?
This question was designed to discover to what extent the central administration of institutions are able to monitor the research activity within an institution and therefore manage it. There were thirty two responses to this question.
Seventy two percent of the responses were for a balanced approach. The heavily centralised responses (nineteen percent) were either smaller institutions or 'new' universities. The heavily de-centralised response (nine percent) was too small for any pattern to be discernable
- Does the body responsible for Research Information Management strategy have a specific budget for such development?
This question and the following two questions were intended to discover how development for RIM is funded and how high the level of activity currently is. There were thirty responses to this question.
Thirty seven percent of the sample is institutions where the body responsible for RIM strategy also had control of the budget. For those institutions which replied 'No' and provided additional data the principal method of allocating funds is by some form of competitive bidding and project evaluation.
- Is the Research Information Management budget part of a larger Information Systems budget or ring-fenced?
There were twenty two responses to this question. Predictably most of the ring fenced budgets were in those institutions where the RIM strategy body also had control of the budget but three were not. From this we can deduce that nearly fifty percent of institutions have a dedicated RIM development budget.
- Is there a budget for Research Information Management system development in the current financial year?
This question was an attempt to gauge the level of current activity within the RIM set of applications. There were twenty nine responses to the question.
Sixty two percent of the institutions have a current RIM development budget. The survey did not ask what the budgets were being spent on and it may be worth following up this question with a sample of the institutions.
