About IRIS

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IRIS – Institutional Research Support System – is a new application that has beenimplemented and rolled out across the University. IRIS will enable academic staff to maintain research profiles in an easy-to-use, web-based application. This information can then be downloaded in multiple formats or, when published, is available for viewing via Department/School/Institute websites.

However the concept of Research Information Systems is not new to UCC. Many staff may recall the previous initiative by the University to implement such a system. This system was referred to as the RIS. However this system failed for a number of reasons. Primarily the system was not considered easy to use, the data was never reused and therefore no benefit to the end user, and general support for the system was not adequate.

In response to the perceived failure of the legacy RIS system a review group was established chaired by Prof. Stephen Fahy. This group included representation from all four Colleges, the Office of Vice President for Research and Innovation, and the Computer Centre. This group was tasked with identifying the main reasons for failure of the legacy system, listing the requirements of the University, and identifying solutions in place in peer Universities.

The recommendation of this group was that UCC should go to the market to replace the RIS.

As a result of the procurement process UCC identified and purchased a new system. This new system was developed by an Irish company called Vidatum and is currently in place in UCD. The UCC version of this software has been branded internally as IRIS .

UCC initially piloted the new IRIS application in a number of departments including English, Biochemistry, and Epidemiology and Public Health. Having successfully implemented the system in these departments the project team have now completed the full rollout across the University.