Grants and Projects (GaP) System is Live!

The new GaP system is now live, this means that the technical build is now complete and then once trained, academics will be able to add their projects onto the GaP system. If you are currently working on a grant or project please continue to follow the existing procedures. If you need any assistance please contact Research and Innovation Services (RIS).

From May onwards there will be phased roll out of the system firstly with Professional Services teams; RIS and Finance, who will be adding the projects into the system for you. It will be available to academics once they have been trained on the software and we anticipate training will begin from the end of May this year.

Grants and Projects (GaP) will allow users to create and cost up bids/projects. Academics work collaboratively on the system with RIS and Finance, to develop the project, can monitor its progress through final checks with RIS, Finance and Legal and the internal approval stages ‘workflow’. This new GaP system will supersede the Grant Application Record, R Form and the requirement for a Project Code Request Form (for R Coded projects) and will make requests, monitoring and reporting much easier from now on.

Over the last 18 months there has been a team of people working hard to deliver GaP. This team includes expertise from several departments; RIS, Finance, Corporate Business Change Initiatives (CBCI) and IT Services and they have worked closely with partners Unit4 to supply a system called Business World, which is currently being used by multiple universities.

Business World has been further developed to meet our specific needs at LJMU, both by consultants and by CBCI and ITS, working closely with RIS and Finance to ensure that the software meets all of our needs. At every stage, key stakeholders have been consulted on the functionality required. A Steering Board and Operations Group have been asked what we need to record, at what stage, who would provide authorisation and how this should be completed.

Training for approvers; Head of Schools and Deans, has already begun. Academics will have access to a range of support:

1) Generic Training – available to all using mock projects to demonstrate how the system works

2) Focussed Training – for academics working towards a specific call

3) One to One Training – provided by Faculty Admin and RIS teams for any new projects after 1st August

Academics will be required to attend training before they can access the system. There will also be a User Guide and training films on the RIS Staff Pages and of course the academic community will continue to have the support of RIS and Finance to submit bids and projects in the future.

Our intention is that from the 1st August, all new projects will be added to the GaP system by the Principal Investigator, so any academics planning to submit bids during the next financial year are advised to attend this training. For more information please click here