Summary
Ian McArdle obtained his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from King's College London in 2003. He subsequently worked at Cancer Research UK, where he administered project grant applications and was involved in the development of their online grant application system (AMS). He has worked in the Imperial College Research Office since 2006. He has been heavily-involved in various major research system projects, including the implementations of Worktribe, InfoEd, and PPMS; the ICIS R12 upgrade; various College restructures and designing reporting tools that link numerous research management datasets. He subsequently delivered tailored strategic-level dashboards that merge data from a variety of different internal and external data sources. Ian is currently involved in exploring and delivering innovative research management information to senior stakeholders within the College. More information on the Research Office's research management information provision is available on our MI webpage. Ian’s team supports and administers the College’s key research management systems – Worktribe, Oracle Grants, and PPMS as well as the relevant elements of College reporting tools - BIEE, Discoverer and Report2Web.
Ian has been involved in a number of national projects and committees:
- UKRI Research Organisation’s Consultation Group (ROCG) - This group meets twice annually as a sounding board for UKRI. Areas for discussion generally relate to new or changes to T&Cs, policies, processes or systems.
- Researchfish Steering Board - Researchfish is a tool used by numerous funders to gather the outcomes and outputs of research they fund. Ian is a member of this Board, which sets the strategic direction; agrees priorities, including input into the Researchfish roadmap; and ratifies proposals from subgroups.
- Interoperability Steering Group - This group is responsible for setting the strategic direction for improving interoperability between systems within the research sector. It sets and oversees tasks for the Interoperability Working Group to make tangible benefits in terms of time saved and improvements to data quality.
- Researchfish Interoperability Pilot – Arising from the Interoperability Steering Group, the College took part in a pilot to centrally transfer grant-to-publication links from Symplectic Elements into Researchfish. The functionality is intended to relieve frustration and the administrative burden of re-entering publication data that has already been provided, allowing more time for researchers to focus on their research. Since the successful completion of this pilot, it has been extended to cover datasets. Further eligible output types are being reviewed to determine if more can provided centrally.
- Diversity Approach for Research Evaluation (DARE) Advisory Board - Rather than assessing downstream outputs and impacts, DARE focuses on observable near-term outcomes, such as changes in the way researchers work together and with stakeholders. DARE provides a new way to understand how funding influences scientific research and to inform funders on the performance of the research funding programmes that they design. Ian has been invited to serve on the Advisory Board of this MRC and Wellcome-funded research project.
- Science & Engineering South Consortium – SES brings together the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, University College London and Imperial College London, creating the most powerful hub of research-intensive universities in the UK. Ian represents Imperial within this consortium on the topics of Research Data Management (RDM) and equipment sharing and utilisation.
- OSIP - The Overview of Systems Interoperability Project (OSIP) was a joint UKRI-Jisc project with considerable input and support from ARMA to explore ways to maximise the value of information researchers provide to RCUK, and reduce administrative effort. This project was established to provide UKRI with advice on how to take advantage of advancements in research information standards, and the potential for automatic movement of information between systems (i.e. interoperability).
- Snowball Metrics - A collaboration between 8 HEIs and facilitated by Elsevier to define and agree global standards for metric calculations that enable institutional benchmarking and support institutional decision making. The agreed and tested methodologies are available free of charge to be used by any organisation.
- G4HE – Ian was invited to be a member of the steering board of this Jisc-funded project to create various reports using data available through UKRI’s Gateway to Research service.
- UKRISS – Ian was invited to be a member of the steering board of this Jisc-funded project to conduct a feasibility and scoping study for the reporting of research information at a national level based on CERIF, with the objective of increasing efficiency, productivity and quality across the sector.