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Meet the teams responsible for research and innovation support at UCL.
Key teams
- Research and Innovation Services
UCL Research and Innovation Services (RIS) provide dedicated, specialist support to academic staff across the university, to help facilitate excellent research and innovation.
- Planning, Insight and Improvement
The Service Improvement team is responsible for developing and implementing UCL’s research management policies, processes and systems. This includes:
- The continued development and support of Worktribe Research Management system
- Provision and development of research management information research reporting
- Continually improving research management processes, guidance and training.
To contact the Service Improvement team visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- Research Support and Development (Pre-Award)
The Pre-Award team provide support and advice to departments applying for research grants. This includes:
- Providing advice on the costing and pricing of research proposals (in line with FEC and TRAC methodologies)
- Providing advice on application and eligibility criteria for funding schemes
- Reviewing terms and conditions of funding schemes
- Reviewing the financial integrity of research applications (except for European funding proposals) before submission to ensure they meet UCL and funder requirements
- Having the institutional authority to submit grant applications, formally accept awards and subsequently set them up on MyFinance.
To find your Pre-Award contact visit the Research and Innovation Services website..
- Research Finance and Assurance (Post-Award)
The Post-Award team is responsible for the financial administration of UCL’s externally funded research portfolio. They work with researchers, local professional services colleagues and funders to provide advice on all aspects of post-award project management and reporting. This includes:
- Ensuring compliance with accounting principles, UCL’s financial regulations, and funder terms and conditions
- Financial costing and approval of research-funded staff appointments and studentships
- Monitoring budgets to ensure research projects operates in accordance with their budget and assist with budget adjustments where required
- The reconciliation of income and expenditure throughout the lifecycle of research awards to analyse financial activity and verify expenditure is eligible
- Preparing and submitting financial claims, invoices, financial statements and reports to funders
- Maintaining financial records on projects and processing changes in project data, such as extensions, suspensions, supplements, virements, and terminations
- Performing quality assurance activities to ensure compliance with audit requirements
- Arranging and managing research project audits
- Resolving queries and providing information for PIs, local research support and funders.
To find your Post-Award contact visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- European Research & Innovation Office
The European Research & Innovation Office (ERIO) provides comprehensive support to all UCL staff members seeking to participate in or lead initiatives under European Commission (EC) research and innovation funding programmes. ERIO’s core services include:
- Information and advice on the Horizon Europe programme
- A specialist contract management service for all UCL PIs who have been awarded a Horizon Europe project
- A comprehensive project management service
- Guidance and support to Institute of Education (IOE) colleagues seeking research and innovation funding from the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC)
- Horizon Europe proposal management and writing service (available on a consultancy basis).
To contact the ERIO team visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- Contract Services
The Contract Services team provides a specialised and comprehensive research contracting service. It is responsible for processing all non-clinical research agreements for and on behalf of UCL, in order to facilitate research activity.
The main responsibilities of the team include:
- Advising on appropriate form and content of contractual documentation for proposed research activities and transactions
- Reviewing contractual terms in order to ensure that they reflect the transaction to be governed by the agreement and are consistent with UCL policy
- Drafting bespoke contractual documentation, including amendments/ extensions, Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs). Non-Disclosure Agreements, collaboration agreements, subcontracts and many other types of contract
- Negotiating the terms of research agreements with external organisations where necessary, in order to ensure fit-for-purpose terms are agreed
- Approval and authorisation (signature) of agreed contractual terms in accordance with UCL policy.
- Current exceptions to their remit include Clinical Trial Agreements, European grants, and contracts.
To find your departmental contact, visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- UKRI Training Grants/Studentships
The Studentships team supports UCL’s UKR Research and Innovation (UKRI) Training Grant portfolio through:
- The provision of pre-award support for UKRI Training Grant studentship proposals
- Budget management advice and financial reporting
- The audit of the UKRI Je-S/Funding Service records for UKRI Training Grant studentships
- The authorisation of stipend payments to UKRI Training Grant studentships and Preparation of Final Expenditure Statements
To contact the Studentships team visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- Compliance and Assurance
The Compliance and Assurance team manage and oversees ethical review processes and key compliance and assurance activities relating to research and innovation across UCL. They offer advice and support on:
- Due diligence
- Research Ethics
- Export Controls
- The Nagoya Protocol
- The UK National Security and Investment Act
To contact the Compliance and Assurance team, visit the Research and Innovation Services website.
- Innovation & Enterprise
The Innovation & Enterprise team work with UCL staff and students, businesses of all shapes and sizes, government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the third sector to turn brilliant ideas into solutions that could define our future. They do this through:
- Creating partnerships
- Giving academics access to funding
- Commercialising UCL technology
- Assisting consultancy
- Helping UCL’s people think and act like entrepreneurs.
Their team of specialists, with both academic and industry backgrounds, work with UCL staff and students to develop their ideas and skills.
Wider Professional Services teams (in alphabetical order)
- Academic Careers Office
The Academic Careers Office (ACO) supports and develops all aspects of academic and clinical academic careers in health-related disciplines across UCL.
They help early career researchers in health-related disciplines to win funding, become more resilient, and build their careers. They provide training, support and mentorship to early career researchers and clinicians.
- Centre for Advanced Research Computing
The Centre for Advanced Research Computing (ARC) department develops, delivers and operates services to assist UCL researchers in meeting their objectives at each stage of the research lifecycle. The department’s services include:
- Research Software Development: helping researchers to produce high quality research software, from the simplest scripts to complex simulations running on state-of-the-art supercomputers.
- Research Data Services: services include storage for current projects and a long-term repository, to support effective data management from planning to re-use.
- Research Computing Platforms: ARC offer a range of advanced platforms for computationally intensive research. These services are free for UCL researchers to use on a fair share basis.
- Practical, hands-on training: for a variety of IT skills related to research including high performance computing, research software engineering and programming.
- Research IT Applications: ARC provide applications to support projects throughout the research lifecycle: from innovation and funding through to publication and finding real-world applications for research outcomes.
To find out more and access these services visit the ARC website.
- Data Protection Office
The Data Protection Office (DPO) provides key information for all staff, students and researchers helping to ensure UCL policy and codes of practice with regard to data protection are implemented across all departments.
Access training and guidance on data protection legislation and recognising data protection in the workplace.
- Estates
UCL Estates, comprising Estates Operations and Estates Development, manages the university's entire estate and its facilities infrastructure.
This includes:
- Property acquisition and management
- Capital projects
- Engineering and maintenance
- Environmental sustainability
- Safety
- Security
- Cleaning
- Student residences
- Central room bookings.
The Estates team need to be informed of particular facilities, equipment or significant staff requirements on funding applications so that they can advise and scope out solutions.
- External Engagement
Find out all you need to know about communications, marketing, student recruitment, digital, media relations, public affairs, and institutional events at UCL.
The Vice-President External Engagement (VPEE) teams can help you with:
- Brand and visual identity
- Business partnering
- Campaigns and promotions
- Digital
- Events
- Faculty marketing
- Internal communications
- Press and media relations
- Public Affairs
- Publications
- Student recruitment.
To find out more, visit the UCL External Engagement website.
- Finance
UCL’s central finance team - UCL Finance - is responsible for all consolidated management and financial reporting, and processing of financial transactions across UCL.
The Financial Analysts & Reporting and Financial Systems teams are responsible for all financial analysis and reporting and supporting UCL's financial systems.
The Insurance team administrate UCL's insurance policies and advise on claims, including in relation to UCL travel, motor, property and buildings policies and related risk management.
- Global Engagement
The Global Engagement team put UCL's knowledge and ideas to work in the world.
The team use their expertise to facilitate and strengthen new and existing collaborations, and support academics in developing activities such as student exchanges and research partnerships.
They also help to identify funding to support international collaborations.
- Human Resources
UCL Human Resources (HR) provide professional support and advice on a range of people-related matters. They also offer a full spectrum of in-person and online development programmes and bespoke activities.
The team is split into sections, each led by a Director. These are:
- Business Partnering
- Employee Relations and Policy
- HR Services
- Occupational Health and Wellbeing
- Organisational Development
- Strategy and Planning
- Systems Transformation
To find out more visit the UCL HR website.
- Institute of Healthcare Engineering
The Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE) bring together leading researchers to develop digital and medical technologies that transform lives across the globe.
The IHE provide support for events, research collaborations and communications.
- Legal Services
The Legal Services team provides legal advice and support to UCL as an institution in relation to its day to day activities. This includes advice and support on data protection and Freedom of Information (FOI) matters.
- Library Services
UCL Library Services supports learning, teaching and research at UCL and consists of 16 libraries and learning spaces located across London, covering a wide range of specialist subjects.
They provide:
- Expert staff to help you get the most from UCL's resources
- Inspiring spaces for learning (individually and in groups)
- A vast and rich collection of books, e-resources and journals
- Access to UCL Special Collections with treasures from UCL's history at the forefront of scientific research
- A place to come together and share expertise.
Find out more on the UCL Library Services website.
- Open Access/Open Science & Scholarship
UCL strongly supports open access. UCL’s research outputs are made open access in our repository, UCL Discovery, and through UCL's fully open access press, UCL Press.
This team, within UCL Library Services, provide support for:
- Research Excellence Framework (REF) compliance
- Research Publications Service (RPS), UCL's publications management system
- Gold Open Access
- Enquiries relating to Open Access publications.
To find out more visit the UCL Open Access website.
- Policy Impact Unit
The Policy Impact Unit (PIU) is a team of professional policy intermediaries who collaborate with researchers to design bespoke policy engagement strategies, leveraging the team’s expertise and connections in both policy and academia to create and deliver effective policy engagement activities.
- Procurement Services
UCL Procurement Services manages the procurement of goods and services on the behalf of the university.
Their aim is to deliver a first class Procurement service which supports UCL’s Sustainable Procurement Strategy and the aims of UCL by:
- Reducing the UCL administrative costs through continuous streamlining of Procurement processes
- Providing professional support to departments in all purchasing and related matters
- Giving specific guidance in certain product and service areas
- Using UCL's significant purchasing power to obtain best value for money
- Taking a lead role on all UCL-wide procurement initiatives
- Promoting and fostering collaborative sustainable procurement across the higher education sector to deliver better value for money and better services
- Providing innovative ways to develop UCL's commercial and procurement capability
- Following all UCL procedures and complying with other procedures and legal requirements, appertaining to sustainable procurement and advising departments accordingly.
To find out more visit the UCL Procurement website.
- Public Engagement
UCL Engagement exists to champion the university's founding vision to open education and knowledge to the world.
They are there to help UCL staff and students listen to and engage with communities, through:
- Advice and Support: they offer advice and tailored support on public engagement to individuals, teams and departments
- Funding: through two public engagement funding schemes - Beacon Bursaries and Train & Engage
- Training: a range of training opportunities to staff and students to help them develop skills that will assist them in designing and managing their public engagement projects.
- Evaluation: case studies and resources and offer advice and training to staff and students for evaluating their public engagement project.
- Networks: networking opportunities to help staff and students link with peers and get inspired
- Reward and Recognition: the Provost’s Awards for Public Engagement and Research For All journal are opportunities for staff and students to celebrate the impact of their public engagement project.
To find out more visit the UCL Engagement website.
- Public Policy
UCL Public Policy builds engagement between researchers and policy professionals. Their activities include:
- Convening academic-policy roundtables
- Publishing Research Insights briefings
- Managing a Policy Fellowships programme
- Supporting internal capacity to engage with public policy
- Holding public events to help bridge the gap between new research and policy.
To find out more visit the UCL Public Policy website.
- Research Coordination Office - BEAMS
The BEAMS Research Coordination Office (RCO) provide support to researchers within the Faculties of The Bartlett, Engineering Sciences, and Mathematical & Physical Sciences (BEAMS) community to identify and share research funding opportunities and develop strong research proposals.
This includes working with researchers 1:1 to advise on individual or group funding strategy or review proposals, and organising mock panels for applicants who have been invited to interview. They also coordinate large-scale strategic bids, and coordinate processes on behalf of the Vice-Provost (Research) to limit numbers of applications to external calls where there is a cap imposed by the funder.
The BEAMS RCO also coordinate and support the following UCL Research Domains:
To find out more visit the BEAMS RCO website.
- Research Coordination Office - LMS
The Research Coordination Office (RCO) for Life and Medical Sciences (LMS) work to support and promote cross-disciplinary research communities and collaborations, increase the success of research funding applications and develop UCL’s health-related research strategies.
The RCO for LMS research, publish and disseminate information about funding and fellowship opportunities, and work with researchers to hone applications and to navigate any pre-award processes, including preparing for interviews. The team can act as coordinators when a large, ambitious bid is being considered.
They also host and support a variety of symposia, conferences, seminars, and workshops. The RCO for LMS team coordinate and support the following UCL Research Domains:
- Cancer
- Personalised Medicine
- Neuroscience
- Health of the Public (part of the Populations & Lifelong Health Domain)
To find out more visit the RCO for LMS website.
- Research Coordination Office - SLASH/IOE
The Faculties of Laws, Arts and Humanities, and Social and Historical Sciences (SLASH) and IOE Research Facilitation and Coordination Team support researchers from across the UCL Faculties of Laws, Arts and Humanities, Social and Historical Sciences, the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and the Institute of Education (IOE) to identify potential funding sources for their research and develop strong applications with the best possible chances of success.
They also coordinate large-scale strategic bids, the institutional response to some external funding calls. The team also coordinate and support the Collaborative Social Science Research Domain.
To find out more visit the SLASH/IOE Research Facilitation and Coordination Team website.
- Research Data Management Team
The Research Data Management Team, part of UCL Library Services, provide training for research staff and students, guidance and resources on different types of data management across disciplines, tools to navigate funder requirements, and specific input on drafting Data Management Plans.
Research Data Management covers the decisions made during the research data lifecycle to handle the outputs of research projects from the planning stage through to preserving and sharing those outputs. These decisions include how researchers organise, store, describe, share, preserve & re-use data.
The UCL Research Data Policy states that “data are facts, observations or experiences on which an argument or theory is constructed or tested.” They include for instance lab notebooks, databases, blood samples, questionnaires, audiotapes, photographs, manuscripts, etc.
- Research Evaluation
The Research Evaluation Team, within the Office of the UCL Vice-Provost Research, Innovation & Global Engagement (RIGE), is responsible for coordinating UCL’s submissions to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the system for assessing the quality of research in higher education institutions in the UK.
The team provide support to Unit of Assessment leads and contributors, coordinate the submission process and implement UCL’s REF strategy. To find out more visit the UCL Research Evaluation website.
- Research Impact Curation and Impact Support
The Research Impact Curation and Support (RICS) team provide a strategic overview of 'Impact' for UCL and maintain a searchable database of examples of impact flowing from UCL research to support researchers, grant applications, fundraising activity, media and promotion and preparation for REF2021 .
RICS aims to monitor and support impact across the institution by:
- Providing support and signposting researchers to guidance from relevant UCL professional services
- Working with Heads of Departments and Faculties, Vice Deans of Research and other senior staff to deliver support around Impact in the REF and more broadly
- Working directly with Principal Investigators where they have promising case studies for REF
- Reporting to the Vice Provost for Research on UCL Impact, strategy and intelligence
- Providing training through senior management, research board impact workshops and the resources on their website
- Promoting the reward and recognition of Impact in UCL.
To find out more visit the UCL Impact website.
- Research Integrity
The Research Integrity Team hosts UCL’s Code of Conduct for Research and supports the Research Ethics Committee (REC), which has academic Chairs.
All research proposals involving living human participants and the collection and/or study of data derived from living human participants undertaken by UCL students or staff (including honorary staff, affiliate academics and visiting researchers) on UCL premises and/or by UCL staff or students elsewhere requires ethical approval to ensure that the research conforms with general ethical principles and standards.
- Translational Research Office
The UCL Translational Research Office (TRO) has the ability to provide end-to-end translation, supporting the development of early stage research from across UCL and its partner hospitals, into projects attractive for translational funding or further development in partnership with industry.
The TRO also look after the UCL Therapeutic Innovation Networks (TINs). These are multidisciplinary networks that bring together researchers and industry experts involved with a therapeutic modality, in order to tackle common obstacles, remove barriers and mobilise around strategic opportunities to accelerate translation.
The 6 recognised TIN modalities are:
- Biologics
- Cell & Gene Therapy
- Devices & Diagnostics
- Regenerative Medicine
- Repurposing
- Small Molecules.
To find out more visit the TRO website.
- UCLH Biomedical Research Centre
The UCLH Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is a partnership between University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) and UCL and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The BRC supports experimental medicine research at UCLH and UCL. It does this by investing in staff posts, equipment, facilities and training. The aim is to turn innovations in basic science into treatments and therapies that have a direct effect on patients.
The BRC’s goal is to find new ways of detecting, preventing and treating disease, supporting research into important areas of clinical need and that have the potential for major healthcare impact.
- UCLH/UCL Joint Research Office
The UCLH/UCL Joint Research Office (JRO) supports the development and growth of a high-quality clinical research portfolio at UCL and University College London Hospitals (UCLH). It works with UCLH, UCL and the UCLH BRC to ensure the portfolio is supported by the right expertise and the most effective and efficient systems for meeting regulatory requirements, performance targets and quality and safety standards.
The JRO also plays a key role in ensuring patients at UCLH have access to information on research studies and the opportunity to become involved in research at the Trust.
UCL subsidiary companies
- UCL Business
Part of Innovation & Enterprise, UCL Business (UCLB) is the commercialisation company of UCL and its partner NHS Trusts. They help and guide researchers at every step of their journey from innovation to impact.
UCLB has the commercial expertise, legal know-how and administrative support required to broker licensing agreements, allowing companies to fully exploit unique technologies with the knowledge that exclusivity and market advantage is preserved.
To find out more visit the UCLB website. If you’re unsure how to take your research results forward contact Innovation & Enterprise in the first instance.
- UCL Consultants
UCL Consultants (UCLC) offers a bespoke academic consultancy service, providing a gateway to expertise from within UCL.
Part of UCL Innovation & Enterprise, UCLC aim to help UCL staff make the most of consultancy opportunities, by:
- Assisting with costing and pricing of the consultant's/project's fees, including - where relevant - the negotiation of appropriate hourly rates based on our extensive experience of market rates
- Assisting with the review of project proposals to ensure that commercial, tender and contractual aspects are appropriately addressed
- Providing contractual services to protect the financial and academic interest of UCL and the consultant
- Providing project management services for the delivery of the project at an additional cost on an agreed basis
- Preparing and issuing invoices and collecting payment
- Arranging payment of consultant's fees to the individual where relevant
- Ensuring departments are reimbursed for costs incurred, and donation of profit and waived fees
- Issuing financial reports on consultancy projects as/when necessary
- Issuing and preparing annual statements for taxation purposes
- providing Professional Indemnity cover for consultancy projects.
To access these services visit the UCLC website.
- UCLPartners
UCLPartners brings together researchers, NHS, industry and others to harness research and innovation for better patient care and a healthier population.