The technology incorporated in a UCF-developed website may soon be offered to institutions as a commercial package for contracts management, according to Office of Research (OOR) Director Tom O'Neal.

"Several institutions of higher learning, including the University of Florida, are reviewing the OOR catalog website as a contracts management tool," O'Neal said. "This is a management tool suitable for a world-class institution."

The technology powering the OOR website was initially developed by the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training for the US Air Force. O'Neal's department then adopted this framework to build their own website. The site is being considered for commercial application because it offers a unique way to reduce contract management costs while saving time and money for research personnel. Ever since the website went online recently, UCF is benefiting in these areas, O'Neal said.

What makes the OOR website unique is the scope of real-time, contract-related information, which it can provide to users, O'Neal pointed out. The website incorporates a search engine that can be used to look up research conducted on campus by subject, department, individual, sponsoring institution, funding range, type of contractual vehicle and other characteristics. The search feature can also be used to find out about current funding opportunities in a particular area of research by sponsoring institution, such as the National Science Foundation. Staff members incorporate such data into the OOR database on a daily basis.

UCF personnel can also submit proposals online through the website, then keep track of the entire life cycle of the approval process by individual. Once the contract or grant is awarded, the research program manager can track the amount awarded, budgets, invoices, schedules, contractual requirements and milestones and progress through the contractual period simply by accessing the project title via the OOR website.

"Through this contracts management tool, UCF research personnel can view their research and those of others at the University on a particular subject in real-time as well as the budget for the project and the source of the funding," O'Neal said. "The website provides the user with a lot of management tools."

Not only do OOR website users save time over paper-based methods of proposal submission and research project tracking, but they also have instant access to research in similar areas and can quickly find potential funding opportunities for their research, O'Neal said. Another time saving feature of the website is the access it provides to scanned copies of all contract documents. These documents can be reviewed online by the principal investigators and others in the Colleges, thereby saving the time it would otherwise take to locate hard copies and the space to store them. "We believe that the website has already saved time and money for UCF," O'Neal said. "Other institutions are interested in this technology for the same reason."

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