New research costing tool launches for Research Services staff

29 Jun 2021

Soft launch of the University’s new research costing tool, BlackDackel

As part of the Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP), a dedicated project team has been working hard over the past two years to develop and implement a new research costing tool. This tool will replace the current costing system, pFACT, which has been unsupported for some time and provides limited functionality.  

BlackDackel is the chosen supplier of the new web-based application that will handle all of the University’s research costings. The project team responsible for the introduction of this new tool have worked closely with BlackDackel to develop the application; to create bespoke functionality; and to integrate with other research systems, such as Pure.

Working closely with internal University stakeholders, the team are pleased to announce that the new costing tool will launch on Wednesday, 14 July 2021. This launch will initially be available for Research Services staff only, whose roles focus on costing research projects, with further launches throughout the year to additional user groups. 

In order to support staff to transition from pFACT to BlackDackel,  an overhaul of the current costing website has been completed, which now provides training and guidance pathways for different types of users. The launch of the revised Research Services pages will coincide with the launch on Wednesday, 14 July. This will be the ‘go to’ place for online training modules, guidance documents, FAQs and further support. 

In addition to the online support, Research Services support staff will have the opportunity to attend drop-in sessions running from 14 to 22 July, where attendees will have one-to-one support from the project team to answer specific costing questions. Research Services staff can attend by contacting their Research Services Operations Manager for further details. 

Further communications will be released in line with the launch along with links to the revised Research Services web pages. 

The project team working on this would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has worked hard over the past two years to get BlackDackel to this point. Your help and support has been invaluable.