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Raising research profiles.*

04 Feb 2009

Easy access to detailed research information for key audiences.

The University website is now displaying the research profiles of  individual researchers as part of a major project to provide easy access to detailed research information for key audiences such as researchers in other centres worldwide, prospective research students, Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) assessors, research funders, the media and the public.

The Research Information (RIP) Project has achieved this through harvesting profile information from faculty databases, which is then re-presented at University level. Researchers can continue updating their profiles using their faculty systems, and the information on the University website will be refreshed nightly. This information resource will continue to improve and grow, as more researchers create profiles.

Professor Bonnie Sibbald, who has played a key role in the project, said: "Until now it could sometimes be difficult to find out who does research in a particular area without specific knowledge of the University's structure because information has been organised by Faculty and School and the names of the researchers and was not searchable by topic. Now it is possible to find a researcher's profile by searching at University-level using free text, or by restricting the search to personal details, research, or publications.

"The new, more accessible profiles will also help to demonstrate our status as a world class research university, as part of our 2015 goals, by displaying the breadth, depth and quality of our research in an inclusive and comprehensive way.

"Prominent profiles will support the RAE effort by enabling panel and sub-panel members to browse our research activity and to find background information about individual researchers if they wish. They should also achieve improved visibility for research activity in search engines and more prominence for individual researchers."

Individual research profiles have a 'human-friendly' web address, of the form www.manchester.ac.uk/research/jane.smith which academic staff can use in web links, business cards, email signatures etc.

The 'Our Research' section of the University website has also been improved more generally, with the overall aim of making it a better tool for the promotion and marketing of research at the University.

Many thanks to all the academic staff who have updated their profiles using their faculty system. If you have a query about your own profile, please contact:

More general queries should go to: