Researchfish
Researchfish is an online impact tracking platform that the University of Sussex submits to annually which allows funders to monitor how funds are being used and what research is being produced.
A number of research funders, including all seven UK Research Councils, use Researchfish, an on-line (commercially-provided) platform that enables research funders to (in UKRI’s description) "track the impacts of their investments" and researchers to "log the outputs, outcomes and impacts of their work".
Researchfish is used not only by the UK Research Councils, but by over 90 funders in total (see the full list of relevant funders). Material from Researchfish is also made public via UKRI’s Gateway to Research.
Every individual who is a Principal Investigator (PI) on a grant funded by UKRI or one of the other participating funders is required to make an annual return to the funder via the Researchfish platform (the individual should be notified of this directly by the funder).
Some Research Council-funded doctoral students are also required to make a return. UKRI will clarify the doctoral students in scope of this requirement in advance of the reporting period.
An invitation email from Researchfish on behalf of the Research Councils (UKRI) will be sent out when your award was added to the system. This invite email provides a link to allow you to register on the Researchfish system and create your own account.
If you have any technical issues logging on please contact support@researchfish.com
If you have not received your invitation email, please take the following steps:
- Check your junk folder, the email will sometimes automatically be considered junk mail.
- If the email isn’t in your junk folder, please contact UKRI on researchoutcomes@ukri.ac.uk who will be able to assist you further.
Further help for researchers can be found on the Researchfish User Guide.
This year's Researchfish submission period was 5 February - 14 March 2024. The 2025 submission period is expected to be around the same time.
Relevant data can be uploaded into Researchfish at any point, and PIs and students are strongly advised to begin doing so well before the reporting period, in order to manage the workload involved. Even if all data is entered in advance, the actual submission of the return must be done within the specified period. If no relevant data can be provided, a nil return is still required.
Sanctions for non-compliance are in place for all staff required to submit a return. Sanctions include both the withdrawal of eligibility to make new funding applications and freezing of existing grant funds.
Whilst sanctions for non-compliance are not currently applied to individual students, UKRI have stated that compliance levels may inform the consideration of future institutional applications for doctoral training awards.
Further information about Researchfish can be found on UKRI's Research Outcomes web pages.
Technical support for researchers is available directly from Researchfish via support@researchfish.com and policy advice is available from the funders (for the Research Councils, researchoutcomes@rcuk.ac.uk).
Within the University, co-ordination of information and support on Researchfish is handled by the RQI team who can be contacted at rqi@sussex.ac.uk. However, the team is dependent on Researchfish and UKRI for their information, and only has limited access to data submitted on the system.