After months of preparation, extensive consultation and testing, U of T’s My Research Applications & Agreements (MRA) launched an important upgrade on August 30, 2021. The benefits are many – from an improved user interface and streamlined processes to expanded support. 

“These critical improvements were driven by the feedback received from our research and innovation community,” says Renée Brost, Chief Administrative Officer with the Division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation (VPRI). “It was really important for our team to reach out to those using the applications. We consulted with approximately 90 users and conducted testing sessions across U of T’s Academic Divisions and three campuses at various stages of the design and development process.”

MRA supports U of T’s vast research and innovation enterprise, which includes nine partner Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) hospitals. MRA is integral for researchers to secure the institutional endorsement and approval of their research grants, applications, and non-funded agreements.

“It’s important to continuously and intentionally improve the institutional supports for research and innovation, consistent with U of T’s profile as an internationally significant research university,” says Brost. “Not only have we aligned with U of T’s latest SAP technology upgrade, but we have also refreshed and streamlined the research application process to make it as efficient as possible.”

Since MRA’s initial launch in the spring of 2013, approximately 28,000 research funding applications have been submitted for approval through the system. An additional 1,400 non-funded research agreement requests have been submitted since the launch of the non-funded agreement module in 2019.

MRA manages the internal approval process for over 2,800 principal investigators, as well as academic leads, divisional research staff, business officers, and central research staff.

“The modernized user interface, combined with a familiar process, relieves a lot of stress when submitting a research proposal,” says Steven Short, Acting Vice-Principal Research and Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. “The upgrade will create time savings for each researcher, which will add up with the thousands of research proposals going through the system. As researchers, we should be focused on our work and advancing the mission of the University.”

While processes primarily remain the same, what has changed is better filtering, searching and grouping of research applications and best of all, the elimination of nested scroll bars. Based on feedback from U of T’s research community, the navigation and user-experience has also vastly improved through a modernized user-centric design, along with automatic resizing to fit different devices, including tablets, desktop computers and mobile phones.

“The new user interface displays important information in one glance, using larger text and an easily accessible left-hand navigation,” says Bob Dirstein, Analyst and Project Manager with Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI). “We’ve also simplified and reduced the number of questions when submitting a research application, and the new MRA has greatly improved error checking. All of these improvements will help users navigate through the system more quickly and with fewer errors.”

The previous MRA user-interface.  

The new MRA user-interface uses a more streamlined left-hand navigation to show important information at a glance. Larger text, dynamic resizing and displaying more information on screens help users to navigate through the application process more quickly. 

In addition to improved validation and error checking, users can also access support resources through a dedicated help button and soon will have short explanatory videos for each step of the process. The renewal also provides principal investigators with better tools to collaborate with their assistants, providing a streamlined workflow.

From a broader perspective, the MRA Renewal Initiative is also part of the U of T Enterprise Modernization Program, a project that is in the midst of upgrading the administrative management systems and transforming the future for more than 33,000 staff and faculty.   

What’s next for the My Research systems?  

The team is actively working on an update to how principal investigators view their research funding details with My Research On Line (MROL) and the Funded Research Digest (FReD) as part of the My Research Funds project. This project will bring many of the same user experience enhancements seen in the renewed MRA to MROL and FReD, along with some exciting new tools and functionalities to simplify the management of research funds.

“We’re really excited about this next upgrade, which reflects our ongoing commitment to provide a best-in-class user experience to the community,” says Brost. “The challenges of the past year have underscored the critical need for modern and on-demand digital tools.”

For more information on the MRA Renewal Initiative, please visit the MRA Renewal Initiative webpage.  

Need help? Contact http://research.utoronto.ca/contact-us 

Despite challenging circumstances with working during the pandemic, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration’s (EASI) co-op students excelled during yet another year of the Vice President Operations & Real Estate Partnerships Professional Experience Program (OREP PEP).

This program is designed to provide undergraduate, graduate students and recent graduates with the opportunity to gain work experience in their field of study. This year, five students joined EASI to gain practical skills, knowledge and experience, working on a broad range of projects from SharePoint to Business Intelligence and User Experience and Process Design.

“Even though we’ve faced many challenges with the pandemic, it was important that our student summer experience program continued to grow,” says Cathy Eberts, Director of Enterprise Applications and Deputy CIO. “Students gained the hands-on experience they need for the job market, and in return brought with them a wealth of creativity and new skills to our department.”

They also brought an infusion of creative thinking and process improvements to each project, and helped EASI implement the latest strategies and processes.

What do these students have to say about their experiences and what do they plan to do in the future?

Name: Tiffany Kao
Position: Worked with the Enterprise Shared Services team on client migrations to SharePoint
Program/School: Second-year Faculty of Information (iSchool), Master of Information student in the Information Systems and Design Program, University of Toronto

As an Information Management Analyst at EASI, I had the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned at iSchool – particularly concepts in Information Architecture, UX design, and Project Management – on multiple SharePoint sites. SharePoint was completely new to me when I started, and I experienced a steep learning curve at the beginning. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful supervisor, who had a lot of trust in me, encouraged me, and gave me the freedom to manage projects independently. Working hands-on helped me gain a lot of confidence in my professional capabilities. Seeing my work fulfilling clients’ needs and bringing them convenience to their everyday tasks made it all worthwhile. I am grateful for this experience, and I highly recommend everyone to try the co-op route!

Name: Yuting Liu
Position: Worked with the Digital Workplace team to respond to end users’ requests
Program/School: Fourth-year Geographic Information Systems student, with minors in Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Toronto Mississauga Campus

While working with the EASI Digital Workplace team, I’ve been given the opportunity to directly interact and assist various clients, which has given me the ability to further develop and utilize both my technological and interpersonal skills. Every day brought a new set of problems to solve, which taught me the importance of being flexible and adaptable in order to serve my clients’ needs and, in cases where I lacked the necessary knowledge, to quickly and effectively seek out what I needed. I’ve resolved issues ranging from networking and software problems to hardware failures.

My breadth of knowledge, as well as my ability to acquire new knowledge has benefited greatly from my time here at EASI, and will undoubtedly be useful in any of my future endeavors.

Name: Celeste Ramnarine
Position: Worked with the Enterprise Shared Services team as an Information Management Analyst (SharePoint Online)
Program/School: Second-year Faculty of Information (iSchool), Master of Information student specializing in Knowledge Management and Information Management (KMIM), University of Toronto

With the SharePoint Support team, I have been working on several projects that surround information management (IM), design, community support, and outreach. These projects have allowed me to collaborate with many members of the U of T community, learn from my experienced team leaders, develop my design and IM skills, and demonstrate my project management and problem-solving skills. My favourite project so far in my placement was creating, presenting and demonstrating in EASI’s Connect & Learn showcase. My presentation was about integrating a Wiki (i.e. knowledge base) within an organization’s SharePoint site and its associated benefits for organizational IM.

Working with EASI has been an evolutionary experience in my professional development. I am motivated to continue my position, growing and learning with insights from my MI program and SharePoint team.  

Name: Moulika Ranikunta
Position: Worked on the Power BI Infrastructure and Administration Project
Program/School: Third-year Mathematics and Statistics Undergraduate student, University of Toronto

As a member of the amazing EASI Power BI (Rangers) Administration and Infrastructure team, I’ve had the opportunity to explore Microsoft Power BI from the ground up and build documentation to support future users. I’ve learned how to analyze data in Power BI starting with loading the data in from multiple connections, preparing the data, creating and optimizing data models, visualizing data and working with the AI features within Power BI.

I do want to give a huge shoutout to my mentor Brenda Boshoff – she made my experience this summer absolutely stellar by going above and beyond to support me and the team, and she taught me many interesting facts about a professional workspace. Also, a huge shoutout to Titus, Dmytro and David for making every stand up meeting a fun one! The pandemic had its ups and downs but working with this team was the highlight of my summer. Given how much I’ve learned about Power BI, I am thinking of pursuing a career in this area once I graduate.

Name: Mikella Seth
Position: Worked with the User Experience and Process Design team on the UniversITy Service Catalogue project, assisting with user research, usability testing and UI refinements.
Program/School: First-year Faculty of Information (iSchool), Master of Information student with a double concentration in UX Design and Data Science, University of Toronto

I had the pleasure of working with the User Experience and Process Design team over the summer, which provided me with insight into producing thoughtful, user-centered designs for the University’s community. I was hired as a UX designer to work with the University Service Catalogue, which is an online catalogue for all of the University’s IT services that are available to students, staff, faculty and alumni at the University. My role encompassed a mix of user research, ideation, prototyping and usability testing as I delved deeper into how users discover or search for IT services online. Besides working on the site’s user interface, I was also able to focus on how users’ experiences were affected by back-end development, such as how site content is indexed and how search results are retrieved. Moreover, the ability to keep in close contact with other stakeholders, like application developers, ensured a smoother handoff of design deliverables.

Despite having had to work remotely, I was fully supported by the EASI team, who scheduled multiple weekly check-ins and working sessions where I was able to gain valuable feedback on my design process. It has been lovely getting to know the team and being made to feel so welcome!