Researchfish: Recording your Research Outcomes

All Pls in receipt of funded grants from organisations who use Researchfish are required, as part of their funding terms and conditions, to record their research outcomes. The next submission period runs from Monday, 5 February to Thursday, 14 March 2024.

Even if you have no outcomes, or no new outcomes, you are still required to submit a return to Researchfish.

Pls should still make a submission for their grants even if they have no outcomes to report.  Only the Pl is able to make a nil submission.

To make a nil submission the Pl must add "not applicable this year" for all the mandatory questions required by their funders on each grant, and then submit.  The Researchfish system will prevent submission from taking place until the mandatory questions have been answered.

Before submission

Data provided to Researchfish should be as complete as possible, accurate and non-confidential.

• Ensure that outcomes are properly attributed to awards.
• Check that the information to be submitted is NOT sensitive or confidential.

Making a Submission

Pls can use Researchfish to add and edit outcomes throughout the year but entries must be ready for the end of the submission period i.e. 14th March 2024.  Pls will receive reminder emails from Researchfish as the submission period approaches, and will need to log on to Researchfish and submit a return during the submission period to confirm that the information is accurate and complete at that time. You will be asked to provide data on a range of outcomes including publications, collaborations, engagement activities, and impact. 

Successful submissions will be confirmed by email.

If you do not receive an email confirmation, please check that the data has been submitted properly.

Failure to complete a submission will lead to sanctions being applied for non-compliant awards. 

If you have UKRI funding you may be liable to sanctions if you do not have an exemption from reporting and do not report on your research outcomes. These include:

• being barred from being a principal or co-investigator on future UKRI-funded research projects
• having undispersed payments on current research projects frozen.

Read the full detailed policy

What is Researchfish

Researchfish is an online facility used by research funders and Research Organisations, including UKRI and Wellcome Trust, to track the outcomes from their investments.  PIs who have received funding are asked to log the outputs, outcomes and impacts of their work in the system.

If you are new to using Researchfish, watch An Introduction to Researchfish on Youtube, which will help to explain how you should proceed, and why it is important.

How to access Researchfish

All Pls with eligible grants should receive an email from the Researchfish team with guidance on how to set up an account. You can also access your login on the Researchfish website. 

Any access issues or account requests should be directed to support@researchfish.com

Entering data - adding a delegate user

You have the option to add a delegated user to your Researchfish account. Delegates can add content on behalf of a PI, but the PI must make the final submission. 

Adding a delegate user to your Researchfish return:

1. Log into Researchfish
2. Once logged in, on your home screen you will see a section called "My Network".  Click Add new and fill in the invitee details.  Once complete, an email will be sent to the delegate you have provided.
3. When the delegate has accepted the invitation they will be listed as a delegate on your account.  They will then have access to upload publications on your behalf.

Submitting if you are a postgraduate student funded by an organisation that uses Researchfish

Although it is the preference of organisations who use Researchfish that postgraduate students make a submission, it is not mandatory and postgraduate students will not face sanctions for non-submission.

Pure and Researchfish

Ahead of the submission Library Research Services upload information from Pure to Researchfish.  This includes publications related to awards recorded in Pure. You can help by letting us know the funder award reference associated to your publication so we can ensure the relation is noted on the record in Pure.

When the submission opens, the information loaded to Researchfish from Pure should be checked by the PI for accuracy and approved for inclusion in the submission.

Any additional outcomes (publications, activities, collaborations, impacts, datasets etc.) not already noted should be entered manually.