What is Worktribe?
Worktribe is an intuitive cloud-based platform offering a suite of tools for seamless, end-to-end research management. It is well-established in the higher education sector and used by 65 universities. Loughborough University have already implemented the Pre-Award and Contracts products, and are in the planning stages for implementing the Post-Award product.
Since August 2024, Worktribe has been used at Loughborough by RIO staff and School approvers as our tool for costing and approving research projects, with over 700 applications/projects already in the system. In November and December, a pilot took place with a small group of academics using Worktribe. RIO are now ready to roll out the system in full.
All academic and technical staff based in Schools will automatically get access to Worktribe on 11 February. Please note that the system is not available to students or Doctoral Researchers.
Worktribe will allow staff to:
- Set up your project details directly in Worktribe instead of sending a form request to RIO.
- Create a draft budget for your project and compare different budget scenarios.
- Interact with your Pre-Award Liaison and other colleagues directly in the system instead of back-and-forth emails.
- Store and access key documents related to your applications and awards.
- See the progress of contract requests related to your projects.
This exciting development will elevate the Pre-Award and Award experience and improve access to information for colleagues across the University.
What is changing?
The process for accessing costing support from RIO is changing; the lengthy ‘Research Support Request’ Microsoft form will be removed, and academics will instead complete a short form in Worktribe to indicate that you are planning to apply for a funding opportunity.
Don’t worry if all you know is the funder, call and dates you’d anticipate the project running; that’s all you need to get started. We’d encourage you to create your project in Worktribe as soon as possible, as this is the mechanism via which RIO will provide support with your application.
All research projects must be set up in Worktribe, regardless of size or cost.
RIO will monitor the creation of new project records in Worktribe and assign a ‘Pre-Award Liaison’, a member of our Grant Support team who will reach out to you via Worktribe’s in-system commenting.
You will be able to start adding costs to your project budget and creating/comparing draft costings if required. Support with developing your costing will be available to you via your Pre-Award Liaison.
In addition, the Project Lead will be required to complete the in-system Risk Assessment.
Once ready for approval, projects will first be approved by RIO before going to your School approvers for final approval. You will be able to see the progress of your project as it moves through the approval workflow.
At award stage, RIO staff will raise contract requests related to your project in Worktribe, so that you can communicate with your Contracts Manager and see the progress of your contracts.
What training and guidance will be available?
There are five short essential training videos that users must watch before logging into Worktribe for the first time.
The videos will be accessible from the RIO Guidebook; a new Sharepoint site full of up-to-date training and guidance materials to help you with Worktribe and related processes. The RIO Guidebook will be launched to academics ahead of 11 February.
In addition to the pre-recorded essential training, a number of optional live training opportunities will be offered via Microsoft Teams in February:
- Thursday 13 February, 2pm-3.30pm
- Wednesday 19 February, 10.30am-12pm
- Tuesday 25 February, 2.30pm-4pm
If you’d like to attend a live session, please book using the online form.
Should you have any questions or feedback, please contact the project team at worktribe@mailbox.lboro.ac.uk